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!
Hey Jasmine! I haven’t tested it without the tahini so I am not sure but you might be able to use something like neutral nut butter? I am thinking cashew?
I finally got around to making this, & it was quick, easy & comforting. My best friend’s Mom used to make this soup regularly, & your recipe brought back some lovely memories. Thanks for sharing this deliciousness!
You’re so welcome, Karen!!
This soup is seriously so good. It’s one of the best things I’ve eaten in my life.
The flavours are so unique and it’s both fun and comforting. The leftovers are not really soup, but more of a risotto, as the rice continues to absorb the liquid in the fridge, but I actually love it like this.
Do yourself a favour and make this if you want something flavourful, creamy, hearty and fun 💜
I have this recipe to thank for my new love of Dill.
Thanks so much for the recipe Maria!
This makes me soooo happy, thank you so much, Kiani!!!
Wow! This came out delicious. I’m not a vegan but wanted a gluten free soup. I added quinoa and shredded chicken. Also, added 2 cups of chicken stock to the sauce mixture so it’s not too thick and used both parsley and dill. I will definitely make this again. Thank you! 🙂
yay, so glad you loved this!
To preface, I want to start by saying this recipe is everything my childhood was AND more. I either found avgolemono too watery, or too thick and lacking in flavour. It’s safe to say that Maria absolutely nailed this one out of the park! I remember the first time I made this, as I watched the tahini and miso paste blend together (along with tons of lemon, of course), to beautifully thicken the avgolemono and add so much depth to the flavour profile! My Greek family (a few are plant based other than myself, most are not), could not stop raving about it. Thank you for this truly authentic recipe, Maria! It’s such a winner!!
Thank you so much sweetie for the love!
Loved this soup! Very flavorful, added lots of fresh dill, and leftovers held up well too!
Thank you hun! So glad you loved this!
This recipe brought back so many memories for me because I used to cook the same recipe with my grandma growing up! This recipe is a vegan spin on a Greek classic and it is so delicious!
Awe, Elena, this makes me so happy!
Can’t wait to try this! I plan to use Better Than Bouillon low-salt vegetable paste mixed with water, because I don’t have vegetable stock cubes. Would you mind telling me how much salt is in one of your cubes? Some cubes have no salt at all, others have a small amount. I’m just trying to determine how much bouillon paste to add to the water. With the soy sauce and miso (which I LOVE), I don’t want to over-salt with too much bouillon paste. Thanks you for your help and the recipe 🙂
You can use the better than bouillon, just don’t add salt to the recipe till the end and then test for salt! I would do as much stalk as you need to create a delicious broth. YOU WILL LOVE THIS RECIPE!
I have been craving Greek food…since we can’t travel (even to Calgary!) then the next best thing is to make it myself! I’ve made this twice now for my Vegan Family and we LOVE it. ps thanks for the option of increasing the yield, we love leftovers! Such great flavour!!!
You’re so welcome!!! So glad you enjoyed this!!
Made this soup for my vegan fam! Love love love ❤!!
Thank you so much for the love, Megan!