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.
I love that this soup is looks so inviting and delicious…. a lot of lentil soups looks a bit mushy…. what are the yellow pieces in the soup picture? Thanks. Will be trying this tonight!
Great description, Nance! Carrots. What did you think?
got it…. carrots!
This soup has become a staple in my kitchen and in my daughter’s. We all love it. My daughter and I both adopted a plant-based diet a few months ago and your website has become our go to for great recipes. Thanks so much for consistently providing me with something new and exciting to cook.
Sharon
I’m happy both fo you get excited to cook! Thanks for sharing and for your review, Sharon.
Yum. I used chana dal and it was wonderful. I’ll make this again. I’d add more kale though.
Great! Thank you, Cayley.
OMG! I love lentils but this is the best lentil soup I’ve ever had and my kids are throwing it down. Love it. More recipes please. How do I save it???
I’m glad! You can use the print option to save to a PDF, you pin on Pinterest.
I love to take this soup with baked bread.tastes nice
That would be a nice compliment! Thank you, Dannie for the review.
This is the recipe that introduced me to Cookie & Kate recipes! It is my “go to” soup and is now just one of many recipes that I love from your blog.
I’m so happy to hear that, Jenny! Thanks for the comment and review.
I just made this today and it’s amazing! Great flavour and enough left for lunches through the week. 10/10
Great, Claire! Thanks so much.
Truly, the Best!
Thank you, Carol!
Bomb diggity !!! My first time eating lentils … the flavor was AMAZING. Hubby loved it ! I didn’t have collards or chopped tomatoes so I used fresh spinach and stewed canned tomatoes . We can’t stop sampling after dinner.
I actually mix red and green/brown lentils Carolyn, they work just as good, I am making this again today as it’s a cold winters day in Australia. It is one of the best lentil soups ever, and makes great leftovers, thanks again Kate for this beautiful recipe.
Thanks for sharing, Julie! I appreciate your review. I agree, wonderful leftovers!
This totally lived up to its name! My family loved it <3
Great!
I’m so glad the search “vegetarian lentil soup” lead me to your site : ) I made dinner for my friend’s vegetarian mother tonight, and this was a big success (served with a salad and then Greek yogurt for dessert.) I also liked that you wrote to cook the onion until it has softened and “is TURNING translucent,” because I’m always confused as to, well, when has an onion really BECOME translucent??…(a more common direction.) This let me not overthink it, and move on to the next step. Thank you – I will be making this recipe again!
I’m so glad it did too! That’s great to hear. I’m happy the directions were helpful, and it was tasty. Thanks for the review.
The title of this one is not an exaggeration. This really is the best lentil soup. I make this essentially exactly as written (I do add a bit more carrot and use a bit less salt), and it’s incredible. The lemon at the end is key!
Thanks for sharing, Susan!
One of the best soups I ever made. Pretty much followed the recipe as written. It made too much so I froze some (3 months or so)and just had it for dinner tonight. It was just as good the second time around. It’s spicey so I added some parmesan cheese and a little sour cream. I realize that it’s no longer vegan, but that’s fine with me. Either way I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Recipe is a keeper.
I love hearing that, Marianne! Thanks so much for commenting and providing a review.
Delicious lentil soup! All four kids, my husband and I LOVED it! We made a double batch and fought over the leftovers. Thank you for sharing.
Win! Thank you, Kristin.
Can you use red lentils instead of brown or yellow?
Very much looking forward to cooking this soup. Its a bit chilly here in Australia so a nice warm soup will go down well!
I wouldn’t recommend red for this soup as they can get mushy quickly. Brown or green would work here.
By far one of my favorite soup recipes ever
Great! Thank you, Hannah.
Hi. I have already cooked brown lentils. Does this change that amount of water added?
You should be able to omit the water and it work well. However, I prefer to cook the lentils in the soup as it provides more flavor.
put a link at the top to the recipe so we don’t have to read through all the drivel
Hi George, I’m sorry you feel that way about my content. You can always skip and go to the recipe. However, I do spend a lot of time creating recipes and sharing what inspired them, as well as providing any other tips.
I am going to make this soup tonight for the third or fourth time tonight and it is soooo yummy!!! We absolutely love it! It’s also extremely healthy and a great meatless option.
Great! Thank you, Heather.
Made it and we loved it very much. Thank you!
You’re welcome, Linda!
Absolutely fantastic soup! My friends have tasted it, and can’t believe the depth of flavor :) Well done!
Thank you! Elle, I appreciate the review.
So weird a picture of the dog with the pictures of all the ingredients. It really caught me off guard, salivating over the photos of lentils, greens, carrots and kale and then what, “the dog? that’s not an ingredient….” then I just got turned off, since I am vegetarian I don’t salivate over animals. Sorry if Im too sensitive, but the photo just doesn’t fit.
I’m sorry you feel that way. Cookie is a big part of the blog and she is always helping in here own way. :)
I felt 100% the same way… don’t get me wrong — cute dog and I love animals. I love them so much that I’d never expect to see them in a vegan recipe. That picture in particular took me off guard becuae it looked a bit like a dried fuzzy kind of flower spice…. no, it is a dog — ewww.. appetite lost.
Hey Brian, I removed the dog pic. Sorry for the confusion and thank you for your feedback. Best, Kate.
This soup was absolutely delicious! One of the best I have ever had to be honest. Will definitely be making this on a regular basis. Thanks!
That’s great to hear Trudy! I appreciate the review.
It was absolutely delicious!!!!
Hooray! Thank you, Veronica for your review.
I just want you to know I’ve made this soup Like twice a month for the last 4 months and my family is always so excited when I make it. They LOVE it!
I’m glad this works so well! Thank you, for your comment and review.
I had never heard of collard greens before living in the States (2005-2007) and have never found them in Belgium, where I’m from. But my mom does have kale in her vegetable garden, so I love that this recipe gives the option to swap one for the other! I’ll definitely give this one a try.
Let me know your thoughts, Julie!
Best veggie soup ever! My husband and I are not vegans or vegetarians but are semi-health conscious and always on the lookout for new healthy meals that we actually WANT to eat! My husband can be kind of picky too and he went back for seconds and kept saying how delicious it was. I could easily purée the entire thing and just drink it (and the idea of drinking anything vegetable based normally sounds and is disgusting to me). We are adding this to our cycle of favorite dishes!!! Love that it’s pretty easy to make too!
I’m glad this soup made your list and satisfied your picky husband. :) Thanks for sharing, Jen!
how many calories are in this soup?
The nutrition information is below the notes section of the recipe. You just need to click to expand to see. :) Hopefully this helps!
As a European I am always confused of the measurements. Could you maybe add a note explaining how much “1 cup” is for example ?
Thank you :)
Hi Rufus! There are great online converters to go between US measurements and metric. But, one US liquid cup is 8 US fluid ounces. I hope this helps some.
Made this tonight – was wonderful! Even my husband, who is a meat and potatoes person, loved it. Thanks. :-)
Hooray! This soup does do that to a lot of people. Thanks for your star review, Renee.
Waving hi from Overland Park. Another great recipe. Thank you!
Hi Ellen! Thank you for your review.
I am not a vegetarian, indeed, an avid lover of meat. However, meat is expensive and I want to use lentils and beans more in my diet. I got to say, even though this is completely vegan, it tastes amazing. I even added some zucchini which gave it even more bulk. Not only filling and healthy but crazy tasty as well.
I’m glad you think so!
This is my all time favorite soup! The soups in your cookbook are amazing as well! Do you plan to post a split pea soup recipe in the near future? I hope so!
Thank you so much – your recipes have changed my life!
Warm Regards!
Tanya
You’re welcome! You are so kind, Tanya. I will keep your request on my list :)
This soup is amazing! Hearty, spicy & tasty! I am oil free so left out the oil but it is still fab :)
Happy to hear that, Ann!
It’s absolutely amazing! Truly the best lentil soup ever, and so healthy. I’ve been making this nearly once a week for months now – thought it’s about time to say thank you :D
I’m glad you did! Thank you, Angelica. I appreciate your review.
I never leave comments on recipes, but this was so yummy I had to say thank you. So thank you! <3 Perfect for a chilly fall day.
I’m so glad you did! Thanks, Natasha.
I make this soup at least once a week! I add garbanzo beans for extra protein and a little bit of turmeric! SO YUMMY!
Thanks for sharing, Hannah!
I constantly compare and add ingredients from different top chefs to enhance the flavor in soups, but this recipes’ ingredients really surpassed other recipes, without having to tweak it. The flavor is amazing!!! It is now on my top favorite lentil soup recipe. Thank you for sharing it.
You’re welcome! Thanks for your review.
In the photo it looks like there are chickpeas in it, too. Am I mistaken?
I have made this soup many times in the past and it is very good.
5 Star for sure! What can I say but WOW!!!! My favorite soup ever – and I’m 66 and love to cook.
This was a delicious soup! I’ve made it twice now. The first time I substituted white onion with leeks. My husband and I don’t eat garlic either so I just took that out completely and it was still amazing. The second time I made it when a few Hare Krishna monks came to my town. They don’t eat garlic or onions so I used a big green pepper to keep it hardy and I added a little bit of liquid smoke. It was a hit! Thank you for posting this recipe, 5 stars :)
I love how you are changing it up all the time, Sare! You’re very welcome for the recipe. I really appreciate you taking the time to comment and review!
Perfect for a rainy day. Very tasty. Added some black beans, pinto beans, and celery. Definitely recommend.
Yes, a great soup for a rainy day. Thanks for sharing, Kathryn!
Found your recipe and decided to make it today. It turned out great very tasty, didn’t have kale on hand so used celery instead. Was hesitant to add the lemon juice in the end but it really added another dimension to the soup. Good choice. Thank you!
This soup was Sooooo good. It came together very easily. My husband commented on how much he liked it every time he filled a bowl (and he filled a lot of bowls because I’d whipped up a double batch). We used fresh tomatoes from the garden, leaving the skins on and simply chopping them coarsely. Absolutely delicious. Thank you for sharing your talent!
Fresh tomatoes, there is nothing like it! Thank you, Joan for sharing. I do appreciate you taking the time to comment and providing a review.
You’re most welcome but we owe you the gratitude. This recipe will be a frequent flyer at our house. My husband whipped up another batch today(tripled the recipe this time). By the way, the pureeing of some of the soup is genius and made this soup rich, creamy and hearty.
Exceptionally good! Great taste and I enjoyed it so much!
Thank you, Lawania!
Just made this,,,,WOW so so tasty , from a bid meat eater who work for a butcher,
Thanks for your comment, Mark!
I was given LOADS of spinach and wanted to use it in a recipe that would be ideal for a cold rainy autumn day in Manchester, UK. I’m glad to say I’ve found it. It’s gone down a storm even with non vegan family members.
Thank you, Eliane! I’m glad it hit the spot.
I Your recipe. The best tasting soup I have ever eaten & easy to make with usually all the stuff you have in pantry.
Thanks so much.
Thank you, Paula! I’m glad you like it so much.