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 Fishermen's soup
"Caldeirada" (Kettle of fish).
Beginning with water (sometimes sea-water), adding tomatoes, onions and
garlic, then lean and oily fish in roughly equal proportion, and if the
catch is good, squid and/or octopus too. Caldeiradas vary from day to
day depending upon whatever the fishermen's nets have fetched up.
Green soup
"Caldo verde"
The Portuguese national dish, "caldo verde", has kale (or collards
) as it's key ingredient. A non-heading, tender-leafed variety.
The dish is a bracing jade-green soup brimming with potatoes, onion,
garlic and filament-thin shreds of kale. Sometimes it's fortified with
slices of "chouriço" or "linguiça" (sausages) although in the humblest
Minho versions (where the recipe originated) it often contains nothing
more than water, potatoes, onion, garlic, kale and perhaps a tablespoon
or two of olive oil.
The fineness of the cut of the kale is what makes the caldo verde
resemble molten jade, also the kale is tossed into the pot just minutes
before serving so that its colour intensifies.
Next to caldo verde, Portugal's most famous soup is
probably "açorda á alentejana", a coriander-strewn, bread-thickened,
egg-drop soup seasoned with, as I read somewhere, "enough garlic to
blow a safe".
The soups and stews of Portugal - whether they're made
of chick peas and spinach (another Alentejo classic) of tomatoes and
eggs (a Madeira specialty), of pumpkins and onions (a Trás-os-Montes
staple), or of dried white beans and sausages (the universally beloved
"feijoadas") are frugal and filling, nourishing and soul-satisfying.
Followed by a glass of wine, a chunk of cheese and a crust of bread
they make a terrific meal.
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