I call this soup my immune booster. It's got a ton of garlic (8 cloves!), chili flakes and is bursting with vitamin C and valuable oxidants. You can add extra vegetables - I'm showing the bare minimum but you can add until your heart is content. I often add zucchini and yellow summer squash in the summer. The soup becomes a meal with the addition of chickpeas or cannellini beans and some small pasta. It's fantastic topped with grated parmesan or served with cheesy toasts or cheddar tea biscuits. I love making soup in the fall and winter. Soup has a way of warming you from the inside out. I often make soup on a Sunday so we have it for the week to take for lunches, but this soup is fast enough to make on a weeknight as well. This recipe makes a huge amount, but it lasts for the week in the fridge, and freezes well too.
- 1 tbsp of olive oil for sweating vegetables
- 1 large onion chopped
- 2 leeks white and light green parts only, sliced and rinsed well to remove any grit
- 3 carrots diced
- 4 stalks of celery diced
- 1 red pepper diced
- 2 tsps of dried red chili flakes
- 2 tbsps of tomato paste
- 8 cups of cold water
- 8 cloves of garlic minced
- 1 large can of crushed tomatoes or if you only have diced or whole simply puree with your immersion hand blender
- 1 bunch of collard greens or dinosaur kale cut into thin ribbons
- 1 bunch of Italian flat leaf parsley finely chopped
- salt and pepper to taste
- Sweat onion, leeks, carrots, celery and red pepper in olive oil. When onions are translucent add your chili flakes and allow them to toast and cook a bit in the oil. Add tomato paste and let it cook off a bit too to remove the raw flavour.
- Add water, canned crushed tomatoes and minced garlic. Bring to a boil and then turn down the heat and let it simmer until the carrots are al dente.
- Add chopped parsley, collard greens or kale et simmer for an additional 10 minutes and serve.
Collard Green Tip:
I'm lucky to be living in a predominately Portuguese neighbourhood where our local grocer sells collard greens all ready cut into a fine chiffonade ready for caldo verde - the delicious Portuguese soup. Buying the greens precut is totally worth the extra 50 cents to me when I'm making this soup on a weeknight, however, before I lived here, I chopped my own greens and it was easy. Here is a great tutorial for cutting a chiffonade.
