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!
I cooked this soup yesterday and I absolutely loved it. Felt like I was eating a version of my favourite soup a from my childhood (Yuvarlakia) but healthier. Love that there is tahini in it as it has so many minerals and vitamins.
Thank you for this great recipe!!
Isn’t it AMAZING!! Thanks for the love hun!
This soup is so delicious! The flavors go so well together. It was the perfect meal for our family weekend in the mountains. I doubled the recipe and we had it did several meals and it only got better.
I am so glad you loved this!! What soup are you going to try next?!
Absolutely delicious recipe. Thank you Maria
thank you so much!!!
I LOVE this recipe! Reminds me so much of something my mom would make when I was a kid, but now I can enjoy these flavors plant-based. 🙂 I topped the soup with some shiitake mushrooms cooked in poultry seasoning and parsley for a little something extra. Will definitely be making this recipe again and again this fall and winter. Thank you, Maria!
this makes me so happy, thank you brie!
I am vegan and recovering from a cold and this was amazing! Just what I needed!
thanks so much for the love, Karsyn!!!
After using your recipe a million times I thought I’d let you know this this might be my favorite recipe ever! One day I was oddly craving lemons and soup and low and behold, I find this magical creature of a recipe! It also introduced me to dill which I now crave. I usually add chickpeas which go wonderfully with the lemony flavors. Thank you!
Apparently I love this recipe so much that I forgot I made a similar comment about 8 months ago!
you’re the best! just read your other comment too! next time you make this can you leave a start review for us?!
This makes me so happy!!! Thank you so much for your love!
So easy and delicious! Such a lovely balance of flavours, it has become a favourite at our house.
yay, this makes me so happy!!! thank you, Natalie!
This soup is amazing. I’ve made it every week for the last several months since I first discovered this recipe.
thank you!!! isn’t it the best!
Absolutely delicious, I made a few tweaks adopting some spices from another Avgolemono Soup (still vegan) and added rainbow chard, which was quickly sauteed on the side, because o was craving greens in my soup; I also added a few chickpeas and I used homemade chickpea miso.
Thank you Maria for such an amazing soup I wouldn’t in a million years thought of tahini and miso together.
Isn’t it just the best combo!
I’m really looking forward to making this! Can you clarify… So you add the 5 cups of water + seasonings to the pot, bring to boil… Then remove 2 cups (trying not to remove any of the veggies) to make the Avgolemono before you add the rice? So you’ve only got 3 cups of liquid in with your rice/veggies? Or are the two cups broth for the Avgolemono separate?
All 5 cups end up going into the same place… you just need to the 2 cups to create the avgolemono!
Really tastes like the original!
Yay, love that!