Greek Spinach Soup with Orzo

This recipe is a variation on traditional avgolemono, or Greek egg lemon soup. It's fairly simple, the only tricky part is to temper the eggs so they don't curdle when added to the broth. Chicken may be cut up and added in directly to the soup, or sauteed and added in separately.

Prep. Time: 10 mins.
Cooking Time: 35 mins.
Serves: 3-4


Ingredients:

Soup
1 Onion Chopped
2 Garlic Cloves Minced
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
16 oz. Baby Spinach
1 Tbsp fresh Dill minced
1/4 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Black Pepper
4 cups Chicken or Vegetable Stock
2 Eggs
1/4-1/3 cup Lemon Juice
1 cup Orzo
1 Bunch Italian Parsley Chopped

Chicken
2 Large Chicken Breasts
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
1/4 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Black Pepper
1 Lemon


Directions:

Soup
In a large pot, saute the onions and garlic for 5-10 mins. in the olive oil on med. heat until the onions become translucent.

Add the baby spinach and cook until the spinach releases its water and is wilted.

Add the stock, parsley, dill, salt and pepper and bring to a boil.

Reduce heat and simmer for 5-10 mins.

While the soup is simmering, whisk the eggs and lemon juice in a separate bowl.

Remove approximately 1 cup of the hot broth from the soup and gradually whisk it into the egg-lemon mixture.

Remove heat from the soup.

While rapidly stirring the soup, slowly pour in the egg-lemon mixture.

Gradually reheat the soup while stirring, making sure that it doesn't boil, and cook for 5 mins. further.

Soup may be served hot over the cooked orzo.

Chicken
Cut the raw chicken into bite size pieces.

Saute the chicken in the oil, slat, pepper and juice from one lemon.

Cooked chicken pieces can be added in to soup servings individually. If making "non-vegetarian" soup, the chicken pieces can be added in directly with the broth.