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.
Made this last night. It was great! Creamy & very filling & easy to make. Will be making it again…and again…
Decided to make this today and haven’t made in quite a while. OMG this is such a good and easy recipe. The lemon juice really makes the soup shine.
Thanks for the recipe.
Wow! I followed this recipe to the t, which I never do, and I am so glad I did. It was AMAZING! I loved it and so did my husband. The lemon really made it lighten up and blending it made it the perfect consistency. THANK YOU! :-)
You’re welcome! I’m excited you loved this recipe, Christine.
I retired recently and have taken an interest in expanding my rather pedestrian cooking repertoire. This soup was absolutely delicious & looked so appealing with the red tomatoes & deep green of kale!
Loved this recipe! I added 2 stalks of celery, a pinch of cayenne and saffron to take it to the next level!
I loved the flavor of this soup! So many Pinterest recipes claim to be the best, but this really is the best lentil soup I’ve made. I used spinach since I didn’t have other greens on hand, and added some sliced mushrooms that were about to get old. Both changes worked out well and I would make the soup that way again. Thanks for this terrific recipe!
I’m happy you agree, Jill! Thank you for your review.
I made this recipe the other day and it was fabulous. The kitchen smelled so good from the spices, but best of all it tasted wonderful and was super filling. With crusty bread, just the ticket. Thank you!
Absolutely delicious, especially on a cold winter night. I am thinking of using fresh tomatoes instead of canned. Would you know how many tomatoes I would need and which kind?
Thank you for sharing all your wonderful recipes with us!
Hi! I haven’t tried it with this recipe. I find that the canned tomatoes actually give it so much flavor. Using fresh, you may need to adjust the seasoning. Sorry to not be of more help!
I only have a 14 oz can of tomatoes. Will that work?
I think so. I would not drain it.
This recipe was so delicious I made it twice. The second time I made it I added 1/2 tsp of ground ginger and replaced the curry powder with garam masala for a light dose of sweetness. Awesome recipe, Kate!
Thank you for your review, Jeremy!
I read many of the comments but I screw recipes up a lot and honestly my hopes were not high. But WOW this soup turned out amazing. This is going to be a staple in my home. The only thing I changed was I’m a big citrus person so I left the lemon juice out of the pot and just squeeze a wedge of lemon in my bowl. Also added double amount of greens. Thanks so much!
It really is the best lentil soup. I’d previously made a million different lentil soup recipes, all sort of pleasantly earthy (er, bland). Somehow, this soup tastes totally different. It’s delicious.
Put this recipe in your regular recipe rotation! It’s so incredibly healthy but so insanely flavorful. To be honest, usually the idea of a lentil soup is so unappealing to me. But I’ve followed Cookie and Kate for years and I made this (because I trust her! Haha) and it’s the BOMB. It’s a crowd pleaser, too – everyone came back for seconds when I made it for a group!
Just wanted to say that I admire how the recipe is structured. Whenever I scroll up to check whats next, the items chart follows exactly the preparation steps. So convenient, and soup is delicious.
This is the best lentil soup I have ever had!! My whole family loves it and we have it almost weekly. I always try to make extra to freeze but there is never extra. Thanks for the recipe.
This has become my go-to weekly soup for home office lunch. Totally yummy with simple ingredients.
Spices on this soup work so well together. I added a potato and some celery. Will definitely make this again. Thanks!
Thank you! I think that’s what really sends this one over the top.
This recipe is delicious. I did not have curry powder so I looked up how to make it and I made it in two minutes. I may add spinach next time instead of kale because I like it better. It is the perfect soup for a rainy day like today. I will definitely add it to my regular rotation. I love that it reminds me of Indian food. Thank you so much for this new favorite soup recipe
Absolutely delicious and so flavorful. Easy to double as well. I subbed whole peeled tomatoes because I didn’t have diced on hand. Also replaced collard greens with 2 small diced potatoes, added immediately after adding the tomatoes. We topped the finished soup with a hard boiled egg. My tummy is so happy right now! Thanks for sharing your recipe!
Restaurant quality I’d say! So DELICIOUS! I made mine in the InstaPot..8 min! Added celery- just needed to use that up! Will definitely make again!
Hello! Thank you for this recipe :) I made it last night in an effort to start focusing on some healthier meals (that still taste good!) for me and my husband. Was so thrilled to have most of the ingredients already on hand! We both really enjoyed this! Ate with some homemade walnut sourdough bread that a friend baked. YUM!
My favorite part about your recipes and your approach is how you give wiggle room. You recognize that most people might have to substitute something, so you go ahead and recommend or suggest options along the way. By doing so, we feel confident that we’re not screwing anything up! LOL (Read a few of your other recipes and noticed this throughout! Really appreciate this :)
I was curious if the estimated nutritional content is for the whole soup or for one serving? (I read your nutritional notice and totally get that it’s not a perfect science. Just wanted to see if I am logging calories correctly.)
Thanks for being awesome at what you do!
Hi – this recipe is fantastic. Just a quick question. The nutrition facts says “Serves 4.” So I am I to divide the nutrition facts values by 4 to get a 1 serving size? Is 1 serving size a cup? Thanks!
Hi! Yes, that is correct. I’m glad you loved it.
Just made it for my family in Russia!! In Saint Petersburg, in winter, where it’s below 30 everyday and windy in December it goes SO WELL! Definitely going to become one of my staples: simple, healthy, affordable and SO HEARTY!
Rockin’ lentil soup! Perfect with olive bread!
Just finished making my first batch of this delicious and hearty soup. It will definitely be added to the rotation. Yum!!!
I’m glad you loved it, Dave!
I made it in my instant pot, and added a lot of extra lemon, then ‘rough’ pureed the whole thing. My husband who only eats soup when he’s sick, ate 3 bowls, said it was the best lentil soup he’s ever tried, and he wasn’t feeling very generous when I packed a container to take to my best friend!!! Both of my kids loved it too :-)
For anyone using an instant pot: sautee as per the recipe, pressure cook 15 min, slow release, then sautee kale for 5 min. Perfection! Thank you for yet another amazing recipe Kate!
This looks amazing! Does it have to be blended?
This is really good. I did use red lentils, because that’s what I have on hand. The lemon juice really brightens it up. I added a dollop of Greek yogurt into my bowl, just because, and that was excellent. Thank you for this recipe!!
That sounds delicious! Thank you for your review.
Thank you so much for this delicious lentil soup recipe. It was so good!
Made this for New Years Day! It was absolutely delicious! I doubled the recipe and added kale. Thank goodness there will be some leftovers!
This recipe has become a staple in my meal rotation. I just made a batch to kick off Veganuary. Thank you for sharing it!
My 20 year old son absolutely loves your soup. Always requesting me to make it on cold wintry nights. Thank you for sharing it. It’s a keeper in my recipe notebook.
Carol- Tinton Falls, NJ
Another great recipe, thank you! I also added potato, celery, and cabbage since we like lots of veggies in our soup. Really hearty and fresh-tasting. It is super flavorful made with water. Skipping the broth should take care of the sodium problem.
Amazing recipe, comes together very quickly. Made it for a friend, she loved it and requested the link
I myself found it a bit “tomatoey” however some people may love that!
Today made it again and tweaked it for my preferences and added only half the tomatoes and the other half I replaced with roasted red pepper. I skipped blending some of the soup at the end as I enjoy the chunky texture. I also added 1/4 cup quinoa +extra 1/4 cup water to thicken the soup since I skipped the blending.
That being said, the recipe really is a winner just how it is, thank you so much for sharing!!!
There’s too much going on in this soup that it overpowers the lentils. It tastes confused. I followed recipe to a T.
I’m sorry you didn’t love this one, Lucy.
You’ve made me a believer! Not only does this live up to the hype but it may also be the only time I’ve happily eaten kale. Made this for a New Year’s Day supper for three hungry souls. Together with a crusty loaf of bread all raved that it was the perfect way to start our year with a healthy bang. A wee drizzle of honey in each serving really sets things off. I used red lentils which worked beautifully. Very little left over! Today I make another batch to freeze.
Hooray! Thank you for your review, Roberta.
This is the BEST lentil soup I have ever made. I substituted baby spinach because I’m not a fan of kale. It’s delightful!
This was delicious!
I love this lentil soup recipe! I’ve made it several times over the last few months and I’m going to make it again tonight. I have a house full of meat-eating boys and they also love this soup! It’s hearty, satisfying and has a perfect amount of heat from the red pepper flakes. Thank you for coming up with this amazing lentil soup :)
Lovely recipe! I did a change in terms of the acid. Many years ago a cook told me anytime you cook beans, legumes add 1-2 tablespoons of vinegar. It heightens the flavor. Perhaps what the lemon does-
Do you adding both lemon and vinegar would work?
I added 2″ of grated Ginger
Made this with no changes, I think it is my favorite soup now. It was delicious.
This is the best lentil soup I’ve ever made!! We make it weekly especially for these 19° winter nights. Highly recommend!!
This soup is now a staple for my family. I don’t use any tomatoes because we’re not huge fans of them, and I use spinach for kale most of the time but both work great. Very good soup!
This recipe was as delicious as you described. My husband is the master of making soup from whatever is in the frig, much like this recipe and he raved when I made yours. Next time I’ll be sure to have fresh greens on hand but getting home from the weekend we only had a nice bunch of Italian parsley. I rough chopped it and it worked fine. It is bookmarked for future meals. By the way, I doubled in order to freeze some which I highly suggest with the work, although minor, that is involved. Nothing like pulling out of the freezer last minute for a yummy bowl of hot soup. We made our own croutons which is a nice addition. Wonderful.. I’m so glad I found this recipe.
Lisa Maxwell
Hello, I have beet greens leftover. Can I use those in this soup ? I worry that these greens would be too strong for this soup.
Thanks….. my daughter is a vegetarian and you have saved my life with your tasty recipes!!
Hi! You could try it. I haven’t tried it here, but I would be interested to hear what you think. If you like beet greens overall, then I would try it.
Thanks for this lovely recipe. I will definitely try it out. Do I have to soak the lentils overnight before cooking?
Hi! No need to soak, the cook in the soup. I hope you love it!
Kate, I used to be intimidated by cooking and trying out new recipes. Your blog has given me so much confidence in myself as a cook, and I now look forward to making meals for my family, thanks to your beautiful, easy-to-follow, and DELICIOUS recipes. Thank you for giving me this gift, and for helping me to share vegetarian meals with my meat-eating family. Oh, and this lentil soup was divine.
Wonderful to hear that, Danielle! Thank you for trying my recipes and providing a review.
Very nice recipe, I made two modifications to the ingredients. Added Celery as I had a lot, and I used a three lentil blend since that’s what was on the shelf, the red lentils break down which helps with he creaminess. But I did add 50% more lentils to account for the Red ones breaking down.
Also use an immersion blender since I don’t have a regular one, seemed to work.
The most amazing lentil soup! My Mom’s Italian tradition was to eat lentil soup every New Years Day. This recipe is a keeper! After using the emersion blender, the creaminess was so mouthwatering!
Loved this soup – best ever lentil soup – very tasty and easy to make. Made it without the tomatoes and kale and still great!