How to easily make delicious and healthy vegan lentil soup. Hearty lentils are simmered in a perfectly seasoned tomato based broth with carrots, potatoes and celery. Makes the best one pot easy weeknight meal. Includes instant pot and stove top directions.
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Nothing beats a comforting bowl of soup when the weather starts to turn to crap.
Can you tell I’m not a fan of the cold? One thing that makes the darker months more bearable is filling up your house with the smell of a simmering soup.
I absolutely love lentils and one of my favorite things to do with them is make a lentil and vegetable soup. Lentils are full of protein, vitamins and minerals. They’re a super easy way to get protein as a vegan.
❤️ Why you’ll love this lentil soup
- Healthy and full of fiber, protein and nutrients since it’s packed with vegetables and lentils
- Makes an easy one pot weeknight dinner.
- Meal prep a big batch to have for lunch all week.
- Freezes well, so save any leftovers for a rainy day.
- Naturally gluten free, vegan and vegetarian
Fun fact, lentils are one of the oldest health foods and have been around since 8000 BC. They originated in the Middle East. Makes me love these little majestic legumes even more!
🧂 Ingredients
- Lentils – Brown or green lentils work best in this recipe. No need to pre soak them. If you use red lentils, the flavor and texture will change, since red lentils are a bit sweeter and don’t take as much time to cook.
- Celery – make sure to chop them up to the same size as the carrots and potatoes, so you can easily get each different vegetable on your spoon at once.
- Potatoes – I like to peel them, because I don’t like the texture of the peel, but feel free to keep them unpeeled.
- Onions and garlic
- Italian seasoning – instead of using a bunch of different seasonings, I like to get the Italian seasoning blend to make it easier.
- Vegetable broth or bouillon cubes
- Canned tomatoes – fire roasted tomatoes taste amazing in this recipe.
- Kale
- Carrots – peel then chop them up about the same size as the potatoes, and celery.
- Lemon – top with a squeeze of lemon to bring everything together. The acid from the lemon balances out all of the flavors
👩🍳 Expert tips
Chop up all of the vegetables about the same size. I like to be able to have multiple vegetables plus the lentils in one bite. If you chop anything too large, you might get a big mouthful of just carrot or potato
This recipe can be made in an instant pot or on the stove. Directions for both are in the recipe card below.
🔪 Directions
Make sure to scroll down to the recipe card for the full ingredients list and instructions!
- Add oil to a large pot on medium heat, then sauté the onions.
- Add the chopped potato, carrots and celery. Sauté for 5 minutes.
- Add the chopped garlic and seasonings and sauté.
- Add the can of tomatoes and cook for 5 minutes to get the tinny flavor out of the tomatoes
- Add the lentils, stirring everything together, then add vegetable broth and bay leaves. Stir well. Cover with a lid and bring soup to a boil. Once it’s boiling, turn heat to medium low and keep it on a low simmer, with the lid on1 bay leaf,1 cup brown lentils,6 cups vegetable broth
- Simmer for 30-35 minutes, or until lentils are soft. Add a splash of water if needed.
- With an immersion blender, blend the soup for 10 seconds to make it a little more creamy. If you don’t have an immersion blender, take a cup of the soup out, add it to a blender, then add the blended soup back to the instant pot.
- Add the chopped kale and let it sit in the soup for a minute or so or until it’s wilted and slightly cooked. Stir in the juice of half a lemon and salt to taste
🥄 Variations
This soup would taste amazing with some curry powder, instead of Italian seasoning. Add a little smoked paprika as well.
Feel free to add in any vegetables that you may have on hand. Pretty much all vegetables go well in this soup.
♨️ Serving suggestions
Serve this delicious soup with a salad, like this couscous salad, or a baked potato. This also goes well with a sandwich, like this tempeh BLT sandwich, or this chickpea salad sandwich.
Top this with some homemade or store bought vegan ricotta cheese, or parmesan cheese.
❓ FAQ’s
Yes! This freezes beautifully. I love making a gigantic batch of this soup and freezing it for the days I don’t feel like cooking
Lentils don’t need to be soaked before cooking, since they cook faster than other dried beans. You do need to sort through and rinse them before cooking, to wash away any debris and pick out any tiny pebbles or sticks that may be in the bag.
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If you loved this recipe, leave a 5 ⭐️ rating on the recipe card and comment below!
📖 Recipe
Lentil and vegetable soup
Ingredients
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 1 small onion (diced)
- 1 celery rib (chopped)
- 1 medium potato (peeled and diced)
- 2 small carrots (diced)
- 28 oz can of diced tomatoes
- 2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 tsp cumin
- ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 cup brown lentils
- 6 cups vegetable broth
- ½ lemon (juiced)
- 1 cup chopped kale
- salt and pepper to taste
- 4 cloves of garlic (minced)
Instructions
Stovetop instructions
- Add oil to a large pot on medium heat. Once the oil is warm add the chopped onions and saute for 10 minutes, making sure not to burn the onions¼ cup olive oil, 1 small onion
- When onions are soft, add the chopped potato, carrots and celery. Saute for 5 minutes1 celery rib, 1 medium potato, 2 small carrots
- Add the chopped garlic, Italian seasoning, thyme, smoked paprika and cumin and saute for one minute2 teaspoon Italian seasoning, 1 teaspoon dried thyme, 1 teaspoon cumin, ½ teaspoon smoked paprika, 4 cloves of garlic
- Add the can of tomatoes and cook for 5 minutes to get the tinny flavor out of the tomatoes28 oz can of diced tomatoes
- Add the lentils, stirring everything together, then add vegetable broth and bay leaves. Stir well. Cover with a lid and bring soup to a boil. Once it's boiling, turn heat to medium low and keep it on a low simmer, with the lid on1 bay leaf, 1 cup brown lentils, 6 cups vegetable broth
- Simmer for 30-35 minutes, or until lentils are soft. Add a splash of water if needed.
- With an immersion blender, blend the soup for 10 seconds to make it a little more creamy. If you don't have an immersion blender, take a cup of the soup out, add it to a blender, then add the blended soup back to the instant pot.
- Add the chopped kale and let it sit in the soup for a minute or so or until it's wilted and slightly cooked. Stir in the juice of half a lemon and salt to taste1 cup chopped kale, ½ lemon
Instant pot instructions
- Add oil to instant pot on medium heat. Sauté the onions for 5 minutes. When onions are soft, add the chopped potato, carrots and celery. Saute for 5 minutes.¼ cup olive oil, 1 small onion, 1 celery rib, 2 small carrots, 1 medium potato
- Add the chopped garlic, Italian seasoning, thyme, smoked paprika and cumin and saute for one minute2 teaspoon Italian seasoning, 1 teaspoon dried thyme, 1 teaspoon cumin, 4 cloves of garlic, ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
- Add the can of tomatoes and cook for 5 minutes to get the tinny flavor out of the tomatoes. Add the lentils, stirring everything together, then add vegetable broth and bay leaves. Stir well.28 oz can of diced tomatoes, 1 cup brown lentils, 6 cups vegetable broth, 1 bay leaf
- Cancel he sauté mode and add the lid and set to seal. Cook on high pressure for 8 minutes then let it natural release for 15 minutes, then quick release.
- With an immersion blender, blend the soup for 10 seconds to make it a little more creamy. If you don't have an immersion blender, take a cup of the soup out, add it to a blender, then add the blended soup back to the instant pot.
- Add the chopped kale and let it sit in the soup for a minute or so or until it's wilted and slightly cooked. Stir in the juice of half a lemon and salt to taste1 cup chopped kale, ½ lemon
Notes
Nutrition
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed. It should not be used as a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Ben Schlatter
Easy, tasty, and filling!