In Portugal the group of travelers is represented by a monk, and the ingredients are potatoes, beans, and local sausages such as chouriço and morcela. This catchy story helped popularizing Sopa da Pedra, in some restaurants the soup it’s even served with a clean stone inside.
An Authentic Portuguese Stone Soup
Sopa da Pedra it’s one of the few Portuguese dishes with an established recipe and method of preparation. The traditional recipe, which carries the TSG label, calls for: cranberry beans, chouriço, Portuguese blood sausage (morcela), Farinheira (flour sausage), pig’s trotter, bacon, potatoes, onions, garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper, paprika, bay leaves, and fresh cilantro. The preparation method is similar to that used in Caldo Verde. You combine all the soup ingredients (raw) in a pan, cover with water and let it stew!
I believe that’s the secret of Portuguese soups. The ingredients aren’t fried, instead they are stewed, this way all the flavours are accentuated. The sausages will cook quicker than the beans, so they are taken out first, cut into big chunks and stirred back into the soup just before serving, so they don’t lose their shape.
You can still adapt this recipe to the ingredients you have available or are comfortable cooking with. In my case, I’m not well acquainted with pig’s trotters, so I’m using pork ribs instead. Another change I did was to use red kidney beans instead of cranberry beans. You can add different veggies, use different types of beans, the world is your soup! Afterall, the essence of this dish is creating something delicious and nurturing with the ingredients you have at hand.
How to Make Portuguese Stone Soup
In Portugal the group of travelers is represented by a monk, and the ingredients are potatoes, beans, and local sausages such as chouriço and morcela. This catchy story helped popularizing Sopa da Pedra, in some restaurants the soup it’s even served with a clean stone inside.
An Authentic Portuguese Stone Soup
Sopa da Pedra it’s one of the few Portuguese dishes with an established recipe and method of preparation. The traditional recipe, which carries the TSG label, calls for: cranberry beans, chouriço, Portuguese blood sausage (morcela), Farinheira (flour sausage), pig’s trotter, bacon, potatoes, onions, garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper, paprika, bay leaves, and fresh cilantro. The preparation method is similar to that used in Caldo Verde. You combine all the soup ingredients (raw) in a pan, cover with water and let it stew!
I believe that’s the secret of Portuguese soups. The ingredients aren’t fried, instead they are stewed, this way all the flavours are accentuated. The sausages will cook quicker than the beans, so they are taken out first, cut into big chunks and stirred back into the soup just before serving, so they don’t lose their shape.
You can still adapt this recipe to the ingredients you have available or are comfortable cooking with. In my case, I’m not well acquainted with pig’s trotters, so I’m using pork ribs instead. Another change I did was to use red kidney beans instead of cranberry beans. You can add different veggies, use different types of beans, the world is your soup! Afterall, the essence of this dish is creating something delicious and nurturing with the ingredients you have at hand.
