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. 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.
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
- 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: 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 nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
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.
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.
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
Your’e welcome, Stacey! Tank you for your comment.
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.
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 :)
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.
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?
I haven’t tried it, sorry! I believe others have and didn’t mind the results.
Add and cook a night before all the ingredients put it in the crockpot after cooking save and just add the water and broth in the morning cook in low heat for 8 hrs ☺️
I used your recipe but cooked in an instant pot. Scrumptious. The lemon made it sparkle.
I’m glad you enjoyed it, Mary!
Ive made this recipe twice now and it is absolutely divine. I had never had lentils before but after being told I was iron deficient, I wanted to try. The second time I added zucchini and Celery and put fresh Parmesan cheese on the top… It was absolute heaven! It’s become a new favourite of mine and I can’t thank you enough! If I could give more than 5 stars I would!!!
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.
I love to hear that, Michelle! I appreciate your review.
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!
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
Great to hear, M! I’m glad you loved it.
Why do you recommend to drain the tomatoes?
I find it helps in overall liquid amount and milder tomato taste.
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!
I love to hear you have been following for so long! I appreciate your comment and support, Jissele.
I’m curious, can we make this soup in the crockpot?
I know others have tried it. I recommend seeing what others recommend in the comments.
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.
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…
This lentil soup is awesome. Just the right heat to it and it is a winner for my family.
Great to hear, Tanya! I appreciate your review.
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!
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!
That’s great to hear, Lisa! Thank you for your review.
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.
I don’t have a great replacement, but you can omit them if you like.
Tremendous recipe!
Thank you, 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!
Can you use spinac?
Sure, I know others have and didn’t mind the results.
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!
That’s great to hear, Dana! I’m glad it’s a bit hit for you that you make it often.
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.
I’m sorry you didn’t love this recipe, Clare. I appreciate your review.
Thank You for all your cooking recipe.
It’s delicious! Every recipe I’ve tried turns out amazing. This is my got to from now on
My go-to lentil soup recipe now! Incredibly delicious
Great to hear, Louise! I appreciate your review.
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 !
We love this Lentil recipe. It is a regular in our favorites rotation.I have used Kale but usually use spinach because it is a staple. When I am looking for a new recipe and I see a “cookie and Kate” I know it will be great.
Lovely soup,, I reduce the oil content add spinach and nettles to the basics recipe and use the soup not only as a simple meal but as the basis for quick curry with the addition of chillis and/or curry paste or add rice or pasta for a more substantial meal,,,, sometimes add beef mince or Quorn mince I am in a diet and have the soup as my evening meal every day,,, each large bowl full is less than 100 calories
This soup is really really good. My big concern is the amount of sodium in a serving. What is causing most of this?
I ate this in 9 minutes! 10 year old me would have never pictured this. Its tasty and light. I used Lee brand vegitable broth which required instructed 2 tsp broth to 1 cup water so 8:4. I maybe would have done 6 because of the salt content. I didn’t need go add any more salt. To be honest it was so good. Thank you!
I’m glad you loved it, Jade! Thank you for your review.
Made this for the family and everyone absolutely loved it and went for seconds!:]
Truely Great! I just made the soup for our lunch. It is delicious. I stayed very close to the exact recipee with the exception that I added some celery and red and orange peppers I had laying around, 3 cups of kale instead of 1, and a mix of different lentils. We also gave some to our dear neighbor. My wife loved it soo much she had 2 bowls. Thank you.
You’re welcome, Dan! I’m glad you loved it.
This is my go-to recipe for lentil soup! I have two young kids who absolutely love it, especially when I add sausage. The flavors are fantastic and the cumin/curry combo is the best! Thank you for sharing!
You’re welcome, Nicole! I appreciate your review.
Made this soup for the first time today. Followed it but added spinach at the end as it was on hand. Very tasty, filling, hearty soup. Not to mention healthy! I recommend and will make it again. Thank you!
You’re welcome, Cheryl!
Such a perfect recipe. It’s literally the best lentil soup I’ve ever had!
I love to hear that, Tamy! Thank you for your review.
Oh my goodness… this soup is specTACular. Thank you, thank you. So perfect. I would give you a 12 (out of 10), at the least. Will make this again and again, thank you again.
You’re welcome, Lori! Thank you for your review.
Best soup ever..
For some reason I have always struggled to make a nice soup but this one turned out beautifully, even my picky daughter loved it.
My picky husband wants it again. Do you need any more said?
Hooray! That’s great, Tala.
The Lentil soup was a hit. Sunday meal was awesome! Thank you! BPL.
You’re welcome, Betty!
Please tell us how to make this in an instant pot. Many thanks!
I don’t have instant pot directions, sorry! I know others have and commented on what they have tried.
I made this lentil soup for an elderly neighbor, so that she’d have an easy to warm-up meal for couple of days. However, it was so delicious when I tried it that I had to keep some for myself, so I’ll have to make more for both of us tomorrow. :) Some lentil soups I’ve tried have been a bit sludgey when they cooled, but not this one. It was vibrant and had just the right amount of bright tanginess, offset perfectly by the olive oil. Delicious, healthy, and easy to make!
Great to hear, Diann! I appreciate your review.
My favourite soup ever.
I add a bit extra curry powder, mix of hot and medium. Usually use baby kale or spinach for the greens.
This is the only soup I never have to freeze the leftovers, because there are none!!
I love to hear that, Michelle! Thank you for your review.
Hey Kate, thank you so much for all your recipes, especially this fabulous lentil soup that I’ve been cooking so often for so many years I’ve lost count. Today I am going to prepare it again, because my young daughter called me saying that she felt sick and asked me to make her “that delicious soup, you know, your specialty”. Out of honesty I told her that it is your recipe, that I follow to the letter, your specialty.
Again, after all these years: thank you.
Pio, The Netherlands
I hope she is feeling better! I’m glad this recipe is a hit.
I love this soup, followed it pretty much to a tee. I added two stalks of celery, a little better than bouillon and kale. But the soup is delicious. I will definitely make this again as both my boyfriend and I trying to eat better.
Thank you for sharing, Susan! That’s great to hear.
Felt the need to comment because I’ve been making this recipe consistently for YEARS… It’s always a hit. I’m even known for my lentils soups now thank you for this
You’re welcome, Roberto! I appreciate your review.
This soup is delish! I didn’t drain the tomatoes, so I cut back on the water and I didn’t have any greens so I added celery to the mix. It will be even thicker tomorrow night for leftovers. Thanks for a great recipe. Even with 95*+ in Florida soup tastes great tonight!
Thank you for the recipe! I’ve made this many times now, always following the recipe as is. I was craving it today and realized I only had fire roasted tomatoes. It tastes great this way too!
You’re welcome, Janelle!