Portuguese Linguica Stew

Before I got married I wasn't great about eating green vegetables. I would eat a salad when I went out to eat, but rarely anything else unless it was a holiday. After I met my husband I discovered that while he hated fruit he loved vegetables. The vegetables I was used to eating were salad, broccoli and asparagus and not much else. My husband on the other hand loved greens. I had never had a lot of exposure to greens and honestly knew nothing about them. So my husband bought mustard greens and I attempted to prepare them. The first time was a semi disaster. The greens lacked a lot of taste and I didn't know to take out the tough stem. However, after a few more tries I discovered that I not only loved greens I was good at preparing them. Now I buy greens at least once a week and use them in a variety of recipes. A couple of months back I bought a large amount of linguica sausage on clearance. I searched around the web for recipes and came across a delicious looking one for Portuguese Linguica Stew, combining linguica and collard greens.

This recipe has 12 ingredients. It takes 15 minutes of prep and 45 minutes of cooking time and makes 4-6 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store and made no recipe modifications. Make sure to remove all the tough stems from the collard greens or they will not cook all the way through in 10 minutes. Plus they taste much better without the stems. The great thing about this stew is that it requires very little salting. The linguica sausage naturally salts the broth and I found that I didn't have to add any additional salt. I did heat the stew slightly longer than the suggested ten minutes after adding the collard greens. I wanted to make sure all the flavors came out fully and that the greens weren't still tough. I followed the remainder of the recipe as stated.

I love how this recipe doesn't require any stock for cooking. Instead the water is turned into a delicious stock from the sausage and vegetables. The collard greens are colorful and flavorful, providing a nice addition to the stew. My two boys really liked this recipe. The stew is not overly spicy, it has a slight kick from the crushed red pepper, but not enough for my two boys not to enjoy it. My husband and I really enjoyed the flavor in this soup and I ate the leftovers the next day for lunch. The stew was even better the next day after sitting in the fridge. Overall, a great way to use greens in a flavorful stew.

For this recipe go to Portuguese Linguica Stew.