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 lentil soup is outstanding and so easy to put together! I’ll post pics on IG. Keep it Up!
Thank you, Linda! Great to hear.
This soup is delicious and so easy to make. I used chopped cabbage instead of collard greens because it’s what I had on hand and cut down slightly on the lemon. For the tomatoes, I used canned petite cut tomatoes in garlic and olive oil, slightly drained. The flavour was just awesome.
I made this in the instant pot for lunch – sautéed the onion, carrot, garlic in olive oil, added spices and deglazed with broth; added the rest of the ingredients except the spinach and cooked high pressure for 15 minutes. Instead of draining the tomato juice, I kept it and used less water. After it released, I added chopped bok choy (the green leafy part) because that’s what I had and it cooked in the residual heat. The flavor was so good I didn’t add lemon juice but I drizzled my serving with some olive oil. This was so delicious! I kept saying mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm, as I ate it. Never been so excited about lentil soup. Thank you!!!
I’m glad you enjoyed it, Susan! Thank you for taking the time to review.
I’ve made this soup many times and can’t recommend it enough. In fact I have recommended it many times, and everyone thanks me afterwards and says it was an absolute lifesaver. You can’t beat the healthiness and easy of having this in your fridge during the week!
This soup is so flavorful. I make it at least twice a month and and I puree it to feed an 83 year-old woman with dementia, who has forgotten how to chew and swallow.
Excellent recipe! The lemon gives it a nice zing. So tasty. I used red lentils as I like the colour. Will make it this weekend for friends. Freezes well so will make a double batch.
Thanks!
I make this soup frequently. It is an easy recipe and always delicious. Sometimes I add celery if there’s some to use up in the fridge. One of my brothers was visiting recently. I made it for him and he loved it so much I sent him home with the recipe, telling him “if he can read, he can cook.” I added some sweet Italian sausages to the batch I made for him because he’s one of those guys who HAS to have meat with supper.
It always tastes fantastic.
This was by far THE MOST AMAZING lentil soup I’ve ever eaten! Very easy to make, I recommend having everything ready so you can just concentrate on assembling and cooking. Follow the instructions thoroughly and you will be so pleased!!
Wonderful to hear, Anthony! I appreciate your review.
Thanks for this. My son and I enjoyed it very much!
I have made this soup many times, it is one of my go to recipes. It is so tasty, easy to make and so satisfying!! Love it!
Not a bad recipe, I like to add more veggies like chopped potatoe, celery and do without the curry powder.
Soup has an absolutely amazing flavor! My only complaint is that when I doubled the recipe I used 2 cups less water than the instructions and soup was still too watery for me. Will definitely make again – next time I’ll do less water and add potatoes for carbs to make this into a complete meal.
This literally is the best lentil soup I’ve ever had and I’ve made MANY lentil soups. I used red lentils because that’s what I had. It’s so so so delicious! Highly recommend!!
Absolutely amazing! It’s so quick and easy and it’s now one of my go to soups. My family absolutely loves it. The way the flavors blend is amazing. By far THE BEST lentil soup recipe in my book
I found this blog during 2020, and this lentil soup and your minestrone are some of my veggie day favourite. Must have made them at least 20 times each. Even my picky 10y old will eat all of this soup. I add extra garlic and chillies (hubby loves them) and use fresh herbs from my garden. Thank you for such a great recipe.
This is my go-to soup. It is consistent, healthy, and so easy to make. I usually have all the ingredients on hand and it’s one of my all-time favorite recipes. Thank you for sharing! (Currently making it for about the 10th time!)
I’ve made this many times. It really is the BEST. My taste buds thank you!
well, this is our new lentil soup recipe.
I used more kale than in the recipe because we had it fresh, and reduce the oil to 2 spoons as to cut on calories. Love Love the idea to blend a part to bring the texture.
This is my favorite lentil soup recipe. It’s so rich and comforting. I make it 2x a month and keep on-hand for my lunches.
It is just as delicious as you promised! The lemon juice makes it. I put some goat cheese on it too. Super!
I’m glad you liked it, Lisa!
Mmmm. Love this soup. I make it at least once a month. I’m also from KC, and was a reporter with The Kansas City Star for many years, but now live in Mexico. I almost always have everything I need to make this in my pantry. I share it with a friend who has been sick for many months, and he loves it, and it’s so healthy. I’m not a vegetarian, so sometimes I use homemade chicken broth, other times homemade vegetable broth. I also carmelize a bit of tomato paste as I put the seasonings in, and might throw in a bay leaf, and sometimes, even a parmesan cheese rind or two…
This is just the best recipe! I have made it numerous times to rants and raves on flavor. I’m actually making it right now.
Oh my goodness, I can’t stop making this soup. I basically have the recipe memorized… I make it for friends and family all of the time. Their reviews are, “more, more, MORE” and “yummy!” Thank you so much for this recipe. It’s encouraged me to cook and eat more vege-rich meals.
Lentil soup conjours up words like bland and tasteless but this was most certainly not that .Absolutely loved it .The only differences that I made were` instead of red pepper flakes(couldn`t find any)I finely chopped a red pepper …& I skipped the greens at the end as it was already gorgeous and Im about to make it again so thankyou very much
This is by far one of the best soups I have ever tasted and made in my life. It’s fool proof!! And I’m not a good cook. My one tip is that I do not use a blender, I can never get the soup to not explode everywhere — I use the deep mixing bowl from my KitchenAid mixer with an immersion blender.
I’m glad you love it, Sara!
I made this today and added a sweet potato and used dandelion greens.It is delicious!! Thank you so much.
Best lentil soup I’ve ever had. The flavour is so rich, the the blended portion turns it into the creamiest taste ever. I’m definitely bookmarking this recipe
For the curry powder- is it Indian curry powder or Thai?
Hi! It would Indian. I hope you love it!
I love this soup so much, it’s definitely the very best lentil soup I’ve ever had. I do have one comment though; why do you say to drain the tomatoes and then add water instead of using all that delicious tomato flavor plus some extra water? That’s the way I make it :)
This is truly the best lentil soup I’ve had in a long time. I come back to this recipe very often as my husband and I simply love it! Even my teenage son likes it. Thank you Kate for all your recipes. You are one of my favourite recipe sources :)
I made the Best Lentil Soup last night and it is true it is the best lentil soup. C&K’s recipe items were all in my pantry. I substituted spinach for the greens. Thank you for this perfect recipe and I enjoyed a bowl of it for breakfast ❤️
Thank you, Gillian! I’m glad you enjoyed it.
This is so good Kate, thank you.
I like to add mushroom, celery and chunks of potato when the carrot goes in and cook in a little stock instead of oil. I leave out the extra water and it turns into an amazing veggie stew. I also don’t add the kale but serve the stew with barley and steamed red cabbage.
The flavour .. Amazing! You clever girl.
Thank you, Joanne! I’m glad you enjoyed it.
This recipe got me through my first year of college. It’s so inexpensive and yummy and nourishing! I love it with sourdough bread and a fried egg on top. Thank you!!
I just made this delicious soup, and OMG, what a delightful soup, I followed the recipe to the tee, and will be making it again, again and again… thank you
This makes a lot more than 4 servings – perhaps it’s because I boiled, peeled, cored, and crushed my own tomatoes, rather than getting canned ones. However, it was still great! I’ve loved every one of your recipes that I’ve tried so far. Seriously thinking of getting your cook book! :)
I think this is the Best Lentil Recipe I bumped into in the internet. My family loved it that I have to prepare another pot for dinner :)
Thank You
Excellent soup. So much flavor and so easy to prepare. Thanks.
You’re welcome, Terry!
I pre-chopped my ingredients during my work day at home. At 6:00 I put things together and by 7:00 was ready to eat. This soup is light and bright and not the heavy lentil soup of my past . The flavors blend perfectly. Thank you Kate for your foot work in compiling this wonderful recipe. Really, every recipe I have tried from your book has been a winner.I’m just glad to have more to look forward to.
Just got home from a cruise and one of the starters was a lentil soup and it was amazing! So I was looking for a recipe and just made yours. I followed the recipe exactly but I forgot to get kale, so I subbed a can of sweet corn (ya I know no relation food wise but thought it would give it a little sweetness).
Very good! Just finished my 3rd bowl! Have been considering going vegan for a while and I know I will be making this many times in the future. Thanks!
I’m happy you enjoyed it, Keven! Thank you for your review.
Used spicy vegetable broth to make this. It’s absolutely delicious with just the right amount of heat for me. Thank you!
You’re welcome, Rita! Thank you for your review.
This is without question the best soup I have ever eaten.
Nothing more needs to be said.
I’m glad you loved it, Mick! Thank you for your review.
I figured it was time to leave a review considering I have made this about 20 times in the past 6 months. I dropped some on my arm and licked it… it is that good.
Hi,
Good recipe, easy to make, but I removed the vegetable broth and substituted more tomatoes and tomato paste, as I like tomato based lentil soups. Seasonings are delicious.
Thank you for your review, Karen!
I’ve tried a lot of lentil soup recipes looking for “the one” and finally found it – THIS IS IT!!! Full and balanced flavors. Just perfect.
That’s great, Sara! I appreciate your review.
Quickly became our staple after the first try. I make it “just right” according to my wife even though I just follow the instructions and scale it accordingly if we need leftovers or not.
Thank you, as this is one of my wives, now, favorite dishes.
I’m happy to hear that, Micheal! Thank you for your review.
I love this recipe. I make it all the time, I use spinach instead of kale and add a tin of 4 bean mix.
Excellent! Easy to make and so delicious! I left out the kale because I didn’t have any and the red pepper flakes because I wasn’t thinking. This will be a regular staple with me from now on.
Thank you for your review!
This really is the best lentil soup. Maybe best soup ever! I make it at least once a week. I also find it’s the best soul-warming soup to give to friends who are unwell. It simply makes everything better. Thank you Katherine, you have changed so much about the way I cook and eat xx
Best soup ever. I have made this several times and it never disappoints. Have made it with every lentil out there and sometimes a mixture if I did not have enough of one. Any green will do.
I’m happy you enjoyed it, Julie! I appreciate your review.
I made this lentil soup with orange and yellow lentils, so pretty and the best lentil soup I’ve ever had, thank you so much I made it exactly how the recipe said I did add a few more crushed red chili peppers in the lemon juice to top it off was awesome