Avgolemono: Greek Egg-Lemon Soup

 This soup is so light and tasty, you'll get hooked. Don't be deterred by the egg in this soup, it's used only as a thickener and doesn't actually coagulate.

A couple of months ago, one of my besties, Ashlee, came to visit. (Did I mention she's awesome?) On one of the days she was here, we were trying to decide where to eat lunch. Back in college, she studied abroad in Greece but she hadn't had Greek food in awhile, so we settled on going to a Greek restaurant in the city. I let her do the choosing (since I know very little about Greek food), and we ended up sharing quite a few foods that I had never had, one of which was this delicious egg-lemon soup that I've been wanting to re-create at home ever since. This soup is a staple in Greece, but the restaurant we were eating at was kind of a trendy place, so they fancied the soup up a little. I found a recipe for avgolemono in Cooks Illustrated: The Best International Recipe, replaced the rice/orzo with cauliflower to make it starch free and added a few things based on the soup at the restaurant.

This soup is pretty simple to make and is perfect as an appetizer, because it's so light and lemony. When buying chicken stock, you have to be careful that it doesn't contain starch; many contain carrots, which are starchy (as are all root vegetables). I buy the low-sodium chicken stock from Trader Joe's but I also make my own chicken stock when I can.

Avgolemono
serves 6-8
2 quarts low-sodium chicken stock (or you could substitute vegetable if you're a veggie)
2 cups cauliflower rice (directions for this are outlined below)
12 (4-inch long) strips zest from 2 lemons
2 whole cloves
2 bay leaves
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2 large egg yolks, at room temperature
1/4 cup juice from 2 lemons
a head of romaine lettuce, chopped
optional: 1 cup cooked chicken, cut into tiny strips
1 scallion, sliced thin
3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint leaves

{cauliflower rice}

 
1. Put 3-4 cups roughly chopped cauliflower pieces into a food processor or blender. Pulse until the cauliflower resembles grains of rice.

2. Bring the broth to a boil in a large saucepan over high heat. Add the cauliflower rice, lemon zest, cloves, bay leaves, and salt. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer until the "rice" is tender, 16-20 minutes.

3. Remove and discard the bay leaves, cloves, and lemon zest. Return the broth to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to low. Whisk the whole eggs, yolks, and lemon juice together in a medium bowl until combined.

4. Ladle about 2 cups of the hot broth into the bowl with the eggs and slowly whisk it into the eggs to temper, then slowly whisk the egg mixture back into the soup. Continue to cook the soup over low heat, stirring constantly, until slightly thickened, 4-5 minutes. Don't let the soup simmer or boil, to make sure that the eggs don't coagulate.

5. Put 1/2-3/4 cup chopped romaine (and the chicken, if you're having it: 1/4 cup in each bowl) in each bowl and divide up the soup between bowls. Sprinkle with scallions and mint and serve immediately.

{so tasty!}

Greek Cucumber Salad

I know how much you like salads, so here's another one. I like to make this salad when I don't have that much time to make dinner and I usually have the ingredients on hand because Greek salad is one of my favorites. It only takes about 10 minutes total to chop everything up, make the dressing and toss it all in a bowl. And if you don't have exact amounts, that's okay. I never measure out amounts for salads like this, I usually just throw what I have into a bowl and mix it up.

Greek Cucumber Salad
serves 2-3
salad:
1 large cucumber, quartered and sliced (I usually half-peel it too)
1 large tomato, chopped
a handful of black olives (you can use Kalamata olives obviously, I just use black because they're cheaper)
1/4 cup red onion, chopped
~1/2 cup feta*, crumbled (use more or less depending on how much you love feta, I tend to use a lot)
dressing:
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
salt
pepper
oregano

Throw all of the salad ingredients into a large bowl and mix it up! I usually just put the dressing in an old jam jar with a tight-fitting lid. First add vinegar, then oil and throw in the spices to taste. Then shake it up! Divide the salad among individual bowls and add dressing. So good!

*A note about buying feta. If you need it to be starch free, don't buy it already crumbled because they always add a starch to keep it from sticking together. You don't have to buy expensive feta, just make sure it's in a block and check the ingredients to be sure.