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.
Kate! Let me jump on board with the others to say how much I loved this recipe! The lemon at the end was such a great addition! Sharing to FB now!!!!
And my carnivore hubby even really liked it! (we cooked some spicy sausage for his serving!)
Kudos!
Thanks so much, Maria! :)
Just made this and holy moly, it is delicious! I’ve never been let down by your recipes, thanks for another home-run!
Hip hip! Thank you, Maggie!
My whole family loved this amazing soup! I will definitely try more of your recipes! We are vegetarians not vegans, so I added a plop of goat cheese to the top as I served it. Thank you!
Thank you, Connie! Happy to hear it!
This soup is very delicious! I make it at the beginning of the week and bring the leftovers for lunch all week. I usually add some potatoes to the soup, because who doesn’t love potatoes?
Yum!!! So glad you’re enjoying this one, Deanna.
I am constantly on the lookout for hearty soup recipes and have a few core ones I love, but find that many recipes look good, but disappoint. I just made this one today and it is delicious! I followed the recipe exactly except I used a a whole bag of mix of kale, chard, and spinach. Thanks for the recipe!
Thank you, Lenora! Glad to hear it! You might enjoy my quinoa vegetable soup, too, which is based on this one and very hearty.
My bf hates chunks of tomatoes… Think I could use crushed instead? If yes, prob less than 28 oz right? Thoughts?
Hey Stefanie, that’s a good question. Crushed should work fine. Maybe just add half the can, taste and add more if you want to!
This looks amazing…what are the “yellow” pieces I see in the pic?
Carrots
They almost looked like butternut squash which I would imagine would be great tasting too!
I see that you drain the tomatoes before adding to the soup. Do you ever put the water from the tomatoes back into the soup?
No, I never did. You can add the liquid if you’d like a less thick soup!
I love lentil soup and this one is outstanding! Spiced perfectly. Beautiful to look at–which isn’t always true of lentil soups–and delicious/nutricious! Thank you for the recipe.
Thank you, Meg! :)
Hi
I made this soup and my very carnivorous husband says it’s the best soup I’ve ever made. Thanks very much
Woohoo! Thank you, Ellie!
I made this last night and it is literally the best soup I’ve ever made. Thank you for the recipe! I’ve never even had lentil soup before but I decided why not. Leftovers for lunch today!
Woohoo! Thank you, Debra!
I made this soup for my Pastor and I for lunch yesterday. It was wonderful Kate! Thanks so much!!! I shared the recipe with her too! :)
God Bless,
Sherry
My husband doesn’t care for curry, so I subbed chili powder for it. It was excellent!
So delicious and easy – thanks for a knockout recipe! Glad I found your blog! :)
Fantastic recipe! I added fire roasted tomatoes, because it was what I had in the pantry, and it worked really well. Also subbed spinach for the greens. Excellent recipe. Will definitely put this one in our rotation!
Thank you, Julie! Happy to hear it!
hands down my favorite lentil soup. i love changing it up and adding different veggies. my fiance loves it and he’s not vegan! :)
Thank you, Scarlett! Happy to hear it!
Made this soup today for dinner. I am always looking for healthy vegetarian soup recipes, and this is the best lentil soup I have ever tasted. I used rosemary infused olive oil to cook the vegetables, as I thought it would blend in well. This is definitely a keeper. Thanks so much for sharing your recipe!
Hooray, thanks Cheryl! Your rosemary olive oil sounds delightful.
Excellent soup! Of course, it’s hard to go wrong with the golden trio of tomato/garlic/cayenne but I had never seen a lentil soup with tomatoes in it. What a shame that is! I loved the soup, and will definitely be making it again soon. I am going to try it with less curry powder next time.
Thank you! I love lentils with tomatoes. Glad you do, too!
As I was packing up to leave our NC mountain home on Thursday to return to Charlotte, I was hit with a case of motherly guilt since my daughter was coming the next day with some Chapel Hill Med School friends to study by the fire over the long MLK weekend. The fridge was bare! I opened the pantry door and found a big jar of lentils and after some googling I found this wonderful recipe. Thank you.
I have a question – why did my lentils not soften? Was I supposed to soak? I have had the same problem in past. I used a blend of yellow, green and red? (There were 3 types I had mixed in a jar.)
Meanwhile, I adapted the recipe to use what was on hand(and add protein since it did not need to be vegan)….liquids were chicken and vegetable broth plus water, chopped leeks instead of onion, a ham hock, no carrots….after cooking maybe an hour I used an immersion blender to try and soften….
long story short – despite crunchy lentil pieces, it was delicious! My daughters’ friends requested the recipe and I just sent….
and thanks kindly for lentil softening advise!
Redeemed Mom in NC
Hi Sue! One of my dear friends/former roommates is in med school at UNC. :) I’m sorry your lentils didn’t soften! Lentil cooking time varies, depending on the age of the lentils (they vary in moisture content, and fresher lentils generally cook faster). They probably just needed longer cooking time, although an hour is quite a while. Soaking would help, and it’s probably worth doing if you know your lentils need some extra help. I’m glad they still enjoyed it!
I NEVER comment on recipes….but I felt this needed another 5 star review. Followed almost exactly with a great result. I used a full head of kale (it was going to go bad) and added cilantro (because I love it). AMAZING soup. I am always adding more spices and flavours…didn’t add any additional spices to this one! Absolute new favourite.
Thank you so much for taking the time to comment, Milan! I appreciate it! :)
Kate, as usual, an awesome recipe! Today, I am now a believer that it does not take collard greens that long to soften. And they even taste better when they are not soggy! The lemon really made the taste pop. I used the red lentils, and it came out great. The lentils were not as soft as I thought they would be, but they were still good, and I actually enjoyed them with a soft crunch. Definitely a keeper!
Yay, glad you agree with me on the collards now! Thank you for your comments, Kecia. :)
Fabulous soup! On my first attempt, I was brave & doubled the recipe to share it w/our neighbors. They raved about it & so did my husband!
Best lentil soup–ever! Thank you!
Awesome! Thank you, Susie!
Needed to use up some lentils, and found this soup. I shared this with two friends and my vegan daughter. Everyone loved it – it’s so gratifying to hear their spoons scooping up every last bit!
I’m not a spicy food person, so I left out the red pepper. The lemon juice really brightens it up. I will definitely make this again.
Thank you, Valerie! Happy to hear it!
Just made this tonight, realising that I had made this amazing soup once before! I added cider vinegar in at the end with the lemon juice and my greens were made up of kale, baby spinach and some chard I had picked from a friends garden today. The soup is so wholesome and takes me back to my childhood. My husband is not a vegan like me but is easily swayed when he has food like this. I really love your food and website (and of course Cookie) Kate – keep up the great work!! Mel
Thank you so much, Mel! Glad you rediscovered this soup! Your version sounds fantastic.
PS I meant to give you 5 stars but for some reason I was only able to select 4!
Came out delicious! My 16 year old son said “I am literally addicted to this soup” and had 4 bowls! We therefore finished a pot in one evening. I was looking forward to leftovers…
Four bowls! Those teenage boys are impressive. So glad you all enjoyed these!
Absolutely Delicious and so easy to make! Thanks again, Cookie and Kate, for another keeper!
Hooray, thanks Julie!
This soup is on the stove awaiting dinner. Well … that’s assuming it’s going to make it that far. One has to continue tasting to see if the flavor is changing, you know. Btw, the flavor is incredible. The one smallish change I made was when I went to the fridge and discovered that I had no greens — of any kind. Yes, I was aghast, too. However, I did have a container of baby bellas that needed to be used. So, that was my substitute. I threw them in with the onions and carrots. All I can say is … dinner had better come around soon. I only recently found this site when searching for cholesterol-friendly foods, so this is only the second recipe I’ve tried. Both are five-star recipes. Thanks, Kate, for sharing your gift. This is quickly becoming one of my favorite foodie sites.
Hi Bonnie! Thank you for saying hello. I hope the soup turned out fantastic. So glad you found my site!
I’ve made this twice and shared the recipe with my daughter. It’s great! Only problem is it disappears too fast! I did add lemon.
So flavorful – this lentil soup is such a warming, satisfying meal on a cold Winter evening. I was out of lemons (eeeek – how did I let THAT happen??!!) – so added just a dash of apple cider vinegar for acidity – it balanced the soup out perfectly.
Everyone took some for lunch the next day and it was even tastier!
Just love this website! I’ve found many of your recipes can easily be adapted to suit my Vegan diet.
Just made this tonight…this is the BEST lentil soup I have ever tasted. We are about to get our first winter snowstorm of the season in a day in New York and I’m looking forward to having this while watching the snow ….a thick creamy filling soup..I also added a crushed fresh sage leaf. I would recommend this soup to everyone. Bob Appetit!
I used red lentils from a Dr. Oz recipe but the instructions were not clear. My lentils were slightly over cooked but the flavor is delicious. I will try your recipe next time. Any suggestions for cooking red lentils?
Hi Pam, I’ve found that lentil cooking time varies depending on their age (older lentils tend to be more dried out and take longer to hydrate). Maybe yours were fresher than the show’s lentils, or maybe you simmered them at a higher heat? Red and yellow lentils cook faster than green/brown lentils, in my experience. My only real tip is to keep an eye on the lentils and take them off heat before they’re over cooked.
This soup is FABULOUS. I’ve made two double batches in the past three weeks! Made some alterations due to what I did/didn’t have on hand; mainly I added celery and used Korean chili powder rather than curry an some cooking wine. It’s a great mix of hearty and a little heat. Thanks for sharing this!
Thank you, Brianna! I’ve never tried Korean chili powder!
Blizzard in NY today, so I decided lentil soup was a must. Found this recipe and I’m so glad I did! I made a double batch and it is delicious! My husband and I have been standing around the pot refilling our bowls every time we hit bottom. (It’s really awesome with some Cholula hot sauce). Thank you!! Look forward to trying more of your recipes.
Thank you, Dana! I’m so glad you found my blog. :)
Best. Soup. Ever. I will admit, my eyebrow raised slightly at the 1/4 cup oil. But I did it, loved it, will make it again. I’m getting ready to stalk your blog to see more! (Found this link on Pinterest)
Thank you, Julie! So glad you found my blog and enjoyed the soup.
Awesome lentil soup. This one is really like a stew, nice and thick. I did leave out the water and just used the juice from the tomatoes with the broth. Four tiny dried cayenne peppers gave a nice heat kick. Also threw in some sliced fennel bulb because it needed to get used! I used my stick blender to partly puree the soup which gives a really lovely texture. Then I added baby spinach right before serving (no kale in the house). Yummo!
Absolutely fantastic! Yum, yum, yum! Shared it with three others. Everyone loved it. It did take me a lot longer than 10 minutes to chop up all the veggies. The bonus was that it made much more than 4 servings. Did I mention that it was perfect?
Thank you, Kathleen!
Hi, Kate. I am an 11 year old vegan, and sometimes it is hard to find foods I like. Not anymore! This soup has a nice flavor with well blending spices. Although I love to cook, I was doing my homework and my mom cooked it. I didn’t think it was going to be good because lentil soup is so dull, but this was so bright and flavorful. Tell Cookie hi, and thank you for this great recipe.
Thank you, Becca! I’m so glad you enjoyed this soup. Cookie says hi back!
Xoxoxo
Xox hey do u have more good vegan recipes
Yes, here are all of my vegan recipes!
This soup is fabulous! It is delicious and simple. I made one batch last week and brought it to work everyday for my lunch and then made another batch this week! Even my boyfriend, who is kind of picky and loves meat, couldn’t get enough of it!
Thank you, Sharma! I’m so glad you both enjoyed it!
I was looking for a hearty healthy soup. I came across your website yesterday and saw this soup. I made this last night and it is absolutely delicious. It didn’t take long to make either. It’s so flavorful and filling. Thank you for this wonderful recipe. I can’t wait to try more of your recipes.
Thank you, Melissa! I’m so glad you enjoyed the soup and hope you love the others just as much!
Wow! that was wonderful, thank you for sharing this recipe!
Marianne (London)
Thank you, Marianne!
Kate – can you use black lentils?
Hi Terri, I think they’ll work fine, although you might need to simmer the soup a little longer (they often take longer to cook than plain brown lentils).
Hi Kate, just wanted to tell you that your lentil soup is the first vegan recipe we decided to try and kick start our vegan journey. And it’s a very very encouraging experience! You are welcome to drop by my website to take a peek of my version. :)
http://ohsweetday.com/2016/01/spiced-lentil-soup.html
Fantastic recipe. Have made it twice now, I’ve memorized it! :D Thanks for sharing.
Thank you, Taylor!
This soup is amazing!! Healthy, absolutely delicious, cheap and easy to make :) One of the best, if not the very best, soups I’ve had in years! Perfect combination of spices and flavours.
Thank you very much, Jodie!
So #%^**<•¥ good!!!!!!!!
Woop woop!!!
Love this! I’ve made it twice a week for a month. I pop a tin of butter or cannelloni beans in and some red cabbage sometimes.. Mwah!! I’m so happy I found you X
Thank you, Lynn! :)
First time lentil cooker here! What a lovely favourful soup! I did add more carrots and celery. Didn’t have any kale or collard greens so I put a handful of spinach in my bowl and poured the soup over that. Thank you for sharing this delightful soup, great for cold Canadian winters :)
This is the best soup. I’ve been making it at least twice a month for the past few winter months. The only change I make is that I use lime instead of lemon. Thanks for sharing such a great recipe!
Really fantastic recepie. Thank You….this is my second time making it & I know it’s becoming a staple in our home.