Portuguese soups

Sometimes the most humble of dishes is the most tasty of them all. Who hasn't been saved, warmed up and spoiled by a family member giving you a proper soup in times of need? Soups are also very tied to local culture and local produce. One of the first things I look for on a menu is if they've got some soup on offer that I've never tried before. Also, if the restaurant has a good soup, it's usually an indicator that they probably have good main dishes.

So, what kind of soups can you expect to find in Portugal? Overall, the vegetable soup (Sopa de Legumes) with a wide array of versions is the most common one found all over the country and works for vegans as well. Why eat the veggies when you can drink them and spare your tummy the extra workout having to digest them? Can be pureed or with chunks of different veggies. Often includes potatoes, carrots, cabbages and beans/chickpeas. 

A special mentioning is the Canja = chicken broth soup (we cook a whole chicken and I mean a whole chicken), usually with small pasta, and serve it super warm. This soup will make you survive any kind of sickness, our grandmothers will ensure that! 

A soup with cult status in Portugal is the so called Caldo Verde. We mix collard greens (you can use kale but we prefer the so called Galician cabbage) with potatoes and chouriço. Eating this deliciousness just keeps getting better if you add a pão com chouriço e queijo. A stone oven baked bread filled with chorizo slices and sometimes cheese as well. This might be the ultimate Portuguese comfort food ever which anybody can afford. 

Another special soup is the so called Sopa da Pedra. This is more of a regional soup, coming from the town of Almeirim in the region of Santarém, 1 hour northeast of Lisbon. Common ingredients are kidney beans, carrots, cabbage, potatoes as well as different cuts of beef, pork and various sausages. The story behind the soup is that there was a friar who came to a town and since nobody wanted to offer him food he said he just needed the equipment to cook a soup, he would make a soup out of a stone he found on the ground. People laughed at him and decided to give him the cooking utensils to see how he could make a soup out of a stone. And he put the stone into water and started to cook it. Asking from time to time if the people in the town had a bit of salt, a piece of sausage, some veggies....all in order to make the soup better than just with the stone. Finally he had a proper, rich, soup in place. In the end he ate it and took the stone from the bottom of the pan to be used again in the next town. 

If you are more of a fishy person, try the Massada de peixe/marisco or a Cataplana. We use different white fishes, usually together with prawns or other kids of shellfish. Tomato sauce, paprika, fresh herbs (usually cilantro) and white wine. It is really delish and often connected to the coastal regions such as Algarve, where they have excellent seafood.

Last of the famous soups that I will mention is our Gaspacho soup. That is right, we also do Gaspacho, we have always done gaspacho and it is not just in Spain you can find it. And by the way it is a cold soup here too but it has not the same consistency with that pureed thing they call Gazpacho on the other side of the border. The region famous for this soup is the Alentejo region, where it is very warm, sometimes over 40 degrees Celsius during summer and you really need an icy cold soup in order to survive your work day. What you need is finely cut tomatoes, paprika, cucumber, onions and garlic. If you wanna be avant-garde you can also put honey dew melons or watermelons in there. A dash of vinegar, olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. Put some dry breadcrumbs in there as well as ice cubes, sprinkle some oregano on top, and voilá! This might be my favourite soup ever, it certainly is tasty during summer times.