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. It’s seasoned with a few of my favorite spices and plenty of freshly ground black pepper. Honestly, it’s the best lentil soup I’ve ever had.
The original title of this recipe was “Spiced Vegan Lentil Soup,” which is accurate, but a mouthful. With over 500 five-star reviews, I think it’s safe to call this the Best Lentil Soup. Period.
Whether you’re looking to lighten up your meals or warm up with a steaming bowl of soup, this healthy lentil soup recipe is for you! It’s 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 that’s 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. It’s 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. I’m 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.
Don’t miss my lentil minestrone recipe in my cookbook—if you’re a fan of this soup, you’re going to love it.
PrintBest Lentil Soup
- Author:
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 45 mins
- Total Time: 55 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: Soup
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Mediterranean
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
- ¼ 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
- ½ 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 (½ 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 purée the soup until smooth. Pour the puréed 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 America’s Test Kitchen’s lentil soup in The Complete Vegetarian Cookbook, with reference to The First Mess’ favourite lentil soup.
Recommended equipment: (affiliate links) I love my Vitamix blender and Le Creuset 5.5-quart Dutch oven. For more of my favorite cooking tools, shop my kitchen essentials.
Cheryl
Hi Kate. This recipe is DIVINE!! I only had split red lentils in the pantry, so they kind of broke down a lot, therefore there was no need to do the blending of the 2 cups of soup. I had no greens on hand, so used a tablespoon of dried parsley. Thank you so much for a beautiful, healthy, easy, economical recipe.
★★★★★
Lesley Claster
The recipe was delicious and easy to prep. However, I would not call it a lentil soup but a vegetable soup in a slightly spicy tomato base with some lentils cooked in. I was looking for a tasty, well-seasoned lentil soup that looked and tasted like the tasty classic fare that, by the way, was never bland in my family. I always felt that adding tomatoes to a lentil soup changed it to something else. As long as you get the soup base right and the added spices and herbs to your taste, you can let the lentils shine as they are. But I would not want to leave until I said again that the soup was wonderful for what it was.
★★★★
STACEY
This soup is Amazing! The only things I did different was I used fresh thyme, chili power because that’s what I had on hand. I started eating right after I put the kale in because I wanted the bite/crunch and I also used a garden vegetable blend for extra seasoning
Thank you KATE AND COOKIE
STACEY
★★★★★
Kate
Your’e welcome, Stacey! Tank you for your comment.
A. Regehr
I love this soup!! I have shared it with friends who also have made it. Winter or summer it is a quick go to in my instant pot. Sometimes I add a little brown rice, or pearled barley. In the recipe it make for large bowls some I am guessing this means about 12 ounces a serving g? I’m figuring nutrition and calories.
★★★★★
Melissa
My favorite! I make this often and freeze for easy lunches or dinners. Got my mom hooked on it too and I always bring her a few containers. She even asked me for the recipe :)
★★★★★
Joanna
The flavors were great. But, the soup is way too watery in spite of the “blended pureee.” Maybe the “1 cup” of lentils should be 1-pound instead for all the added liquid.
Sarah
How would you adjust this to make in a crock pot? I want to make it tomorrow for my family but I will be gone all day. Hoping to put it in the crockpot in the morning. Thoughts?
Kate
I haven’t tried it, sorry! I believe others have and didn’t mind the results.
Mary Lou Hill
I used your recipe but cooked in an instant pot. Scrumptious. The lemon made it sparkle.
★★★★★
Kate
I’m glad you enjoyed it, Mary!
Michelle
I’ve made this 2-3x times already and always delicious! I love that you can add random veggies on hand. I tried something new and added a few tablespoons of nutritional yeast to the blender with the mix, and it was SO good, and cheesy!! I used tomato sauce instead of diced tomato bc I had it on hand, and it actually turned out more smooth and better, will be using this instead now.
★★★★★
Kate
I love to hear that, Michelle! I appreciate your review.
Shannon
This lentil soup turned out just as I expected – too cuminy – which is only a problem for me (not my favorite spice). So tomorrow I’m using the leftovers to turn this into chili where cumin is more acceptable to my taste buds.
I love the addition of the greens at the end as my new “ plant-based eating” calls for greens 6 times/day. Impossible in my book, but I’m getting them in twice at least.
Thanks for these soup recipes – I plan on making every single one!
Happy Eating!
M
The best. Honestly I just made it for myself, but I could not keep my kids from trying it and they instantly loved it, bonus! So happy I found this recipe
★★★★★
Kate
Great to hear, M! I’m glad you loved it.
Theresa Capri
Why do you recommend to drain the tomatoes?
★★★★★
Kate
I find it helps in overall liquid amount and milder tomato taste.
Jissele
I first discovered Kate’s recipe back in 2016 and I’ve been making it ever since. It is truly a favorite of mine. Over the years I’ve shared the recipe with family and friends, and they all love it too!
Kate
I love to hear you have been following for so long! I appreciate your comment and support, Jissele.
Savanna
I’m curious, can we make this soup in the crockpot?
Kate
I know others have tried it. I recommend seeing what others recommend in the comments.
Sam
I have made this recipe as-is and it’s good. Like some others I don’t like tomatoes (or lemons) in my lentil soup, too acidic, so I replaced them with more broth and added some more veggies- celery, sweet potato, red pepper, parsley and added some smoked paprika for more flavour and it turned out great following the rest of the recipe! Really foolproof I enjoyed it. I even forgot to blend part of it and it’s still awesome.
Valeree in Puerto Rico
June 18, 2023. My Lentil Soup is simmering, frequently tasting the broth, and it tastes like I’m sitting in the kitchen of a local resident somewhere in the Mediterranean. Since we like our soups thick, since I did not have lemon or greens, and since I can’t resist altering recipes, these are my ingredients. (This should be good for two meals for Hubby and me). 1/4 cup XV olive oil, 1 large onion, 4 thin-ish organic carrots chopped, 1 tsp cumin, 1/2 tsp curry, 1/4 tsp thyme seed, 1 12oz can diced tomatoes, 1 3/4 cup dry lentils rinsed, 2 cups veggie broth, 3/4 cup light coconut milk – the kind that comes in a container, 1 heaping tsp Herbamare, 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes, 1 tsp black pepper, 8 cloves garlic chopped, then I threw in 1/3 tsp ginger powder and 1/3 tsp turmeric. In the end, I’ll add 1 slightly flowing tsp of apple cider vinegar. As I occasionally stir I add veggie broth if the liquid level drops below the lentil/carrot level. I will submerge-blend some. I will be making Flatbread to serve with this, I found a new flat bread recipe on the YT channel Kevin Lee Jacobs, he doesn’t flour the kneading surface – he oils it. This lentil soup is smelling wonderous. I’m so glad I lost my Lentil Soup Recipe. You know, they say the Powers That Be work in mysterious ways. Thank you Powers That Be, thank you Cookie And Kate. Beautiful days, all…
Tanya
This lentil soup is awesome. Just the right heat to it and it is a winner for my family.
★★★★★
Kate
Great to hear, Tanya! I appreciate your review.
Diane
Absolutely wonderful soup! We prefer our soup a bit more stew like so I omit the 2 cups of water, adding only enough to help the lentils cook. I found that brown Marrone lentils cook quickly after being cleaned and soaked for half hour so they don’t require a lot of extra water. The veggie broth is enough. And to add a bit of crunch I chop a handful snap pea pods adding them at the end.
We have tried several of your recipes and look forward to trying more. Thank you for these!
★★★★★
Lisa
I’ve made this soup several times and it is excellent. I usually use chicken broth because I normally don’t keep veggie broth on hand. It tastes great either way. I also don’t puree any portion of the soup, just leave it all chunky to save time and blender clean up. Sometimes, I don’t add any water, just extra broth. I could eat this soup every day, it’s that good. Thank you Kate!
★★★★★
Kate
That’s great to hear, Lisa! Thank you for your review.
Rachel
Hi! This soup looks wonderful. Is there anything I could use in place of tomatoes? I can’t eat them, but I’d love to make this recipe.
Kate
I don’t have a great replacement, but you can omit them if you like.
Alla
Tremendous recipe!
★★★★★
Kate
Thank you, Alla!
Alla
Tremendous recipe! I added a little less liquid & almost doubled the curry & cumin (we love spices!) & people who have never eaten lentils LOVED it!
★★★★★
Paula
Can you use spinac?
★★★★
Kate
Sure, I know others have and didn’t mind the results.
Dana
Absolutely delicious! I’ve been making this soup for two years now, b big batches to freeze, and I love it every time. I love that I can use greens on hand (eg frozen spinach if I don’t have anything fresh), and it is so hearty and nutritious. My colleagues are jealous every time I bring it for lunch at work.
Best of all – even my picky 2yo loves it!
★★★★★
Kate
That’s great to hear, Dana! I’m glad it’s a bit hit for you that you make it often.
Clare
Sorry, don’t like leaving negative reviews. The soup was fine, I would omit the curry powder next time, way too overpowering. Certainly doesn’t need it.
Kate
I’m sorry you didn’t love this recipe, Clare. I appreciate your review.
Aurelia Saenz
Thank You for all your cooking recipe.
Amanda
This is hands down the best soup I’ve here made. It’s been a go to recipe in our house for several years now. It’s perfect !
★★★★★