Best Lentil Soup
This healthy lentil soup recipe comes together quickly with pantry ingredients. Simple spices, fresh greens and a squeeze of lemon make it the best! Vegan.
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on October 3, 2024
This soup recipe was a long time coming! Over the years, I made some lackluster lentil soups that never saw the light of day on this website. No vegetarian food blog would be complete without a proper lentil soup, though, so I perfected one of my own.
Here it is. My lentil soup is made with mostly pantry ingredients but includes hearty greens and a squeeze of lemon for bright, fresh flavor. Itโs seasoned with a few of my favorite spices and plenty of freshly ground black pepper. Honestly, itโs the best lentil soup Iโve ever had.
The original title of this recipe was โSpiced Vegan Lentil Soup,โ which is accurate, but a mouthful. With over 500 five-star reviews, I think itโs safe to call this the Best Lentil Soup. Period.
Whether youโre looking to lighten up your meals or warm up with a steaming bowl of soup, this healthy lentil soup recipe is for you! Itโs one of my all-time favorites and I hope it becomes a staple in your kitchen as well.
How to Make the Best Lentil Soup
Five reasons to love this recipe:
- The recipe calls for seasonal vegetables and affordable pantry ingredients, but tastes gourmet.
- This lentil soup has an amazing hearty texture thatโs lightly creamy (yet there is no cream). The trick is to blend up a portion of the soup once the lentils are tender, and then pour it back into the pot. Itโs like magic.
- This nutritious, well-balanced soup counts as a meal if you enjoy a generous portion. Lentils are rich in protein, fiber, iron and folate.
- Lentil soup packs well for lunch in a leak-proof container, and it tastes even better the next day.
- This soup freezes and defrosts well. Make soup now and enjoy it later!
Watch How to Make Lentil Soup
Please let me know how this lentil soup turns out for you in the comments. Iโm always so eager to hear from you.
If you love this soup, check out my hearty vegetarian chili, favorite black bean soup and pinto posole. You can check out all my soup and stew recipes here.
Donโt miss my lentil minestrone recipe in my cookbookโif youโre a fan of this soup, youโre going to love it.
Best Lentil Soup
This simple vegan lentil soup recipe comes together quickly with mostly pantry ingredients. Be sure to have your ingredients prepped and ready before you start cooking! Recipe yields four large bowls of soup, or six more modest servings.
Ingredients
- ยผ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 medium yellow or white onion, chopped
- 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
- 4 garlic cloves, pressed or minced
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon curry powder
- ยฝ teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 large can (28 ounces) diced tomatoes, lightly drained
- 1 cup brown or green lentils, picked over and rinsed
- 4 cups vegetable broth
- 2 cups water
- 1 teaspoon salt, more to taste
- Pinch of red pepper flakes
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 cup chopped fresh collard greens or kale, tough ribs removed
- 1 to 2 tablespoons lemon juice (ยฝ to 1 medium lemon), to taste
Instructions
- Warm the olive oil in a large Dutch oven or pot over medium heat. One-fourth cup olive oil may seem like a lot, but it adds a lovely richness and heartiness to this nutritious soup.
- Once the oil is shimmering, add the chopped onion and carrot and cook, stirring often, until the onion has softened and is turning translucent, about 5 minutes.
- Add the garlic, cumin, curry powder and thyme. Cook until fragrant while stirring constantly, about 30 seconds. Pour in the drained diced tomatoes and cook for a few more minutes, stirring often, in order to enhance their flavor.
- Pour in the lentils, broth and the water. Add 1 teaspoon salt and a pinch of red pepper flakes. Season generously with freshly ground black pepper. Raise heat and bring the mixture to a boil, then partially cover the pot and reduce the heat to maintain a gentle simmer. Cook for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the lentils are tender but still hold their shape.
- Transfer 2 cups of the soup to a blender. Securely fasten the lid, protect your hand from steam with a tea towel placed over the lid, and purรฉe the soup until smooth. Pour the purรฉed soup back into the pot. (Or, use an immersion blender to blend a portion of the soup.)
- Add the chopped greens and cook for 5 more minutes, or until the greens have softened to your liking. Remove the pot from the heat and stir in 1 tablespoon of lemon juice. Taste and season with more salt, pepper and/or lemon juice until the flavors really sing. For spicier soup, add another pinch or two of red pepper flakes.
- Serve while hot. Leftovers will keep well for about 4 days in the refrigerator, or can be frozen for several months (just defrost before serving).
Notes
Soup recipe roughly based on Americaโs Test Kitchenโs lentil soup in The Complete Vegetarian Cookbook, with reference to The First Messโ favourite lentil soup.
Recommended equipment: I love my Vitamix blender and Le Creuset 5.5-quart Dutch oven (affiliate links).
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionistโs advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
This soup is perfect without any seasoning changes. I doubled the batch and added celery and mushrooms simply because I had them and they needed to be used up. This is a new favorite!! Thank you so much!
dang ngl this recipe is fire. I agree itโs the best lentil soup Iโve had.
Kate โ this was excellent, and fun to make! Not to sound too much like a comment in NYT Cooking, butโฆ I didnโt have canned tomatoes, so I used fresh romas and probably got a similar outcome. I tossed in a peeled, chopped potato, too. One thing I would love is if you could include the seasonings and quantities that make up โcurry powder.โ I Googled it and turned out I had all but the fenugreek in my spice rack โ cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, coriander, turmeric โ but I only guessed at amounts. Tastes a bit cinnamon-y, but still delicious! Thanks!
Hi Jeannine, If you have fresh and not canned tomatoes on hand, thatโs a great choice. THhnks for the suggestion about the curry powder. There are so many different blends! Right now I am using a Penzyโs spice โthe now curryโ but I have also used the frontier+ coop curry blend and the Morton and Bassett curry powder. I have used fenugreek in Lebanese or Middle Eastern recipes, and it adds great flavor, so if youโre interested, I do suggest picking some up.
Little confused โ I donโt see curry powder or fenugreek in the ingredients list. !!
Any chance of specifying the quantities in metric as well as older american imperial.
Hi Tom, curry, thyme, and cumin are the spices listed in the recipe. Curry poweder is a spice blend, and there are many different versions. Some contain fenugreek, a Mediterranean herb.
I have made this many times and find it delicious! Only modifications Iโve made so far is using beef broth at times and adding in a diced/peeled sweet potato! Iโve considered adding some Italian sausage but havenโt yet. So so tasty!
Absolutely gorgeous soup!! I have just finished a second bowl of it and my heart is singing! I did add a couple of stalks of celery to the recipe as I love celery!!! I am under the weather today with a virus and this has been just the tonic. Thank you very much!!
Hi Val, glad this soup was a hit, and I hope you feel better soon.
This was good, but I found it had too much tomato flavor. Next time I would reduce the amount of tomatoes and increase the amount of lentils.
Has anyone made this without tomatoes. I canโt eat them due to their high
acid content.
Otherwise, the recipe looks great.
Thanks,
Barbara
Hi Barbara, yes other readers have shared they made it without tomatoes. Add in an equal amount of broth or water, or for a thicker stew-like consistency simply omit.
This was the best lentil soup I have ever tasted. The spices blended perfectly. I did use 2 cups of lentils which thickened the soup so I didnโt blend it. This will definitely be on my top ten soup list. Thank you.
Best lentil soup ever โ a perfect winter dinner . So much flavor and freshness . Happy we have some leftover so I can have it for lunch tomorrow! Thanks for sharing your delicious recipe!
It was delicious. Can it be made using coconut ro coconut milk?
Hi Jeff, yes I would reduce the broth or water and add a can of coconut for a rich broth.
I love this recipe. It is sooooo easy to make and soooo delicious. It is a regular lunch in my home
I love your healthy and delicious lentil soup. Will make it again.!
What can you use instead of collard greens or kale? Possibly spinach!
Hi Carol, yes spinach is a great substitute.
I have made this soup twice now. Itโ s so good. My husband loves it (heโs a big meat eater) and doesnโt even know there is a kale in it because I chop it up very small. I highly recommend if you are looking for a great lentil soup recipe. Itโ s the best I have tried or made. Thanks! I love your recipes and instructions.
Excellent!! Perfect lentil soup for snow days this week. Great blend of spices and just the right amount of heat; it is sorta a twist on a winter chili and curry lentil dish. Packed with nutrition and easy to make. Definitely making this again!
One of my favorite winter soups! And so easy to make! I like to sprinkle a little nutritional yeast on top just for fun.
Absolutely delicious! I have a pizza burn on the top of my mouth but I powered through because it was delicious. I did find there was a lot of liquid so when I make it again Iโd probably just use the broth instead of the broth and water. But this is definitely a keep for a cozy, healthy meal.
Best ever lentil soup..is wonderful!!
This soup is the best lentil soup I have ever tasted. Iโve been enjoying this all week long. I followed the recipe exactly and love the spices especially the curry. Thank you for your notes on substitutions or ways to make something Vegan. I am also loving all your kale salads and delicious dressings. Thank you!
I have made this soup as written and itโs perfect. My husbandโs favorite and he is from the middle east so heโs quite picky about his lentil soup.
Last time I made it, when I was getting my ingredients together I realized I only had 1/2 cup of green lentils, but I had red lentils. So I used 1/2 cup of the red lentils but added them about 10-15 min after the green. They broke down more and became almost creamy and gave a wonderful texture in contrast to the green. I skipped the step of blending any because I think the red lentils achieved a similar texture. I may just do this in the future.
Very tasty soup! Good receipt but I used celery for more taste. Thank you !
I had a craving for lentil soup and this really hit the spot! I love the lemon in it!