Flavours of Home: Portuguese Chorizo Soup

Portuguese food has been a staple of my life for as long as I can remember, and one of the best parts of eating traditional food when I was young is the fact that I can cook and recreate the flavours that my grandmother would have emerging from her kitchen. 

My grandparents were immigrants from Portugal to Canada; my grandfather is still alive to this day, but my grandmother is unfortunately no longer with us after succumbing to the illnesses she struggled with. Her cooking introduced me to new flavours and dishes, and her traditional Portuguese cooking was what we would eat every time we visited her. 

This recipe is packed full of the flavours that feel familiar and like my home culture, and it’s a dish that is incredibly quick and easy to put together. Who doesn’t love an easy dinner? This is one you simply cannot miss out on. 

For this recipe, my mother was kind enough to make her flavourful chicken broth for the base of my soup, which saved me time and the headache of using store-bought chicken stock - which is not near as flavourful

For homemade chicken broth base (my mother's recipe):

• Chicken scraps/chicken bones (we used a rotisserie chicken for this process)
• Onion
• Garlic
• Chicken stock 
• Mrs. dash herb mix seasoning
• Cavender’s Greek seasoning (this was my Portuguese grandmothers secret ingredient!)

Gather your chicken pieces and boil them in a pot of water with onion, garlic, seasonings, and chicken stock. Keep this mixture boiling until the flavour is released and the items are combined and cooked. Strain the pieces out of the pot, and then use this broth as your soup base. 

For “shortcut” broth:

• Chicken stock cubes and water

     OR

• Boxed chicken broth 

If you are using a pre-made broth, it is my recommendation to add seasonings, onion, and garlic in order to keep a hearty flavour. Portuguese food is highly packed full of flavours, so it is important to retain that quality for a recipe that feels much more authentic. 

For the soup:

• Broth (from above choices)
• Chorizo (as much as desired, I used a pack of 4 sausages. Find authentic chorizo if possible!!)
• Kale (one head) 
• Lemon (one in the soup, one as garnish, and one in the fry of onion and sausage)
• Mushrooms (any kind you choose, I used one package of pre-sliced mushrooms)
• 1 onion 

Chop up your chorizo, onion, kale and mushrooms (if you are not using ones that are pre-cut, these will be used for later), when cutting the onion, cut it into thin strips. Add a generous amount of oil to a frying pan on medium head and stir-fry the sausage with the onion, add lemon pieces after squeezing juice into the pan, and fry until the onions are tender and the sausage is crisp. Remove the lemon pieces from the pan after frying. 

Boil your broth in a large pot, and add the contents of the frying pan as well as mushrooms, kale and chopped lemon to the pot, stirring occasionally and leaving to simmer until serving.