Giouvarlakia Avgolemono

One of our traditional soups is the Avgolemono (egg-lemon) soup, which is usually boiled rice in chicken broth and finished in an egg-lemon sauce.

Giouvarlakia is a deviation of this traditional soup and instead of boiling rice in chicken broth we make meatballs with ground veal and rice which we dredge in flour and cook in water or chicken broth.  We then make “avgolemono” which is an egg-lemon sauce and turn it into a delicious creamy soup. Some people consider Giouvarlakia a “meatball soup” and the broth is not thickened; others consider it meatballs with Avgolemono sauce, and cornstarch is added, depending on how thick they want it to be. I always make it as a soup and during cold winter days it is a wonderful comfort dish, light and tasty and will warm you up in no time.

This is my entry for 2008 Comfort Food Cook-Off Event, hosted by Eve of Garden of Eating.

Giouvarlakia Soup with Avgolemono

Serves:  5 - 6

Ingredients

• 500 grams of ground beef
• 1/3 cup short grained rice such as Carolina or arborio
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
• 1 tablespoon dried mint
• 1 onion grated
• 4 cups of water
• 1/4 cup of olive oil (2 tablespoons used in the ground meat) or substitute water and oil with 4 cups of chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 2 slices white bread, without the crust, soaked in milk
• 1 egg
• Flour for dredging

For the Avgolemono sauce:

• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup of lemon juice
• 1 cup of broth

Directions:

1. Place ground meat in a large bowl and add the onion, rice, parsley, egg, the 2 spoonfuls of olive oil, mint, salt and pepper.
2. Soak bread in milk and then squeeze it to remove excess liquid and mix well with other mixture and shape into small walnut sized balls.
3. Boil water and add the meat balls and if any froth is formed, remove with a slotted ladle. When done, add the remaining oil, (if using chicken broth do not use the oil) lower heat and simmer for half an hour. Remove from heat and prepare sauce.
4. Beat the eggs with a fork or mixer and add lemon juice. Take broth with a ladle and while still beating eggs, start pouring broth, a little at a time, (about a cup). Then pour all mixture back in the pan and stir well with ladle.
5. If you want meatballs in a thick egg-lemon sauce just reduce the amount of water and when beating eggs with lemon, add a tablespoon of cornstarch as well.
6. Serve hot with freshly ground black pepper on top.

Tags: beef, Greek, Ground meat, Meatballs, Rice, Sauces, Soups