Crock Pot Portuguese Chorizo and Kale Soup

The original recipe I found on the food network and over the years I found other orginal recipes that I incorporated into my soup.

This is how I make mine:

Crock Pot Portuguese Chorizo and Kale Soup

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

3 medium white potatoes

2 medium onions, or one large onion  chopped

4 to 6 cloves garlic, chopped (4 teaspoons of prepared garlic)

2 bay leaves, fresh or dried

1 teas chili seasoning

1/2 pound kale, coarsely chopped (1 hand full removed)

Sea salt and  fresh ground pepper

1/2 can of garbanzo beans (chick peas)  drained and rinsed

1 can diced tomatoes 0r 3 fresh tomatoes diced

1 pound diced chorizo , casing removed

1 quart chicken broth

Warm, crusty bread

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a deep pot over medium high heat.

    Add chorizo , and onions, cover and cook 5 minutes, stirring    occasionally 

Add the greens and cover pot to  wilt greens. Remove the kale and set aside  them add the garlic and cook for  2 minutes. 

3. Put every thing you have cooked in the crock pot except the kale. Then  add the chicken broth.

4. Add bay leaves

Season with salt and chili power

5.  Add beans and tomatoes,  to the crock pot 

cook  until the potatoes are tender.

about 4 to  6 hours

Then add the Kale. 

Serve soup with hunks of crusty bread and butter.

This is one of  my favorite soups. Most of the recipes call for a full pound of kale. I have found over the years that my friends prefer that I add only a 1/2 pound to the soup so that is what I do. If you want to add a full pound go ahead its not going to change the flavor.

The same holds true of the chickpeas the recipe calls for a full can. Since I like the chickpeas in my salad I only use half a can in my soup.

 If you don't have chickpeas use, white beans, or black beans. Whichever you tend to have on hand.

Use fresh ingredients if at all possible.

For example tomatoes are very affordable this time of year. So why not use the fresh tomatoes?

The fresh crusty bread is wonderful with this soup  but I also add a side salad using the kale, fresh tomatoes, and the rest of the chick peas.

Soups are so good this time of year it is not just for cold weather!

Enjoy! 

For those of you that do not know what chorizo is this is the description found on Wikipedia:

 Chorizo (Spanish) or chouriço (Portuguese) is a term originating in the Iberian Peninsula encompassing several types of porksausages. Traditionally, chorizo is encased in natural casings made from intestines, a method used since Roman times.

Chorizo can be a fresh sausage, in which case it must be cooked before eating. In Europe, it is more frequently a fermented, cured,smoked sausage, in which case it is often sliced and eaten without cooking, and can be added as an ingredient to add flavour to other dishes. Spanish chorizo and Portuguese chouriço get their distinctive smokiness and deep red color from dried smoked red peppers (pimentón/pimentão).

Due to culinary tradition and the high cost of imported Spanish smoked paprika, Mexican chorizo is usually made with native chili peppers of the same Capsicum annuum species, used abundantly in Mexican cuisine. In Latin America, vinegar also tends to be used instead of the white wine usually used in Spain.

Chorizo can be eaten sliced in a sandwich, grilled, fried, or simmered in liquid, including apple cider or other strong alcoholic beverage such as aguardiente. It also can be used as a partial replacement for ground (minced) beef or pork.^[1]

Spanish-style tapas bars that serve traditional Spanish-style chorizo have gained in popularity in recent years, and now appear in many large cities throughout North America and in parts of Europe.

Here is a photo of chorizo