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.
I have made this soup soooooo many times, we LOVE IT!!
I searched for the best lentil soup recipe, and came upon this one. It did not disappoint. An excellent process of building flavor results in this being a delicious soup. Everyone who has tried it has raved about it. I’m bringing it for a potluck this weekend. Thank you.
Wow! What a wonderful soup! Second time making it so added a Parmesan rind and some fenugreek and ginger and turmeric as out of curry powder. So yummy!
This is the best soup I’ve ever eaten in my LIFE! I cannot overstate this. 10/10 recipe. Don’t skimp on that lemon juice at the end! I seriously ate half the batch right out of the pot. So filling, so healthy and so delicious.
Unfortunately the kale ruined the soup. Normally I love kale, but not in this. Would make again without the kale.
that’s funny because the only green I had in the fridge was kale so I used it. We really liked it.
What a great lentil soup recipe.
My only addition was some dried porcini mushrooms.
Noni would have been so proud.
Thank you so much for sharing it with us!
Our family discovered this recipe a couple years ago and have been making it on a nearly monthly rotation ever since. It is fantastic!!! My husband asks me to at least double the recipe when I make it. We can always freeze a bit for dinner on a rainy day. When I make it, I eat it as is, and when my husband wants more protein, he adds a little bit of cooked sausage or ground beef to his serving. This recipe is easy peasy, super delicious and chock full of nutrients. Way to go!
Made as is. 100% would recommend! No notes!
I love this soup! I make it all the time. I find it perfect as written. Love the kale, love the curry and cumin. It’s delicious. Thank you Kate!
I didn’t really like lentil soup before I tried this recipe—but I can’t get enough of this recipe! I double the batch when I make it so I can freeze some for later. If I have it, I crumble some on top before serving.
Excellent soup, our new favorite! I cheated and added some diced ham so…not vegan but delicious.
Question: Why drain the tomatoes? Thanks!
Hi Jody, it can reduce the salt content of the tomatoes. Feel free to skip if you prefer.
Thank you Kate! I made the soup over the weekend and it was wonderful! (I admit I added a little more than a pinch of the red pepper flakes)! Thank you for your wonderful recipes!
Excellent. I have made a lot of lentil soups over the years and this is the best. I added tomato paste (freeze it in ice cube trays so maybe one cube is a couple tablespoons?). I think it adds some richness to the soup but it is great without as well.
My Son how to make a vegetarian dish for his college health class. Lentil soup was one of the options the teacher allowed and we used this recipe.! absolutely delicious. I will make this again just for the kicks of it.
Made for the first time this past weekend and it is definitely the best Lentil Soup. Thank you for all the delicious vegetarian recipes!
This soup is aptly named, it is clearly the BEST Lentil soup I’ve ever had or made, it is just delicious. The flavor is spectacular!!!
I meant to leave this post a couple of months ago when I participated in a “Souper Bowl” competition. I wanted to make a recipe that was gluten-free and vegetarian. I’m in Montana and I didn’t think that there would be any other recipes that fit that description and of course I was right. I wish I could say that your recipe got first place but I think it’s amazing that it got second place amongst all the meat eaters! More importantly this recipe has been a go-to for me during the winter months and I love it every time I have it. Thank you so much, Kate!
Great soup! My guest enjoyed it.
I just decided to make this soup today and was lucky enough to have everything I needed except for the greens listed so I used Bok choy greens instead. It was so delicious!!! I will make this again and again! I chose not to use the amount of oil listed at the beginning of the recipe and just lightly sprayed the pot with olive oil.
Thank you for this delicious and easy recipe!