Lemony Greek Chickpea Soup with orzo and fresh vegetables in a fragrant, silky broth. This vibrant vegetarian soup, inspired by Avgolemono Soup, is protein-packed and ready in just over 30 minutes. 
Why You’ll Love this Greek Chickpea Soup
The better question is, what’s NOT to love about this soup? It’s light, bright, and packed with protein and whole grains. It will fill and warm you to the core, without weighing you down, and leftovers are just as satisfying the next day.
It’s the type of nourishing midday meal I crave on a busy weekday, yet it’s hearty enough to serve for dinner with a side of crusty bread. A handful of fresh dill makes the soup herbaceous and lively, and a generous squeeze of lemon juice wakes up the flavors to make the soup almost invigorating.
This soup was inspired by Avgolemono Soup. Avgolemono (“Ahvo-lemono”) refers to the tasty Greek sauce made of whisked eggs, lots of lemon, and warm broth. In addition to using avoglemono sauce in soup, Greek cooks also use it to infuse richness and bright notes of lemon to chicken, vegetables, and even dolmades.
Recipe Ingredients and Substitutions:
- Chickpeas: You need two cans of chickpeas, which add a one-two punch of plant protein and fiber to this soup.
- Orzo: Use either regular or whole-wheat orzo, which are both found in the pasta aisle. Just like any other pasta shape, dry orzo will keep for a WHILE in the pantry, so don’t worry about it going to waste.
- Aromatics: A classic mirepoix including onion, carrots, and celery create the aromatic foundation of this soup. You can use yellow or sweet onion, or even shallots here.
- Broth: You need 8 cups of liquid total, which can be all broth, or half water/half broth if you’re trying to scale back on sodium. However I find that using 8 cups of broth lends the biggest flavor impact.
- Eggs: Whisked eggs are what create the quintessential silky broth in Avgolemono Soup. However it is quite easy to end up with scrambled eggs instead of a smooth soup if you do not follow proper technique. When eggs are introduced to heat, they will immediately start to solidify, so to avoid this, we need to temper the eggs. All that means is we SLOWLY pour in a good amount of the hot broth into the eggs, while whisking constantly, which brings the eggs up to temperature slowly without scrambling.
- Lemon: For a double dose of lemon-y goodness, this recipe uses both the lemon peel and juice. Note: it’s important to use the juice of whole lemons, as opposed to the bottled lemon juice. You truly can’t beat the brightness and zing of fresh lemons in Avgolemono Soup.
- Greens: For a pop of color and extra nutrients, I love stirring in a few handfuls of chopped kale at the end of cooking. Alternatively, you can use spinach, swiss chard, or collard greens.
- Dill: Fresh dill makes the soup herbaceous and lively. Just wait to stir it in until right before serving to preserve its flavor and color.
Step-by-Step Instructions:
Step 1: Sauté Aromatics
Heat olive oil in a large stock pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Once hot, add the onion, carrots, celery, and lemon peel. Cook for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring often, until softened. 
Step 2: Add Broth, Chickpeas, and Orzo
Add broth and bring mixture to a boil. Once boiling, add chickpeas, orzo, salt, pepper, and oregano; bring mixture back to a simmer. Simmer soup over medium-high heat, uncovered, for 10 minutes, or until the orzo is al dente. Reduce heat to low. 
Step 3: Prepare Egg Mixture
Place whole eggs, egg yolks, and lemon juice in a large bowl; whisk until combined. While whisking constantly, VERY slowly stream in 3/4 cup of hot broth into egg mixture.
*Note: It’s easy to end up with scrambled eggs if you don’t do this properly. When eggs are introduced to heat, they will immediately start to solidify, so to avoid this, we need to temper the eggs. This is achieved when you SLOWLY pour the hot broth into the eggs, while whisking constantly, which brings the eggs up to temperature without them cooking. 
Step 4: Add Egg Mixture and Greens to Soup
While gently stirring the soup with a wooden spoon or ladle, stream the egg-broth mixture into the pot of soup. Add kale and continue to cook over low heat for 5 minutes, or until the broth is slightly thickened. Remove lemon peel. 
Step 5: Garnish with Dill and Serve
Lastly, stir fresh dill into soup and taste/adjust seasonings as needed. Ladle soup into bowls and garnish with extra fresh dill and cracked black pepper.
How to Store and Reheat:
- To Store: Let the soup come close to room temperature before transferring it to an airtight storage container. Refrigerate soup for up to 4 days.
- To Reheat: This soup reheats best stovetop, however you can also nook it in the microwave for convenience. For stovetop reheating, place soup in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat until warm. If the soup appears too thick, add an extra splash or broth or water to help rehydrate it. Alternatively, heat individual portions in the microwave, stopping to stir every 30 seconds, until warm.
- To Freeze: Transfer completely cooled soup to a freezer-safe, gallon-sized ziptop bag. Lay flat in the freezer, and freeze for up to 3 months. Let thaw overnight in the refrigerator before reheating.
What to Serve with Greek Chickpea Soup:
While this soup is satiating enough to enjoy on its own (or simply paired with crusty bread), here are some of my favorite pairings:
- Broccoli Salad: You can’t beat this BLT-style Broccoli Salad with Everything Bagel Spice. Bonus: you can prep the recipe well in advance so it’s good-to-go once the soup is ready.
- Brussels Salad: For some cruciferous crunch, try my 10-Minute Warm Brussels Salad, or this Shaved Brussels and Pear Salad with Manchego.
- Sandwich: You can’t go wrong with a soup + salad combo. This Green Goddess Chicken Salad Sandwich is always a hit, as well as this Chickpea Salad, which you can enjoy in salad cups or a tortilla.
Recommended Tools to Execute this Recipe:
- Dutch Oven: I use my Lodge Enameled 6-qt Dutch Oven for every single homemade soup recipe. It’s a staple piece on my stovetop, and has endless functionality. Lodge is also quite a bit cheaper than Cuisinart, yet just as good quality, in my opinion.
- Ladle: For transferring the hot broth to the egg mixture, you need a sturdy ladle. This one is dishwasher safe.
- Whisk: For whisking the egg mixture, this whisk has a comfortable, sturdy grip and stainless steel wires.
- Non-Slip Cutting Board: For the slicing and dicing in this recipe, you need a reliable cutting board. This one is easier and safer than cutting boards without the non-slip feature, and it’s dishwasher safe.
More Healthy Vegetarian Soup Recipes to Try:
Creamy Caramelized Broccoli Soup
Wild Rice and Mushroom Soup
White Bean Enchilada Soup
Nourishing White Bean and Lemon Soup
If you give this Greek Chickpea Soup a try, snap a pic and tag #dishingouthealth on Instagram so I can see your beautiful creations. I also really appreciate readers taking the time to leave a rating and review! Lastly, follow along on Facebook and Pinterest for the latest recipe updates.
Lemony Greek Chickpea Soup
Equipment
- Large Dutch oven or stock pot
Ingredients
- 2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 1/2 cups finely chopped yellow or sweet onion
- 3/4 cup finely chopped carrots
- 1/2 cup finely chopped celery
- 2 (2-inch) strips lemon peel, plus 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice, divided
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 quarts (8 cups) lower-sodium vegetable broth (sub chicken broth if not making vegetarian)
- 2 (15.5-oz.) cans chickpeas, rinsed and drained
- 3/4 cup dry orzo pasta (regular or whole-wheat)
- 1 tsp. kosher salt
- 1 tsp. black pepper
- 1 tsp. dried oregano
- 2 large whole eggs, plus 2 egg yolks
- 3 handfuls roughly chopped or shredded kale (sub spinach, Swiss Chard, or escarole)
- 2 Tbsp. finely chopped fresh dill, plus more for garnish
Instructions
- Heat oil in a large stock pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Once hot, add the onion, carrots, celery, and lemon peel. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until softened. Add garlic; cook 1 more minute, until aromatic.
- Add broth and increase heat to bring mixture to a boil. Once boiling, add chickpeas, orzo, salt, pepper, and oregano. Simmer soup over medium-high heat, uncovered, for 10 minutes, or until the orzo is al dente. Reduce heat to low, and remove 3/4 cup hot broth from the soup. Set aside.
- Place whole eggs, egg yolks, and lemon juice in a large bowl; whisk until combined. While whisking constantly, VERY slowly stream hot broth into egg mixture.*Note: It's easy to end up with scrambled eggs if you don't do this properly. When eggs are introduced to heat, they will immediately start to solidify, so to avoid this, you need to temper the eggs. This is achieved when you SLOWLY pour the hot broth into the eggs, while whisking constantly, which brings the eggs up to temperature without scrambling them.
- While gently stirring the soup with a wooden spoon or ladle, stream the egg-broth mixture back into the pot of soup. Add kale and continue to cook over low heat for 5 minutes, or until the broth is slightly thickened and greens are wilted. Remove lemon peels.
- Stir in fresh dill and taste/adjust seasonings as needed. Ladle soup into bowls and garnish with extra fresh dill, cracked black pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil, if desired.
This recipe is SO GOOD! I actually used a little less broth and instead of the chickpeas and orzo added a cup of lentils I had on hand. I was nervous about tempering the eggs but that seemed to work well and the end result was great. The flavors are great together and it smells amazing while it’s cooking.
Oh, this was so good. I should have waited to try it since I didn’t have kale, spinach or chard, but it was great even without. My first time trying to temper eggs and it worked perfect! (I may have gone overboard on the SLOW to be on the safe side).
This soup is amazing. I love dill and lemon! I added the lemon in at the wrong time and thought I messed it up, but the next day it tasted fantastic. I used bone broth for extra protein.
I stumbled on this recipe earlier when bookmarking a recipe on Pinterest. I was like, “Hey! I have all of that!” I made it this afternoon, and it’s a dream! I added extra lemon because it’s cold/windy/snowy today, and I wanted to taste some sunshine. It’s so ridiculously good. It’ll be on repeat full time this winter. So happy to have this easy-to-make soup in my life.
Side note: I recently made a homemade vegetarian posole that called for, of course, chickpeas. Instead of putting two rinsed can into the mix, it first called for the chickpeas to be roasted to the point with the slightest crunch (not a snacky hard crunch), and I do that with all my soups now. It adds a nice texture.
Thanks again!
Made this tonight and it’s soooo good. Easy and flavorful. Highly recommend and now I will def be trying more of your recipes. Thank you and happy I found you on Instagram
Yay! I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Amber. Thank you for taking the time to leave a review!
I’ve made a lot of soup recipes but I have to say this may truly be my most favorite yet! It’s a perfect feel good soup. Definitely will be making again!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Courtney!! Thank you for taking the time to leave a review!
This was outstanding and so easy. It tasted even better the next day! Will make this again and again. Thanks
Woohoo! I’m so glad you enjoyed it, my friend. Thank you for taking the time to leave a review!
So good! I used Smart Rice for even more protein. At the top of my favorite soups list for sure!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Jen! Thank you for taking the time to leave a review!
Another amazing recipe! Thank you, Jamie! I made this for my partner and I, and it was so good!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Stephanie! Thank you for taking the time to leave a review!
This recipe was so good! I made it for my girlfriend & myself & it was bursting w/flavor. It gave me a chance to use some chicken broth I was super stoked about & tempering eggs which I needed to practice with as well. Thank you for a great soup to warm up cold, rainy Oregon days.
Hi Rae – I’m so glad the soup was a hit! Thank you so much for taking the time to leave a rating and review!
This looks amazing! Is there anyway to make it gluten free by substituting the orzo for something else?
Hi Rose! You can use long-grain white rice instead (such as Jasmine or Basmati). I hope you enjoy it!
I used SmartRice because it has the same 10 min cooking time. 🙂
It’s soup season! This was so good, I just can’t get enough. This nourished my soul so much on this cold day.
So delicious and easy to make. Definitely going into my year around soup rotation.
Woohoo! I’m so glad you enjoyed this one, Amy! Thank you for taking the time to come back and leave a review!
Can you make this in crockpot?
Hi Brooke – I haven’t tried this recipe in the crockpot, so unfortunately I can’t say for sure, I’m sorry!
I didn’t think I’d be eating soup in the middle of August… but oh my goodnesss! 😍😍 two of my favorite things: orzo + chickpeas wrapped up in a creamy soup of goodness!!! I loved this recipe so much. I will for sure be making this soup again during the cooler months!
Hi Sarah – Woohoo! I’m so glad you enjoyed the soup! Thank you so much for taking the time to leave a rating and review!
Hi I made the soup and it’s OK except I think I turned the heat up too much when trying to “thicken it” like you say in the recipe and my broth looks kind of like it’s curdling… I made sure to add the egg in slowly and that went perfectly and when I added it to my soup it was good too. I guess I should have kept the heat a tad lower :(I also didn’t add orzo because I had none and also had no celery. Not sure if that makes a difference.
Hi Ally! Yes, it sounds like the egg mixture just wasn’t tempered enough before being added back into the soup. Sorry you had trouble with this one!
Is there any way i can make this vegan? Not sure what i can sub for the eggs. Thanks!
Hi Viv— you can simply leave out the eggs and add 3/4-1 cup of canned coconut milk. I hope you enjoy it!
This soup rocks! Tasty, low fat and simply delicious. Tried many various on-line recipes…this is first I felt compelled to review…it was that good!
Ah I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for taking the time to leave a rating and review!
Delicious, easy, and very comforting. This is a fantastic vegetarian take on the original Greek recipe.
Hi Suzie–I’m so glad you enjoyed this one!! Thank you so much for taking the time to leave a rating and review.