I made the traditional Portuguese soup caldo verde tonight. I had about 150g of dolce chorizo, which I skinned. I chopped up two-thirds of it small and fried it for five minutes in some extra virgin olive oil in my big sauté pan. Then into that pan went some sliced onion and a couple of cloves of smashed garlic (squashed with the flat of a knife blade). While that was softening up I peeled about six good-sized spuds and cut them up into 3/4 inch cubes. The spuds went in the pan along with about a litre of stock (I used half-strength home-made chicken stock, but you can use just water).

After about 15 minutes the spuds were cooked. I carefully fished out about half of them, then I whizzed everything else in the pan until smooth. Then I put the reserved chunks of spud back in along with half a pound of very finely-shredded greens (I had a sweetheart organic cabbage, but anything leafy will do). While that was simmering away (do a seasoning check), I cut the rest of the sausage into thin circles and dry-fried them until quite crispy in a separate frying pan.

Once the greens were cooked I ladled the thick soup into bowls, topped it with the chorizo slices and sprinkled extra virgin olive oil on top. Delicioso!

So far, fairly authentic, though I confess to having cheated in order to make this a hearty meal and not just a big bowl of soup. In Portugal they'd have it with corn bread, but instead of that I threw in a can of cannellini beans with the cabbage. Not exactly purist but begod it did the trick.