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.
Oh My Goodness! Where has this recipe been all my life? I’ve made lentils several times throughout the years because I enjoy them. Somehow though, I’ve never added lemon to it. Instead of just lemon juice, I added the juice AND zest of a whole lemon. Also I had no collards, so I used spinach. The lemon gave it a brightness that elevated my usual, sometimes boring lentils, into pure heaven. I don’t like lentils anymore. I LOVE THEM!
THANK YOU!!!
I’m so glad you loved it, Les! Thank you for sharing how you made this soup. I appreciate you taking the time to review.
Fantastic recipe, hands down THE best lentil soup I’ve had to date!
Excellent. I would cook the garlic, cumin and curry for a healthy 1.5 as garlic doesn’t cook down enough in 30 seconds and will be a bit raw still.
I used fire roasted tomatoes and it was amazing.
Re: Your best lentil soup
The recipe does not indicate the quantity of lentils.
Please advise.
Thanks.
RTl
I am a huge cook. It’s my therapy and I love to work with a multitude of ingredients/spices from across the globe. Lentil has never been one of them.. until now. This soup was hands down the most delicious I’ve EVER made. I definitely get very heavy handed on the spices, but that’s just how I like it. Even my carnivore-loving boyfriend inhaled this! Absolutely amazing!!!
Thanks Made this soup yesterday, very filling and nutritious Will certainly try some of the other soups Thank you! Very useful tip to puree some and put back as this gives thickness without using eg white flour to thicken and still have whole pieces to eat and gives more texture Husband loved it!
Fenella Gill New Zealand
Best. Soup. Ever.
Made this last night, it was delicious, even without the curry, which I love but did not have on hand. Definitely a keeper!!! Thank you!
WOW! It was so good, an easy recipe to follow. Highly recommend
It truly is the best lentil soup I’ve ever eaten. Thanks so much for sharing this recipe! We were so busy enjoying it that I forgot to take a photo of it but I will next time!
I have beenaking this soup for 2 years and it’s a firm favourite in our home – I get weekly requests for this! Thank you soooooo much!
Love this recipe! So warming and great spices!
Thank you, Emma!
This is my favourite recipe which I go back over and over again, simply because it’s great pretty much all year round. It’s super easy and very quick to make. You also get a good portion of your daily veg intake :) not to mention that my toddler just loves it!
Hooray! Thank you for sharing, Marlena! I appreciate you taking the time to let me know your thoughts.
This was delicious! I’m curious how much a serving is though? We are trying to watch our weight :)
Hi Linda! Roughly 1.5-2 cups is a serving.
Total yum powerhouse stew .
Help! I used crushed tomatoes instead of diced by mistake. It is very runny now, like pasta sauce, but lacking the benefit of being a good soup or pasta sauce. It is not very enjoyable. Any ideas how to fix it or make something of it?
Hi Jeff, I’m sorry to hear that! You could possibly serve it with rice or something like that? Let me know!
This soup is sooo yummy!! I used red lentils and frozen spinach.
This was so delicious. Lots of flavor. Made as written except used a bit less olive oil. I highly recommend making this.
Thanks for your wonderful recipe. I LOVE this soup. It’s easy to make and so tasty and healthy. I’ve made it many times and I’m always asked for the recipe.
OMG ! This recipe is amazing ! It was nice and easy to make, the preparation didn’t take much time either. It went down really well with the whole family. I added kale in to mine but all in all the recipe was easy to follow and tasted amazing ! Thank you :)
This comment is LONG overdue. My mom first started making this soup about 4 years ago, when I was a college freshman, and I always requested it when I came home from school. Now I’ve been living in an off-campus apartment and make this almost every week. I usually add oven roasted carrots at the end of the cooking process – I think it adds another element of flavor. I also don’t have a tool to blend, so while it may not be as creamy, its SO tasty.
I’m curious – have you ever made it in an instantpot/pressure cookert? I’d love to pressure cook it but I have no idea how long to cook it for.
Hi Nemo! I’m happy you commented and that you love this soup. I haven’t made it in a pressure cooker, but I believe others have so I would suggest seeing what others have tried in the comments.
I have made many recipes from your website and they are all delicious and turn out exactly right every time!
Can’t wait to make this lentil soup.
Delicious! Thank you!
I had 4 cups of lentils, so I multiplied all measurements by 4.
Used what I had so here are my substitutes: grape seed oil instead of olive oil, head of cabbage instead of collards, no thyme, used tumeric, no lemon, used lime. Did not blend ingredients, but I’m in love…
came out really well. was delicious. I did not add thyme and “vagetable broth”. just added water.
Tired of my go-to lentil soup recipes, I Googled best lentil soup and am certainly glad I did. The only change I made was to add 1 teaspoon hot curry powder and 1 regular curry powder. And I added some chicken sausages which I needed to use up. It was delicious. Thank you so much for the recipe.
Oh my, I have no words to describe how delicious it is. When it started boiling it just filled the whole house with its mouthwatering aroma and I knew right away, this is a winner. I even took some shortcuts, I used a can lentils and just added water as I had no stock and still, the best soup I’ve ever cooked. Thank you, love it!
We loved this soup! I tweaked it as I went, based on the ingredients on hand. It was a whim on a rainy day. We are not vegans, so I used turkey broth, and cabbage rather than kale. Skipped the part about blending part of it, and the consistency was still great. I think the lemon juice and the spices took it over the top. Thank you!
Delicious. Only change was to add some celery, which I should’ve cooked first along with the onions. Amazing, hearty recipe.
Thank you for your review, JG.
I’m a Lentil lunatic and this was one of the best I’ve had, like damn. Dipped some siete cassava chips in and SO FRICKING GOOD!
I’m glad you are so excited about this one, Kellie! Thank you for your review.
I love this. Taste amazing!
This was good, with some modifications! I tripled the cumin, red pepper, and thyme. I added celery, an extra half cup of lentils, and an extra carrot and some oregano, sage, cayenne pepper, and garlic powder. I also threw a spoon of sugar in when simmering the tomatoes, for some added depth.
I’ve also made this without the 2 cups of water, letting the broth soak into the lentils until there’s little liquid left and forgoing the blending part of the recipe. This less soupy version is delicious served over white rice with some chopped red onion and green onion or cilantro.
this was bomb af thx
I didn’t have enough tomatoes so I put some purée in with the spices and cooked it for a few minutes. I love chilli so chilli powder too. Really good soup. Amazing the second day. Thank you
This is my new lentil soup recipe. It was very good. I added potatoes instead of kale because I did not have it in the fridge. I used homemade bouillon that I keep on hand. Thank you
I’m going to make this tomorrow as my refeed meal for the week,after an 8 day fast. I’m wanting to get more vegies in me during this time, so aside from adjusting ingredients to match the additional vegies, do you have any other recommendations or advice?
TIA
Hi Aj, I’m not sure on your specific needs. But I suggest just increasing the veggies as you need to. I like the combination recommended. You may need to increase the cooking time and liquid.
healthy and filling, ty for the recipe, it came out great
Wonderful to hear, Art! I appreciate you taking the time to review.
Wow!! Amazing, I am so glad I googled lentil soup. This recipe is fire. I substituted cayenne pepper and paprika for curry. The soup was very acidic, but I prefer it that way. I paired the lentil soup with jasmine rice, and a sprinkle of cheese. I look forward to seeing other delicious recipes. Thank you so much!
Thank you for sharing the way you changed the soup up, Gilderr!
Wow, just wow! Went looking for a lentil soup recipe online this morning because I couldn’t find my old family recipe and couldn’t get mom on the phone. Saw one recipe first, didn’t really move me, saw this one second, and, honestly, it is the lemon that moved me. I am not even finished with my first bowl and I had to leave a comment because of how good this lentil soup is! Thank you!
One of few recipes I’ve tried where I would change absolutely nothing. It’s perfect!
Love this recipe…tried it twice and it’s a winner in my house, even loved by my 17 month old. Second time I added roasted broccoli n cauliflower and it was still so delicious.
This lentil soup is AMAZING! Like a few other folks, I used frozen spinach in place of kale because it was what I had on hand. Otherwise, I made the recipe as written. We will be keeping this recipe in the rotation. Thank you!
I made this last night for the first time and my carnivore husband said it was his favorite soup I’ve ever made! The only change I made was adding chopped celery to the onions and garlic, and extra chard and kale at the end – delicious! Thank you for a great recipe!
I am on a veggie soup kick and this recipe is amazing. I followed it exactly and love, love, love it. You have a new #1 fan for sure! Thank you
One of my favorite recipes of all time. I like to add a full bag of carrots I cut, along with a full package of chopped celery. Because I have extra veg, I add extra seasonings. I don’t have room for (or need) the extra water in my pot in addition to the vegetable broth. I loveeeeeeeeeeee it. It turns into more of a stew than a soup, but it’s just the way I like it!! I like to add no sodium added tomatoes and low sodium vegetable broth and skip the added salt. I find it still plenty salty with just the salt from the broth! The natural flavors zing!!! A serious winner. I find myself even eating this cold leftover now that it’s summer. I always double the recipe. A keeper.
That’s great, Amy! Thank you for sharing. I love the idea of eating it cold for summer.
This soup was amazing! I half pureed the whole pot so that my kids couldn’t see the vegetables chunks, and it was perfect!!
I’m happy it worked, Seline! Thanks for sharing.
Best lentil soup ever! Everyone loves it! Lemon at the end does wonders for brightening the flavor. So deliciously healthy! What more do you need in life?
I agree! Thank you for your review, CeeCee.
I’ve been making this soup for a couple of years now and it’s one of our family favorites. Thank you! FYI I made it in the Instant Pot for the first time last week (mainly for the “keep warm” feature–you’re right, it’s not really a time saver) and 15 min at high pressure worked out great. I also used low-sodium broth and no-salt-added diced tomatoes and it was still super flavorful.
Thank you for sharing you made it in an Instant Pot! So many have asked. I appreciate it.
How many people will it feed? I’ve got a lunch birthday party coming up and thinking about making this soup?
Thanks!
Hi there! This is a great party option. The recipe yields 4 large bowls (generous servings), or more like 6 to 8 modest bowls, depending on what you’re serving with it. Hope that helps.
The title says its all! I just made a double portion and plan on freezing all the leftovers so I can have the soup any time I want.
This this lentil soup was the first recipe I tried from your site and it was just spectacular the taste of the difference condiments just went perfect together. My whole family loved it.