Avgolemono soup is easy to make if you have the right recipe. Some recipes call for using a blender or standard mixer, but this one is so easy that all you need is a whisk.
Avgolemono Soup Is Classic
Avgolemono soup is a classic for good reason. It is arguably better than chicken soup for a cold of flu because the lemon adds lots of vitamin C.
The ingredients are basic, so you probably have most of these on hand: chicken broth, rice, cornstarch, eggs, lemons, milk, oil, salt and pepper.
Avoid the Boil
You should adjust your stovetop heat as necessary so that you don’t boil the soup once the milk has been added. Otherwise, you’ll end up with curdling. Although you can still eat curdled soup, it just doesn’t look very appetizing.
Be sure to read through the method before you begin. It’s the key to this soup’s creamy, smooth texture.
Easy Avgolemono Soup
Ingredients
- 32 oz chicken broth
- ½ c rice a soft rice, like Carolina Rice, is good
- ½ c lemon juice 2-3 lemons
- 3 large eggs
- 1 T cornstarch
- 1 c milk
- 2 T butter or olive oil
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp pepper
Instructions
- Juice the lemons and set aside.
- Mix eggs and cornstarch together in a medium size bowl until smooth.
- Heat chicken broth until boiling, then add rice. Lower heat and cover pot to simmer until rice is soft, about 20 minutes. Turn off heat.
- Beat egg mixture and milk together until blended.
- Pour some (about 3 T.) hot broth into the egg/milk mixture to temper it, whisking constantly.
- Add warmed egg/milk mixture to the chicken broth pot and continue whisking everything in the pot. Turn the burner on medium heat.
- Heat until soup is thick, warm, and creamy but not boiling. Turn off heat.
- Add butter, salt, pepper and lemon juice to the soup, blending thoroughly.
- Serve immediately, or reheat until warm but not boiling.
Avgolemono is a staple Greek soup and sauce, but its origins go back much further, and its basic premise – mixing egg yolks with an acid – can be traced back to Sephardic Jewish traditions in Iberia.
It’s interesting to trace the origins of recipes and see how much people all over the world really have in common.
Photo by Alpha (Flickr) CC by-sa 2.0 . No changes were made to this photograph.
Post updated May 5, 2024
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