The following dish was one of my favorites during my childhood, and to be honest it is still one of my best dishes, the famous Magiritsa soup. I try to cook it almost every Easter now that I live in the UK and it was one the first dish that I ever made and managed to surprise my friends as they thought it was too difficult to make.
It’s not difficult to prepare Magiritsa soup but it is quite time consuming I have to admit. During Christian orthodox Easter, Christians need to fast at least 7 days before Great Saturday when according to religion Jesus Christ was resurrected from the dead.
So every time me and my family were fasting for one week without eating meat and anything related to that and were going to the church on Saturday to celebrate Jesus Christ resurrection. After that, the first food that we eat is the so called, –magiritsa.
Obviously, there are many more options in the table and we should mention the traditional red eggs as well as the greek tsoureki bread.
Magiritsa is a soup that has different kind of meats inside combined with rice. It’s pretty straight forward to make but requires a lot of preparation. As I am in London for almost 8 years, I have had the opportunity to make magiritsa a few times as some of my Easter holidays were spend here. So I will give you my version of the soup as I am doing it here.
Just an important note however before we get going. The dish in some of its versions in Greece, has beef or lamb intestines. Nevertheless, that is something really hard to find over here so I do not use them on this instance. Either way it is an important part of Magiritsa when this is cooked in Greece.
The main part of the soup is called “sykotaria” which consist mainly the lamb offal. Different people add as many as they can find or simply like. So here is the recipe for magiritsa while in the same time you can see one the first blogs i did last year for cooking roasted lamb, another typical Easter dish.
MAGIRITSA EASTER SOUP INGREDIENTS
- 500gr liver lamb
- 250gr liver beef (Not necessary but I add also for extra taste)
- 250gr lamb diced
- 1 lamb heart (Not necessary)
- 1 cup of red wine
- 3-4 lettuces depending on the size
- ½ kilo of onions
- 1 big bunch of fresh dill
- 1 tea spoon of Olive Oil
- Salt/Pepper
- 1 cube of vegetables
- 1 tea cup of rice
- For the Egg-lemon sauce
- 2 eggs
- Lemon juice from 11/2 lemons
So, ideally we need a big pot to boil all that stuff- get the biggest ones you can find.
HOW YOU COOK MAGIRITSA
- Add the tea spoon of oil and increase the heat. Add all of the different parts of meat you have and stir it well until most of it (if not all) becomes brownish.
- Continue stirring by adding the chopped onions
- Add the cup of red wine and let it for another 2-3 minutes. Smell the wine as it evaporates.
- Add enough water to cover all of the meat and at least 2 cm more.
- Continue by adding the chopped lettuce and stir it until it gets soft and mixes with the meat.
- Continue with the cube of vegetables and add salt and pepper as much as you like. Bring it to a boil for at least 45 minutes. Taste regularly the meat and add water if you feel its necessary. Remember it’s a soup!
- After 45 minutes add the fresh dill and the cup of rice and continue boiling it in a more medium heat until the rice is ready
Just before you serve them you should add the egg lemon sauce called in Greek “avgolemono” (egg-lemon)
Take a spoon of hot soup and begin to slowly add to the pot with the mixed eggs with the lemon juice. Slowly though. Repeat and add another spoon of hot soup. Slowly.
Stir this mixture a bit (shake the pan round with your hand) to be mixed and then begin to slowly pour in the pot where you have your Magiritsa while stirring the soup with a spoon.
Enjoy!
