Fast and Easy Red Lentil and Vegetable Soup
I Love It when a meal comes together quickly and cleans up my fridge a bit by using up remaining produce before it goes bad. This red lentil and vegetable soup deliciously accomplishes both by:
- you can include a variety of ingredients depending upon what you’ve got in your fridge or pantry,
- you can easily enjoy this as a gut-healing meal in less than 30 minutes.
Additionally, this recipe is gluten free, sugar free, dairy free, oil free, anti-inflammatory, nutrient dense, and whole food plant based. You can easily enjoy a tasty meal with your family and without the discomfort if anyone has problems with these food groups.
Getting Started
To get started, go through your fridge and pantry and select the produce and beans that you decide to include in the soup. When I’m looking, my goal are:
- something green like kale or spinach
- red lentils because they cook in about 20 minutes and mush up nicely to slightly thicken the soup
- other beans that hold their shape and add more protein and fiber like green lentils, Great Northern beans, cannellini beans, etc.
- onion for the flavor
- mushrooms because they’re filling
- celery for the salty flavor that combines well with the onion
- tomato sauce and either chopped fresh, or canned diced tomatoes for the tomato soup base with a little chunkiness
Enjoy this fast and easy red lentil and vegetable soup recipe that's gluten free, oil free, and whole food plant based vegan.
- 1 Onion (Peeled and Diced)
- 2 Stalks Celery (Strings Removed; Chopped)
- 2 Carrots (Peeled and Chopped)
- 1 Box Mushrooms (Chopped)
- 1/2 Cup Red Lentils (Rinsed)
- 1 Can Great Northern or Cannellini Beans (Drained and Rinsed)
- 1 Can Diced Tomatoes
- 1 Can Tomato Sauce
- 16 Oz Vegetable Broth or Water (Or more to fill your pot)
- 2 Cups Kale or Spinach (Chopped)
- 1 Tbsp Cumin
- 2 Tbsp Garlic Powder
- 1/4 teaspoon Rosemary
- 1/2 Teaspoon Turmeric
- 1/2 Teaspoon Pepper
- Salt (To taste if preferred)
- 1/2 Teaspoon Cayenne (Optional: for some spicy heat)
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Set burner to Medium and preheat Dutch oven. Once hot, add chopped onion, celery, carrots, and mushrooms
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Add remaining chosen vegetables, lentils and canned ingredients, preferred seasonings, and then broth/water
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Adjust heat and boil on low for 20 minutes, gently stirring periodically.
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Serve alone or with rice or quinoa.
- Adjust the seasonings and amounts to your preferred taste
- Add ingredients like squash, cabbage, and kale near the end of the cooking time
- This is a simplified Mexican style Lentil and Veggie soup, and I would top it with some fresh, chopped cilantro and avocado.
- For a simple, Italian style soup, replace the cumin with oregano.
- If you're including spinach as your green, no need to cook it. Just add it to you bowl when serving and it will quickly wilt.
Lentils and Other Beans
Lentils are a common ingredient in many of our meals and are high in protein, fiber, potassium, iron, and folate. They’re also budget-friendly and very easily cooked.
You can include green lentils, which are usually just as easily found at your local store and hold together when cooked. In this recipe, however, I usually opt for Great Northern or cannellini beans that I can also usually get for a great price at nearby grocery stores.
I minimize cooking with oil, to minimize unnecessary calories and unwanted health risks but also because it usually causes me problems personally. In this recipe, you don’t need it anyway, so I start by heating up a Dutch oven and, once hot, tossing in my onions, celery, carrots, garlic, and mushrooms.
I almost always have these ingredients, and they’re a flavorful base for the soup, but if you don’t have or don’t want to include one of them, then don’t.
Next I add red lentils. I prefer how they soften to a nice mushiness that slightly thickens the soup. Be sure to do a quick check to pull out any non-bean debris and then rinse and add to your pot.
After that cooks for a few minutes, I add most of the other ingredients, except chosen greens if I’m including them. For those, I wait until near the end of cooking time.
