Soups

Easter Lamb Soup (Magiretsa Soup)

3 hours Cook
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Easter Lamb Soup (Magiretsa Soup)

Easter Lamb Soup (Magiretsa Soup)

greekk6bg
The original Magiretsa is made from lamb offal and this soup was eaten after the midnight liturgy of Holy Saturday to end the 40 day fast. Greek Orthodox Christians would break their 40 day no-meat fast with this soup, which many in the US, UK, Canada and Australia call this the Greek Easter Soup or Easter Soup. Since my sister would never think of eating lamb organs and intestines my mother would make this with lamb meat instead so that my sister would eat it. I have always used lamb meat and it is so delicious! The reason you see the red egg in the photo is because Greeks don't dye their Easter eggs different colors. We only dye them red, to symbolize Christ's blood. We also play a game with these red eggs before we eat them. Each player holds one egg. The eggs are tapped against each other and cracked together between two people as they exchange the traditional Easter greeting “Christos anesti!” (“Christ has risen”) – “Alithos anesti!” (“Indeed he has”). The player with the strongest egg has good luck for one year. As I said, Easter eggs are dyed red to represent the blood of Christ, so then the egg shell symbolizes the tomb, and the eggs are cracked to show his resurrection from the dead.
prep time
1 hour
cooking time
3 hours
servings
8 to 10
total time
4 hours

Equipment

  • Hand mixer

  • Dutch Oven

  • Mixing bowl

Ingredients

  • For the Broth:

  • 1 2-4 pound (1-2 kg) lamb chops

  • 1 onion

  • 1 carrot

  • 3 stalks of celery

  • 1 bay leaf

  • 10 peppercorns

  • 1 Tbsp salt

  • 1 bag of Shirataki rice

  • 1 cup thinly sliced Romaine lettuce (About 4 leaves)

  • 1/2 cup of thinly sliced green onions

  • 1/2 cup of chopped fresh dill

  • For the Sauce:

  • 4 eggs, separated

  • 6 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

Instructions

1
If you are making your own broth: Wash the lamb and place in a large stock pot. Cover with water. You will want to add 10 to 15 cups of water. Add the remaining ingredients, except the bag of Shirataki rice. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer for 2-3 hours. The goal is to produce 8 cups of strong broth. Remove the lamb and vegetables. Let the lamb cool so you can shred it. You can strain the broth to ensure all peppercorns are all discarded.
2
In the meantime, take a Dutch oven, or 4 quart pan, and add the strained broth. Add the lettuce, green onions, dill and set aside to cool. Eventually you want to bring the temperature down to about 140 F degrees.
3
Next, let’s make the sauce. Take the 4 eggs and separate the yolks and set aside. Using a hand mixer, beat the egg whites until stiff. Add the egg yolks and beat for another 2 minutes. Then, slowly add the lemon juice until all is blended.
4
By now your homemade broth should have cooled. If not, please wait, otherwise your sauce will curdle.
5
Combine the cooled broth (or store bought), shredded lamb, Shirataki rice, and the sauce.
6
Place on medium-low heat and raise the temperature of the soup slowly. If you are using a thermometer, make sure the temperature does not exceed 160-170 degrees.
7
Remove from the heat and leave uncovered for 5 minutes. Serve with lemon wedges and freshly grated pepper.
8
Enjoy! Bon Appetit! Kali Orexi!

Notes

For those that favor tradition over efficiency and time, I suggest you boil your own lamb. You can use a leg of lamb, lamb shoulder or even lamb chops. This uses the same 4:6:8 ratio I used in the Egg Lemon Soup (Avgolemono) recipe; i.e. 4 eggs, 6 tablespoons of lemon juice and 8 cups of lamb broth.
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