Avgolemono Soup

I have several recipes to post.  Having time to make dinner for my family is not a problem - but keeping up with the blog means taking a break from my books in the evening.  It also means taking enough time to create sentences that all don't begin with "I".   My last few blogs were a rushed after dinner task, but I am going to try to change that.  I hope you will try the recipes in the next few posts.  The flavors are different from everyday life - but the recipes are approved from age 4 to 47. (Granted my boys are known to be a little more adventurous than the average family) Joe had 3 bowls of the soup recipe below.  He liked his picture in the salad dressing blog so much - he wanted to be included in this post too.  Fine by me:)

For years I have had many office lunches at Giorgio's in Montclair, VA.  I always order the same dishes -Avgolemono Soup and Mikonos Salad.  I have always wanted to make the soup myself, but an egg based soup seemed like something I could destroy easily.  This blog finally gave me the courage.  Imagine stirring 6 beaten egg yolks into a just boiling broth to create a rich thickness without making scrambled eggs.  Turns out, it was not so hard at all.  It was probably the least time consuming meals I made all week.  

Surprisingly, my boys loved the soup.  They both love tart lemon sorbet, so I was hoping that a lemon soup would fancy their taste buds, and it did.  Phew!  A strong lemon flavor at the front of the bite took me back the first time I tried Avgolemono Soup, but it was so different that the more I ate the more I liked the combination of flavors.

The restaurant soup was mostly the rich broth with a scant amount of rice and chicken.  I found a recipe that looked similar to the restaurant and then made it my own.  I decreased the amount of milk and exchanged orzo for rice.  I also added veggies and quite a bit of chicken to make the meal heartier.  6 egg yolks seems a little excessive, but think of it as 1 egg per serving.  The soup easily made 6-8 large servings. 

This could easily be a vegetarian dish with 2 minor changes.

Avgolemono Soup - Greek Egg- Lemon Soup

2 cooked chicken breasts

1 1/2 cups fat free milk
2 T. cornstarch
6 egg yolks, beaten

8 cups chicken stock

1/4 cup butter
1 onion chopped
3 celery sticks chopped

1 1/4 cups orzo
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1 lemon peel finely grated
chopped parsley
salt and pepper

Chop 2 cooked chicken breasts into small bite sized pieces and set aside. (I used half of a small rotisserie chicken)

Whisk together the milk, cornstarch and egg yolks.  Set aside.

Place chicken stock in a large pot to boil then;
Chop the onion and celery.  Saute with butter in a skillet until tender.  Add pepper to taste.

When the stock begins to boil add the orzo and boil until the orzo is just tender.  (7-8 minutes)

Take the soup off the heat.  Add the milk and egg mixture and stir/whisk continuously and carefully until incorporated.  Return the pot to low heat and continue to stir until thickened.   Add the sauteed vegetables.

Remove from the heat again.  Add the chopped parsley, lemon juice, lemon zest, and and chicken.

Serve with a parsley garnish.  This dish is great paired with a Greek salad and warmed pita bread with Tzatziki Sauce.