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.
My first time cooking with Lentils … soup is amazing followed recipe except used chicken broth and spinach. Making it now for the second time and accidentally used red lentils …. Hope it’s as good
OMGoodness I have been searching. For a recipe for lentil soup. My mom used to make it. This was fabulous. I added a handful of Orzo and cut up some knockwurst and added it like my mom used to. I just keep going back to the pot. Flavor is awesome will be making this again
Came out great! My family loves how the spices liven this one up
Just made this and it was delicious. Perfect for a cold winter day. The only adjustment was to use low sodium broth.
I make this lentil soup all the time. It is my most favorite soup. My family loves it as well.
I am SO satisfied and SURPRISED at the results of this soup. Like what in the world!? That purée is everything. You’ll love it.
I have been experimenting with lentil soup recipes. No more. This is far and away the best one I’ve ever made or eaten. I will be using this recipe every time from now on.
YUM! This was so amazing, followed the recipe exactly and LOVE it! 4 servings might be a little off though…those would be some enormous bowls of soup!
I followed the recipe and it is, by far, the best lentil soup recipe I have ever had, and it’s vegan! My husband loved it! It is a keeper! I served it with some Rosemary olive oil bread. Thank you for providing this recipe to comfort us on a bitterly cold winter evening. I’m so glad we have leftovers to enjoy again.
absolutely delicious…i made this today for my husband and i – i spend a lot of time searching for simple veg dishes that don’t require too many ingredients – and where i normally make lentils with Indian spices it was awesome to make something with different spices and wow…we were very happy
I have cooked this a few times now and it’s delicious. A really hearty and flavourful soup! Definitely one of my favourite recipes to cook.
Delicious! I used French green lentils and they needed to cook a bit longer, but I think the French variety are more firm than regular green lentils. This soup will enter my regular rotation.
Can I reheat this the next day in a crockpot? If so how? I have a soup luncheon.
That may work just fine. Let me know what you think!
This is truly the best lentil soup recipe ever. I’ve made it 10 times. Thank you so much for sharing. It’s perfect and cannot be improved upon. I have crumbled little bacon on top for my son
Fantastic soup! Even my 3 year old and, nearly more surprising, my meat-loving-lentil-hating husband loved it! I halved the cumin (in case it’s too spicy for the 1 and the 3 year old), but I think would have been ok with the full amount too. Nice flavour without being too spicy. I didn’t use any pepper.
I served it with corn pudding (corn bread with corn in it) and it worked really well.
how much do you consider a serving. looking to make a large amount like 16 quarts.so I need to figure out amounts. i am guessing you figure 2 cups per serving based an the amount of liquid plus ingredients.
Hi Stan, a serving is roughly 1.5-2cups.
Made as directed. Perfect for our cold winter afternoon. The only thing I will do differently when I make it again is when pulling the 2 cups from the soup to puree, I’d leave as much broth as possible and take mainly lentils. The lentil/broth balance was off, but the flavors were terrific!
My first time making lentil soup! This was easy to prepare & the flavor is fantastic! Wondering if it can also be made with red lentils?
One of my favorites! Today is a “snow day” in Texas and I was craving something warming but didn’t have all the ingredients on hand so I made some improvisations and it was still delicious! Used 14 oz can of diced tomato, added 2 gold potatoes chopped, and about 3/4 green lentils + 1/4 of red lentils (used 4 cups of stock + 1 cup of water), 1 single sausage link, and sadly no greens. The combo of green and red lentils was great, the red cooked faster but thickened the soup nicely! My go-to recipe 100%.
This recipe is simply delicious! Even my “hates anything with lentils” husband loved it. I had frozen spinach on hand and all of the other ingredients so only had to buy a couple of carrots So easy to prepare and an inexpensive lovely soup. Thank you x
The red lentil in the Insta pot and I cooked them for 18 minutes next time we’ll cook cook them a little less a little too mushy but good
Hi, I’d recommend putting a safety warning on the part of the recipe where you tell people to put the hot soup in a blender. Having never made a hot blended soup before I didn’t realize the blender could explode when I started it.
Half my kitchen was covered in lentil soup and I have second and third degree burns on my arms, neck, and torso.
It tastes great, though.
We really love this soup! We’ve made often – So warming when it’s cold out!
Thank you for this great recipe!
This is the best soup ever!!!! I add chopped celery and use only1/2 the tomatoes I also puree it. It’s my mainstay.
I’ve made this soup many times and it truly lives up to it’s name!
I’m excited to make this! Should the lentils be whole or split?
This soup is delicious! I made it as written, but subbed a couple cups of spinach for kale because it was in the fridge. It smelled so good cooking I couldn’t wait for lunch and decided to have it as a little mid-morning snack. Healthy, easy to make, and it uses ingredients I usually have on hand – this recipe is a keeper! Thank you for sharing it.
You’re welcome, Carol! I’m delighted you enjoyed it.
I want to make this for my husband but he can’t have olive oil on the diet he is on. Is there anything that you can think of that can be substituted for olive oil?
Hi Lesley, you could try vegetable broth as I know some have tried that in the past. Let me know what you think!
Thank you for this wonderful recipe! My daughter and I made this together this evening. We both thought it was fantastic and beats our old recipe with ease.
I will be making this for my next party. I have guests who are vegan and I never leave them to fend for themselves as far as the menu goes. I always make sure that they have something delicious to eat and this beautifully fits the bill.
Can you make this in an instant pot?
Hi Maggie, I haven’t tried it but I believe others have. I would check the comments to see what others may recommend!
Fantastic recipe, as is. Very hearty and delicious, love it!
I made this today. It is delicious. I did not have vegetable broth, so I used some tomatoe and chicken bullion to make the broth and also used spinach for the green. I try to go meatless on Mondays so this will be my lunch tomorrow. Thank you for the great recipe.
Excellent recipe. I did use one can regular and one can fire roasted tomatoes, OMG so delicious. Served with cornbread 10/10. I really like curry and cumin together, it was a win win.
I made this soup – delicious! Blending a portion of it to thicken it – brilliant! I did use it as a base and added potatoes and turnips (just to use them up before they turned). I therefore added one more cup of veggie broth and one more cup of water. What I should have done was also add more lentils. It was still yummy and I will definitely make it again – as is or as a base.
Amazing soup! Thank you for sharing this great recipe. Perfect for the cold days:)
Oh my! I just made this for the first time tonight (I’m eating a bowl as I type this). Its so good and filling. And the flavor! I didn’t have curry powder, so I skipped that, and no kale, so I sub’ed in some frozen green beans, and also no vegetable stock, so I used water.
I really liked the Trader Joe’s lentil/vegetable soup, but wanted to make me own to avoid the preservatives. This recipe nailed it, and was even more flavorful (the red pepper flakes add the extra element).
I like to use vegetable soups as a meal sub when trying to lose my winter weight, and this soup will be in my regular rotation. Thank you!
Next time I will leave out the curry or put a lot less.
I made this soup. It was so delicious. Entire family loved it. My 22 year old grandson asked me to teach him how to make it. Ultimate compliment.
That’s great, Charmaine!
Fergus Ontario Feb 09 2022
It was minus18 °C yesterday and I thought your lentil soup recipe would be perfect for lunch. I had no kale greens so I used spinach, also added 1/2 tsp of Tumeric and some lemon pepper,
I really enjoyed this lentil soup, it was great.
Thanks for sharing your recipes.
02/09/22: I made this soup today and it was AMAZING!!! I was hesitant to put in the lemon at the end – I was so wrong. Best lentil soup I have ever had. I will be making this again and again.
Great to hear, Sherry! Thank you for your review.
Easy and delicious! Followed the recipe exactly and it turned out wonderful. Even my lentil hating husband went back for seconds. Soooo yummy!
This sounds amazing. I have some lentils I have had for a while and did not know what to do with them. I am going to make this soup. But I think I am going to add a little ground sweet italian sausage for flavor and because I am not vegan. I do eat meat. But very sparingly and I think this would be a great way to get it.
This soup was Great! I will be making it often.
Great to hear, Barb! Thank you for your review.
This really is the best lentil soup. People are always saying their thing is the best (fill in the blank) and it’s just understood that the claim is sort of a campy gimmick. But I’ve tried a zillion lentil soup recipes and they’re very often bland, earthy, satisfying, but boring. This, in fact, the best lentil soup. It’s delicious.
Soaking the lentils for 8 hours is critical for me & those using the SCD; Specific Carbohydrate Diet. Otherwise we can not digest the enzymes in the versatile & delicious lentil.
**Fantastically yummmy recipe!!**
I always double it & deliver to nearby adult children & sometimes friends.
I will start to triple it —-the batches are gone way to quick!! :)
-Thank you Kate ;)
TammyQ -Peterborough Ontario
Absolutely excellent! The spices are divine. Perfect amount of heat. To make it heartier, I added one diced sweet potato and a few sliced baby portabella mushrooms. I forgot to add the kale. Oops. Will do so next time. This is so good, I could make it every week!
I’m glad you enjoyed it, Janet!
This soup is divine. What a beautiful range of flavours. I have made a huge batch, given some to friends, frozen some and ate LOTS!
Thanks for a perfect recipe that I will make time and time again!
Cooking as I text.. was attracted to the tomatos, makes this soup standout from my usual lentil recipe.. added celery AND the celery greens.. I think my wife will like this, I love it.. just popped a loaf of bread in the oven.. dinner in :40…..
This soup is so delicious. I’ve never had lentil soup before, I was missing out! Thanks for the recipe!
This was the first time I made lentil soup and I was delighted to find your recipe. It was delicious. Thank you.