Healthy Lentil Soup Recipe – A Nutritious Bowl of Comfort in Every Spoonful

Can you freeze lentil soup? Yes! This easy, one-pot healthy lentil soup recipe can be made in large batches and frozen in freezer bags, ice-cube trays, or freezer-safe containers. If you have picky eaters in your family, this freezer-friendly lentil soup recipe will be a hit for sure! Feel free to sneak in extra vegetables like kale, tomatoes, and celery so you can be sure that they are getting all the nutrients.

What is Healthy Lentil Soup?

This quick and easy recipe for lentil soup is a wonderful soup with plenty of spices like coriander and cumin, and vegetables including carrots, kale, and celery. All of the ingredients get combined in a pot and cooked until the lentils are tender enough to blend up a few times with an immersion blender. Since this soup has more of a chunky-pureed consistency, it freezes extremely well as vegetables tend to lose their texture when they are placed in the freezer.

This homemade lentil soup recipe is a well-balanced, creamy, healthy one-pot wonder that is so convenient to make. It is an amazing cook-ahead meal that is a great way to leverage whatever is in the refrigerator.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Thick, creamy, flavorful, and filling, this is a basic lentil soup recipe that you can make that is both nutritious and delicious. It combines dried lentils with easy-to-find vegetables like carrots, celery, and kale, and warming spices like cumin and coriander. 

For a more tomatoey version, you may appreciate my Tomato & Lentil Soup or you might prefer something starchy with Indian spices like my Potato & Lentil Soup. Lentils make a wonderful base for soups, salads, curries, and stews as they pair beautifully with a multitude of vegetables and spices, and can be taken in several different directions. This version is particularly wonderful due its spiced savory nature, creamy texture, and squeeze of lemon that brightens up the flavors. Here are all the reasons why you will love this lentil vegetable soup recipe:

• Uses Easy-to-find Ingredients: From the dried lentils to the carrots, celery, canned tomatoes, and kale, you should be able to easily find the ingredients for this soup in your local grocery store without the need to visit specialty shops. The spices are easy to locate as well (ground cumin and ground coriander), so you won’t need to go to an Indian grocery store to find them if you live in a more rural setting.
• Fast to Cook: This delicious lentil soup recipe takes just over an hour to cook from start to finish and most of it will be hands-off time, allowing you to do other tasks around your home or make your side dishes to serve with it. Once everything is chopped and combined in the pot, it just needs to simmer until the lentils are cooked before being pureed slightly and served.
• High in Plant-based Protein: Those who are vegan or vegetarian will love that this lentil soup gives them plenty of protein to meet their daily needs. Similar to beans, lentils are an excellent source of protein, offering around 18 grams of protein per 1 cup serving of lentils.
• Easy to Modify: If you have other vegetables that you need to use up, feel free to add them to this soup. Great options include cauliflower, peas, spinach, bell peppers, and mushrooms although you may have to adjust when you add them to the soup. If using spinach, it can be stirred into the soup at the end whereas peas could be added partway during the simmering time to warm through. On the other hand, if you choose to use cauliflower, bell peppers, or mushrooms, they can be pan-fried with the celery and carrots before you add the remaining soup ingredients.

Key Ingredients in This Recipe

This healthy lentil soup recipe with cumin doesn’t include complicated ingredients, and is actually an incredible budget meal if you are looking to tighten up your grocery costs. With a medley of spices, here are the ingredients you will need to make this delightful dish:

• olive oil

• onion – white, sweet, or yellow

• garlic

• carrot

• celery

• dried lentils – green or brown lentils

• canned crushed tomatoes

• vegetable broth

• cumin powder

• coriander powder

• bay leaves – dried

• lemon

• Salt and pepper

• kale – for garnish

Step-by-Step Instructions

This easy vegan lentil soup recipe is so easy to prepare and yet tastes like it has been simmering for hours. Here is how to make this wonderful fiber-rich soup in your kitchen:

1. Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat.

   

2. Add the garlic and onions, and allow them to cook for 2 minutes.

   

3. Add the celery and carrots, and cook them until they are softened and the onions are caramelized, about 7-10 minutes.

   

4. Add the lentils, tomatoes, and vegetable stock to the pot; bring the mixture to a boil, reduce it to a simmer over medium-low, and simmer it for 20 minutes.

   

5. Add the cumin, coriander, and bay leaves.

   

6. Stir the soup and cover the pot with a lid. Allow it to simmer for about 20 minutes or so, until the lentils get soft but not mushy.

   

7. Using an immersion blender or stick blender, pulse the soup 2 to 3 times to thicken the soup. Alternatively, you can blend 2 cups of cooled soup in a blender before stirring it into the remaining soup. Add more stock or water to the soup to adjust its consistency if needed.

   

8. Check the flavors and season to taste with salt and pepper.

   

9. Stir lemon zest and juice into the soup before serving.

   

10. Serve garnished with chopped kale.

Tips for the Best Results

This lentil soup is wonderfully spiced and creamy while still having some texture. It is amazing that something so healthy and nutritious could also be full of flavor while also coming together quickly on the stove. Here are some things to keep in mind to make the best lentil soup recipe ever:

• Don’t Overcook the Lentils: While the lentils should be soft and tender once cooked and be easy to puree, you don’t want their texture to be mushy. The finished soup should retain some of the integrity of the lentils with some of them still holding their shape.
• Adjust Seasonings if Needed: As with any dish, I recommend that you taste it toward the end of the cooking time to see if you like the balance of flavors. Then,  you can add more salt and pepper as needed or a little more lemon juice. The amount of seasoning you use may depend on how much the soup reduces during the cooking process or how salty the canned tomatoes and vegetable broth are that you start with.
• Blend Only a Few Times: At the end of cooking, you only need to pulse the immersion blender two or three times, which will be just enough to thicken the soup without blending it entirely. Alternatively, you can blend 2 cups of the soup in a stand blender before adding it to the rest of the soup.

Variations

Soup is a wonderful dish for you to get creative in the kitchen or use up leftover ingredients. Here are some ways you can adjust this lentil soup recipe:

• Make a Curried Lentil Soup: If you love the taste of curry with lentil dishes, you can add curry powder into the soup along with the other ingredients. You could also replace the lemon with lime, and stir some chopped cilantro into the soup at the end of the cooking time as those ingredients pair beautifully with curry.
• Make a Vegan Smoky Lentil Soup: While bacon lentil soup is a classic dish, for a vegan alternative, you could add some smoked tempeh into the soup to impart a smoky flavor. Other great smoky ingredients include smoked paprika or smoked salt as well.
• Make an Italian-inspired Lentil Soup: By swapping out the seasonings, you can give this soup an Italian flavor profile instead. Simply add chopped rosemary or dried Italian herbs like Italian seasoning or oregano into the soup as it cooks instead of the cumin and coriander. You could also add some crushed red pepper flakes into the soup if you would like your soup to have a spicy taste.

Serving Suggestions

Served in bowls, this recipe for lentil soup with kale is perfect with a garnish of chopped kale on top. However, if you aren’t a big fan of kale, you could garnish it with sliced avocado instead or even a sprinkling of chopped herbs like cilantro or parsley.

This lentil soup is perfect served with bread which you can then use to soak up the remaining soup when you have almost eaten your entire bowl. I like this Vegan Naan recipe for its golden color and soft, pillowy texture. However, you could really serve the soup with any bread that you have such as buns, traditional sandwich bread, biscuits, and more. This soup also pairs beautifully with a tossed green salad if you would like to have more veggies with your meal.

Storage & Reheating

When making this inexpensive freezer-friendly lentil soup, I tend to make a couple of batches. Here are my tried-and-true storage and reheating tips and tricks.

I recommend storing leftover lentil soup in the fridge in a sealed container for up to 3 days. Make sure your soup is cooked completely before you refrigerate it.

Can you freeze lentil soup? Of course! After allowing it to cool completely, you have the versatility of freezing in freezer-safe containers, freezer bags, whichever you have on hand, or even ice cube trays. I find myself using the freezer bags because it uses up less room in the freezer and I can stack them on top of each other. Whichever option you choose, be sure not to overfill as liquids expand during freezing. Feel free to store it in the freezer for up to 6 months.

If reheating from the refrigerator, you can use the microwave heating all the way through. If reheating from the freezer, I recommend taking it out and defrosting it in the refrigerator and reheating it in the microwave or on the stovetop until heated completely through.

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Freezer-Friendly Lentil Soup Recipe

5 from 1 vote

Can you freeze lentil soup? Yes! This easy, one-pot healthy lentil soup recipe can be made in large batches and frozen in freezer bags, ice-cube trays, or freezer-safe containers. If you have picky eaters in your family, this freezer-friendly lentil soup recipe will be a hit for sure! Feel free to sneak in extra vegetables like kale, tomatoes, and celery so you can be sure that they are getting all the nutrients.

Servings: 6 people

Prep Time: 20 minutes mins

Cook Time: 50 minutes mins

Total Time: 1 hour hr 10 minutes mins

Ingredients 

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 medium onion, diced , (white, sweet, or yellow)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 large carrot, diced
• 2 ribs celery, diced
• 2 cups dried lentils, rinsed and drained, (green or brown lentils)
• 1 14 ounce can crushed tomatoes
• 6 cups vegetable broth
• 2 teaspoons cumin powder
• 1 teaspoon coriander powder
• 2 bay leaves, dried
• 1 lemon, zested and juiced
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• A few leaves of kale, washed and finely chopped, (for garnish)

Instructions 

• Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat.
• Add garlic and the onions and cook for about 2 minutes.
• Add the celery and carrots and cook until softened and the onion starts to caramelize. This should take about 7-10 minutes.
• Add lentils, tomatoes, and stock to the bot, bringing everything to a boil. Lower the heat to medium-low and let the mixture simmer for about 20 minutes.
• Add all remaining ingredients (cumin, coriander, bay leaves) except lemon and salt, stir, and cover the pot with a lid. Leave for about 20 minutes or so, until the lentils get soft but not mushy.
• Using an immersion blender or a stick blender, do 2 or 3 quick whizzes to thicken the soup. You can also transfer 2 cups of cooled soup to a blender, blend, then transfer it back to the pot. Feel free to add water or more stock if you want to adjust the soup consistency.
• Check the flavors and season to taste with salt and pepper.
• Add the zest of a lemon and add a squeeze of lemon juice and garnish with finely chopped kale.

BON APPÉTIT!

Equipment

• Stove Top
• Immersion/Stick Blender/Blender

Notes

• Wash and rinse the lentils very well to remove any debris.
• Try not to overcook the lentils as the texture will become mushy.
• Feel free to adjust the consistency of the soup to your liking. If you would rather have a smoother soup just blend a little longer.
• Sliced avocados on top can be a tasty and creamy surprise!

Nutrition

Calories: 302kcalCarbohydrates: 47gProtein: 17gFat: 6gSaturated Fat: 1gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 4gSodium: 966mgPotassium: 757mgFiber: 21gSugar: 5gVitamin A: 2605IUVitamin C: 15mgCalcium: 65mgIron: 6mg

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