Soups
Vegan Avgolemono
Prep
15 minutes
Cook
40 minutes
Yield
4 -5
🍋 Transform the classic Greek egg-lemon soup into a creamy vegan delight with this authentic Vegan Avgolemono recipe. Featuring tangy lemon, hearty rice, and a silky tahini-miso base, this one-pot wonder delivers all the traditional flavors without any animal products.
My favorite Greek soup (avgolemono) has turned vegan, and it’s one of my absolute favorites. This vegan avgolemono is super creamy, authentic, easy, and can be whipped up in one pot. The creamy lemon-rice combination creates a comforting dish that brings me right back to my Greek roots.
I teamed up with Lundberg Family Farms to share this authentic and easy recipe because it’s seriously one of my favorites. It reminds me of home and growing up. The rice really makes it creamy, warming, and hearty—perfect for a satisfying meal any time of year.
❤️ Why You’ll Love Vegan Avgolemono
- Authentic: All the flavors of traditional Greek avgolemono soup are made completely plant-based.
- One-Pot Wonder: Everything comes together in a single pot for easy cleanup.
- Dairy-free: The combination of rice, tahini, and miso creates a luxurious texture.
🍲 Ingredients
Avgolemono Base – This soup is traditionally called avgolemono, but what really transforms it from a basic soup to this magical dish is the combination of tahini, miso paste, lemon juice, and stock. These ingredients replace the traditional egg-lemon mixture while maintaining the signature creamy, tangy profile that makes this Greek classic so beloved.
Nutritional Yeast – Also known as “nooch,” this deactivated yeast sold in the form of yellow flakes or powder brings a savory, almost cheesy flavor to the soup. It’s packed with B vitamins and protein, making it both delicious and nutritious – the perfect addition to this vegan avgolemono soup.
👩🍳 How to Make Vegan Avgolemono
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!
🗒 Tips and Tricks
- Vegetables: For the best flavor, cook onions, carrots, and celery on low heat just until soft, not browned.
- Rice: Use a short-grain variety for the creamiest texture in your avgolemono.
- Blending: Let stock cool slightly before blending with tahini and miso to prevent separation.
🗒 Substitutions
- Rice: Brown rice can replace white for added nutrition (allow extra cooking time).
- Herbs: Fresh parsley works well if dill isn’t available.
- Protein: Add chickpeas or white beans for a heartier vegan avgolemono soup.
- Miso: If unavailable, use additional nutritional yeast and a touch more salt.
🗒 Best served with
- Twist Bread (with Pesto & Parmesan)
- Cauliflower Pizza Crust with Arugula Salad Topper
- Easy & Authentic Greek Salad Recipe
👝 How to Store Leftovers
Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
🤔 Common Questions
Traditional avgolemono gets its creaminess from an egg-lemon mixture. This vegan version uses tahini and miso to create the same silky texture and rich flavor while maintaining the signature tangy lemon profile.
While orzo is sometimes used in avgolemono, rice creates a creamier texture as it releases starch during cooking. This helps achieve that authentic velvety consistency in the vegan version.
Yes! The flavors actually improve after a day in the refrigerator. The rice may absorb more liquid, so you might need to add a splash of broth when reheating.
Yes, this vegan avgolemono is naturally gluten-free as long as you use gluten-free vegetable stock and tamari instead of soy sauce.
The key is to let your hot stock cool slightly before blending with the tahini and lemon. Then add the mixture back to the soup off the heat, stirring constantly.
Vegan 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!
so amazing, tastes just like the real thing i ate growing up
so easy and quick to make, i could have bowl after bowl!!
Will definitely be making this again
This makes me so happy, Jacqueline! Thanks so much for the love!
Loved the soup! The recipe is easy to follow – Its hearty, creamy and wonderful.
Thank you so much hun!
My husband is Greek and we both love his mom’s traditional avgolemono soup, but as we have both decided to eat more plant-based at home, we were thrilled to give this recipe a try! I can honestly say that it is now one of our favorite soups, and one that we keep regularly in rotation in our home. We love it!!
YESS!! Maria, this makes me so happy. Thank you so much for your love, I am grateful you both love this recipe as much as we doo!!!!
This soup is amazing!!! It’s so warming and flavorful!! Will definitely be making this often.
Thank you so much for the love Aleen! It’s a favourite here!
Hey!
This looks awesome… well, all does ;·)
Thanks for sharing all these nice recipes.
I got a quick question for you: the rice is brown. You just add it? There’s no need to soak it the night before?
I’m also greek and love food, vegan is been treating me too good these 4 years, so keep it up and give us moreeeee!!!
Happy 2020!
Kat
Hey Kat! I just added it, yes but you can absolutely soak after rinsing!
Great! Thanks ;·) I will try it today
Loved this so much! Would use less rice but amazing.
Thank you so much for the love!
This recipe was easy to make, inexpensive, and satisfyingly rich. We substituted regular brown rice, some of the carrots for parsnips, used lemon juice out of a bottle, and didn’t use any nootch. We also used a paste to make the broth and for convenience made the broth for the avgolemono separately. The recipe turned out great and kept well in the fridge. Time will tell if the portion we froze holds up, but I have no doubts that it will. I’ll definitely make this again!
Thanks so much for the love, Jonah! Also, these are great tips!
This soup was so very delicious! It was so easy to make and everyone loved it! Can’t wait to make it again
Thank you so much for the love Lauren!
This soup was amazing! I loved the Avgolemono. Such a warming and delicious meal. I found the instructions about when to add the rice a bit unclear and ended up added the uncooked rice to the veggie mixture before blending it and had to fish it out (whoops!) – make sure you don’t do that haha. It also freezes well! Thanks so much for the recipe Maria!
You’re so welcome Yas, thanks so much for the love!
This soup is amazing! So far it’s become a weekly staple at my house this winter. Comes together quick and it soooo delicious.
YESS!!! Thanks so much for the love Laure!
My daughter was sick one day and I asked her what she wanted to eat and she said Lemon Rice Soup. She’s vegan, but I have never made it without chicken. I hesitated in making this because my daughter is a great cook and picky about flavors. After making this, I brought it to her and after tasting it she only said one thing, “Save the recipe”. Says a LOT!!!
YESSSS!! Wow, Michelle, this makes me so happy! Thanks so much for the love and I hope your daughter is feeling better!