Creamy Lemon Meatball Soup: Healthy Greek Recipe

This traditional Greek meatball soup (Youvarlakia Avgolemono) features herby, tender meatballs in a smooth, lemony broth. The tangy egg-lemon sauce (avgolemono) creates a delicate creamy texture and refreshing citrus kick. Enjoy this bright and hearty soup any time of day for a healthy meal!

What is Youvarlakia Avgolemono?

Avgolemono is a signature Greek egg-lemon sauce that is used in a variety of Greek recipes. It is a creamy, lemony sauce that pairs with many different dishes, and is amazing when added in soups! 

Youvarlakia refers to a type of Avgolemono recipe that includes meatballs and is served as a thick, creamy soup. 

Why You Will Love This Recipe

I am always looking for new ways to enjoy ground beef, as it is an inexpensive meat that is also rich in nutrients. When I learned about Youvarlakia Avgolemono, I couldn’t wait to give it a try!

This recipe is:

Easy

This recipe is so simple to make. After making the meatballs, give them a quick brown and then throw them in the soup pot. Once they are fully cooked, add a tempered egg-lemon mixture, and allow it to thicken for a few minutes. Then, enjoy!

Healthy

The ingredients in this recipe are rich in nutrients like vitamins, minerals, and healthy fatty acids. The meatballs will provide lots of protein! This recipe is grain free if you follow the original version, making it low carb, and easy to digest!

Delicious

It seems like the Greeks include lemon juice in almost every recipe…once you try this soup you’ll see why they’re hooked on lemon! Lemon has such a delightfully tangy and versatile flavor that can be a great main flavor as well as a flavor enhancer. The egg in this recipe creates a velvety texture that rounds out the lemon and pairs perfectly with tender, herbaceous meatballs. 

Ingredients that Make This Soup Amazing

​Ground Meat: traditional Greek lemon meatball soup is usually made with a combination of ground beef and ground pork, and sometimes even lamb. I prefer to use just ground beef  or ground lamb in my meatball mixture, but feel free to use the meat combination you like best. You could even use ground turkey for a different variation!  I recommend buying high quality pasture raised meat whenever possible.

Eggs: whole eggs are used in this recipe, partially for meatball ingredients and partially for the Greek egg-lemon sauce. 

Fresh Herbs: fresh parsley and mint give these meatballs a bright flavor, and reduce gaminess of the meat. I have tried this recipe without parsley and it’s still delicious, but make sure to have at least of of the two herbs on hand. Ideally you want both!

Fresh Lemon Juice: fresh lemon juice is a key ingredient in avgolemono soup, giving it a citrusy, flavorful broth. 

Broth: in a pinch you can use water, but for a more flavorful soup use a broth such as beef bone broth, chicken broth, or even vegetable broth. 

Butter: many Greek meatball soup recipes call for olive oil, but I use butter instead because I don’t like to heat olive oil. 

Rice: a traditional Greek soup would include rice in the meatballs: I actually opt for a grain-free version and skip the rice! If you want to use rice in your soup, make sure to use a short grain white rice like Arborio. Long-grain rice and brown rice may not cook correctly in this Greek meatball soup recipe. 

​Black Pepper: freshly ground black pepper adds the perfect spice and elevates the flavors of this soup. 

How to Store This Soup

Unfortunately, this soup does not reheat well once the egg lemon sauce has been added. When reheating, the egg in the lemony egg sauce tends to break up and it is no longer creamy. 

If you will not be eating all of the soup in one sitting, I recommend reserving a portion of the soup that does not yet have the avgolemono sauce added, as well as a portion of the sauce separately. This way, you can add the egg mixture in a proper way when reheating and keep a creamy consistency. Try your best to calculate how much you will need accordingly, for example, if you are saving half of the soup, save half of the egg mixture as well. 

I don’t recommend freezing this soup, but you could make the meatballs ahead of time and freeze those if you want to keep some on hand.

How to Make Creamy Lemon Meatball Soup (Youvarlakia Avgolemono)

In a large bowl, combine ground meat, 2 eggs, fresh mint, fresh parsley, grated and strained onion, garlic powder, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper, and optional uncooked rice. 

Mix with your hands until well combined, then form into about 1 by 1 inch, small meatballs.

Preheat a skillet on medium high heat, then place meatballs on the skillet and cook for 2-3 minutes on each side, or until golden brown. Browning the meat will add a delicious flavor to this soup. 

In a large pot, bring broth or water, 1 teaspoon of salt, and butter to a boil.

 Add cooked meatballs, then reduce heat to medium heat to simmer while you prepare the egg-lemon sauce. 

In a medium bowl, separate 2 egg whites, reserving the egg yolks in a small bowl. 

Whisk egg whites until white and fluffy – but not so thick that it is forms peaks.

In the small bowl with the egg yolks, add the fresh lemon juice and mix well. 

Add the egg yolk and lemon mixture to the fluffy egg whites and combine well. You will end up with a creamy, pale yellow sauce. 

After the broth and meatball mixture has simmering for about 30 minutes, turn the burner off. 

While whisking constantly, add about 1/4 cup of the hot broth at a time to the egg-lemon mixture. This will temper the eggs so they will not separate, but will stay creamy.

Continue adding a small amount of broth at a time until you have added about 2 cups, then pour all of the egg mixture into the large soup pot while stirring constantly. 

Place a lid on top of the soup pot and let rest for about 15 minutes. This will allow the soup to thicken and become creamy. 

After 15 minutes, the soup should be thickened a bit and have a little foaminess on top. Give it a gentle stir, then it is ready to serve!

​Enjoy!