Portugeuse Chorizo and Pepper Soup

I've been neglecting this blog (though not my cooking). I made this dish in late April, but have only got around to posting now.



So, having just come from Spain, I felt like doing something that involved Chorizo sausage. Of course, being contrary, I made a dish from the other side of the Iberian Peninsula.

I first had this soup in a Portuguese restaurant in Melville, and was quite taken by it. This was my second time actually making it.

I put the recipe together from a few that I found online. In short, the soup consists of red peppers, tomatoes and chorico, with a bit of stock and some onions to add flavour. Oh, and paprika. It has to have paprika. Here's how I did it:

Ingredients

100g Chorizo, sliced thickly
1 can chopped tomatoes
2 medium red peppers, coarsely chopped
1 chicken stock cube, dissolved in around 2 cups water
1 cup red wine
1 medium brown onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp paprika

Method

1. Fry the chorizo with the paprika on low heat for a few minutes.


2. Put the chorizo aside, and fry the onion in a little oil until soft. Add the garlic towards the end.


3. Process the peppers and tomatoes in a blender until relatively smooth. (You want to leave the texture slightly coarse.


4. Add the tomato, pepper, stock, chorizo and wine to the pot with the onions and garlic.


5. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes to an hour, stirring occasionally. (This can be shorter or longer - the peppers cook fairly quickly, and everything else is cooked already.)


6. Serve, preferably with crusty Porteugese bread rolls.

Notes

1. I really can't remember how much water I put in. Two cups (500ml) sounds about right, but if it's too much, boil it off by simmering uncovered. If it's too little, have a kettle of boiled water on hand to top up.


2. Other recipes talk about keeping the chorizo out until the end. In these, you put the tomatoes and peppers in finely chopped, but remove half soup to puree at the end, before adding the chorizo. My method worked pretty well, though, and allows you to put the chorizo in for the whole time. (The chorizo adds a lot of flavour.)