A SOUP YOU WON’T FORGET 

Are you looking for a simple soup that whispers sophistication? You found it. 

How about just something damn good to eat? Yep. You found it. It’s Avgolemono – a silky Greek lemon and egg soup. 

Maybe lemon and egg soup doesn’t sound so appealing, but for a fact it is, and we’re gonna make it together so that we can both have some. Send me a bowl of yours as soon as it’s done. I can’t wait. 

This recipe was found in a little $1.00 touristy cookbook pamphlet sold at Louis Pappas’ Restaurant, in Tarpon Springs, Florida, back in the late 50’s. Louis Pappas was famous for his Greek Salad, and his restaurant was right on the edge of the sponge docks. So, after you ate your giant Pappas Greek Salad, you could go pay a few dollars, and a sponge diver would dive down to the bottom of the river and bring you up a sponge, that you could then take home and bathe in luxury with. We had quite a few of those sponges, and the memory of Louis Pappas is strong in my mind. 

GREEK SALADS AND SPONGE DIVERS 

Louis Pappas built that Greek Salad into something that he could retire on, and his family took over the restaurant and eventually sold it. Pappas Restaurants exist elsewhere now, but no longer in Tarpon Springs. That property is being developed into something else, and as of a few years ago the property was being listed for over $7 million. So, there you go. 

But, while I love a Greek Salad, Avgolemono is absolute manna from the gods, not to mix up religions and mythology too severely. So, that’s the recipe I chose. 

NO, I’M NOT BOILING A CHICKEN 

Louis Pappas’ recipe, tells me to boil a 3 lb. stewing chicken for 2 hours in 3 quarts of water. Well, that ain’t happening. I used three quarts of Swanson Chicken Broth, which America’s Test Kitchen says is their favorite, and I omitted the salt. Yes, as usual, I made some changes to suit my tastes. The avgolemono that I remember liking the best was thick and contained orzo. Many recipes call for rice. I like the orzo, but the starch in the rice thickens the soup better, so I decided on using half rice, and half orzo, and increased the amount just a tad. Problem solved. Upon finishing, I found that this recipe didn’t have quite enough lemony zing for me, so I added half more lemon juice than it called for. 3/4 of a cup was the Goldilocks amount of lemon juice. Enough to make you taste it, but not enough to make you pucker. It was just right. 

And while many recipes call for chicken to be added to the recipe, this one didn’t. It suggested giblets. Well, I’m not a giblets person, but to each his own. Those little bites of chicken, however, do add a satisfying texture and flavor boost to the soup. So I baked a chicken breast for half an hour, diced it up and added it to the soup at the end. Perfection in a bowl. 

THE MAKING OF THE MIRACLE 

To make this soup you, cook a chicken breast, dice it up. Get your chicken broth boiling, and add the rice and orzo. Stir a few times and let simmer for about 20 minutes or so. 

Meanwhile, beat the eggs with a little water until light. Add the lemon juice and beat a little more. When the 20 minute timer goes off, take the soup o! the heat, and slowly drizzle the four cups of hot soup into the egg mixture, whisking like a whirling dervish the entire time, to ensure the eggs don’t cook. After a couple of cups you can pour in with more abandon. 

Put all of this back in the pot, add the chicken, and stir to mix thoroughly. 

Do not boil this soup again after you have added the eggs. You can reheat it the next day, just not to the boil. Eggs don’t act kindly to people who do that. 

AND IN THE END… 

You are going to love this soup. It makes a wonderful first course, or a lunch. It’s light, it’s bright, and it takes you straight to the Greek Isles. 

But be sure to make enough for leftovers because you are definitely gonna be scrounging around the fridge for it the next day. 

Enjoy it, and let us know what you think. 

LOUIS PAPPAS’ LEMONY AVGOLEMONO SOUP

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• Author: Carson Hardee Farley

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Description

A silky, and elegant lemon, rice and orzo soup which makes a great beginner.

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Scale 1x2x3x

Ingredients

3 quart boxes of Swanson Chicken Broth 

1⁄2 cup rice


1⁄2 cup orzo


4 eggs 

1 tablespoon water


3/4 cup lemon juice


1 chicken breast, cooked and diced. 

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Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
• Place the chicken breast in a Pyrex dish, or other baking dish, cover 
with parchment, and bake for about 30 minutes, or until cooked 
through. 

• Remove from the oven, let cool, and dice. 

• While it’s cooking you can do the rest of this stuff. 

• Bring the chicken broth to a boil in a large pot, and add the rice and 
orzo. (You can use all rice if you like, or all orzo, but using at least 1⁄2 rice 
will help thicken the soup.) 

• Stir a few times to ensure the rice doesn’t stick to the bottom of the 
pot, and let boil for about 20 minutes. Remove from the heat, and let 
sit for a minute or two to cool slightly. 

• While that is happening, crack the eggs into a mixing bowl, and whisk 
them with the tablespoon of water until they are very light. Then add the lemon juice, whisking once again until it is a lovely light yellow mixture. 

• VERY SLOWLY, add four cups of the hot broth to the egg mixture, whisking the entire time. You don’t want to cook the eggs, so you “temper” them by adding the hot liquid gradually and going to town on it with the whisk. You want a silky texture to the soup, and you aren’t going to boil it again at this point. 

• Add the diced chicken to the soup, and serve in a bowl with a spoon. Nothing else is needed. Avgolemono makes a great beginning to any meal. 

• This soup is great the next day. Just be sure not to bring it to the boil as that causes issues with the consistency.

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THE FLAVOR IS GONNA KNOCK YOU OUT

Caldo Gallego, pronounced “Cald-o Gay-yay-go”, is a wonderfully rich and delicious Spanish soup made from collard greens, navy beans, chorizos, onions, green peppers, and potatoes, cooked in a broth concocted from a ham hock and water. OK, it doesn’t sound rich, and perhaps it doesn’t even sound delicious. But just look at the picture of it and you’ll realize there is a lot of potential in those few ingredients. This recipe was made by both my mother and father, with the same ingredients but different methods. My mother would soak dried beans overnight, and never settle for anything but a ham bone – and always used salt pork. She claimed anything else was just sub-par and turned her nose up at it. My father would use navy beans from a can, a ham hock, and substitute bacon fat for the rendered salt pork, and would claim it tasted just as good and was ten times easier. And you didn’t have to eat a ham to get the bone. I tend to agree with my father on this one, and the recipe I use is, essentially, his version. 

Both of my parents were so proud of their soups that they would make them to take to the annual church bazaars – one in New York and one in Florida. Then one day, one of those community cookbooks was being put together in Florida, this one being all politicians, local leaders, and members of the press. My father, being the Capital Correspondent for the Tallahassee Democrat back then, was invited to supply his favorite recipe. 

Among recipes by the Governor, State Senators, US Senators, and the like, there is my dad’s soup recipe. What he didn’t seem to grasp was that the thing that was going to make the cookbook unique was that the recipes were going to be printed as submitted – on their personal, and very impressive, stationery. My dad submitted his recipe looking like the letters he would write to me as a child – with afterthoughts penned in with a felt tip pen, and things scratched out that he decided to rephrase. It’s classic Jim Hardee, and so is the recipe. 

CHOAS IN THE COOKBOOK

This soup takes time, but very little effort. You can rest and watch TV while you cook it, and when the family gets home they will think that you have been working all day on it. (Because you will tell them that). The first step is to slice the chorizos and place them, with the ham hock, into a large soup pot with three quarts of water. Get that simmering on medium, set a timer for half an hour, and do the rest of your prep. 

Dice the onion and the green pepper, and put them in a bowl together. Use your favorite vegetable peeler to get the skin off of the potatoes and cut them up into relatively equal sized pieces. My father liked 1 inch pieces – my mother said they had to be big enough to take up the whole spoon when you were eating it. I like the 1′′ variety, but don’t worry about it. Cut them how you like them. Set them in a bowl, as well. Fry the bacon in a frying pan so that you can render the fat you are going to sauté the onion and pepper in. I prefer to cook the bacon until it is fully done, because then I can snack on it, and sneak some to Bentley, the dog, who LOVES BACON!

TIME TO WATCH SOME TV

It will have been about a half hour at this point. So go ahead and add the cans of beans, which you have drained, and the collard greens, which you have not drained. Use your garlic press to crush the garlic clove and add it to the pot. Stir it all up and then bring the soup up to the boil and turn the pot as low as it will go while still simmering. Sauté the onion and green pepper until softened, or transparent, as the chefs like to say, and stir that into the pot. Set another timer for a half hour and go watch an episode of The Andy Griffith Show. 

When the timer goes off, get up off the couch, and go put the potatoes in the pot. Stir it up well and notice how delicious it all looks. Be proud of yourself. Set another timer for 30 minutes, and go watch an episode of The Office. As soon as the timer goes off, or The Office ends, check to see if the potatoes are soft enough. They should be. Take the pot off the heat and use a pair of tongs to get the ham hock out of the pot. Put it on a cutting board and let it cool for a few minutes. 

Then, using a fork and knife, cut out the good pieces of ham, and discard the fat and skin and other yucky stuff. There won’t be a lot of ham, but there will be enough. Add that to the soup, stir and taste it for seasoning. At this point I like to add salt, and some MSG, which gives the flavor some depth. If you don’t like MSG, don’t add it. Either way, the soup will have more umaminess after sitting in the refrigerator over night. 

It’s just so hard to not eat it right on the spot. It’s one of those soups served best with some sliced and toasted Italian bread. Do that.

THE SOUP OF MY DREAMS

CALDO GALLEGO – COLLARD GREEN SOUP

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• Author: Carson Farley
• Prep Time: 1 hour
• Cook Time: 2 hours
• Total Time: 3 hours
• Yield: 10

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Description

A Hearty Spanish soup that will change your opinion of Collard Greens.

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Ingredients

1 large ham hock
4 dried chorizos, sliced into rounds

3 quarts water
1 27 oz can Collard Greens
3 cans Navy Beans
1 large clove of garlic
4 slices bacon
1 Vidalia Onion
1 Green Pepper
3 Russet Potatoes, cut in 1“ cubes

Salt and pepper, to taste
1 teaspoon MSG (optional) 

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Instructions

• Put 3 quarts of water in large soup pot with the ham hock and sliced chorizos. Cook for 1⁄2 hour on medium. 
• While this is going on, dice the green pepper and onions, and peel the potatoes. 
• Cut the potatoes into 1 inch cubes, or whatever size you’d like. It’s not important that everything is uniform. 
• Cook the bacon in a pan to release the bacon fat to sauté the onion and green pepper in. When the bacon is fully cooked, remove it from the pan and enjoy it while you make the rest of the soup 
• When the 1⁄2 hour has passed, add the large can of collard greens, the drained three cans of navy beans and the crushed garlic. Turn the heat to low. Stir, and simmer on low for another 1⁄2 hour. 
• At this point, sauté the onion and green pepper in the bacon fat, until transparent, and then add to the simmering soup. 
• When your 1⁄2 hour timer goes off, add the potatoes to the soup, and cook for another 1/2 hour, or until the potatoes are done. 
• Take the pot off the heat and remove the ham hock. Use a knife and fork to get all of the ham out of the hock. Add the ham to the soup, and discard the rest. 
• Add salt and pepper to taste. I never add pepper, but do add about a teaspoon of salt, and a teaspoon of MSG. That enhances the flavor a lot. But the best flavor enhancement is to let it sit in the refrigerator over night. 

If you can stand to not eat a bowl right then and there, you will find that it has a much greater depth of flavor the next morning. 

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• Category: Soup
• Cuisine: Spanish

Keywords: Soup, Spanish, Collard Greens, Hearty