Soups
Creamy Vegan Greek Lemon Rice Soup (Avgolemono)
Prep
15 minutes
Cook
40 minutes
Yield
4 -5
My favorite Greek soup (avgolemono) has turned vegan and it’s one of my favs. This Greek Lemon Rice Soup is super creamy, authentic, easy, and can be whipped up in one pot. I promise you’ll love this one. Andrew loves the traditional non-vegan version of this soup, so I’ll make it for him on occasion when we have eggs.
I teamed up with Lundberg Family Farms to share this authentic and easy recipe for my Greek Lemon Rice Soup aka avgolemono because it’s seriously one of my favs that reminds me of home and growing up. Most people will opt for brown pasta for recipes like this or no carbs, but the rice I find really makes it creamy, warming, and hearty. Perfect as we head into fall.
Ingredient Notes:
Avgolemono: This soup is traditionally called avgolemono and what really turns it from a soup to this magical dish is the combination of tahini, miso pasta, lemon juice, and stock from the soup. Oh baby the flavors are magic!
Nutritional Yeast: Aka nooch is a deactivated yeast and is sold in the form of yellow flakes or powder. It has a savory, cheesy flavor to it and it’s so dang good for you so it’s perfect to add into recipes like this, or use as a garnish on any dish.
Carrots: The carrots and celery in this dish form the delectable base of the soup. They also add great health benefits as they’re a good source of beta carotene, fiber, vitamin K1, potassium, and antioxidants.
How do you make lemon rice soup?
1. Into a large stock pot add your olive oil, onions, carrots, celery and garlic. Cook on low heat for 10 minutes, make sure to stir occasionally to avoid any browning or burning. You don’t want the vegetables to develop any color, just want them translucent and soft.
2. Once your veggies have cooked down for 10 minutes you can add your veg stock cubes, water, nutritional yeast and tamari or soy sauce.
3. Bring this mixture to a boil, lower heat and add your rice. Cook for around 20 minutes with lid on or until your rice is cooked.
4. While your soup is cooking prepare your Miso Tahini Lemon Sauce simply by adding all your ingredients into a blender and blending till smooth. NOTE: let your stock from soup cool for a few minutes before adding to the blender with other ingredients.
6. If your rice is ready you can remove the pot from the heat and begin stirring in your lemon sauce. Continue stirring till well combined. Add your fresh dill or parsley and stir just once more.
7. Give your soup a little taste test then add the necessary seasoning. Enjoy hot with more fresh parsley or dill!
Expert Tips & FAQ:
Flavors: The flavors of this avgolemono soup are perfect in my opinion because the lemon really ties everything together and allows more room for spicy heat from the black pepper to shine through. The creaminess from the rice and miso really marries the soup while the miso and nutritional yeast add a certain earthiness and warmth. All in all, this soup is loaded with flavors that are well-balanced, and it’s super creamy. Plus, an easy-to-make-in instant soup is always a go-to.
Seasoning: I love adding loads of pepper, so I went with about 1 tsp!
Herbs: Dill is my preference but I did not have any left in my fridge!
Other soup recipes you’ll love:
Creamy Vegan Greek Lemon Rice Soup (Avgolemono)
Your Greek mommy that is. 😍 Step into my kitchen to learn how to make yummy Greek food. 🍽️💃
Ingredients
For the Soup:
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 1/2 cups sweet white onion finely chopped
- 1 cup celery stalk finely chopped (optional)
- 1 1/2 cups carrot finely chopped or cut into 1/2 inch rounds (optional)
- 2 cloves garlic crushed
- 2 vegetable stock cubes (or 2 tbsp vegetable stock paste) organic, no added salt
- 6-7 cups hot water
- 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 tbsp tamari or soy sauce
- 3/4 -1 cup uncooked Brown Jasmine Rice – Lundberg Farms or other rice of your choice (i.e. basmati)
- season to taste
- 1/4 cup fresh parsley or dill finely chopped
For the Avgolemono:
- 2 tbsp. tahini
- 2 tbsp white miso paste
- 3/4 cup lemon juice freshly squeezed
- 2 cups stock from soup
Garnish:
Instructions
- Into a large stock pot add your olive oil, onions, carrots, celery and garlic. Cook on low heat for 10 minutes, make sure to stir occasionally to avoid any browning or burning. You don’t want the vegetables to develop any colour, just want them translucent and soft.
- Once your veggies have cooked down for 10 minutes you can add your veg stock cubes, water, nutritional yeast and tamari or soy sauce.
- Bring this mixture to a boil, lower heat and add your rice. Cook for around 20 minutes with lid on or until your rice is cooked.
- While your soup is cooking prepare your Miso Tahini Lemon Sauce simply by adding all your ingredients into a blender (2 cups of stock from the soup – avoid scooping out rice, tahini, white miso & lemon juice) and blending till smooth. NOTE: let your stock from soup cool for a few minutes in the blender before blending with other ingredients.
- Remove pot from the heat once it's ready and begin stirring in your lemon sauce. Continue stirring till well combined. Add your fresh dill or parsley and stir just once more.
- Give your soup a little taste test then add necessary seasoning. Enjoy hot with more fresh parsley or dill!
Video
Notes
Nutrition
What dishes remind you of your childhood? Share below!
My new favourite soup! I have been keeping my eyes peeled for a vegan version of this soup and this did not disappoint. I had everything for this except for the miso, but my SIL came through and lent me some – the miso makes all the difference! That salty umami comes through wonderfully and ties it all together. I’ll definitely be making this for friends and family. It’s also great leftover, when the rice absorbs all the flavours and the texture changes.
YESSS!! this makes me so happy! Thanks for the love beauty. So glad you enjoyed it and made sure to use the Miso!
This soup is so yummy and refreshing! It’s really easy to make and the different flavors along with the dill are amazing.
Thank you so much for the love Emily. So glad you enjoyed this recipe! It’s one of our favourites.
Did you mean 3/4 to 1 cup of rice, or 1 AND 3/4 cup rice?
Hello! I meant 3/4 to 1 cup of rice can be used. Typically when “-” is used in my recipes it just means it can be that or anything in between!
Maria x
I really love this soup! As soon as I saw it on Maria’s Instagram I knew I had to try it. It’s a nice combo of refreshing and comforting. Somehow still works as a fall soup, and probably a winter soup, and spring soup… (you get the idea)
Will be adding to my rotation for sure.
YESSS!!! Thank you so much for the Love Elizabeth!!! I love this soup sooo soo much.
I saw this recipe on Instagram and was instantly drawn to the beautiful photos. The asian ingredients in a classic greek dish intrigued me even more! I LOVE lemon flavored everything and knew this soup was a must try. The recipe was super easy to follow and took less than an hour to make. There was so much umami and depth to such a light noted soup. I can’t wait to make it again 🙂
Forgot to rate– 5 stars!
Thank you so much for the love Jessica!
Hello! Question – is the 2 cups of ‘ stock from soup’ that goes into the lemon sauce the same liquid that the rice is cooking in? Should I reserve it before adding rice? This looks so good, I can’t wait to try it!
It’s the soup mixture where everything else is cooking, yes!
Maria x
What can you use if you don’t have white miso paste?
This ingredient is pretty crucial… is there anyway you can get access to it? If not, try using a bit more Tahini! That should do the trick!
So so glad you loved this recipe as much as we did! It’s seriously the best.
Just made this Lemon Soup 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼 Will make again… even better a day or two later!
Thank yu so much Robin! I love this soup so much. Glad you do too!
Looks delicious! Do you think it would freeze well?
I think so! I would maybe freeze the rice separate from the soup? There’s no harm in trying but if I am being completely honest there is never any left after I make it so I have never frozen it!
Maria x
Loved this so so much, was easy to make and tastes so well rounded that I couldn’t tell that it wasn’t chicken stock. I put a whole lemon and a lot of chilli flakes which made it even more perfect. Thanks so much for sharing this, Maria!
Hey Claire!! You’re so welcome. You did the right thing by adding loads of lemon, always a game changer!!! So glad you liked it!
This recipe is fantastic! Full of flavor, very satisfying.
The one thing I’ll offer is that if you do not intend to eat it all right away, I’d keep the rice separately. My rice ended up absorbing all the moisture and it was more like a thick rice stew. Still delicious though!
Yes, this always happens! That is actually how some Greeks love eating it afterwards but this is a great type for anyone who may not like it that way!!!
Maria xxx
Every Greek kid ate this on repeat growing up. I made this today and shared it with my folks who LOVED it! That to me is the ultimate test, and this vegan version of Avgolemono passed with flying colours! Well done on capturing love in a bowl Maria xx
Thank you so much for the love Katerina!!!! So glad you to hear that not only you loved it but your parents did too!
I absolutely love all things lemon and tahini so I wanted to give this a try. I have to admit, I’ve never had the original soup, but I love most Greek foods and figured it would be a winner. I was not wrong!
The only thing I changed was using wild rice instead of brown rice, but that’s merely because I prefer the texture of wild rice in soup.
I had some leftovers and the next day I was figuring out what to do with one lone Beyond Meat sausage that was left and decided to add it into the soup and it was a great addition. This soup is so light and lemony that it’s really versatile and is making its way into a standard recipe rotation
Hey Ashley!!!! So glad you loved this recipe. It’s one of my favourites!!! Thanks for sharing your add-ins, the BM sounds brilliant for the next day!
This was really good. I didn’t have carrots, celery or fresh herbs but it still turned out great. I added extra garlic, used 1.5 lemons, dried dill, and added a can of drained jackfruit (in brine) that I shredded up with forks. It makes it a little heartier and almost turns it into a chicken, lemon, rice soup. Looking forward to the leftovers tomorrow! Thanks for this recipe!
YESSS!! thank you so much for the love, Claire. Love the modifications as well!
I used to love this when I visited my godmother (adult convert to Orthodoxy) but forgot to ask her for the recipe. Her version was vegan as well. I’m so glad this recipe exists. This is a wonderful soup and something I can make on weekends during Great Lent. I’ve tried other recipes for vegan avgolemono soup, but this is the closest to my godmother’s version. Ευχαριστώ!
You’re so welcome!!
This recipe was absolutely delicious and less than 45 minutes to make!! It was light, yet flavorful and filling with the lemon and tahini sauce. The only thing I changed was using a vegetable broth over the bouillon cubes. Next time I will add a white bean for added vegan protein but this recipe was such a tasty surprise and my new favorite healthy recipe for the winter! Thank you for sharing Maria!
Thank you so much, Suz!!!!