The Ancient Cooking Trick That Makes the Creamiest, Coziest Soups (No Dairy Required)

As the calendar rolls into thick-and-cozy-soup season, there's one culinary technique I lean on: a centuries-old method of thickening soups that uses eggs, lemon, and gentle heat to turn brothy, everyday pots into velvety bowls of comfort. You might know its Greek iteration as avgolemono, have tasted its Turkish version, terbiye, or have heard of agristada in Sephardic cooking. Whatever you refer to it as, home cooks have used this mixture for centuries and across continents for a reason: It's an easy, effective way to turn a few humble ingredients—eggs, citrus, and a flavorful broth—into a bright, creamy, utterly lucious soup without a drop of dairy (though that's optional, as I'll explain below).

Below is my guide to understanding why this method works, how to do it confidently, and how to adapt it to whatever soup you're making, even if your fridge is nearly bare.

What Is Avgolemono (and Its Global Counterparts)?

If you've ever eaten Greek avgolemono chicken soup, you know its charm: tangy, silky broth thickened to the consistency of light cream, usually studded with tender rice or orzo. But avgolemono isn't the name of the dish. It's the name of the egg-and-lemon mixture used to thicken the soup. Greek cooks add this mixture not just to this chicken soup, but also to saucepans of meat, fish, vegetables, and brothy soups, where it thickens and brightens their accompanying liquid or sauce.

This egg-and-lemon thickening method is far from exclusive to Greece. Variations appear throughout the Mediterranean and Middle East:

Agristada: The Sephardic Jewish version—possibly one of the earliest recorded—traditionally used an acidic juice pressed from unripe grapes (verjuice) before lemons became widespread in Europe. When Sephardic Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, they brought agristada with them to their new communities throughout the Ottoman Empire—which included parts of modern-day Turkey, Greece, the Balkans, and the Levant—as well as North Africa and Southern Italy.

Terbiye (Turkey): This version often includes yogurt instead of, or alongside, eggs (though the yogurt can be omitted for a dairy-free version), and is essential in traditional soups like terbiyeli ekşili köfte çorbası (vegetable soup with small meatballs) and terbiyeli ekşili kereviz (celeriac soup).

Tarbiya (Arabic-speaking regions): Found in various chicken and vegetable soups, using a similar combination of egg, lemon, and sometimes starch like flour.

Chorba beida (Algeria): A "white" chicken soup enriched with an egg-and-lemon mixture for subtle creaminess.

Across these cuisines, the underlying principle of using eggs to create a simple, stable emulsion that thickens broth into something velvety and deeply comforting remains similar.

Why Eggs and Lemon Create a Velvety Soup

The core technique of thickening soup with eggs and lemon isn't about forcing an emulsion—eggs and lemon mix easily—but about dilution and temperature control: Mixing the eggs slowly with both the lemon and the hot broth ensures they warm gently and gradually, so they thicken the broth rather than scrambling. It's a process called tempering.

Tempering is all about gently managing how the eggs heat and set. When you whisk the eggs with liquids like lemon juice or broth (or any other liquid), you're not just adding flavor—you're diluting the egg proteins. That dilution creates more space between those proteins, making it harder for them to clump together into firm curds as they are heated with the gradual addition of hot broth. By the time the mixture is hot enough to cook, the proteins are dispersed widely enough that they form a loose, silky network rather than tight, scrambled bits. Once the warmed mixture goes back into the pot—kept hot but not boiling—the eggs thicken the broth into a smooth, velvety soup, rather than turning grainy or gritty.

As Serious Eats' editorial director Daniel Gritzer notes in his avgolemono recipe headnote, there's nothing mythic about this process, even if the results feel enchanted. It's just careful heat management and dilution.

It's also worth noting that there's no technical requirement to mix the eggs and lemon before combining them with the broth. Tempering alone is enough to keep the eggs from scrambling. Still, adding the lemon up front provides a small additional buffer—it starts diluting the egg proteins before any heat is introduced, offering a bit of extra insurance. You can also split the difference: Whisk the eggs with some of the lemon juice to get that early dilution, temper in the hot broth to warm and further dilute the mixture, then thicken the soup and adjust the final tartness with additional lemon at the end. Combining everything at the start is traditional and efficient, but once you understand the mechanics, you can dial in the flavor and method however you like.

Finding Your Ideal Egg–to–Lemon Balance

One of the most surprising things Daniel discovered when surveying avgolemono recipes is how wildly the ratios vary. For a single quart of broth, he found recipes ranged from calling for 2 to 3 eggs and 2 to 10 tablespoons of lemon juice. Yes, that's a fivefold difference in acidity between the mildest and punchiest versions. Some cooks separate and whip the whites (a technique he discourages—too foamy), others use whole eggs, and some use extra whites to keep the soup lighter. The takeaway is that there is no single "correct" ratio. There is only the version you prefer.

This variability is proof that the technique is endlessly adaptable. Once you understand the basic structure, you can thicken any brothy soup to your ideal consistency and brightness.

The Four Pillars of the Technique

Once you zoom out from specific recipes, every egg-lemon soup relies on four core components:

A flavored liquid: Chicken broth is classic, but so are meat stocks, vegetable broths, miso broths, bean-cooking liquid, and even bouillon dissolved in water.

Acid: Lemon juice is standard today, but vinegar or grape-based acids (like the historic verjuice) can work well. Not all acidic liquids should be substituted for each other in 1:1 ratios, so be careful if you change the acid—you may need a lot less than the lemon juice most often used.

Eggs: Whole eggs are easiest, though, as described above, you can play with using yolks only (for richer texture) or a yolk-plus-whites combination for a lighter one.

A starch source: Rice, orzo, potatoes, potato starch, or cornstarch provide thickening insurance—especially when making a thicker sauce rather than a soup. If using powdered starches, start small to avoid gumminess.

Most home cooks already have some version of these components on hand, which is why this technique is so approachable. It can transform whatever broth you have into something restorative, bright, and rich.

The Basic Ratios to Thicken Almost Any Soup

Here's a flexible, reliable starting point for thickening a 1-quart / 4-cup pot of soup:

• 2 to 3 large eggs (2 for a lighter result, 3 for thicker)
• 2 to 6 tablespoons lemon juice (start low, add more to taste)
• 1 to 1 1/2 cups cooked starch (rice, orzo, diced potato, or 1–2 tablespoons potato or corn starch stirred into a small amount of liquid first to form a slurry)
  

Adjust from there based on your desired tanginess and viscosity.

A Step-by-Step Guide to Using the Technique

1. Cook your starch in your broth. Rice, orzo, potatoes, chickpeas—whatever you're using—should be tender before you add the egg mixture.

2. Whisk eggs and a base amount lemon juice together. Add zest if you want more citrus-forward aromatics (I almost always do).

3. Temper the mixture. Slowly drizzle in 1–2 cups of hot broth while whisking vigorously. This gradually warms the eggs while diluting them.

4. Add the tempered mixture back to the pot. Stir constantly over low to medium-low heat. Do not let the soup boil.

5. Taste and finish with extra lemon (optional). This is the best way to ensure you hit your perfect, personal lemon level.

6. Serve immediately. These soups are best eaten hot and fresh. Reheating too aggressively can cause curdling; gentle warming is fine.

Beyond Chicken Soup

One of the biggest misconceptions about egg-and-lemon thickened soups is that you need chicken broth—or even a traditional recipe—to make them. In reality, once you understand the method, the possibilities are many. As mentioned above, your broth can be anything from miso whisked into water to brothy bean liquid, tomato water, strained vegetable stock, a bouillon cube dissolved in hot water, or even the poaching liquid from chicken, fish, or shrimp. Your starch can be rice, orzo, potatoes, leftover cooked grains, or a spoonful of cornstarch or potato starch. And your acid is just as flexible: lemon is classic, but lime, white wine vinegar, or even verjuice work beautifully. 

I learned this firsthand during a down-to-the-studs moment when my fridge was bare, and my energy was low. All I had was miso, a can of chickpeas, lemons, eggs, and a little potato starch, and yet within minutes I'd built a deeply comforting miso–chickpea avgolemono. I heated miso, water, and chickpeas (liquid included) to form the broth, whisked eggs, lemon juice, zest, and a touch of potato starch in a separate bowl, tempered that mixture with the hot miso broth, then stirred everything together over gentle heat until it thickened into a glossy, velvety soup.

Why This Technique Endures

This egg-and-lemon thickening trick has crossed centuries and borders because it works. It's adaptable, economical, and produces soups and sauces that feel surprisingly luxurious. It's perfect for winter cooking or any time you want something creamy without dairy or mounds of cheese.

You can follow the hybrid method of whisking egg and lemon together upfront, or use Daniel's approach of thickening with eggs first and adding lemon to taste. Either way, this is a technique that promises—and delivers—comfort.