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 is the BEST lentil soup recipe! The spices have an amazing flavor combination. I prefer a more hearty soup and use 1.5 cups of lentils instead of 1 cup and it makes it much thicker. I have been making this in double batches perfect for the winter and snow days!
This recipe was GREAT!! First of all, I’m not vegan (sorry but we love meat) and when I say I’m cooking lentil soup half my family groans. However, they do love curry so I was hoping I could entice them. I followed the recipe to a T (Except added spinach instead of kale because that’s what I had) and wow, was it good. Everyone had at least two servings! So easy! Will make again!
OMGoodness if this isn’t the best Lentil Soup recipe ever. I am not a Lentil fan, but my boyfriend loves them. I may be a new lover after this incredible blend of flavors.
Thank you!
I’ve recently become vegan and this is the best lentil soup recipe I’ve made so far! Thanks for your inspiration!
You’re welcome, Jill! I’m delighted you loved it.
Easy, usually have all the ingredients on hand, comes together fast and it’s so good! One of my new favourites!
This is some really great soup. I’ve made it twice this week and considering a third batch. My daughter loves it too. What do you consider a serving, 2 cups?
So good! What is considered a serving size?
Hi! Roughly 1.5-2 cups is a serving size.
I searched for a vegan lentil soup recipe and yours looked like a winner and I was right. And you were right to label it “Best Lentil Soup.” Very satisfying and the best I’ve ever tasted. I didn’t have green or brown lentils on hand but I did have beluga lentils and that worked out great. Thank you very much!
Made this with my daughter who is vegetarian but doesn’t do that much cooking…she LOVED it…big hit and had two big bowls and I packed two more containers for her to take home and freeze. I”m not vegetarian but want more vegetarian meals on my diet, and I loved it also..
Will be a regular for me now !
Fantastic! Thank you for sharing, Lori.
I made this today. Never ate lentil soup before. It was excellent. Didn’t jave curry and I added corn to it. I will be making this all the time
We really liked it!!
I replaced the following:
1/4 cup of oil for 3 tbsp of oil;
vegetable broth for 2 bullion tomato flavor.
I used all the liquid of the tomato can.
I made rice and had the “soup” on top of it.
My child added some bacon on top of it.
This recipe is very simple and very tasty. Thank you!
I just did this recipe for dinner today. It was amazing! Everybody loved it, even my 4yo (didnt add chilly :D)
It certainly is being added to the favourites folder so I can do it more times!! Thank you for sharing!! :)
Even my carnivorous hubby gave this recipe two thumbs up. I added a grilled cheese on the side for him and my little guy. I enjoyed it as my main with a side of crusty bread!
I love that! Thank you for reporting back, Kate.
Just made It, and the only change was a lot less water because I used a pressure cooker. I followed all the instructions and ingredients, except forthe water which I omitted, right up to Step 4. I set the timer on six minutes, let it vent for about 10-15 minutes after it cooked, and everything came out perfectly. The (green) lentils were cooked, but still firm and not at all mushy. Delicious!
The recipe that made me love lentils! This soup is so delicious, hearty and comforting. The addition of lemon juice brings everything together! A regular in my house’s weekly rotation of meals, and certainly one of my favourite soups.
This lentil soup is wonderful! I think it’s the spice combination.
So tasty. I did add some diced potatoes with the lentils. Just delicious. thank you.
I just love your recipes it has taken the guess work in searching for vegan and vegetarian melas which has been hit and miss. It is a real joy to cook and bake again especially for family and friends.
I can’t get enough of your lentil soup!
Note I didn’t have enough vegetable stock for a double batch so I substituted for puréed fresh tomatoes and used organic fajita mix granules instead of cumin and curry.Only because I ran out of the required spices. The soup turned out great.
Thank you for sharing your gift of cooking and baking!
Karen Mercer NL. Canada
Make this soup for dinner. Excellent. Doubled the cumin and curry amounts because my husband likes things spicy. Substituted spinach for the kale because that’s what I had. Another winner from Kate!
Thanks!
Seriously the best lentil soup recipe ever. I’ve made it dozens of times, it’s a permanent fixture in our rotation. The only change I make is leaving out the curry because I’m not a fan of that spice. Still has amazing flavor even without that.
Love this soup. Delicious recipe and I make it often..
This is an excellent recipe
Yep! The BEST Lentil Soup lives up to it’s name! Thank you!
Very nice soup. I’ve never put curry in lentil soup before, it gave a nice fragrant aroma. Didn’t have Callard greens so I used chopped fresh spinach which I thought did the same.
It really is the best lentil soup recipe. Sometimes I make it non-vegan by adding chicken to it. Leftovers freezes well and perfect for cold miserable winter’s day.
This was for sure the best lentil soup I’ve made! The only changes I made was I used crushed tomatoes and smoked cumin since that’s what I had.on hand. Thank you for sharing!
This is the BEST lentil soup I have ever made or had anywhere!
I searched a lot for perfect recipe and I think this is it! Thank you!
One question? Have you ever put anise in this soup? Years ago I had an excellent lentil soup in a restaurant and I believe they put anise in it
I haven’t and not sure how that would go with this soup. Sounds interesting though!
Could I use beet greens?
You could, although may be a little stronger taste. Let me know what you think!
LOVE LOVE LOVE this soup!!! Hands down the best lentil soup I’ve ever made. Thank you so much!! I did cut the oil in half and it was still super tasty. The green lentils I used took less time than expected, so next time I’ll check them much sooner. Hubbie loves it too!!
That’s great to hear, Kat! Thank you for your review.
Absolutely delicious! Thank you! I added diced potatoes and a squash for more veggies! Love this lentil soup!
I added some dried, powdered lime – and it added a little extra sour tang that I just love. Otherwise stuck to the recipe – which is solid. Thanks!
This is my absolute favorite soup! I always double and freeze in portions for work lunches. Fantastic as is, but I like to at least double the kale and add a bit more carrots, onions and spice.
I also use an immersion blender to make a much thicker consistency. We used it as a vegetarian chili for Christmas, and my family loved it.
I will keep passing this on!
I LOVE your recipes!! I have been making them for several years and I’ve never made one that wasn’t delicious. Whenever I need suggestions for something, your website is the one I always go to. Among my favorites are your muffins and soups. I’ve shared with neighbors and friends and they also love them.
Thanks for going back to the basics and having so many healthful recipes. And Cookie’s smile just can’t be beat. Many thanks for including her.
This recipe looks yummy recipe.
I want to make with green lentils.
Any idea how long to cook in an instant pot?
Hi Stacey, Sorry to disappoint but I don’t have Instant Pot directions for this recipe.
Hi Kate, where does all the sodium come from in this recipe? Is it from the can of diced tomatoes (in which case I would use no-salt-added), from the broth, or from the added teaspoon of salt?
Great soup. I use this as a base and add other tasty items around the kitchen… potatoes, zuchinni, green beans… Sometimes it’s so thick it’s hard to call it soup. The mix of spices makes it just right.
Can I substitute spinach for the kale?
Sure! That will work as well, Louise.
Delicious ! This is my first time even trying lentil and curry powder tbh , and I’m so happy I did !
I’m happy you did too! Thank you for your review, Ari.
Amazing! I’m doing more plant based diet and loved this recipe .. snuck a link of sautéed chorizo for my husband he loved it as well his Mom is from Spain and includes some meat in her lentil soup. So flavorful!!
This is hands down one of the BEST soups i have EVER had! Im in my first trimester right now and nothing has made my body happy like this soup has for weeks! Thank you for sharing
Thank you, Shelby!
Today was the first time I have ever made lentil soup. I was going to make a very simple recipe from the bag of lentils but decided to look online for something a bit more artistic. I am so grateful that this was my pick! This soup was incredibly delicious. The only change I made was the addition of 4 peeled, cubed Russet potatoes (and just because my friend insisted upon it). I scarfed down two bowls (with a bit of grated parmesan on top) before I realized that I had forgotten the lemon juice (which I will be sure to include tomorrow and the next day and the next….). Thank you!
I made this as instructed without the kale because I didn’t have any. It was delicious! The lemon juice at the end is fantastic. Will definitely make it again!
That’s great! Thank you for sharing, Brianne.
Made this lentil soup and really enjoyed it .
Making it for 2nd time as it’s so delicious and nutritious
I made this last night, absolutely delicious. I forgot the lemon juice and I served it over rice. It’s just me, so I’m thrilled to have leftovers for lunch this week.
This is the most delicious lentil soup. I added a but more curry and red pepper but other than than it was delicious and very flavorful! Thanks!
I made the Lentil soup yesterday. It was a very easy recipe to follow. It came out fabulous. My family loved it. It had great flavor. I had never been a fan of lentil soup but this one is great. Will try some of the others this week
I can’t wait to try your recipe……..just wondering why the sodium content is so high?
Hi Patricia! The values are just estimates. You can reduce by using low sodium inputs and/or adjust any added salt.
My husband and I love this soup! This is a staple meal in our household- I make it basically every other week. I double the spices because he likes strong seasoning, and skip the blending. I’ve made it both ways and we like it just as much without that step!
Absolutely delicious and fun to make too!
Absolutely loved it! Will certainly make it again!