First off, I'm only calling this Caldo Verde because it was the inspiration, and basis. Between a desire clean out my cupboard and API imposed kitchen laziness, the idea is the same, but the execution is much different.
Real Caldo Verde has potato and kale. Maybe some onion. Because I'm cleaning out the fridge, I have some more. There's a lot of fun stuff in there: Two Potatoes, three carrots, a sweet potato, bell pepper, an onion, and half a pound of dried chickpeas. I was going to add more and throw in some left over black eyed peas, but unfortunately I ran out of room in the crockpot. All the vegetables got a medium dice.
Everything goes into a crockpot. (If you want to used canned beans, you can do this without the crockpot). Add in some ham hock, and cover with chick stock/water. I used stock because I had a lot of it.
In a pan, toast:
1.5 teaspoons cumin seeds
.5 teaspoon black pepper corns.
Add that into the pot with four teaspoons of Paprika, four cloves of garlic and a shot of lemon juice.
Let that mixture sit over night to give the chickpeas a chance to soak. If you're using canned chickpeas, you can skip this step.
After the mixture has soaked for a while, turn the crockpot on and leave it alone. Once everything is nice and tender, zap it with an immersion blender. Dice up some sausage, I'm using a smoked turkey sausage and chorizo, and add in hand fulls of kale to taste. About a pound. Simmer for a bit more and chow down
I swear I have pictures of this thing, I just can't figure out how to get them online. I can't find them in Finder for some reason.
