Caldo Verde - Portuguese Kale Soup Recipe

Carefully remove the casing from the chorizo links. The casing is quite tough and will make the sausage curl up if you leave it on, so it's worth the extra minute to peel it off.

Once uncased, cut the links lengthwise, then chop them into half-moons.

In a separate pan, sauté the chorizo pieces until they're nicely browned and have rendered some of their fat. Set them aside for now.

It's best to add the chorizo at the very end of cooking; otherwise, its rich red color can bleed into the soup, giving it an unexpected hue.

To prepare the kale, remove the tough central stem from each leaf. You can do this by cutting a V-shape around the stem, folding the leaf and slicing it out, or simply tearing the leafy parts away from the stem.

Once destemmed, tightly roll each leaf into a bundle and then julienne it into thin, ribbon-like strips. Don't worry if they're not perfectly uniform; they'll wilt down in the soup. Set the prepared kale aside.