Red Lentil Soup
, Updated Dec 07, 2021
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Are you looking for a healthy, easy and delicious Red Lentil Soup recipe? This ‘dump and start’ red lentil soup takes minutes in your Instant Pot but can also be cooked on the hob. Slimming friendly 🙂
You will also love my Lentil Bolognese!
January is a month for resolutions and fresh starts and… diets. I have taken a big step and joined Slimming World after seeing the amazing progress a friend has made in a few months.
I needed something to kick my butt into gear and help me adjust to being surrounded by delicious food, all day, every day.
While my diet is very healthy for the most part, I did indulge rather liberally over the holidays. So now is the time to take a step back and concentrate on ALL THE HEATLHY FOOD.
This super-easy red lentil soup is vegan, gluten free, so delicious and totally Slimming World friendly 🙂
Red lentil soup ingredients
- Onions
- Garlic
- Red lentils – these cook very quickly and require no soaking but make sure you rinse them first
- Plum tomatoes in juice (from a tin)
- Garam Masala or mild curry powder
- Turmeric – ground or fresh and grated
- Freshly grated ginger
- Vegetable stock (broth) made using a stock cube or bouillon powder
- Salt and pepper
- Chilli flakes
- Coriander (cilantro) to garnish
Can you use brown lentils?
Yes you can, or use a combination of red and brown. Brown lentils take longer to cook however – around 15 minutes high pressure plus 10 minutes natural release. They take even longer to cook on the stove – around 30 minutes.
Red lentil soup In the Instant Pot
All you have to do is chop some onions, rinse your red lentils and dump them in the pressure cooker together with stock, tomatoes and spices.
It only takes 8 minutes cooking at High Pressure, quick release and a bit of bleding using a food processor or immersion blender (I love my Bamix) and that’s it! Pretty easy, right?
Red lentil soup on the stovetop
You can easily make this soup on the stovetop, simply add all the ingredients in a pot, bring to simmer and cook until lentils are soft.
This soup resembles dal (or dahl) in many ways in that it uses similar ingredients. It is quite thin when you blend it. If you are looking for a more hearty vegan soup then this sweet potato, chickpea and red lentil soup is just the ticket.
Browse all my delicious slimming recipes HERE.
Red lentil soup
Ingredients
- 1 large onion , roughly chopped
- 2 garlic cloves , sliced
- 1 cup (200g) red lentils, rinsed
- 15 oz (400g) tin plum tomatoes
- 1 tbsp freshly grated ginger
- 2 tsp Garam Masala or mild curry powder
- 1 tsp ground turmeric
- 3 ½ cups (840ml) vegetable stock (broth) made using a stock cube or bouillon powder
- ¾ tsp salt
To serve
- ½ tsp chilli flakes
- Handful fresh coriander (cilantro) to garnish
- Salt and pepper , season to taste
Instructions
Instant pot method
- Add all the ingredients in the Instant Pot. Cover, set vent to sealing and cook for 8 minutes on high pressure.
- Manually release the pressure and blend the soup using an immersion blender until smooth. Alternatively transfer to a blender and blitz.
- Taste and season if needed. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve with a pinch of chilli flakes.
Stovetop method
- Add all the ingredients in a medium pot and bring to the boil.
- Reduce heat and simmer the soup for 15-20 minutes or until the lentils are soft and falling apart.
- Blend the soup using an immersion blender until smooth. Alternatively transfer to a blender and blitz.
- Taste and season if needed. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve with a pinch of chilli flakes.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is always approximate, and will depend on quality of ingredients and serving sizes.
Simple and quick but really tasty. I used the stove top method but rather than putting all the ingredients in together I cooked the onions and garlic first, added the ginger and lentils, then added the remaining ingredients. I also added 2 tbsp of tomato puree at the end to make the tomato flavour a little richer, I will definitely use this recipe again.
Thanks for your comment Kathryn!
Delicious and so easy to make
Made this today after looking for a quick lentil soup and absolutely loved it. Dadn’t have any tinned tomatoes so I substituted tomato puree which worked a treat. Had some bacon lardons to use up so fried them separately during the 10 min cook time and then added with the seasoning at the end. Didn’t bother to blitz it so it was very hearty and filling fast meal in a bowl for my dinner. Awesome! Thank you, yum