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Greek Meatballs in Egg-Lemon Sauce Recipe | Youvarlakia Avgolemono

Kenton & Jane
A delicious lemon flavored soup with meatballs
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Prep Time 25 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes
Cuisine Greek
Servings 4 -5

Ingredients
  

  • 1 lb. ground beef
  • 1/3 cup uncooked orzo or rice
  • 1 finely chopped onion
  • 1-2 chopped garlic cloves
  • 2 tbsp. finely chopped fresh parsley
  • Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
  • 1 large egg
  • 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
  • 5-8 cups chicken broth*
  • for the Avgolemono Sauce:
  • 3 large eggs at room temperature
  • 2 lemons squeezed more to taste

Instructions
 

  • In a large bowl, combine: beef, rice, onion, garlic, parsley, Sea salt, pepper and egg.
  • Mix all Ingredients well (use your hands!).
  • Now, take a bowl and add your flour to it. This will coat the meatballs.
  • Roll the meat mixture into small balls and then roll it around in the flour (shaking off any excess flour).
  • Place the meatball in the pot and repeat until meat mixture is finished.
  • Fill the pot with chicken broth so the broth goes about an inch above the meatballs.
  • Bring to a boil.
  • Cover and simmer for 30 - 45 min or until meat is cooked.
  • Once meat is cooked, remove meatballs and set aside.

Prepare Avgo/ Egg-Lemon Sauce:

  • Crack eggs into a bowl and beat until frothy (a few minutes).
  • One frothy, stop and add in lemon juice.
  • Take 1 1/2 cups of hot broth and slowly pour into lemon-egg mixture, continually stirring.**
  • Pour lemon-egg mixture into pot with rest of broth and mix well-should be creamy (see picture above).
  • Add meatballs back in and bring to simmer and remove from heat.
  • Place some meatballs in a bowl and ladle some of the Avgolemono sauce from the pot over them.
  • Serve your delicious Greek meatball soup.

Notes

*You'll want enough chicken broth to cover the meatballs
**This is important. Don’t forget this part or the eggs will curdle when you add back in!
- You can also experiment with herbs here as they subtly shine through the sauce when you least expect it. Adding in parsley is wonderful, but substituting that for dill or oregano is also fabulous in this recipe.
- If you want to make this a touch healthier, opt for ground turkey instead of beef (don’t skimp on the herbs in this case as they will add flavor to the turkey).