Magiritsa – Greek Easter Offal Soup
Magiritsa is a traditional Greek Easter soup made with lamb offal, fresh greens, herbs, rice, and finished with a silky avgolemono (egg-lemon) sauce. It’s warming, aromatic, and served after the midnight.
Ingredients
Soup
- 1 kg lamb offals includes liver, lungs, heart, sweetbreads
- 500 g lamb intestines
- ½ cup fresh dill finely chopped
- ½ cup fresh parsley finely chopped
- 1 tbsp fresh mint finely chopped
- 5 tbsp olive oil
- 5 spring onions, finely chopped include the green part
- 100 g Carolina rice or other starchy white rice
- 5 tbsp olive oil
- 1 ½ ltr hot water enough to cover ingredients
- Juice of 1 lemon
- Salt and black pepper to taste
Avgolemono (Egg-Lemon Sauce)
- 2 whole eggs
- 1 egg yolk
- Juice of 2 lemons
- 1 tbsp corn starch optional, for thickness
- extra dill optional, for garnish
- 3 ladles of hot soup broth to temper eggs
Instructions
Soup Instructions
- Wash the offal (sykotiaria) thoroughly and remove any membranes or tough parts. Cut it into small pieces.
- The intestines must be very well cleaned. They are usually sold already cleaned, but it’s a good idea to rinse them well inside and out with plenty of water. Cut them into small pieces, about 2–3 centimeters long.
- In a large pot with salted boiling water, add the offal and the intestines. Boil them for about 10–15 minutes. This helps remove any impurities and softens them, and drain them.
- In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Sauté the fresh onions until they soften and become translucent.
- Add the blanched and chopped offal and intestines to the pot. Sauté for a few minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add hot water and boil it for 20 minutes, then add the rice and stir and boil for 20 minutes.
- Shortly before the end of cooking, add ½ the juice of 1 lemon and dill, parsley, mint and stir.
- Season the mageiritsa with salt and pepper to your taste. Remove the pot from the heat and stir gently.
Avgolemeno Instructions
- Take three to four ladles of the soup and set aside, allow to cool a bit.
- Take a medium sized bowl, place two whole eggs and one egg yolk at room temperature into the bowl, whip them.
- While whipping, slowly add in the juice of two lemons.
- Slowly add in the cooled broth, whipping to incorporate.
- Slowly add the avgolemono to the pot of soup which has been removed from the heat. Pour in slowly and shake the pot to mix, do not stir until the soup is boiling again.
- If you want a thicker avgolemono, add some corn starch. There is a method to it, make a slurpy with two tablespoons of cold water and one tablespoon of corn starch. This would be added to the pot with the rest of the soup.
- Place the pot back onto a heat source, medium heat, for two minutes, stir until well heated. Ready to serve!