Greek Avgolemono Soup
Your next springtime meal is here. 
When spring hits, it’s time to pass over the heavy winter soups and make room for spring flavors. But that doesn’t mean you have to give up on soup season! This Greek-inspired soup brings the perfect spring flavors to the table—fresh lemon juice and asparagus. If you’re not into asparagus, feel free to swap in fresh green bean for this recipe. I also used this recipe as an opportunity to make a fresh batch of chicken soup.
This recipe is built off of a classic Avgolemono Soup. If you’ve ever been to Greek restaurant, chances are you’ve had their lemony chicken soup. Avgolemono refers to the Greek sauce made from whisking together eggs, lemon, and warm broth. The sauce is then added to chicken soup as a thickening agent and creates a rich, silky, and vibrant flavor. Avgolemono soup is generally just broth, chicken, egg, lemon, dill, and rice/orzo. But, as with most recipes, I like upping the vegetable content.
One tip on the avgolemono. You are going to be tempering the sauce. What that means is you will add small amounts of the broth to the egg while whisking. This allows you to raise the temperature of the eggs without them curdling. That is the trickiest part of this recipe, but really not difficult. And once you add the avgolemono to the soup, you’ll want to remove the soup from heat and make sure not to bring to a boil again.
*yields 3-4 servingsIngredients
6 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 cups diced or shredded cooked chicken
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion
2-3 carrots, peeled
2-3 stalks of celery
1 bay leaf
1/3 cup arborio rice
1 large eggs
Juice of half of a lemon
1 cup chopped asparagus
1 bunch fresh dill divided
Salt and fresh pepper to taste
Directions
Prepare vegetables: Chop carrots, onion, and celery. Cut off the white ends of the asparagus and chop the rest. Grab a bunch of fresh dill and roughly chop. Halve the lemon.
Sauté vegetables: In a large pot, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat. Sauté onions, carrots, and celery until soft and onions translucent, about 5 minutes.
Cook soup: Add half the dill, chicken broth, bay leaf and bring to a boil. Add rice and reduce heat to medium low, and simmer about 10 minutes. Add asparagus and cook an additional 10-15 minutes, or until rice is cooked and vegetables are tender. Add chicken and continue to simmer on low.
Make avgolemono: In a separate bowl, combine egg, lemon juice, and 2 tablespoons of water. Slowly whisk about half a cup of the hot stock into the egg mixture, stirring constantly, to keep eggs from curdling.
Finish and serve: Slowly whisk the egg/lemon broth back into the stock pot. Soup will thicken slightly. Remove from heat. Add remaining fresh dill, and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.
