Simple and warming, Coriander Spiced Lentil Soup is the perfect clean-eating recipe for cold busy days. Plant-based and healthy, this soup will fill you up and warm your bones.
Soup is my go-to for easy winter meals, check out all my soup recipes here.
Happy New Year, we come with soup....
It's New Year's day and I find myself in the kitchen making soup, reflecting on the last 12 months, and considering the next.
It's been a busy year, full of changes and challenges. A little more insane, a little more chaos, a little more fun. More hockey. More coffee. More miles. More dog walks.
Soup is what I do when I need a reset foodwise. It feels like, no..., it's true, I should say we have been eating non-stop for the last two weeks— holiday meals, parties, grabbing food at the mall while we finish our shopping. In truth, I haven't spent much time in the kitchen just cooking. I've finished a few deserts. Made an app or two to take to a party. I have made many cups of coffee. But just cooking to eat food? making something nourishing? not so much. We spent 3 days in hockey arenas.. yes that is arenas . I have never consumed nor allowed to be consumed so many french fries.
I enjoy the holidays. I love having time off to spend with family and friends. I even read a book or two. We started a great big jigsaw puzzle. But the lack of schedule gets to me after a while. I sorta like predictability. And soup is where I turn. Every time.
Lentil Soup is healthy
Lentil soup is the epitome of healthy food. The variations are endless, what I love about lentil soup:
- It's simple and flexible, use whatever vegetables you have on hand
- Quick enough to make on a busy weeknight.
- It's flexible -- spicey, or not, sweet and creamy or not, herbal, or not -- it's up to you
- And low in calories and fat.
- High in fibre and plant-based protein
- This is clean food. Reset food.
Some more lentil soup recipes
- Sweet potato and lentil soup (Slowcooker recipe)
How to make this Spiced Lentil Soup recipe
If your fridge is anything like mine right now (packed with leftover Thai takeout from New Year's Eve, remnants of the Christmas cookie tray and half a bag of carrots), you probably have what you need on hand. This soup is flexible. I like mine spicy with a healthy dose of fresh herbs at the end. But you can change the spices to your tastes and to what you have on hand. I highly recommend fresh herbs if you have them. Even some fresh sliced green onions stirred in at the end will brighten the flavours. Or a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. But hey, if the stores are closed and your fridge is lacking anything green, just go with it.
There are 3 basic steps to making this lentil soup recipe:
- Saute onions and garlic in a bit of oil.
- Add liquid, lentils, remaining vegetables and spices. Bring to a boil.
- Reduce heat and simmer until everything is tender
These items are my current go-to ingredients:
Chilli Pepper paste: A good chilli pepper paste will have just the perfect blend of garlic and hot chillis and adds a warm and cozy heat. A nice shortcut for adding depth of flavour without pulling every spice out of the pantry. If you don't have chilli pepper paste, a half teaspoon of dried chilli flakes will add a bit of heat. Use your favourite brand - harissa style chilli paste is also very good here.
Don't like heat, skip it completely.
Spice Blends. Spice blends can be your best friend when it comes to adding complex flavours quickly to a dish. I'm in love with this roasted cumin spice blend I find works just about anywhere cumin is called for in a recipe. Garam Masala is just perfect in this soup -- sweet and warm spices -- a good blend of cumin and coriander and other warm spices. Your favourite curry powder will do. The soup is flexible.
Lentils. Usually, I make this particular version of lentil soup with red lentils. I was a little bit short today, so I made up the required amount with black beluga lentils. It's a blend. And again, this soup is flexible. Use what you have.
What's the difference between red, brown and black lentils?
Red lentils cook the fastest and make this soup something you could easily pull off in under 30 minutes. The beluga lentils are tiny and black. They will need more cooking time, say another 5-10 minutes. Brown and green lentils - the most common ones, are a bit bigger than the tiny black beluga lentils and may take even longer. Perhaps a further 10-15 minutes, total of 45 minutes.
You could use any kind of lentil you have hanging around the kitchen you will just have to adjust the cooking time accordingly.
And be warned the colour of your soup will be different, but it will still taste good. Red lentils tend to cook down to a warm orangy soup - making the soup thick and almost creamy. Where as black beluga's stay mostly whole and will leave the soup kinda brothy. Brown or green lentils will turn into a darkish brown soup, somewhere in between the creaminess of the red lentils and the brothy-ness of the belugas
Red lentils cook down to nothing, black, green and brown lentils will stay mostly whole.
In this soup, I kind of like the way the few black lentils float around and add a bit of contrast to the warm tones of the carrots and peppers.
📖 Recipe
Coriander Spiced Lentil Soup
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive or coconut oil
- ½ lb of red lentils about 1-½ cups, or your choice of lentil just adjusted cooking time accordingly
- 5 cups water or stock I used 1 vegetable based bouillon cube and water
- 2 shallots finely diced of about half of a medium onion
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 1 tablespoon garam masala or equivalent a good spice mix which includes cumin, a curry powder or just ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- ½ teaspoon paprika
- ½ teaspoon chilli paste your favorite, harrissa is good here
- 3 large carrots quartered and sliced thin
- 1 sweet pepper yellow, red or orange
- ¼ cup chopped and packed fresh cilantro also known as fresh coriander
- 2 tablespoons fresh mint leaved thinly sliced
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- In a large sauce pan over high heat, heat oil. If using a bouillon cube, I throw it into the oil and let it soften and toast while the oil heats up. Not necessary but it seems to melt better this way.
- Add lentils and liquid. Bring to a boil and skim off any foam that rises to the top. Reduce heat to low.
- Add shallots, garlic, spices, carrots and peppers. Stir into the soup and simmer until lentils are tender about 20-30 minutes. (If using black, brown or green lentils you will need to cook longer than if using red lentils). Add additional water if you think the soup has gotten too thick.
- When the lentils are soft and tender, stir in fresh herbs. Check for seasonings and adjust salt and peper as necessary. Serve.
- Keeps refrigerated for several days. This soup freezes nicely.
Carol Kuzniak says
We were lucky that it was our house that Trish brought this lentil soup yesterday for just a little new year gathering. We had other appetizers and lots of food but when she appeared with this warm pot of soup, I had to have a bowl, as no one can resist hot wholesome homemade soup on a cold day. Well, it was absolutely wonderful, tasty and guess what my meat lover husband said, please get that recipe from Trish and make that soup. Start the new year right.
Trish @infinebalance says
So glad you enjoyed it! Great way to start the new year - sharing food with family.
Gwen @ Delightful Adventures says
I love lentil soup and this one looks delicious. I just pinned it and I look forward to making it! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Doug says
Thanks for the recipe - I am just getting into lentils more, and didn't realize there were different cooking times for the different colors. I am partial to the red lentils because my wife finds the color more "appetizing." She's big on food color...