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.
So flavorful the first time I made it, but I forgot to add the 1c. of water. Second attempt I added the water. Still good but I preferred the thicker soup/stew texture the first batch. I also uses half vegetable/half chicken broth for flavor. Almost as good as our
favorite local Mediterranean restaurant. Making this on the reg!😋😍
Happy you loved the soup! It’s all about getting it right for you and it sounds like you have nailed it with a little experimentation 🙂
Really simple to throw together and the whole family loved it! The lentils do break down the longer you cook it, which is fine by me – makes it more of a stew for leftovers.
Yes, red lentils do break down more with longer cooking, but I like that too. Happy the family loved the soup. Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment 🙂
Very easy and great tasting!
Hello. Can I use canned red lentils?
Hi Wendy. Yes, you can use canned lentils with a few changes: Rinse and drain them first. Since they are already cooked, you can add them (twice the amount of dried lentils should work) in the last 10 minutes of cooking the soup. Also, you may need to reduce the salt in the recipe if the canned lentils contain salt. Hope that helps 🙂
This is an excellent soup. I made it exactly as the recipe suggests and it is really simple, healthy and budget friendly.
Thanks Catherine. So glad you liked it 🙂
This recipe is fantastic! My only issue is that the soup disappears too fast.
Funny 🙂
I agree! After making this once and seeing how quickly it was devoured, at our house, it’s a DOUBLE BATCH from now on!
So so easy and amazingly healthy and yummy! Really appreciate the short cuts ideas offered as well as the substitutes. My new fave Fall soup!! ?
Thanks Sheri! Glad you liked it. If you mean the shortcut of chopping the veggies in the food processor, I like that one too – big time saver 🙂
Favorite soup recipe that I have tried so far! Absolutely delicious and so healthy. Thank you so much!
Hi honors! Thank you Audrey!
Could you please tell me the portion size? Thanks!
About 1 to 1.5 cups per person.
Hi, the serving size is at the top of the recipe ? it’s 5 ?
I made this recipe with a sweet potato and left out the lemon. It is absolutely delicious!
Thanks for sharing your tweaks Sheri. Glad you loved it!
I meant to ask if the servings at the top are 5?? OhMyGosh technology ?
I’ve made this soup several times Delicious! I use fire roasted tomatoes in lieu of tomato paste. Also have made it on a few occasions with added rotisserie chicken for a heartier meal. Great recipe.
Thanks Linda. Chicken is a great addition for a full meal in a bowl. Glad you liked the soup 🙂
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.
Love this recipe! I have made it three times now. I add some frozen spinach at the end. I’ve used a sweet potato once, regular potato once and no potato once. Each time, delicious! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for sharing your tweaks/experimenting Lisa. Glad you liked the recipe.
I followed the recipe exactly and really enjoyed this soup a lot. It’s a keeper! However, I do have one little quibble. There’s no way the prep time is 7 minutes, especially if you chop the vegetables yourself (which I think is preferable to using the shortcut). So, if you make it plan on at least an hour, maybe more, with prep.
Fair enough Sharon. I always use the food processor to speed things up, but not everyone has one or wants to use it. Glad you liked the soup!
Just made the red lentil soup with Vegetables. It was absolutely delicious.
Thank you. Happy you liked it ?
Awesome recipe… even my 5 yo had 2 bowls of this soup. Thank you very much
Happy to hear a 5 year old liked the soup! Thanks for leaving a comment Deepshikha.
Great red lentil soup recipe. It’s a keeper!
Glad you liked it Norma!
Just made this since it’s suddenly really cold in my part of Texas and needed a hearty veggie soup. This was delicious!! Used Madras curry powder (a bit more than recipe states), Kashmiri chili powder, a pinch of ground coriander and lots of fresh cilantro (that somehow didn’t die last night in the freeze). The lemon juice and zest really gives it additional complexity, so good! Oh and for the broth I used leftover Turkey carcass broth that I had in the freezer from Thanksgiving. Would like to try this again with the optional coconut milk (minus the lemon juice maybe for this version). Thanks for the recipe!!
What a great description of all your tweaks Jennifer. Thanks for sharing. Glad you enjoyed. Let us know how the soup turns out with the coconut milk if you try it.
Have made this quite a few times . Simple & so tasty. The Lemon juice & the parsley at the end gives it a nice zesty flavour.
Glad you’re enjoying the recipe. ? Thanks for leaving a comment.
This is best lentil soup I have ever had; a wonderful recipe.
Gabor
So nice to hear! Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment Gabor ?
I made this soup today I didn’t have any celery. I added some sweet potato as well. It was very tasty I will making it again.
Glad you like it Kate ?
Absolutely delicious! I used 1 carrot and 2 small sweet potatoes. The added lemon made such a difference! Definitely a keeper recipe.
Happy you loved it Ann 🙂
I’ve made it twice. I personally preferred it with curry+cilantro combo but loved it either way. I may try adding the lentils later or try other coloured lentils to keep them from disintegrating so much. All in all, will keep making this as a new favourite!
Hi Melanie. Glad you liked the soup and will keep experimenting to get it just right for you. ?
Hi, so anxious to try this recipe. I am wondering if I can use split red lentils? I have a bag on hand. If you are around please lmk. Have a great day and thank you for sharing this recipe. 🙂
Hi Norma. Great question. Yes, you can use split red lentils. Most red lentils sold in stores are split (husk removed). They will cook a bit faster and you will get a bit more to the cup, but for this recipe, it should make much difference. Hope that helps.
Delicious. I added a can of diced tomatoes and a bit is baby spinach.
🙂 Thanks for the comment Becky!
This was excellent! I used mixed legumes(mixed dal) and curry. I simmered it for 1-1.5 hrs to soften the legumes. This recipe is going in my ‘favourite’ file.
This was excellent! Loved by all! I used a bag of mixed legumes(mixed dal) and simmered it for about 1 – 1.5 hours to soften the legumes. Definitely putting this as one of my favourites.
Great tweak! Glad you liked it Kathy. And thanks for leaving a comment.
Really good, healthy hearty recipe! Don’t leave out the lemon! Makes the broth that much better!
Totally agree. Thanks very much for leaving a comment Paige.
This was so good! Thank you for sharing. As a lifelong vegetarian I need all the good recipes I can get my hands on! I did add a couple handfuls of fresh spinach:)
Hi Audrey. Jenna, my daughter and the other kook, has been a vegetarian since 8 years old so pretty lifelong too. Like you, she’s always looking for new and interesting vegetarian recipes. So glad you like this one, including the spinach! Feel free to rate it if you like. And I hope you will find other good recipes on our website 🙂
Can any colour be used or do they have to be red lentils ?
Red lentils break down faster (they almost disintegrate), so if you don’t mind a bit of ‘bite’ or if you have time to cook the soup a bit longer, go ahead and use other lentils. Hope that helps.
Made today and we loved everything about it. I doubled spices and served with bannock! Delicious meal
Great idea Bernice! Thanks so much for leaving a comment. Glad you liked the soup.
Phenomenal soup! Like others I also added a can of diced tomatoes and adjusted the amount of water accordingly. The lemon at the end is a must! So much liked this soup that I heated a few spoonfuls the next morning and topped my toast with it along with an over easy egg – made for a great breakfast with a nutritional boost!
Soup on toast- that’s definitely a new one for me! Very creative! Thanks for sharing Mary. I really appreciate the comment.
Thought I was the only one that did that! It’s so good..
Haha. Glad you liked it!
Loved the soup and followed recipe. Unusual for me, but reading it I saw nothing I wanted to tweet. Except a dollop of yoghurt for each bowle.
Aww. That’s so nice Brigitte. Thanks for the lovely comment.
This soup was so good. I agree the lemon juice made it. I also added 2 handfuls of spinach at the end.
Glad you liked it Lisa. ?
Love Love this soup so so good!!! Thanks!!!
Great to hear Yvette! Thanks for taking the time to let everyone know.
Hi if I was to make this in the pressure how long would you think 15mins. Would like to make this tonight?
Hi Roselyn. Yes, I think 15 minutes on high pressure in the instant pot with a natural release would be fine. Good luck.
We had it today. It was cold and rainy in Michigan and this was the perfect meal. We especially loved the lemon in it!
Thanks Tammy. Hard to believe it’s cold and rainy at the end of May. Here, too, in Toronto. Soup helps though.
Really delicious! The lemon really brought it together at the end. Who knew I was a good cook?!
Good for you- keep going! ?
So delicious. I added kale at the end. Thanks for the recipe!
You are welcome!
Yummy!
Glad you liked it Jaclyn. Thanks for leaving a comment. ?
this soup is very good. I only used 1/2 tsp cumin, and a pinch of coriander.
loved it.
Thanks so much for leaving a comment Carol. Glad you liked the soup!
I. LOVE. THIS. SOUP.
That is all. LOL!
Aww. Sweet. ?
This is delicious. I too, added a can of tomatoes and will add a package of frozen spinach next time (I didn’t have any on hand). I used just cumin and a bit of chili powder. The lemon at the end makes all the difference. Thanks for a great recipe.
Thanks very much for leaving a comment. Glad you enjoyed the soup Debbie. Agree about the lemon!
Yes, just finished this and it was delicious. I left the veggies small & chunky, and added cumin AND curry powder. I also added a heaping teaspoon of black pepper, and I mixed in 2 handfuls of spinach at the end to add extra color. Really really yummy! Thank you!
Hi Tara. Glad you liked the soup! And love that you tweaked it to your taste. Thanks for leaving a comment.
Fantastic recipe! I added a bay leaf, and threw in a can of diced tomatoes and reduced the liquid accordingly, but other than that followed the recipe exactly. Love this soup, thanks for sharing such a great recipe!
Appreciate you taking the time to leave a comment. Glad you liked the soup ?