Red Lentil Soup Recipe with Vegetables
This red lentil soup recipe with vegetables is a healthy, hearty, satisfying meal in a bowl. Perfect for a weeknight meal served with crusty bread.
The soup is thick, rich and flavorful – and super nutritious. Don’t miss it – it’s the best lentil soup, consistently rated in our top 5!
Lentils are a good source of soluble fiber, protein, folate, and other minerals and vitamins. The carrots, onions, celery and potato add even more nutrition.
You can adjust the flavor and spices to your taste with coriander, more cumin or even hot sauce or chili flakes. We love the lemon in the soup which gives it gives it a bright zing.
We typically serve this red lentil vegetable soup as a full meal with fresh crusty bread. And maybe a side salad. But of course you can serve smaller cups of the soup as a starter. Be careful though – it’s filling. The soup is also nice with grilled cheese on the grill. a piece of homemade naan or our panzanella salad recipe with grilled chicken.
One more thing, this healthy meal freezes well, making it a great make-ahead soup. So make a large pot of soup and enjoy it for weeks.
Shortcuts
- Throw all the vegetables in the processor for a rough chop (pulse a few times) instead of dicing them all by hand.
- Use garlic in the jar or frozen garlic cubes instead of mincing garlic cloves.
Tailor To Your Taste
Substitutes
- Substitute cilantro for the parsley. Here’s a quick 101 on Herbs: The Bare Essentials.
- Use a cup of diced tomatoes (no juice) instead of tomato paste
- Try sweet potatoes instead of carrots.
- Use chicken broth instead of vegetable broth
- You can use green lentils instead of red lentils, but the cooking time will be longer (about 45 minutes) and they won’t disintegrate and soften the way red lentils do.
Other variations
- Add 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- Alter the seasonings to your taste e.g add a bay leaf, coriander or chili flakes for some heat.
- Add more broth to make it a thinner soup
- Add a splash of coconut milk
- Puree all or part of the soup with an immersion or stick blender for a creamy lentil soup.
- Omit the lemon
Make Ahead
- The red lentil soup recipe with vegetables can be frozen for a couple of months. We like to freeze it in smaller lunch-size portions.
Other hearty soup recipes you might like
All of these can either be served as starters or as meals in a bowl.
- Beef barley soup recipe
- ground beef vegetable soup recipe
- Wedding soup recipe with zest
- Sausage and bean soup
- Vegetable barley soup
- Root vegetable soup with barley
- Instant pot French onion soup
- vegetarian split pea soup
- broccoli and cauliflower soup (easy to customize)
How to make this red lentil vegetable soup
Red Lentil Soup Recipe With Vegetables
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 large onion
- 3 carrots, peeled
- 2 celery stalks
- 1 potato, peeled
- 2 garlic cloves, minced (or 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder)
- 2 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin or curry powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- Optional: pinch of cayenne, chili powder and/or coriander seed
- 4 cups (946ml) vegetable stock, broth or chicken broth (1 box)
- 1 cup (237m) water
- 1 cup (200g) red lentils
- 1/2 large lemon (lemon zest and juice)
- 1/4 cup (2 oz) chopped fresh parsley or cilantro
Instructions
- PREPARE THE VEGETABLES: Dice carrots, onion, celery, potato. Shortcut: Cut vegetables into large chunks, put in food processor and pulse until roughly chopped.
- SAUTE VEGETABLES, GARLIC: In a medium-large or large pot, heat oil to medium-high heat. Add vegetables and sauté until softened, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add garlic and sauté another minute.
- ADD SEASONINGS AND OTHER INGREDIENTS: Add tomato paste, cumin or curry powder, salt and pepper (and optional seasonings if using). Stir and cook for 2 minutes. Stir in broth, water and lentils.
- COOK: Bring the soup to a boil. Lower to medium heat or medium-low heat to simmer. Cover pot partially and cook for 30 minutes or until lentils and vegetables are tender.
- FINISH THE SOUP AND SERVE: Add lemon juice, lemon zest and parsley (or cilantro). Taste and adjust seasonings adding additional salt if needed. Serve with a drizzle of good olive oil on top and additional lemon wedges if desired.
Video
Recipe Notes
- Substitute cilantro for the parsley. Here's a quick 101 on Herbs: The Bare Essentials.
- Use a cup of diced tomatoes (no juice) instead of tomato paste
- Use chicken broth instead of vegetable broth
- Add 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- Alter the seasonings to your taste
- Add more broth to make it a thinner soup
- Puree all or part of the soup with an immersion blender
- Omit the lemon
- Red lentil and vegetable soup can be frozen for a couple of months in an airtight container. We like to freeze it in smaller lunch-size portions.
Is there a way to cook prep this and cook it in a slow cooker?
I haven’t tried it in a slow cooker, but you should be fine with placing all ingredients in the crockpot, then covering it and cooking on high for 5-6 hours or low for 7-8 hours. Hope that helps. We would love to know how it turns out if you try it.
Tasty and satisfying. I add lots of veggies, whatever needs using
Exactly 🙂
This recipe is fantastic!!! It makes a large pot if you want it to. It is filling and lowers my blood sugars. If I want protein, all I have to do is add a small amount of grated cheese to melt on top! Awesomeness
Thanks so much Jan. Love that word ‘awesomeness’! 🙂
This recipe is Amazing! Although I had to change a few things because of diabetes in the family, we find this recipe fills the tummy and lowers blood sugars!!! An instant family favourite!
That’s so lovely to hear Jan. Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment. Glad the family enjoyed the soup!
How is this healthy with 1074 mg of sodium? I would suggest using low sodium broth and not adding salt. My two cents. Otherwise it looks really good.
I agree those are good suggestions for anyone watching their salt intake.
I use this recipe weekly. Can’t beat feeding the family with a recipe healthy and delicious! Thank you so much for sharing.
Thank you for the lovely comment Andrea. Much appreciated. Glad your family is enjoying the soup. It’s definitely one of our most popular.