Vegetable Lentil Soup
Vegetable Lentil Soup with an array of vegetables is a wholesome one-pot soup. Made with green lentils, Zucchini, carrot, peppers, and celery, this soup is loaded with protein, fiber, and so so good.
Thick and hearty vegetable lentil soup is a winter staple at home. Chunky vegetables, tomato-based broth, spices, this soup is soul-soothing. You might not find many soup recipes that have so many vegetables and are also high in protein and fibre at the same time. This soup is vegan and gluten-free as well. The flavours are spot on with warm spices.
When the weather gets cold, most of the time our go-to meal is a bowl of soup. I always try to make the soup more nutritious and filling. Veggies kind of melt into the soup, in a way get hidden, so my not-so-veggie-loving daughter also doesn’t complain.
Ingredients for making Vegetable Lentil Soup
- Green Lentils – I love to use brown or green lentils in this recipe, as they hold their shape once cooked and gives a texture to the soup. The cooking time might vary depending on the kind of lentil you use. Green lentil needs a little more time than Brown lentils to cook.
- Aromatics – Onion, garlic, bay leaf, celery and Italian seasoning. Sautéing the aromatics in butter/oil enhances the flavour.
- Vegetables – This Lentil Soup has a good amount of vegetables. There is Carrot, Red pepper, and Zucchini. You can also add potatoes, sweet potatoes, handful of spinach or kale, peas to it. I like to add a combination of 3-4 veggies, not more.
- Tomato – Canned diced tomato . For an intense tomato flavor you can also use 1 tablespoon of tomato paste.
- Good quality vegetable stock or Chicken stock.
You can also experiment with other spices such as 1/2 teaspoon of mild curry powder or a teaspoon of ground cumin. Add any fresh herbs like rosemary, thyme etc.
Here is a quick step-by-step instruction to make vegetable Lentil soup
Detailed recipe with measurements and instructions in recipe card. I will be sharing a few additional tips here.
Green lentil cooks faster like red lentil. It melts and makes the soup creamy while still holding shape and giving texture to the soup. To cut down the cooking time furhter(almost by half), soak lentil in hot water and keep it covered before you begin with prepping veggies.
Prep mirepoix aka finely chopped onion, celery and carrot. This is the soup base and saute this in butter until softened and aromatic. Then saute garlic.
Stir in the chopped veggies, tomato, soaked lentil, stock and seasoning. Increase the flame and let the mix come to a boil. Then reduce flame, cover and let the lentil cook unitl tender. It should take some where around 40-45 minutes.
If you want your veggies tender but with a bit of texture, then add pepepr and zucchini towards the end so that the veggies stays crunchy.
For a creamy and thick version, blend the soup partialy with an immerssion blender.
Make a big batch and freeze
This soup is perfect for batch cooking. You can refrigerate this for upto 4 days. It might thicken a bit once cooled down. While reheating add dash of stock or water to adjuct consistency.
Lentil soup freezes also really well. Portion into small serving batches and freeze upto 3 months.
What to serve with it
Toast some sourdough bread, perfect to scoop this soup. These cheesy garlic bread or no knead foccacia also goes well with the soup.
More Healthy Soup Recipes…
Vegetable Lentil Soup
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoon Butter/ Olive oil
- 1 medium Onion Chopped
- 1.5 tablespoon Garlic Minced
- 2 stalks Celery
- 1 cup Green lentils (ref notes 1)
- 2 Bay leaves
- 2 medium Carrots Chopped
- 1 can Tomato 14 oz
- 2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 4-5 cups Vegetable stock
- 1 Potato
- 1 Red bell pepper
- 1 medium Zucchini Cut into cubes
- ½ teaspoon salt and Pepper each
Instructions
- Add hot water to the lentil until it is completely covered. Cover a lid and let it rest.
- Heat butter/oil a heavy bottom soup pot. Add minced garlic, bay leaf followed by chopped Onion,carrot and celery. Saute 1 -2 minutes, until the mixture is aromatic.
- Add in zucchini, chopped pepper and potato.
- Drain lentil and add it to the pot along with tomato and vegetable stock. Add salt, italian seasoning and pepper.
- Once the mixture comes to a boil, lower the heat and cover. Let it cook covered for 30 minutes.
- At the end of cooking, the lentils would have are cooked and are soft and tender,
- With the back of the spoon smash the soup (or use a hand-held blender and pulse it a couple of times) . This step is to make the soup thick and creamy without adding any cream or thickening agent. Instead, you can also use an immersion blender and pulse it a few times.
Notes
- For the lentils to cook faster, soak lentils for 3-4 hours or overnight.
Super delicious and healthy! I added fresh spinach because I had it available. I used the immersion blender in the end to make it thick and creamy, while still leaving chunks of vegetables. Will definitely make again!