Portuguese Potato Soup with Cabbage and Sausage

Peel the potatoes, weigh out 600 g, and cut into cubes about 2 cm across. Finely chop 150 g peeled onion and 12 g peeled garlic. Remove the inedible casing from the previously heat-treated, ready-to-eat chouriço sausage, weigh out 150 g, and cut into slices about 5 mm thick. Prepare a pot with a capacity of about 4 l, an immersion blender, and a skillet about 24 cm in diameter.

Heat 30 ml olive oil in the pot over medium-low heat. Add the onion and cook for 5–7 minutes, stirring, until soft and translucent, without deep browning. Add the garlic and heat for about 1 more minute, just until fragrant. All the olive oil stays in the pot as part of the soup.

Add the potatoes, pour in all 1400 ml water, and add 8 g salt. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and cook with the lid slightly ajar for 20–25 minutes, until the potatoes are very tender and break apart easily under a fork. Do not drain the liquid, and do not add extra water. Prepare the kale leaves in the next step meanwhile.

Wash the kale leaves and dry thoroughly. Cut out the tough stalks and thick central ribs, discard them, then weigh out 200 g leaves alone. Stack a few leaves at a time, roll tightly, and cut crosswise with a sharp knife into very thin strips about 1–2 mm wide. Cut longer ribbons down to about 4–5 cm in length; thin slicing lets them soften without prolonged cooking.

Take the pot off the heat. Submerge the immersion blender head in the liquid and briefly blend the potatoes, onion, and garlic with all the water into a smooth, fluid base without potato pieces. Do not lift the running blender head above the surface, and do not blend longer than needed, so the potatoes do not become gluey. The soup should flow from a spoon in a broad stream and not have the consistency of a firm purée.

Heat the remaining 10 ml olive oil in the skillet over medium heat. Add the ready-to-eat chouriço slices and cook for 4–5 minutes, turning once, until lightly browned and some fat has rendered; do not burn the edges. Leave all the sausage, olive oil, and rendered fat in the skillet to transfer in the next step. Do not drain the slices on paper towels.

Return the pot of potato base to medium-low heat and bring to a gentle simmer. Add all the kale strips and cook without covering for 8–10 minutes, stirring, until the leaves are tender but still distinctly green. Add all the sausage and fat from the skillet; take one ladleful of soup from the pot, pour it into the skillet, use it to loosen the clinging juices, then pour back into the pot, without extra water. Add 1 g pepper and cook everything together for another 2 minutes so the sausage is hot; do not blend the leaves, and do not blend the sausage.

Stir the finished soup from the bottom and divide among four bowls with a capacity of at least 700 ml, about 550 ml per serving. Distribute the leaves and sausage slices evenly. Serve immediately.