Gardening Surprises & Some ‘Green Soup’

Remember to label your garden, folks, unless you’re like me and don’t mind surprises.

A few weeks ago, Janessa planted some seeds in a bed near our porch. She thought they were Chinese celery seeds. They popped up this week, and they’re not celery. It looks more like mizuna, a frizzy-leafed Asian mustard green.

She swears she planted some Chinese celery somewhere. Celery is fairly slow to germinate, and I guess it’ll pop up eventually.

We’ve grown Chinese celery for the past few winters, and I’ve fallen in love with it. It comes in a few varieties with stems of different colors – green, yellow, white and pink. All of them taste like western celery that’s commonly sold in grocery stores. The stems are skinnier than western celery, and the plants grow much more foliage, which I like to use as an herb.

But Chinese celery has a slightly stronger celery flavor. I love growing the pink stemmed variety for its fantastic color. I know of no other vegetable with as bright of a neon pink color. The seeds are not commonly sold in stores. I order them online. Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds ( rareseeds.com) sells both varieties. Kitazawa Seed Company ( kitazawaseed.com) is another great supplier I like to use. They sell several green- and yellow-stemmed varieties.

Last week I offered my basic recipe for making a pot of greens. I suppose you could get tired of eating cooked greens every day. So here’s another recipe idea for greens: Portuguese caldo verde (“green soup”).

To make an authentic Portuguese caldo verde, you need some Portuguese chouriço sausage. This kind of sausage is nothing like Mexican chorizo. Instead, it’s a lot more like our local Czech-style smoked sausage. I like using V&V sausage from Cistern for this dish. I’ve also made this dish with Cajun andouille sausage. One link of sausage is all you need; cut it into bite-sized cubes.

Next, you’ll need some fresh kale from the garden. You could use any kind of green, but kale is traditional for this dish. Pick a good-sized bundle, about eight large stems. I remove and discard the stems. Chop the leaves into roughly one-inch pieces.

You’ll also need an onion, a tomato, two or three cloves of garlic, one peeled and diced potato, a can of white kidney beans, beef stock and two tablespoons of butter. Heat the butter in a large pot and add the chopped onions and garlic. Cook for a few minutes until the onions turn translucent. Now add the cubes of sausage and cook for a few minutes. Next, add the diced potato. Chop up the tomato and add it to the pot. Continue cooking until the tomato releases its juices. Add the chopped kale. Stir everything together as you allow the kale to wilt in the warm pot.

Next, add enough beef broth to cover everything in the pot. If you want a thinner soup, add some more stock. Now add the canned beans. Adjust the heat to a slow simmer. Cook until the potatoes are soft and the beans are warm.

Serve hot with toasty bread, grated parmesan cheese and, if you like some spice, red chili pepper flakes.

Enjoy!