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.
Thank you so much for making a new life decision so delicious!!!! I recently had to make changes to my diet due to heart deciding to no longer pitter patter at the age of thirty….. thanks for making animal products easier to give up!!!!! This recipe was so easy and delicious….. made my husband happy too!!!
I plan on making this tonight! But, the images don’t look puréed… is the blender on a course setting??
Hey Liz, you only puree a portion of the soup.
This soup was amazing and I’m doubling the recipe next time I make it. Could you tell me if it freezes well?
Just made this amazing soup!! I also added a spoon of turmeric juice and it turns out so…heavenly Love it! I will definitely do it more times.
I made your Vegan Lentil Soup. I was missing two of the ingredients but replace one with what I had on hand. I was missing Kale, so I used a couple of handfuls of dehydrated zucchini. I also did not put in the curry powder. Looked all through my spices but didn’t seem to have it. Had company over and everyone loved it. I brought some to work for lunch today. Thanks for the wonderful recipe…
Thank you, Mary! I’m so glad your soup turned out well. Thanks for letting me know!
I made this yesterday but without curry (didn’t have any) and I added a chopped sweet potato. It’s absolutely delicious! Thanks for the recipe.
This is such a tasty soup! I love the combination of flavours. The last time I made it, I added baked sweet potato that I had left over in the fridge, as well as some celery, Thai red peppers, and fresh parsley. The sweet potato was a really nice addition. It just goes to show how versatile this healthy, hearty soup is! :)
Hi Kate this soup is the most tasty, delicious soup Ive ever made. I did add a tin of mixed beans to it as I had them open in the fridge, but even if I hadn’t it still would have been so enjoyable. I am trying to loose weight and lower my cholestrol and this will now be a staple through our winter months. Needless to say I will be trying more of your recipes. Keep cooking.
delicious – love it and its not that hard to make.
Love this soup! It’s my go-to recipe when I want something hearty and nourishing, without too much prep. I have a cold, and made a big pot of this soup last night- I doubled the recipe. It cleared up my sinuses and made me feel warm and cozy. So comforting on a cold and rainy night. Do you have any ideas on how to make vegetable broth? I’m trying to avoid palm oil, in solidarity with orang-utans whose habitats are threatened by the palm oil industry, and most vegetable broth cubes contain palm oil.
What are the best lentils to use? I have red lentils. Would these be a bad pick?
This is the best lentil soup ever! I followed the recipe exactly, and was amazed at how fresh, flavorful, and comforting this soup is. My husband, who doesn’t like lentils OR kale, ate three bowls before I even got to try it! We both thank you for this awesome recipe — we will be making it again and again. :-)
It was so tasty and filling. I’m back here to make the second batch! Thank you so much for the recipe.
I love lentil soup and this soup hits the spot! I had all the ingredients, got to work on it and it’s fabulous! I substituted the canned tomatoes for fresh and chicken stock for the veggie stock! Will be putting this one in the recipe book for sure!
Thanks for sharing
My husband made this soup for us over the weekend exactly to the recipe and it turned out amazing! Next time we think we’ll puree all the carrots just for appearance but the flavor is incredible! Thank you for this staple recipe as we start learning our shared favorites as newly weds :) Can’t wait for the cookbook!
I’m having a bowl as I type! Delicious!! Has a great consistency. I also added a ½ cup of coconut milk and next time I’m going to add mushrooms or some cut up asparagus instead of kale. I put in spinach instead of kale. Will definitely keep this in my rotation. Thanks, Kate!!
It tastes delicious!
I have been looking for more recipes including legumes and this one is so flavourful, it is definitely a keeper.
This is by far THE best lentil soup I’ve ever had! So simple and cheap to make and very tasty. I’ve made it with green lentils as suggested, red lentils and when I’ve run out, yellow split peas, which also work well!
I would highly recommend for anyone who wants a warm, delicious and well balanced soup.
My first time on your site and thought I’d give this recipe a try. It was a hit! My picky-eating teenager went back for seconds! I did substitute the pepper flakes for cayenne though. I have NEVER liked lentil soup until now. Thank you for sharing!
This soup is delicious! Full of flavor! So far I have made this soup and your vegetarian chili and both have been scrumptious. Thank you! I look forward to trying other recipes.
It’s the first cold snowy day in NY 11/20/16 just finishing up my first bowl of this soup with some crusty bread and it was perfection. The flavors and spices mixed so well together and it just came out amazing! Thank you Kate and I can’t wait to try some of your other recipes..
I made this tonight without blending because I wanted more of a soup type dish and because I didn’t want to dirty more dishes as I’m a lazy university student haha! It tasted great. I didn’t have cumin, curry, thyme, or canned tomatoes so I added some regular tomatoes (diced), chilli powder, and an Italian herb blend that I bought at the grocery store! Still tasted awesome even with all the substitutions! Thanks again!
Hi C and K. Thank you so much for this recipe… it is beyond fantastic! Just made it last night for the first time. I have been wanting an amazing lentil soup recipe, and now I have it. I left out the thyme (just a personal preference) and forgot to put the lemon in, which I will remember next time. I also, added roasted cauliflower, which I really like. I will share this recipe with family and friends… thank you again for a delicious, healthy and vegetarian meal :)
So yummy. It tasted super hearty without making me feel gross afterward. I did use chicken stock instead of vege broth. My Nutribullet did a great job with the puree. I loved this and so did my daughter!
Made this soup last weekend and have taken it every day to work for lunch. Delicious!
I have made this soup four times since I found the recipe two weeks ago. Absolutely my favorite soup ever! Perfect time of the year for it.
Made the Vegan Lentil Soup! Delicious!! I love the cumin and curry flavor. That is the first time I have ever cooked with lentils too! Thanks for the inspiration.
I was hesitant to try a new recipe on thanksgiving day but I did and it was AMAZING! My brother and I are vegetarians so I made it for us to replace the turkey and all the meat eaters ended up eating it too! They loved it and so did we. Thank you so much for making our thanksgiving full.
Made this following the recipe exactly. SO SO delicious
Wow, I made this and it is delicious. The flavour is amazing. I made a batch to take for my lunches and I had a hard time not eating a whole bowl at 10 pm! I am really looking forward to my lunch today! I used homemade chicken broth instead of vegetable because it was what I had and I used the tomatoes and their liquid and just cut down on the water. I will make this again…add it to the weekly rotation!
LOVE! Currently eating this for dinner right now with my semi picky 4 year old. We’re both chowing down! I love all the fresh veggies in it that my kid wouldn’t normally eat. I don’t really like much cumin added in my dishes but it’s not overpowering at all. All the flavor blend in quite nicely. I’m adding this to a winter must have! Thank you for a winner!
Warm and delicious! What a fabulous soup for a cold and rainy night. This was absolutely delicious.
This soup was delicious! I used 1 teaspoon of fresh thyme (had some left over) and added chopped celery. Great flavor! I’ll definitely be making it again.
I’ve made this lentil soup twice this month and taken it to work for weekday lunches! The second time I made it I added fresh kale at each reheating instead of at the beginning so it didn’t get too wilted. I really like the addition of curry powder in this recipe, as I think it’s hard to give lentil soup a lot of flavor and I love spicy foods. Thanks, Kate!
Delicious, terrific soup– my family loves it!
This is lovely …I’m on my seconds as I type ,mines was not too spicy maybe add little more spice next time.Thank you from Scotland x
This soup is amazing! I picked up some naan bread and it made it a perfect bread combo for this kind of soup. It’s extremely easy to make and I’ll be making it again. Thank you so much for this recipe.
Ah – the perfect Lentil soup recipe. I wouldn’t change a thing! Beautiful flavors and just enough spice. I will make it again and again this winter. Thank you!
Easily the best soup I’ve ever had. The flavor is just delicious. I add a little extra curry powder as well as red pepper flakes to spice it up some more. Thank you for experimenting with and sharing this recipe. I cant wait to bring it in for my job’s potluck this week. ;)
made this soup with fresh tomatoes. The store didn’t have diced, and finished off dinner with warm slices of your banana bread. It was a wonderful benediction for jack in the box for breakfast! Thanks
I made this soup for dinner last night. It’s so hearty and delicious! I’m adding it to my regular winter menu.
This is the best soup ever! I had a group of friends over this pass weekend they gave me many great comments on how great the soup was and can I please have the recipe. The only thing I’ll do different is…double the batch next time.for myself I’m very happy with the results.
Thank you much for sharing. :)
Oh my word this soup is amazing! I didn’t have any greens on hand so I added celery and it was delicious! Thanks for the recipe!
when did you add the pototes? and were they pre cooked and prepeeled?
This soup is AMAZING!! I’ve made it twice and will definitely keep it in my lineup.
It’s honestly the best soup I have ever made. I made a batch for my daughters soup group, and they were still raving about it at the end of the week. Can’t wait to try some if your others. Thanks for sharing!!
I have made this soup twice now and absolutely love it. It has so much flavour. I love it. thanks x
I swapped out the carrot for sweet potato and it was so creamy! Very hearty too :)
LOVE this soup!!! We have made it many times and never get tired of it. I have shared it with friends as well.
Sorry! I forgot to rate it…definitely 5 stars for me!
Made this soup for dinner tonight. This is the most flavourful soup I have ever made! Delicious! Definitely a keeper!