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.
This was the MOST DELICIOUS soup I have EVER had! OMG Kate, the best!!! It was winter time so I added a butternut squash and a diced red bell pepper. I also used all chicken broth instead of vegetable broth + water combo (Unfortunately this means my soup was no longer vegetarian but still tasted amazing). I topped it off with grated Parmesan-Reggiano and avocado slices and let me tell you, I will be dreaming about this soup for all time! Thank you Kate!!!
Hooray! That’s fantastic to hear. Thanks, Emily!
Can I use coconut oil intsead of olive oil?
I made today and used the coconut oil and the soup was very good.
Glad to hear it, thanks Carolyn!
Yes, as long as you don’t mind a subtle coconut flavor in the soup. I prefer olive oil in this one.
Dude!! This soup was super awesome! Thank you!
Hooray! Thanks for saying so!
This was really good! I didn’t puree the soup…mostly because I was feeling lazy. I added a little turmeric with the spices and used crushed tomatoes because that’s what I had. I sliced some avocado in my bowl before eating. I will be making this again!
Thanks, Sarah! Your soup sounds great!
Just made this for my family and they loved it! Thank you so much! :)
Hooray! Thanks, Desiree!
I literally just finished a bowl of this soup. It is incredible. I am not a soup person in general, but I want to binge on this soup, it’s so good. The flavors blend so perfectly. No spice overpowers any other, and they all add something special. Even the lemon juice at the end adds a perfect, light zing. It doesn’t get any better than this amazing, easy, quick soup.
Corinna, thank you so much for your glowing review! I’m so glad you’re loving this soup.
Calorie count ?
I’m sorry, I don’t provide nutrition facts because they’re often inaccurate when it comes to home cooking. Feel free to run this recipe through a calculator like myfitnesspal.com.
I made this for dinner a couple of nights ago and it was amazing! My husband is a big meat eater and he always feels unsatisfied with vegetarian dishes. But he loved this and it kept him full for a couple hours. We had this with whole wheat rolls, and it was such a nice combination. We are really picky and most new recipes don’t make it onto our menu rotation, but this will be made over and over again.
Thank you, Anastasia! So glad to hear that this soup met your standards.
What a delicious soup! I made a batch over the weekend and brought some in to work. I am so happy that I found your site! I feel like your approach to food and vegetarian recipes match what I have been trying to accomplish with my new diet and lifestyle. Thanks and kudos!
Awesome, thanks Kelly! I’m so glad you found my blog! :)
My go-to soup! This is honestly the most amazing recipe. Even my meat-loving other half absolutely cannot get enough! Thank you so much for all these wonderful recipes.
Hooray! Thank you, Alexandra!
I just made this and I agree, it is my favorite lentil soup recipe. It is delicious. I add some garam masala and this soup sings!!!
Hooray! Thanks, Becky!
Just made this a few moments ago- amazing! I didn’t have the diced tomatoes so I used tomato paste and an extra cup of water. I also used spinach leaves instead of kale. At the end I was also missing some acidity- probably because I didn’t have the diced tomatoes- so I added a quarter cup of red wine vinegar. And ok, I didn’t use a 1/4 cup of oil at the beginning- I’m guilty- watching those calories!
Let me just say- amazing! You might think it’s too much water/stock when you first start to make it but it’s not- the lentils really soak them up. Blending 2 cups of it and adding it back really creates that richness you’re looking for. The curry and cumin are inspired- I used some hot curry powder and it really gave me that kick I was looking for.
Thanks for this recipe! I’ll never eat boring lentil soup again!
Thanks, Kelly! So glad you enjoyed it! Your version sounds great to me.
This looks so delicious, do you think I could freeze it?
Thanks,
Issie x
concealerandkale.blogspot.co.uk
I have made this soup MANY times and always freeze half of it as there are just 2 of us. It freezes beautifully. BTW, since I’m not strictly vegetarian, I sometimes brown some crumbled sausage and throw that in near the end. Or you can put in a small ham hock and let the soup simmer longer, like 2 hours, then remove the hock, cut off all the ham and chop into smaller pieces. Toss that in and maybe a bit of Parmesan or Romano cheese and you have a delicious variation on an already great soup!
I’ve been making lentil soup for a while now and I didn’t realize, until now, how boring they all were! This one is by far the best I’ve ever tried. There are so many flavors that work together beautifully. Outstanding recipe worthy of the food network! I will be trying more!! Thank you!!
Why thank you, Lisa! Really appreciate your kind words!
I made this today and it was delicious!
Yay, thanks, Margot!
Just made this tonight. I didn’t have any greens but the result was still delicious! I ended up blending more of the soup because my little ones preferred that texture but yum either way. Thanks for a keeper!
Thank you, Becky! :)
Just made this soup on a cold and rainy June 1st and MAN, is it delicious!!! Definitely a keeper and I’m actually glad to have a yucky cool day to try it out, otherwise I probably wouldn’t have found it until the fall! Thanks Kate!
Hooray! Thank you, Cheryl!
I made this soup for dinner tonight and it was AMAZING!! I’m so looking forward to having this for lunch tomorrow! Thanks for sharing such a wonderful recipe :)
Thank you, Stacy! Delighted to hear it.
My first at lentil soup. Didn’t have any thyme. Wonderful flavor, even in 75 degree weather. Slice of key lime pie, perfect combo ( I had the pie first) thanks for the recipe.
I am all for pie before dinner! So glad you enjoyed this soup, Kendra.
Tonight I Googled “lentil soup” and found yours. Glad I did! Very easy recipe to follow. I love lentil soups generally, but yours is pretty fab. The spice combo is perfect. Many thanks!
Awesome! Thank you for saying so, Jeff.
Bloody delish! Thanks for this!
Thank you, Ariel!
Hi Kate
Saw a bag of Roland lentils in my favorite Italian deli and was inspired to do something, and checked your site and sure enough found this recipe. Just make it and the flavors are amazing, especially like the lemon. Doubled the recipe and it will be lunches for my wife and I, plus a quart to send home to my son in Brooklyn. Congrats – great recipe, and so healthy too!
Thank you, Mark! Really happy to hear that you came here to look for recipes. :) Glad you all enjoyed the soup!
This soup is really delicious!! Perfect amount of heat, and lots of amazing flavours!! The dish is so colorful from the orange carrots, red tomatoes and greens – mouthwatering! I used broth instead of oil, and it still turned out magnificent – definitely will make again!
Thank you so much, Carol-Ann! :)
Kate, This Is THE BEST Soup I’ve Ever Had!
The taste, colour and texture are spectacular!
It’s just the perfect accessory to the latest album from Melody Gardot. Or was it the other way around? ;)
Cooked it many times now, not going to stop.
Thank you so much for sharing it.
Thank you, Ole-E.! So glad you enjoyed it. I didn’t know that Melody had a new album out. I’m off to listen!
This is an amazing recipe!!!
I did add Bay leaves, celery and potatoes. I used fresh tomatoes instead of canned because mine needed using and it is why I was searching out soup recipes in the first place. I also changed out 1/2 cup of the green lentils for red because I like the two together. The smell while it is cooking is so delicious and the taste once it is done is even better!
Thank you, Jamie! Your version sounds terrific!
This was amazing. I didn’t have kale so used some frozen spinach instead and it worked a treat. Delicious blend of spices. It was also incredibly cheap to make and used ingredients that are pretty much always in my cupboard. Thanks.
Thank you, Susan! Delighted to hear it!
Yum! So good. Thank you for sharing! I made it for a lady I’m courting, and I think she may fall in love with me. If not, I have a really yummy soup for myself. :)
Haha, I’m rooting for you, Charles!
I made this soup last night as prep for coming off a psyllium cleanse today.. it almost killed me not to be able to try it!! It smells so good, I cannot wait to have it for lunch today! I will be using your website much more in the future for recipes. Thank you so much for posting this!!
Hey Breeana! Hope this soup was worth the wait!!!
Just made the soup and it has lots of flavor which I love. The seasonings are wonderful. If you only have a 14oz can of tomatoes that would be totally fine, too. My recommendation is to taste it before serving just to make sure everything is fully cooked. Mine needed a little more time – which I realized after I served it. : (
Thank you, Debbie! I’m sorry your lentils weren’t cooked through. Lentil cooking time can vary by their age, etc. :(
I made it and it was great. I used real diced tomatoes with a bit of tomato juice instead of canned, and I used swiss chard as the green at the end. We ate it with plain yogurt, it was delicious.
Thank you, Natalie! Happy to hear it!
This soup was PHENOMENAL!
I followed it to a T, too. (Though I had to DIY the curry powder and I used spinach in place of kale).
My father (who’s quite the food critic and rather picky when it comes to spice-ful dishes) called it– and I quote– “The soup of ages”!!! He wouldn’t stop talking about it to everyone in my family.
Thank you for this wonderful recipe. I will definitely be putting it on my list of recipes to return to.
The soup of ages!!! That’s quite a compliment. Thank you, Michelle!
Great, yummy and generous soup!I replacer olive oil with coconut oil and used baby bok choy for greens. Delicious, thank you!
Thanks, Vick! So glad you enjoyed it!
I made this soup last night for dinner and it was absolute delicious!! The best lentil soup I’ve ever had so creamy and hearty! I can’t wait to have left overs for dinner! I used the whole lemon because I never know what to do with the other half and I just poured the soup over white rice! Thank you for this recipe! <3
This was AMAZING! Made a large pot for my lunches over the week! Had this and corn thins! It’s so good! Highly recommended!
Thanks Cookie & Kate! :)
Yay! Thanks, Sudan!
OMG, this soup is AMAZING!!! I added in an additional lemon, pepper and used Cayenne pepper in place of the red pepper flakes. When I read this recipe earlier today, I was hoping that it was going to be a keeper. :) It sure is! I always thought I didn’t like lentil soups until today. Thank you so much for such an awesome recipe!
Thank you, Tammy! Glad you found a winner in this one!
So good! I added a tablespoon of coconut butter to my serve. Yummo too. Thank you, Kate, this is my new fav xxx
Great idea! Thank you, Jane!
Terrific – thank you – this lentil soup was easy to cook (even for an Aussie!) and tasted yum. I didn’t add the additional water and halved the vegetable broth. In this way it was more a casserole or stew than a soup – but that’s how I like it. But also, and what was really nice, I added a heaped teaspoon of tamarind paste. Tamarind paste gives it a really nice taste. I used red lentils instead of brown or green but that’s just because they happened to be in the pantry at the time. Thanks for the recipe – this is going into the “make again for sure” folder. Five stars!
Thanks, Fiona! I’m glad the soup turned out well with those substitutions!
Also wondering, could I freeze this? If so, at what part in the process?
Looks delish!!
This looks delish! Wondering if I could freeze it? If so, at what point in the process should I freeze ? Thank you!
Yes, I think this will freeze well! Just cook the soup as directed, then let it cool completely before dividing it into freezer-safe containers and freezing. Be sure to leave a little extra space at the top, since water expands as it freezes.
I put the tomatoes in the food processor and pulsed them before adding. I also added a teaspoon of tandori spices! Yummy!!!!
Sounds great! Thank you, Sharon!
Thanks for this recipe! This is one of the first dishes I made when I became vegan 5 months ago. I ate what I could for a few days, and then froze the rest into one serving containers to eat for lunch at work. Now that all the frozen containers are gone, I am making another batch tonight. I used red lentils last time because that’s all I had, and added fresh parsley as a topping, and it was absolutely perfect. I appreciated the meal more and more each time I ate it over the last few months. Thanks again!
Thank you so much, Cassie! Delighted to hear it!
My husband went to Colombia on a mission trip and came home saying the lentil soup he had there was the best! I wanted to try to replicate it for him so I found this recipe and decided to give it a try. I’ve NEVER enjoyed lentils in anything and this soup is OUTSTANDING! We absolutely loved it. It will definitely go into our dinner rotation. Thank you for a delicious soup recipe!
Hip hip hooray! Thank you, Karen!
It is 90 degrees but I craved lentil soup. This is my new favorite recipe for sure! I made a few changes including using crushed tomatoes, hot curry powder, frozen spinach, and added a touch of cinnamon. I may eat the whole pot tonight :) great recipe!
Awesome, thanks Shelley!!!
Can I substitute, say, one quart of my garden tomatoes for the 28oz can? Thanks!
Yes, I think so! This soup recipe is pretty forgiving.
Your recipe was my third and best batch of tomato soup made from my garden tomatoes this year — by far the best! It was delicious and I look forward to many more servings. (My yield was 7 cups.) I used a mix of cut up Striped German and Cherokee Purple tomatoes (4 cups, with skins), left out the lemon and greens, but stuck with the other ingredients. Cook time was 37 minutes. I esp. liked the spicy nature of the soup and intend to explore more of your recipes. Thank you!
Thank you, Thad! So glad your soup turned out great, and hope you enjoy my other recipes just as much! :)
This is the BEST lentil soup I’ve ever made – or eaten! It is really difficult to find a great lentil soup recipe, lots of them are really bland. This is unbelievably delicious. Thanks so much for sharing.
Hooray! Thank you, Katherine.
I made this last night with only minor substitutions, based on what I had on hand. I used 28 ounces of crushed tomatoes instead of diced, then reduced the water by 1 cup. I also did it in a pressure cooker to reduce time and it worked beautifully! I have the kind of cooker with a brown setting that lets me cook in the pot, so I followed all of the steps exactly, except at step 3, I put the lid on and cooked at high pressure for 15 minutes. The lentils were tender, the carrots still held their shape, and I got to eat the deliciousness faster! If you have a pressure cooker, this will work great in it!
Thanks, Melanie! Now I want a pressure cooker, if it’ll make this soup in 15 minutes! Amazing.
I’ve recently decided to stop eating meat. This was this was one of the very first soup recipes I found, and I just finished making it, about 20 minutes ago. It smells amazing and tastes even better! This is going to be one of my regular recipes in rotation from now on!
Awesome! Thanks, Jennifer! All of my recipes are meatless, so there are lots to choose from here! :)
Iam a new Vegan and I love this recipe
Thanks Maggie! Glad to hear it.
Looks like a great recipe! Do you think this one will do well re-heated? Any instructions for freezing/heating? Need to make it in advance for a large dinner gathering! Thanks!!
Hi Rachel, yes, I think this one will reheat well! If you’re serving a crowd, I wouldn’t try freezing it all—that’s a lot to defrost. (I like to freeze soups in individual portions.) I’d just reheat it on the stove over medium-low heat. You might want to add a bit more lemon juice or salt before serving, just to wake up those flavors again.
I just made this last night and it turned out to be amazing! I was out of curry so had to leave it out, and used cayenne pepper instead of the flakes. I can’t wait to make it again when I have the curry! So good, thank you.
Thanks, Kezia! Glad to hear it!