Slow Cooker Recipe: Caldo Verde

Miss Thrifty9 June 5, 2012

Caldo Verde stew Caldo Verde is a Portuguese rustic soup. Perhaps I should have cooked something more Jubilee-appropriate this weekend, but truly, I couldn’t bring myself to. The rain was falling, the wind was blowing, the baby had come down with a(nother) cold… and finger scones and cold cucumber sandwiches were the last things I felt like making.

It may not be especially patriotic, but Caldo Verde is the perfect dish for cold, snuffly days like these. I make it for my husband, because I don’t eat meat and the main ingredient is chorizo, but the delicious aroma of chorizo and paprika wafting through the house is enough to warm me up. This soup cooks verrrrrrrrry slowly in the slow cooker throughout the day; it’s one of those slow cooker recipes you put on before you leave the house in the morning, and it’s ready for you when you get home from work in the evening.

Now I’ve had a bit of help with this recipe, from the nice people at Sainsburys and Savoo, the savings website. In my capacity as a Savoo DealPro, Sainsburys got in touch to ask, if they sent a gift card would I like to go and see what bargains I could pick up? Hmmm, I said. Yes, I think I would like that very much, thank you!  So off I trotted. I didn’t clear the store (it was rather big), but I picked up a bunch of stuff. Over the coming days and weeks I’ll be featuring the best bargains here, and showing you what I did with them.

So we’re going to start with chorizo, which is currently on special offer at Sainsburys: two chorizo sausages for the price of one (£3.00). Pretty good, especially as it keeps in the fridge for months on end.

The second reason why I like Caldo Verde is that it is made mostly from cheap stock cupboard ingredients:

Caldo Verde recipe

The only ingredients you will need to buy are these ones:

Caldo Verde

Plus some cheap green cabbage. I used hot paprika here, but Sainsburys also sells hot smoked paprika, which is more authentic – and cheaper. I couldn’t find it at the weekend, but look for a small, square red tin branded La Chinata. If you don’t have hot paprika but you have the regular stuff, mix it with cayenne pepper – that’s all hot paprika is. The paprika needs to be fairly fresh, though: red, rather than that sludgy brown that paprika turns when it’s sitting at the back of the cupboard and is past its best.

The third reason why I like Caldo Verde is that it’s stupidly, stupidly easy to make. You chop everything up, bung it into the slow cooker with two pints of chicken stock… and that’s it. It takes about 15 minutes.

Caldo Verde ingredients

My version of this recipe is adapted from one in my favourite slow cooker recipe book. If you don’t have a slow cooker, you can make it in your largest saucepan, cooked on a low heat as slowly as you dare.

In case you were wondering, the majestic background to these images is a tray that I picked up at a car boot sale last weekend for £1.00. On trend!

Ingredients

2 onions
3-4 garlic cloves
1 chorizo sausage
3 small baking potatoes
1 tsp hot smoked paprika
2 pints / 1.2 litres hot chicken stock
4 oz / 125g green cabbage
Bread, to serve

 

Instructions

Thickly chop the onions, potatoes and chorizo. Add to the slow cooker, along with the whole cloves of garlic and the olive oil. Pour in the chicken stock and stir.

Leave to cook on the low setting for 6-8 hours.

Thirty minutes before serving, slice and add the green cabbage.

Season, and serve with warmed bread.

Result:

Caldo Verde slow cooker

 

Total cost from Sainsburys: £3.56.

Serves 6.

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9 Responses to “Slow Cooker Recipe: Caldo Verde

Joy says:

Thanks for this. Will definitely make it. Have been making summery stuff recently, but it’s not hitting the spot as it has turned so cold again. I turned off my central heating ages ago and will NOT resort to turning it back on in June! However the body needs some warming up and I’m sure this will really do the job nicely!
Thanks for your continued inspiration !

June 6, 2012 at 11:40 am

Niftynorah says:

Makes me feel warmer just looking at it.

June 6, 2012 at 1:48 pm

Joy says:

Thanks! Made it last night. Put some sweet potato in too , purely because I had some kicking about. It was delicious and so warming for two very cold evening dog walkers on our return home. Will become a regular I’m sure.

June 9, 2012 at 5:13 pm

luisa says:

Sorry to be a pain, and your soup does look wonderful, but caldo verde it is not! verde means green and ther is a reason why the soup is called ‘calso verde’-it is green!
portuguese caldo verde is made with potato, onion and turnip tops (yes, really!) Slices of chourico are added to the bowl when you serve it, and if you’re going to be a purist (I’m not) you serve it with a slice of corn bread on the side.
But as i said, your soup looks yummy and very warming in a winter’s night 🙂

June 21, 2012 at 10:26 pm

Miss Thrifty says:

Thanks Luisa. This is the name given to the dish in the book from which I adapted the recipe – but I did wonder! Mind you, the original version sounds even thriftier than this one. It also sounds delicious… especially with the corn bread. I love corn bread *tumnmy rumbles*.

June 26, 2012 at 1:12 am

luisa says:

Your soup is a great hommage to Portuguese home cooking, which is very thrifty indeed and nothing like what you get in restaurants! I will try in in Winter:)

July 7, 2012 at 7:26 pm

Loopy says:

As ever, I seem to be the last one to find such a useful post. I’m going to experiment with a camping-friendly version next week, perhaps by frying the potatoes first. Another excellent thrifty recipe, thank you!

August 13, 2012 at 3:48 pm

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