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 love anything lemon so as soon as this posted I knew I needed to make it! I honestly was not prepared for how delicious this was going to be! I’m always skeptical about anything with tahini because I’m not a fan, it has a very strong flavor but once everything was in the pot together, it was the perfect balance of citrus, creaminess and dill. I will be adding this to my favorite recipe list. Don’t miss out, make this recipe
Hey Alyssa, thanks so much for the love! I am so happy you love this recipe as much as I do.
I am seriously not a soup person at all – but the recent low temperatures in Calgary drove me to this recipe – and you are now looking at a total soup (*foodbymaria soup) convert! My boyfriend and I are also trying to be more plant based going forward and this has been our favourite recipe we have come across so far. We have made this recipe twice in the last two weeks.
The recipe is full of flavour and ages well (although I would echo the comment that the rice will soak up some of the liquid the longer it sits so if you want to freeze it likely best to cook the rice separately). HIGHLY HIGHLY RECOMMEND.
Keep up the amazing work Maria!
I love when non-soup lovers love my soups!!! Yes, Anna, this is amazing! Please let me know what you guys make next!
So delicious! My teenage daughter, who claims she doesn’t like soup, gobbled this up and took the left-overs to school for lunch the next day. Result!
YESSSSS!!!! This is the best review, thanks so much hun!
This recipe is awesome! There is a local Greek restaurant in lloydminster that serves lemon rice soup. I’ve tried to replicate it over and over and have never been able to quite do it. This recipe hit the nail on the head. My husband enjoyed it, and I’m sure if my kids weren’t picky assholes they prob would’ve liked it too 🤣. I can’t wait to try another food by Maria recipe!
BAHAHAHAHHA DYING AT THIS! Tell those picky ass holes they have no choice but to like it! Thanks for the love, Cassie!
Hi, I’m jusy curious to know if it would still be ok to make this without the nutritional yeast? It’s the one ingredient I don’t have and would really love to make this tomorrow.
Hey hun! It should be ok, it won’t be quite as earthy but you should be alright. With that said though, I didn’t test it without, so let me know how it goes so we can let our fellow recipe followers here know! Mucho love!
This soup is so flavorful and so easy to whip up. It will be on repeat for sure!!!
YES!!! Thanks, Kelsey! This means a lot to me!
This soup is out of this world!!! Just perfect! ❤️
Thank you so much Milica! This means so much to us!
This is an insanely delicious and easy to make soup. Easily my new winter go-to. Thanks Maria! Love what you do!
Hey Dory, thanks so much for the love! We love this recipe so so so so much!
This soup was so delicious and simple to make! Light, but also filling. Tangy, warm and savory. Planning on making your spanakopita next! Can’t wait 😋
OOO!! Yes, please let me know how it foes Kayla!!
So delicious and comforting 👌
Thank you so much Krys! Grateful you liked this as much as us!