Portuguese Soup
by Sommer Collier — last updated on Apr 10, 2025 
Caldo Verde Recipe (Portuguese Soup) – A rustic sausage potato and kale soup with bold flavor and chunky texture. This slightly creamy version is so enticing you’ll want to make it again and again!
Sommer’s Recipe Notes
Our Favorite Portuguese Soup Variation
Today’s Caldo Verde soup is the ultimate winter soup, in my opinion. It’s rich and hearty with lots of chunks and a robust sausage essence.
Caldo Verde, meaning green broth, is the Portuguese counterpart to the Italian Zuppa Toscana. It involves Portugal’s regional sausage, greens, and potatoes with slight alterations that offer a unique flavor.
Since Portuguese Caldo Verde Soup is a rustic comfort food historically made in homes all over the country, there isn’t just one way to make it.
Many variations of this Portuguese Sausage-Greens-Potato Soup combination exist. It is sometimes called Portuguese Bean Soup, Kale Soup, or Green Soup.
Some use kale, while others use collard greens. Some include beans; others do not. Most call for a Portuguese hard sausage with a strong garlic flavor called Chouriço. Other recipes use Linguiça sausage.
Please Note: This Caldo Verde Recipe (Portuguese Soup) is not a strictly authentic version… It’s more of a Portuguese-American variation introduced to me by a Portuguese immigrant. This is how her family makes this soup here in the United States.
However, it offers a bold comforting flavor that is reminiscent of traditional Portuguese soup. In fact, I would dare to say my new Portuguese friend improved on the original recipe.
Ingredients You Need
- Oil – use a good quality extra virgin olive oil
- Onions
- Garlic
- Potatoes – yukon gold or russet potatoes
- Kale – chopped
- Chicken broth
- Sherry – cooking sherry is fine
- Lemon zest
- Smoked paprika
- Portuguese sausage – spicy pork sausages
- White beans
- Heavy cream
How To Make Portuguese Soup
Find the full Portuguese Soup recipe with ingredient proportions, detailed instructions, and video tutorial in the printable form at the bottom of the post.
Tips & Tricks
- Finely chop the kale so there are no large chunks in the soup, and they will get super tender that way!
- For a bit of extra spice, add a dash of red pepper flakes or cayenne pepper!
- If you don’t want to cook with alcohol, skip the sherry and replace it with more broth!
Frequently Asked Questions
Caldo Verde means “green broth,” and it gets its green color from leafy greens like kale or collard greens. This recipe is inspired by the traditional Portuguese soup, Caldo Verde, made with a few adjustments.
This soup will keep in the fridge for 3 to 4 days in an airtight container. You can warm it back up on the stovetop to make it taste like it did the first day you made it!
This Caldo Verde recipe can be frozen and kept in the freezer for up to 6 months! When you are ready to reheat it, place it in the fridge the night before you want to make it, to thaw, and then warm it up on the stovetop when you are ready to eat it.
Yes! This is a great recipe to double and freeze half for later. Our “Servings Slider” tool on the recipe card can help you determine how much of each ingredient you need for the amount you want to make.
You can make Portuguese Green Soup without the sausage, although it loses its unique flavor. If you want to omit the sausage for dietary reasons, you could use vegan chorizo.
More Amazing Soup Recipes
- Classic Sausage and Kale Soup
- Chicken Barley Soup with Kale
- Tuscan Lentil Soup Recipe
- Healthy Chicken White Bean Soup
- Cozy Beef Barley Soup
- Ham Bone Navy Bean Soup
- Nana’s Creamy Potato Soup
- Buffalo Chicken Chili Recipe
- Pozole Verde de Pollo (Chicken Pozole)
- Instant Pot Green Chicken Chili
- Hungarian Mushroom Soup (Vegan and Gluten Free)
- 15 Bean Soup
- Chicken Pot Pie Soup (With Biscuits)
- Italian Sausage Tortellini Soup
Caldo Verde Recipe (Portuguese Soup)
Video
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 yellow onions, peeled and chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 1/2 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes peeled, quartered, and sliced thin
- 4 cups finely chopped kale, collard or mustard greens
- 8 cups chicken broth
- 1/4 cup dry sherry
- Zest of one lemon
- 3/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 12 ounces hard Portuguese Chouriço sausage, Linguiça, or Spanish Chorizo
- 15 ounces white beans, drained (1 can)
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- Salt and pepper
Instructions
- Place a 6-quart heavy bottomed soup pot over medium heat. Add the oil, onions, and garlic. Sauté for 3 minutes.
- Next add the potatoes, chopped kale, chicken broth, sherry, lemon zest, smoked paprika, and 1/2 teaspoon salt to the pot. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes to soften the potatoes and kale.
- Peel the casing off the sausage. Cut the sausage links into quarters lengthwise. Then slice into thin wedges. Stir in the sausage, white beans, and heavy cream. Simmer another 5 minutes. Taste, then salt and pepper as needed.
I grew up in a densely populated Portuguese neighborhood and love the food. I don’t care what anyone says this is exactly how I remember it and the best version of the soup I have tried
Hi Chris,
Great to hear, I’m SO glad you liked it!
No matter what you call this recipe, it is wonderful , especially when it’s cold outside . Myself , I use , chicken broth , white beans , diced carrots, diced potatoes, some cilantro , either diced or diced ham , or sausage, at times a add green beans also in the mix . So you see , no matter what you call it , how you make it , the basic recipe is delicious , and say thanks to Sommer Collier for sharing her version 🤗🌺
If i want to double this recipe should I double all of the ingredients? Need to feed about 12 people for thanksgiving! Thanks!
By the way, I am Portuguese and this soup came out better than my mom’s traditional way of making it!!! I LOVED it! Thank you!
Hi Liane,
This recipe does offer 12 servings as-is, however maybe not the size or serving you want. You can double everything, or you can use our “servings slider” in the recipe card to adjust the recipe to any size you want. :)
Hi Sommer,
I’ve read some of your replies to this recipe and I am in agreement with you and your followers about how things are made. There are variations for sure of a dish identified as a national dish within that very same nation. Like the Philippines for example. They love this dish called pinakbit, but the way it is cooked will vary slightly between provinces of the country. Pinakbit is a mix vegetable dish that may or may not contain some kind of meat. I liken it to the dish, ratatouille, with an asian twist.
My struggle here on Guam, not part of the Philippines, is the sausage of choice. When you say spanish cherizo I’m thinking of the sausage that comes here from the mainland US, called cherizo espanot. It comes in a green foiled bag. Are you talking about that sausage or another variation of that sausage. We get Hoffy brand Portuguese sausages here. Would this be okay?
Hope to hear from you,
Vernon
Hi Vernon,
Thanks for the support!
Maybe so… Look for hard cured sausage links, not loose ground sausage that needs to be cooked. :)
I am using beef broth instead of chicken
I made this today and it turned out beautifully, enough so that I feel comfortable serving it to my Hawaiian Portuguese soninlaw.
Caldo verde Does Not have beans. It’s made with just kale and potatoes (the potatoes have to be finally pureed). The chorizo is added at the end. Spices are just garlic, bayleaf and onions which if added it should be pureed or taken out. Your recipe is just a vegetable soup with beans.
Wow, what a nasty comment! Who cares if the recipe is tweaked a bit. There are SO many fusion recipes out there now. Adding some beans isn’t a crime. I actually was instructed by a Portuguese friend from the Azores to add some white beans. It’s delicious!
I was going to say the same Delia! Many negative comments on this post about the recipe being “wrong” I think the issue is the differences between those who live on the mainland and those from the Azores (maybe perhaps even those who are Brazillian and those who are Hawaiian Portuguese). I grew up in a heavily Portuguese populated community and grew up on Portuguese soup and it always has chourico and beans
Hi Guys!
Thanks for chiming in on my behalf. All I can say is a local Portuguese friend taught me how to make this soup. According to her family, this is how it’s made. She did tell me there are variations… Like with beef stew or chili, there’s not just one way to prepare it.
It was not nasty if you going to change a recipe you have to change the name i was born in Portugal and it didn’t what part of Portugal I visit the caldo verde was alway the same, there is no problem adding thing that you like into your soup, but stop calling caldo verde.
Unfortunately it has not been tweaked. It’s a completely different recipe. Although it looks like a very yummy soup, Caldo Verde it is not.
There is nothing “nasty” about this comment. Stating some facts. No rude words. Chill peeps.
You are correct Filomena, ‘Caldo Verde’ is completely different. Not to say that this recipe is bad but it shouldn’t be called ‘Caldo Verde. It should more appropriately be called Kale Soup which does have kale, beans, chourico and so on.
It’s not even made with kale, it made with collard greens…
This soup is delicious! I used light cream as opposed to heavy cream and swapped potatoes for sweet potatoes and really enjoyed it! Easy to make and great to pack up for leftovers :) thank you!
This looks like a very yummy soup, but Caldo Verde it is not…
And a a Portuguese woman, that recipe hurts my eyes… the literal translation of Caldo Verde is Green Broth. And that broth is not green.
Caldo Verde’s ingredientes are as follows:
1 onion
1 whole chouriço
2 garlic cloves
2 litres of water
200 ml of olive oil
400g collard greens (with the stems removed) julienned
500g of potatoes
Salt
Recipe
Bring the water to a boil with the potatoes, onion, cloves of garlic and half the amount of olive oil indicated. Season with salt and cook for 30 minutes to make the ingredients well cooked. You can boil longer if you want the broth to thicken.
Meanwhile, prepare the cabbage by washing it and cutting it in very thin julienne.
After cooking, purée the potatoes, onion and cloves of garlic. Add the chopped cabbage and cook for about 15 minutes.
While the cabbage bakes, cut the chorizo in slices.
After cooking the cabbage, add the remaining oil and chorizo to the broth, letting them boil.
That is Caldo Verde!!
As an Azorean…Nancy’s version of Caldo Verde is what I know. A basic recipe that I am sure there are variations on other islands or mainland.
I’m portuguese and this recipe of caldo verde is wrong. Caldo verde is made with olive oil, salt, slissed portuguese cabbage , smash potatos and a carrot. Some people add chouriço in the plate but you don’t need to. And that’s all, nothing more.
Can you give the conversion for an Instant Pot?
Publix Markets carry Gaspar’s Chourico! Looks great!
Oh, fantastic! Thanks for sharing. :)
Do you think this can be made without the sausage? Vegetarian?
Hi Bev,
It definitely can, but it loses a lot of its unique flavor. You might try making it with “vegan chorizo.”