Course
21 Greek Soups
From avgolemono thickened with egg and lemon to the bean soup that counts as the unofficial national dish, Greek soups are frugal, filling and built on pantry staples.
Greek soups are frugal, filling and built from the cupboard. Two things do most of the work. One is pulses: fasolada, the white bean soup that counts as the national dish, and the lentil soup finished with vinegar at the table. The other is avgolemono, egg and lemon whisked into hot broth.
Learn the avgolemono and several soups open up at once: chicken and rice, the meatball soup, the celery soup. The one skill is tempering the eggs so they do not curdle.
Some soups belong to a day or a season. The offal and herb soup breaks the Lenten fast at midnight on Easter Saturday. Trahanas is the winter soup of the mountains.
Every recipe on Kalliopi's Kitchen carries the dish's Greek name and a pronunciation, its region where that is meaningful, ingredient quantities in both metric and imperial, and an honest note on what commonly goes wrong. Nutrition figures are calculated estimates and are labelled as such.
1. Avgolemono Soup
Kotosoupa avgolemono · Κοτόσουπα αυγολέμονο · ahv-gho-LEH-mo-no
Avgo is egg and lemoni is lemon. Whisked together and loosened with hot broth, they thicken a soup with no flour and no cream. It is what a Greek kitchen makes when somebody has flu. The broth goes into the eggs one ladle at a time, away from the heat, or they scramble.
Yiayia’s tip: Room temperature eggs. Cold eggs hitting hot broth is a bigger temperature shock and a bigger curdling risk. Take them out of the fridge half an hour ahead.
Make Avgolemono Soup2. Fasolada
Φασολάδα · fah-so-LAH-thah
Routinely called the national dish, and the claim holds up: for centuries, all over the country, this was what people ate several times a week. It is filling, costs little and is allowed in every fast. No stock goes in, only water. Too little olive oil or too little time, and it stays bean water.
Yiayia’s tip: Boil hard for five minutes first. The initial hard boil and change of water removes compounds that cause digestive discomfort and gives a cleaner-tasting soup.
Make Fasolada3. Lentil Soup with Vinegar
Fakes · Φακές · fah-KES
Two soups fed Greece. Fasolada is one and this is the other, the quicker of them, since lentils go in unsoaked and are soft within the hour. There is little else: onion, garlic, bay, some tomato and a lot of olive oil. The vinegar goes into each bowl at the table, never the pot.
Yiayia’s tip: Salt only when tender. Salt added early toughens lentil skins and can add twenty minutes to the cooking time for no benefit.
Make Lentil Soup with Vinegar4. Easter Offal and Herb Soup
Magiritsa · Μαγειρίτσα · mah-yee-REE-tsah
Made to break seven weeks of Lent, and eaten on Holy Saturday just after midnight, straight from church. The offal comes from the same lamb that gives its leg and shoulder to Easter Sunday. Spring onion, dill and lettuce are half the dish. Liver and heart alone, without the intestines, is a legitimate version.
Yiayia’s tip: Ask your butcher for prepared offal around Easter. Many Greek and Cypriot butchers stock cleaned lamb offal specifically for magiritsa at exactly this time of year, saving significant preparation work.
Make Easter Offal and Herb Soup5. Trahanas Soup
Soupa trahana · Σούπα τραχανά · SOO-pah trah-hah-NAH
The work is done months earlier. In late summer, once a year, cracked wheat is mixed with milk or yogurt, left to ferment a little, sun-dried and crumbled into granules that keep for months. Simmered in water or stock they make a thick, tangy soup within twenty minutes. Eat it hot, before it turns stodgy.
Yiayia’s tip: Add the trahanas gradually. Tipping it all in at once causes clumping. A slow, steady addition while stirring keeps it smooth.
Make Trahanas Soup6. Meatball Soup in Avgolemono
Giouvarlakia · Γιουβαρλάκια · yoo-var-LAH-kyah
Meatballs and soup in one pot. The mince is bound with raw rice and poached in broth as small balls, so the rice cooks inside them. Egg and lemon go in at the end, and avgolemono will not wait or reheat, so everybody sits down first. Winter food across the mainland, tied to no region.
Yiayia’s tip: Keep the poaching liquid at a bare simmer. A vigorous boil knocks the meatballs apart. Low and gentle throughout is what keeps them intact.
Make Meatball Soup in Avgolemono7. Chicken and Rice Soup
Kotosoupa avgolemono · Κοτόσουπα αυγολέμονο · koh-TOH-soo-pah av-goh-LEH-moh-noh
What a Greek household makes when somebody is unwell, and on ordinary weeknights too. A whole chicken becomes the broth, the rice cooks in it, and beaten egg and lemon thicken the pot with no cream or flour. It needs patience more than skill. It does not reheat well, so serve it straight away.
Yiayia’s tip: Do not rush the broth. A genuine ninety minutes to two hours is what builds a properly rich base. A short simmer leaves the whole soup tasting thin.
Make Chicken and Rice Soup8. Fish Soup
Psarosoupa · Ψαρόσουπα · psah-ROH-soo-pah
Two courses out of one pot. The fish and vegetables come out first and are eaten on their own, with olive oil and lemon. The broth is then strained, finished with avgolemono and served afterwards as a soup. Much of Greece eats it this way, and the fish does not overcook in a bowl.
Yiayia’s tip: Use a whole fish if you can. The bones and head contribute real depth to the broth that fillets alone cannot replicate.
Make Fish Soup9. Cold Yogurt and Cucumber Soup
Tarator · Ταράτορ · tah-rah-TOR
Tzatziki turned into a soup. Thick yogurt is thinned with cold water, then cucumber, dill, garlic and crushed walnuts go in, and nothing is cooked. It belongs to Greek Thrace and the wider Balkans, for the hottest days of summer. The walnuts are what stop it tasting like watered-down yogurt.
Yiayia’s tip: Start with cold yogurt. A soup that begins warm never quite recovers the same refreshing chill, even after time in the fridge.
Make Cold Yogurt and Cucumber Soup10. Orzo Soup
Soupa kritharaki · Σούπα κριθαράκι · SOO-pah kree-thah-RAH-kee
Ordinary weeknight food: orzo cooked in a thin broth of tomato and vegetables, without the meat or long bake of giouvetsi, its richer relative. Made without meat or stock, it is vegan. The pasta goes in only after the vegetable base has simmered. Stir it now and then, or it sticks.
Yiayia’s tip: Watch the orzo closely. It cooks through fast and keeps absorbing liquid even once tender. Check from eight minutes rather than trusting a fixed time.
Make Orzo Soup11. Red Lentil Soup
Soupa fakes kokkines · Σούπα φακές κόκκινες · SOO-pah fah-KES koh-KEE-nes
Red lentils behave nothing like the brown ones in classic fakes. They fall apart as they cook and thicken the pot on their own, with no blender, in half the time. The spice is cumin, where the classic leans on bay leaf and tomato. Without lemon at the end it is heavy and earthy.
Yiayia’s tip: Stir more often as it thickens. Once the lentils break down, the soup can catch on the base of the pot. Stir more frequently towards the end.
Make Red Lentil Soup12. Tripe Soup
Patsas · Πατσάς · pah-TSAHS
The soup of the small hours. It is ordered late, after a long night out, at the few tavernas still open. Tripe simmers for hours until tender and the broth turns rich and gelatinous. It is finished with avgolemono stirred through, or with ladoxido, a sharp sauce of garlic and vinegar, spooned over each bowl.
Yiayia’s tip: Do not skip the initial blanch. It removes much of tripe's strong initial smell before the long, main simmer, giving a considerably cleaner finished broth.
Make Tripe Soup13. Corfu Vegetable and Pasta Soup
Bourou bourou · Μπουρού μπουρού · boo-ROO boo-ROO
The name is the noise of the pot when everything goes in together. Corfu's household soup takes whatever the garden has in surplus, onion, carrot, potato, courgette and tomato, and cooks it down in a lot of olive oil. Small pasta is added late, and its starch thickens the soup into a meal.
Yiayia’s tip: Grate the tomatoes, do not chop them. Halving a ripe tomato and grating it against the coarse holes leaves the skin in your hand and puts the pulp in the pot. It dissolves into the soup instead of sitting in it as lumps.
Make Corfu Vegetable and Pasta Soup14. Cypriot Trahanas Soup
Trahanas · Τραχανάς · trah-hah-NAHS
Cyprus eats this through the winter, feeds it to the sick and says it fixes a cold. The base is dried trahana, cracked wheat fermented with soured milk. The Cypriot bowl is thicker and more sour than the mountain version from Epirus, and halloumi is never left out: cubes that soften but keep their shape.
Yiayia’s tip: Keep the soaking water. Much of the sourness that defines trahanas has come out into it. Tipping it down the sink gives you a blander soup for no benefit.
Make Cypriot Trahanas Soup15. Fisherman's Soup
Kakavia · Κακαβιά · kah-kah-vee-AH
Named after the pot it was cooked in, at sea. Fishermen put in the fish that went unsold or were too small for market, with onion, tomato, potato and the oil on board. Several food historians count it an ancestor of bouillabaisse. It takes a lot of olive oil and is never thin.
Yiayia’s tip: Use a genuine mix of seafood. Several different kinds of fish and shellfish give a richer, more complex broth than any single variety used alone.
Make Fisherman's Soup16. Plain Chickpea Soup
Revithosoupa · Ρεβιθόσουπα · reh-vee-THOH-soo-pah
Sifnos bakes its chickpeas for most of a day until they are almost dry. This is the quicker, wetter, everyday version: dried chickpeas simmered on the hob with bay, onion and olive oil, and left as a proper soup. Lemon and good oil go on at the table, so they stay bright.
Yiayia’s tip: Salt only once the chickpeas are tender. Salting the water too early toughens the skins of any dried pulse and can stop them softening properly.
Make Plain Chickpea Soup17. Celery Soup with Egg and Lemon
Soupa selino avgolemono · Σούπα σέλινο αυγολέμονο · SOO-pah SEH-lee-noh av-goh-LEH-moh-noh
A winter soup, made when celery is at its best. It simmers low and slow with pork or chicken until the meat is tender, then egg and lemon finish it. A leek in the pot helps, because celery on its own can taste one-note. Do not boil it again once the egg is in.
Yiayia’s tip: Use a genuinely large quantity of celery. It is meant to be the star of this soup, not a background aromatic, so do not be shy with the amount.
Make Celery Soup with Egg and Lemon18. Cypriot Dried Pea Soup
Louvana · Λουβάνα · loo-VAH-nah
A Lenten soup from Cyprus: dried yellow split peas, onion and olive oil, no meat, no dairy, and filling all the same. It starts from the same pea as Santorini's fava and ends elsewhere. Fava is a smooth puree under capers and raw onion. This stays loose and soupy, mashed only lightly.
Yiayia’s tip: Give the peas the full cooking time. They need to break down properly to thicken the soup naturally. Undercooked peas leave a thin, watery soup rather than a properly hearty one.
Make Cypriot Dried Pea Soup19. Roasted Eggplant Soup
Melitzanosoupa · Μελιτζανόσουπα · meh-leed-zah-NOH-soo-pah
Greek cooks turn aubergine into dips, salads, fried sides and stuffed mains. Here it becomes a smooth, warming soup. It is roasted first, then blended with onion and a little rice, which gives body without any cream or dairy. Olive oil goes over the top at the end.
Yiayia’s tip: Char the aubergine skin properly. This is what gives the soup its real smoky depth. A lightly roasted aubergine without proper charring gives a flatter, less interesting result.
Make Roasted Eggplant Soup20. Boiled Goat Soup
Gida vrasti · Γίδα βραστή · YEE-tha vrah-STEE
This northern mountain soup exists for a practical reason: a goat too old to milk roasts badly and boils very well. It gets three hours with little but onions, carrots, celery and potatoes. The clear broth goes into bowls with a lot of lemon, and the meat is served apart, which makes two courses.
Yiayia’s tip: Start in cold water, twice. Cold water draws the flavour out of the bones gradually. Starting in hot water seals the surface and gives a weaker broth, which defeats the point of a three hour simmer.
Make Boiled Goat Soup21. Chickpeas with Spinach
Revithia me spanaki · Ρεβίθια με σπανάκι · reh-VEE-thya meh spah-NAH-kee
Chickpeas and greens are one of the oldest pairings in Greek cooking. This fasting dish is filling and cheap, and nobody treats it as penance. The work is all in the chickpeas: soaked overnight, then cooked for over an hour until creamy right through. The spinach, dill and lemon come in the last ten minutes.
Yiayia’s tip: Salt only once the chickpeas are soft. Salt added at the start slows the softening and can leave the skins tough. Season in the last twenty minutes, once they are already creamy.
Make Chickpeas with Spinach
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