Chef Manny’s Blog

sopa da minha avó (my grandmother’s soup)

This is a soup my avó (grandmother) used to make. My own mother made it last night & it brought back fond memories for her & me. It is a pure vegetarian soup. Many people don’t realize that many of the older recipes popular in Portugal are in fact vegetarian based as the poorer communities didn’t have a lot of meat or fish, but did have their fresh vegetable gardens and fruit orchards. My my avó and avo had many olive trees that fresh olive oil from & they would also brine they’re own olives. My mother has fond memories of the community women & children getting together to hand pick olives from i the olive groves. This soup has both the olive oil and olives as garnish, and is made with white beans onions cabbage and kale. Very simlpe, very easy to make and delicious & nutritious.

I don’t have the exact recipe for this but it is simple.

All you need to do is soak about 1 lb of dried white beans over night until they are rehydrated. (you can use canned as well).

In a large pot (8-10 qts) add one diced onion & 1/2 cup olive oil & dissolve the onions being careful not to burn them. Add the beans into the pot (with the water they are soaking in) let cook for about an hour, (if using canned also add the liquid in the cans, extra water will be needed as well and you do not need to cook for an hour since the beans are already soft) bring water level to about 2/3 of the pan. Dice up a small cabbage and also some nice dark green kale, add to the soup and cook for another 25 minutes.

Serve with a drizzle of olive oil and green & black olives (get Portuguese, Italian or Greek olives for more flavor)

olives, (azeitonas)

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One Response to “sopa da minha avó (my grandmother’s soup)”

1		February 11th, 2010 at 5:59 pm lynn wallace says:
		I’m not Portuguese, but I love Portuguese food and gram’s soup is superb!

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