30-min Cozy Red Lentil Soup

This Red Lentil Soup is simple and easy to put together within 30 minutes. It will make a comforting and cozy lunch or dinner for the whole family even if they are not all vegans or vegetarians.

Course Main Course, Soup

Cuisine Dairy-free, Egg-free, European, Gluten-free, Nut-free, Soy-free, Vegan, Vegetarian

Keyword lentil carrot potato soup, Lentil soup, Red lentil soup, vegan lentil soup

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 20

Total Time 30

Servings people

Calories 160kcal

Author Nandor Barta

Equipment

Ingredients

1 Tbsp Olive oil
1 Onion medium
3-4 cloves Garlic
2 Potatoes
2-3 Carrot medium
1-2 Parsnip medium
1 cup Red lentils dry
5 cup Veggie broth
1,5 tsp Tomato paste
1 tsp Sweet smoked paprika powder
1 tsp Parsley
1 tsp Ground cumin seeds
½ tsp Salt or to taste
½ tsp Pepper or to taste

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Preparing the ingredients

Soak red lentils for 10 minutes in boiling water. In that 10 minutes, you can prepare the other veggies.
Peel and chop the onion and garlic. Wash and chop potatoes. Wash, peel and slice carrots and parsnip.

Making the soup

Heat your a stockpot or a Dutch oven to medium heat and add olive oil. Cook the chopped onion for 1-2 minutes.
Add the sliced carrots and parsnip. Stir and cook for 5-6 minutes.
Add the crushed garlic and the seasoning (salt, pepper, parsley, and cumin) and cook for another 2-3 minutes.
Add the sweet paprika powder and the tomato paste, and stir until combined.
Pour the vegetable broth and cook the soup for approx. 5 minutes.
Add the diced potatoes and cook for another 5 minutes.
Finally, add the soaked red lentils and cook for another 5 minutes.

Video

Notes

TOP TIP: This soup gets more and more delicious with every passing minute.

No need to thicken the soup - You don't need any flour or starch to thicken the soup as the red lentils will help you thicken it. The longer the soup rests, the thicker it will be. Moreover, you can take out 1-2 cups of the finished soup and puree them separately with an immersion blender. When you add it back, you will get an even creamier and thicker soup.
Is it too thick? - Add 1-2 cups of water if the red lentil soaked up too much liquid. And adjust seasoning accordingly.
Chop vegetables evenly - We added carrots and parsnip first as they need the most time to be cooked, then potatoes. They will cook more evenly if the veggies are the same size.
Chop vegetables smaller - If you prefer to reduce the cooking time, you can cut the potatoes to smaller or slice the carrots thinner.
How spicy should it be? - Depending on how hot and spicy you prefer your soup, you can add chili powder or sriracha or freshly chopped raw chili peppers beside the sweet paprika powder.
Do I really need to soak them? - If you don't soak them for at least 10 minutes in hot water, then you will need a longer time to cook them. It means that you need to add them at the same time as you add the veggie broth. They need at least 15-20 minutes so you need to pay attention not to over-cook the other veggies. In the worst-case scenario, you can pour the whole soup in a blender and make a cream of red lentil soup. :-)

Nutrition