A traditional Greek soup that is creamy and comforting. My mum would make it for me whenever I had a cold or was feeling under the weather. It can be made without chicken if you’re going vegetarian, but the chicken brother and flavour makes it. You can add a whole carrot, a celery stalk and a peeled onion to the broth and discard before serving to add more flavour, but you don’t have to. Feel free to add in a handful of basmati rice, or leave it out to go carb free. It’s high in protein and low in carbs if you omit the rice. The small quantity of rice still makes it a lower carb, high protein option, though. 

SERVES 4
NUTRITIONAL INFO PER SERVE (WITH RICE)
carbs 8g / fat 4g / protein 22g

INGREDIENTS
1 chicken breast, or 2 chicken thighs
1 lemon
2 eggs
1 litre of chicken stock, or 1 chicken stock cube dissolved in boiled water
2 litres of boiled water
A good pinch of salt and black pepper
1 bay leaf (optional)
½ cup of basmati rice (optional)
1 peeled carrot
1 celery stalk
1 peeled onion

BOIL, SHRED, CRACK, WHISK, ADD, STIR…
Add the whole pieces of chicken to the stock and water in the pot, with the salt, pepper, carrot, celery, onion and bay leaf. Bring it to the boil and let it simmer for 15 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through. The chicken should be white (not pink) inside. Pull the chicken out and let it cool, then shred it into smaller pieces using a fork, discarding of any fat or bones. Skim off any scum from the broth and remove the bay leaf, onion, celery and carrot so you are left just with the clear stock. Add the rice (if using) to the broth and let it simmer for another 10 minutes until the rice is cooked.

In a medium bowl, crack the eggs and squeeze in the lemon juice, making sure to remove any pips. Whisk it up well. Continue to whisk vigorously and slowly pour in a ladle or two of the hot soup broth into the egg and lemon mixture. Move your whisk over to the pot, and slowly pour in all the egg mixture while you are whisking. The colour of the soup will turn a creamy white colour and will thicken up slightly. Whisking the hot soup into the egg mixture and then pouring this back into the soup ensures you don’t end up with scrambled eggs!

Add in the chicken, stir, taste for salt, pepper and lemon, and add more if you think it needs it before serving. Serve with a wedge of lemon on the side, and extra salt and pepper. If you need to heat the soup up again, be sure to not bring it to the boil as it can curdle with the egg. Slowly heat it up and turn it off before it boils. Never microwave the soup to heat up as it will heat the eggs too much.