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!
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!