Avgolemono – Greek Egg and Lemon Soup
Avgolemono – Greek Egg and Lemon Soup – about 6 cups total
This is a hearty soup, only serve a small portion for Greek Easter Meal.
One of my April 2015 recipes for Beyond Celiac - originally National Foundation for Celiac Awareness.
The original recipe came from one of those tiny Church cookbooks (only Greek recipes) from a friend married into a Greek American family. She's changed it to their liking, I did as well based on what I had and what I liked. Some people like it extremely lemony, I wanted more lemon, my husband didn't. I have always thought it was made just with rice, Sheila likes to add orzo, many recipes quote only orzo. I would think that a Greek recipe wouldn't use orzo and gf orzo is hard to find. Original recipes cook the whole chicken and use the stock. Again I think this would have been a recipe where the old layer or rooster was cooked until tender and the soup was made with the stock, perhaps with no chicken, with the chicken being used for other meals. Some recipes use a large amount of just egg yolks, Sheila and I use whole eggs. 4 egg yolks is the equivalent of one whole egg. That is a lot of egg whites leftover, but just egg yolks gives a deeper yellow color and creamier soup, but also adds to cholesterol. Sheila recommends the Imagine brand of chicken stock (yes gf) for flavor. Use either home made stock, bought gf stock you like, or carefully use chicken stock concentrate which can be very salty.
6 cups (48 fl oz) chicken stock or water plus concentrate
medium onion peeled and finely chopped
2 stalks or celery, washed, quartered lengthwise and cut into small slices
2 carrots, peeled, quartered lengthwise and cut into small slices (not traditional but adds flavor)
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely crushed
2 tbsp (30ml) olive oil
1 bay leaf
½ tsp sugar
zest with a microplane and juice of half a lemon (add more to your taste. If you add empty shell of lemon to soup it can become bitter. I prefer zest and juice of one lemon)
½ cup (120 ml) raw rice
2 tbsp raw gf orzo (the more rice/orzo you use the thicker the soup)
2 whole eggs at room temperature
8 oz, 250 g (or more) cooked brown meat chicken cut into small pieces– roughly legs and thighs from bought rotisserie chicken. Brown meat stays moister and Sheila's husband doesn't like brown meat for a meal.
Feta cheese crumbles – optional but husband's preference. Sheila says no, that's not how Greeks eat Feta. True but husband likes it.
1. In minimum 8 cup pan, gently cook onion, carrot and celery in olive oil until softening. Stir in raw rice and cook for a few more minutes.
2. Add garlic, chicken, bay leaf, zest and juice of lemon, salt and pepper to taste and stock.
3. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer covered for about 10 minutes.
4. Add orzo if using and continue to cook for about 15 more minutes until vegetables are soft and rice and orzo are cooked.
5. Taste soup and add more lemon, salt etc to your taste.
6. Break eggs into 2 cup jug and whisk with an immersion blender. Slowly add about 1 cup of stock from the pan (without any veg etc) and blend eggs and hot stock.
7. Pour egg stock mix back into pan, stir well and turn off heat. This egg stock mix also thickens soup. If you boil the soup the eggs can 'curdle'.
8. Garnish with fresh chopped parsley and some feta.
Soup will thicken more as rice and orzo sit so you might have to add more stock to your taste. These proportions make a thick soup.
If you make soup a day in advance, only do the egg stock mix as you reheat it to serve.
Think of adding some chopped fresh mint, oregano (Sheila's family didn't like that) basil or dill. Provide extra lemon wedges for lemonaholics. Make it your new chicken soup.
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