A very traditional Greek Easter lamb recipe that is served Holy Saturday after church, around midnight, is magiritsa. This soup is traditionally made with the intestines of the lamb. I’ve substituted the intestines with regular lamb meat in this soup. The broth is an extremely delicious avgolemono (egg-lemon) with lots of extra virgin olive oil, dill, and romaine lettuce. This is the first meat dish that is eaten after the 40-day lent, with the spit-roasted lamb coming the next day. This soup reminds me of my grandparents’ house because they would often have a soup similar to this with pork instead of lamb, and with big pieces of artichokes. They made that soup throughout the year, and they made magiritsa for Easter. The taste brings me back to visiting them as a kid and them feeding me traditional Greek foods that I was so anxious to eat. I want to thank Koula for sending this recipe and bringing back so many good memories of my Yia Yia’s (Grandmother’s) cooking.
Here are some other lamb recipes to try!
Greek Lamb, Tomato, and Onion Kabobs (Island of Crete)
Lamb Stew With Spinach & Garbanzos
Greek Easter Lamb Soup with Egg Lemon Sauce
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 2 pounds lamb, bone in
- 10 green onions, chopped
- 5 cups water
- 2 bunches dill, chopped
- 1 head romaine lettuce, chopped very thin
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 3 lemon juice
- 3 eggs
Instructions
- Trim the lamb of most of the fat. Cut lamb into bite-sized pieces. If the bone is too thick to cut through, cut all the meat off, but save the bone.
- Add olive oil to a large pot on medium heat. Add lamb and bone(s) and saute for 10 minutes, stirring often.
- Add green onions and saute for another 3 minutes.
- Add 5 cups of water. Bring to a boil and then immediately lower to a simmer. Simmer covered for 30 minutes.
- Add lettuce, dill, salt, and pepper. Simmer for one hour.
- In a bowl, whisk together eggs and lemon juice.
- While whisking, ladle 2 ladlefuls of broth from the soup very slowly into the egg-lemon mixture. Make sure to keep whisking the whole time. You're trying to bring the temperature of the eggs up.
- Turn off the stove and remove the pot from the heat. Pour in the egg-lemon sauce and stir the soup immediately.
- It is important to not cover the soup, as the eggs may solidify.
Nutrition
About the Author: Koula Barydakis
Wonderful Greek Easter soup. Please don’t alter it as it defeats the purpose. It’s part of Greek culture to have this after midnight mass, crack the colored eggs and have also some of the homemade tsoureki. Tradition has it after eating and drinking everything gets left on the table as is. Absolutely no doing dishes or cleaning up. It’s done the next morning. So alter any other soup but this soup.
We will not alter! Thanks for the comment!
Wonderful recipe. I made a few modifications based on ingredients I had at home such as using parsley instead of dill, white cabbage and a handful of spinach instead of lettuce. The instructions for adding the eggs was spot on. Thank you!
I have made this soup and it is absolutely delicious – I think it’s my favourite soup! I might be making it for an after-church meal and I am wondering if you knew how many servings this recipe yields – I need to know if I should be doubling it. Thanks!
It should serve at least 10 people. Glad you liked it!