Greek Lemon Rice Soup (Vegan Avgolemono)

Two bowls of vegan avgolemono on a light background, with dill garnish.

Greek Lemon Rice Soup (Vegan Avgolemono)

5 from 2 votes

Course: Soup, Main Course

Cuisine: Greek

Prep Time: 15

Cook Time: 40

Total Time: 55

Servings: 4 big bowls

Calories: 381kcal

Author: Kelly

Cost: $1.37 per bowl

Vegan avgolemono, or Greek lemon rice soup, is a truly comforting concoction—no chicken or eggs required. Creamy, tangy avgolemono hits the spot on a cold day.

Print Recipe

US Imperial (Cups) - Metric (Grams)

Equipment

Stock pot or Dutch oven
Blender (*optional; see Note 1)

Ingredients

Soup Broth

2 tbsp olive oil
1 white or yellow onion, diced
1 stalk celery, finely diced
1 carrot, finely diced
½ head garlic, minced
5 to 6 cups water
2 tbsp Better than Bouillon No Chicken Base (*can sub with vegan seasoning of your choice)
½ cup uncooked rice or orzo
1 14-oz can green jackfruit (aka young jackfruit)
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice (around half a lemon)
fresh dill and parsley (to taste *optional)

"Egg" Mixture

1 cup water
⅓ cup cashews (see Note 1)
¼ tsp ground white pepper (*can sub with ground black pepper)

Instructions

In a stockpot or Dutch oven, sauté onions, celery, and carrots in olive oil on medium heat until softened. Add garlic and sauté just a few minutes more, not too long to avoid burning it.
Pour in the water and rice/orzo (no need to rinse it, we want the starch for this recipe). Stir in the Better than Bouillon paste.
Cover the pot and bring to a simmer, then turn heat down to medium-low to let it simmer for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, blend together the “egg” mixture ingredients until smooth (see Note 1). Drain and shred the canned jackfruit.
Once the 20 minutes is up, stir the “egg” and jackfruit into the soup, and simmer for an additional 5 minutes.
Squeeze in the lemon juice. Taste for seasoning; add more salt as needed.
Top with dill and parsley, if desired. Serve hot.

Notes

If you don’t have a blender or whole cashews on hand, you can sub out the whole cashews with natural almond or cashew butter. I’ve even used cashew milk instead, although it doesn’t get quite as creamy as using whole cashews.
If you'd like, you can stir in some greens towards the end of cooking, such as spinach, kale, green cabbage. This recipe is a great one for using up leftover bits of veggies.

Nutrition