Rich with potato chunks, tender white beans, tomatoes, and dark green shredded kale, this vegan Portuguese kale and potato soup is made for cold days. Hearty and warming, a steaming bowl of this soup is a complete meal. Use the pressure cooker or Instant Pot, it’s speedy-quick done!
In Europe’s westernmost country, potato and kale soup is known as caldo verde. Like Tuscan minestrone or Russian borscht, traditional Portuguese caldo verdes vary widely. One family’s recipe probably uses different ingredients than the next. Some don’t include beans, some puree the potatoes for a creamier soup. You will love my vegetarian version of caldo verde soup!
As a meatless cook, I’m slow to tell you that traditionally, caldo verde includes mildly spiced chorizo sausage. To be stellar, a hearty soup like this, loaded with kale, potatoes and beans, certainly doesn’t need meat. But I wanted to keep the spicy sausage flavor and chewy texture you get with cooked chorizo. Times like these, I shop in the parallel aisle, and swap in a vegan meat alternative like this one.
If you don’t want to include the vegan sausage, you can leave it out. Serve this rendition of the classic Portuguese kale and potato soup to meat lovers and vegetarians alike—they’ll be thrilled.
Portuguese Kale and Potato Soup recipe notes:
- For timesaving ease, I make all my soups in a pressure cooker. With a pressure cooker, this soup is on the table in 30 minutes, start to finish, no exaggeration. After the pressure releases, stir in the cooked beans and browned soysage crumbles.
- No bones about it ;-), meat alternatives are processed, faux food. I think it’s worth citing the “everything in moderation” clause, and adding vegetarian soysage. If you’d prefer to make your own–try these recipes for tofu “chorizo” or vegan “sausage.”
- Inspiration for this interpretation of Portuguese kale and potato soup comes from Twelve Months of Monastery Soups by Brother Victor D’Avila Latourrette.
- This recipe uses already cooked white beans. With a pressure cooker, once the pressure is up, the potatoes, tomatoes and kale cook in 5 minutes. Stovetop, without a pressure cooker, count on 45 minutes of cooking.
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Portuguese Kale and Potato Soup
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon plus 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 4 cups water
- 1 (15-ounce) can seasoned diced or stewed tomatoes (see note)
- 1 pound potatoes, peeled and cut in ½-inch cubes
- 1 bunch Lacinato kale, stems removed and discarded, coarsely chopped
- 6 ounces sausage-style meat alternative, cut in ½-inch pieces (optional)
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika, sweet or spicy, your choice
- 1 ¾ cups cooked white beans, one (15-ounce can)
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- ¾ teaspoon sea salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
For Instant Pot or pressure cooker:
- Sauté the onions and garlic in the pressure cooker until the onions are translucent, about 10 mintues. Add the water, tomatoes, potatoes, and kale, lock the lid in place and cook on high pressure 5 minutes. Quick release the pressure.
Regular stove top:
- Alternatively, heat the first tablespoon of oil in a soup pot. Over medium flame, sauté the onions until translucent, about 10 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook a few more minutes. Add the water, tomatoes, potatoes, and kale. Cover and simmer until the potatoes are tender, about 45 minutes.
For both pressure cooking and regular stovetop cooking:
- While the soup cooks, heat the remaining oil in a wide (preferably non-stick skillet.) Using a wooden spoon to smash the pieces, cook the veggie sausage with smoked paprika until nicely browned.
- When the potatoes are done, add the beans, faux sausage, vinegar and salt. Generously grind in black pepper, like 30 grinds. Taste, and add more salt, if needed. Cook a few more minutes, until the beans are heated through.
Notes
- With a pressure cooker, this soup is on the table in 30 minutes, start to finish, no exaggeration. The cooked beans and browned soysage crumbles go in after the pressure comes down.
- You can use Italian-style tomatoes seasoned with onion, garlic and oregano. Diced tomatoes are fine as well.
Nutrition
Portuguese Kale and Potato Soup
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon plus 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 4 cups water
- 1 (15-ounce) can seasoned diced or stewed tomatoes (see note)
- 1 pound potatoes, peeled and cut in ½-inch cubes
- 1 bunch Lacinato kale, stems removed and discarded, coarsely chopped
- 6 ounces sausage-style meat alternative, cut in ½-inch pieces (optional)
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika, sweet or spicy, your choice
- 1 ¾ cups cooked white beans, one (15-ounce can)
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- ¾ teaspoon sea salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
For Instant Pot or pressure cooker:
- Sauté the onions and garlic in the pressure cooker until the onions are translucent, about 10 mintues. Add the water, tomatoes, potatoes, and kale, lock the lid in place and cook on high pressure 5 minutes. Quick release the pressure.
Regular stove top:
- Alternatively, heat the first tablespoon of oil in a soup pot. Over medium flame, sauté the onions until translucent, about 10 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook a few more minutes. Add the water, tomatoes, potatoes, and kale. Cover and simmer until the potatoes are tender, about 45 minutes.
For both pressure cooking and regular stovetop cooking:
- While the soup cooks, heat the remaining oil in a wide (preferably non-stick skillet.) Using a wooden spoon to smash the pieces, cook the veggie sausage with smoked paprika until nicely browned.
- When the potatoes are done, add the beans, faux sausage, vinegar and salt. Generously grind in black pepper, like 30 grinds. Taste, and add more salt, if needed. Cook a few more minutes, until the beans are heated through.
Notes
- With a pressure cooker, this soup is on the table in 30 minutes, start to finish, no exaggeration. The cooked beans and browned soysage crumbles go in after the pressure comes down.
- You can use Italian-style tomatoes seasoned with onion, garlic and oregano. Diced tomatoes are fine as well.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is meant to be an estimate only. The numbers will vary based on the brands you use and substitutions you made, and how much you actually eat. Numbers do not include the optional soy sausage.
** This recipe is an update of the soup I posted in October 2009, on my old muffintalk.wordpress.com blog. No photos back then. You will love this soup, and like me, make it for years and years!
I knew I should have checked here… I just published a post on Tuscan kale. How was Mexico? Feel fluent again? · 17 November, 2009
Soup is my go-to staple this time of year. Daylight Savings has me kind of grumpy (I don’t like complete darkness at 4:30!) and soups always manage to comfort me and sooth my emotions. Gorgeous dish, friend! · 9 November, 2015
Thanks Liz. Yes there is nothing like soup for comfort food! · 9 November, 2015
I do have to remember that little ditty about spring forward fall backward. I never feel like I gained an hour of sleep either. This soup would be the perfect meal for a cold evening — this is right up my alley! · 9 November, 2015
Thanks Marcie. Daylight savings both spring and fall feel like a miniature case of jet-lag that only soup will cure! · 9 November, 2015
Sausage with kale?! NOW you’re talking! Gorgeous soup and your pictures are just lovely. · 9 November, 2015
Thanks Melissa. You will fall in love with all the flavors together! · 9 November, 2015
I love any soup that includes beans, kale and sausage and the fact that it comes from a Monastery cookbook makes it even more wonderful! I could eat this soup all winter long! · 9 November, 2015
Thanks Becky. I’m also grateful for your Eat Seasonal organizing–lots of fun. · 9 November, 2015
Sounds so good. Thank you. · 9 November, 2015
Thanks Liz! · 11 November, 2015
Looks hearty and perfect for the cold weather we’re having. I’m so checking out the veggie sausage! · 9 November, 2015
I know you’ll love how it feels and behaves a lot like real meat–but is vegan! · 11 November, 2015
This is very similar to a Potato Kale soup you posted with our CSA years ago. It is my son’s favorite soup; the only change we make is substituting kielbasa for the sausage since we eat meat;) · 10 November, 2015
Yes, you got it Patti. This recipe is a direct descendant of the CSA recipe–with photos! · 11 November, 2015
I love these hearty stews! · 11 November, 2015
Glad to hear that Tammy–me too! · 11 November, 2015
you say 30 min. from start to table in your pressure cooker but you recipe is for a stove top soup pot requiring 45 min, then add beans and other ingredients, heating till hot. This is not a pressure cooker recipe. · 11 January, 2017
I’m sorry for the confusion. The recipe is for regular cooking, you are right. But in the notes, I explain that alternatively you can use a pressure cooker to make this soup and how. · 11 January, 2017
This isn’t the traditional caldo verde, That soup is anything nearby the Portuguese caldo verde. For start the caldo verde is a cream with ripped kale and chorizo. Also caldo verde doesn’t get any beans in it. This could be a portuguese vegetables soup but it’s not the Caldo Verde soup by any means.
This is the traditional recipe of Caldo Verde and there’s an image too
https://www.teleculinaria.pt/receitas/sopas/caldo-verde-portuguesa/ · 23 March, 2022
By the way if you want to make the original and traditional Caldo Verde in a pressure cooker here is the recipe adapted for Pressure Cookers
https://whi.sk/IRBpV · 23 March, 2022
Thank you for writing. I agree that traditional Portuguese caldo verdes vary widely. One family’s recipe probably uses different ingredients than the next. Some don’t include beans, some puree the potatoes for a creamier soup. The common ingredients are green kale and potatoes. I hope you try my kale and potato soup inspired by caldo verde. · 23 March, 2022