Giouvarlakia is an avgolemono meatball soup. It’s the ultimate in Greek comfort food. A favorite across the board. You may have noticed that we utilize creamy avgolemono in many of our traditional dishes. As both a sauce or a soup, it offers a beautiful lemony tang that we love.
And avgolemono is creamy without using any cream. It’s a combination of eggs, lemon juice, and the broth you are cooking with. Adding a thickener like cornstarch is only used if you want a thicker consistency for your sauce or soup.
Ingredients:
Meatballs
1 lbs ground beef
1 small onion
1 garlic clove
Salt & pepper to taste
2 tbsp chopped parsley
1 tbsp chopped dill
1 tsp chopped mint
1/3 cup of rice
1/2 tsp dry Greek oregano
Drizzle of olive oil
Avgolemono
2 whole eggs (separated)
2 egg yolks
Juice of 4 lemons
1 tsp corn starch (optional)
Make your meatballs. I strain the onion from the excess juices because the meatballs will hold together much better. Mix all of the ingredients together and form small meatballs. I basically got 30 meatballs out of this mixture. Place them straight into a large pot.
Add cold water, filling up just an inch or two above the meatballs. Season the water with salt & pepper & a bay leaf.
Bring to a boil and then let simmer for 25 minutes.
Make the avgolemono:
Separate yolks & whites of two of the eggs & use the yolks of the other two . The extra egg yolks create a richer soup. Turn the egg whites into a meringue. Whisk the yolks, lemon & cornstarch together. Slowly add a little bit of the broth to temper the egg yolks. Then slowly add that into the meringue. Little by little, add that into the pot of meatballs while stirring the pot to fully combine and not scramble the eggs.
Then cook on low while stirring continuously, raising it to medium to thicken the soup.
I drizzled a little olive oil over my bowl of soup and a bit of fresh dill.
Enjoy! Kali Oreksi!
on xenia street 