 | |
| Type | Sauce and soup |
|---|---|
| Main ingredients | Eggs, lemon juice, broth |
Avgolemono (Greek: αυγολέμονο or αβγολέμονο[1] literally egg–lemon) is a family of sauces and soups made with egg yolk and lemon juice mixed with broth, heated until they thicken.
Avgolemono can be used to thicken soups and stews. Yuvarlakia is a Greek meatball soup made with rice and meat meatballs that are cooked in liquid. Avgolemono is added to the soup to thicken it.[2] Magiritsa soup is a Greek avgolemono soup of lamb offal served to break the fast of Great Lent.
As a soup, avgolemono usually starts with chicken broth, though meat (usually lamb), fish, or vegetable broths are also used. Typically, rice, orzo, pastina, or tapioca[3] are cooked in the broth before the mixture of eggs and lemon is added. Its consistency varies from near-stew to near-broth.[citation needed] It is often served with pieces of the meat and vegetables reserved from the broth.
The soup is usually made with whole eggs, but sometimes with just yolks.[citation needed] The whites may be beaten into a foam separately before mixing with the yolks and lemon juice, or whole eggs may be beaten with the lemon juice. The starch of the pasta or rice contributes to stabilizing the emulsion.
- ^ Babiniotis, Λεξικό της Νέας Ελληνικής Γλώσσας,
- ^ "Meatball soup (giouvarlakia)". SBS. 21 September 2012.
- ^ Claudia Roden, A Book of Middle Eastern Food, 1968, ISBN 978-0-394-71948-1, p. 111