Avgolemoni – the soup to cure it all

Avgolemoni is one of the most popular Greek soups. It is very high up the list together with lentil soup, youvarlakia with avgolemono (meatball soup) and psarosoupa (fish soup). The name essentially translates to “egg and lemon”.

As young children in Cyprus/Greece whenever we get sick mums/grandmothers would often make avgolemoni with chicken. Or even if we were upset and were feeling down – avgolemoni was always the cure! And I’m pretty sure all Cypriot and Greek children can relate to that. It is also one of the soups that we make on Easter Saturday after we go home at night from church. If you say avgolemoni to anyone that has eaten it before, automatically they would think of a homely and soothing meal.

The ingredients

The ingredients to make avgolemoni are so basic and I think are staples at every home (a Greek one anyway): egg, lemon, rice and chicken. When combined together it makes a creamy and sour soup. To make the soup you essentially boil chicken and rice and then add the avgolemono mixture. I usually use individual pieces rather than a whole chicken to reduce the cooking time but either works very well.

The avgolemono

When I was a young teenager I remember I called my aunty to ask her how to make this soup. She warned me that, “The hardest part is to successfully make the avgolemono without curdling it”. Needless to say my first try was not successful but my dad was too nice not to eat it haha

The three most important thing that I learnt over the years making this soup are:

1. Allow the eggs to come to room temperature
2. Don’t add the chicken stock directly in the eggs
3. Slowly add the avgolemono in the stock once it is done.

The additions

To enjoy this soup, I always serve it with the shredded chicken, small pieces of halloumi, bread rusks (paximadia) and cracked pepper. So in a mouthful you have the creamy and sour taste of the soup, the crunchiness of the rusks and saltiness from the halloumi. It is all a match made in heaven!