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Carrot, Red Lentil, and Spinach Soup

May 25, 2020 by Alexandra Daum
Vegan red lentil soup with carrots, lentils, and a tomato base. This simple soup is a weeknight staple and can be made with common pantry items like canned tomatoes, frozen spinach, and dried red lentils. It takes about half an hour from start to finish and freezes well.
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This post was originally published in September 2017. It has been updated as of May 2020 with improvements to the text and recipe, and a video added.

There are a handful of recipes that I’ve shared over the years that I make about once a week – red lentil falafel, potato lentil salad, raw chocolate, sourdough rye bread – my standards. Seriously, there’s a rye bread rising on the counter right now and I made the lentil falafel for dinner tonight.

This red lentil soup is another recipe I make all the time, and it’s so great for 1. when I haven’t gotten groceries for three days, 2. when my budget is low, or 3. when I’m starving and need a quick and easy dinner that isn’t pasta. It can be finished in about half an hour, including prep time, which is just chopping carrots, onions, and garlic.

It’s an all around great simple recipe and makes good use of batch cooked ingredients and pantry staples like canned tomatoes and frozen spinach. It’s so budget friendly, especially in spring or autumn when carrots are in season and so inexpensive and delicious.

Substitutions

Like all of my go-to recipes, this vegan red lentil soup can be easily adapted to suit your tastes. I like to include lots of spices – cumin, turmeric, ginger – but I’ve also made it with just a little cumin and standard salt and pepper.

You can switch out the carrots for sweet potato if you’d like. I use carrots because they’re much more available here in the Netherlands and about 1/6th of the price of sweet potatoes, but in Canada I did it about half and half.

Other greens work well instead of spinach (like chard or kale), and I’ve even added a couple of potatoes to the mix before. The brown rice can be replaced with quinoa, millet, or other grains, or simply left out and the soup served on its own.

Though the recipe card calls for vegetable stock, this is mostly because I get readers sending me messages annoyed if I list water instead of stock. I use water most of the time and just season properly (since most store bought veg stock is primarily salt, and a touch of fat).

Tips and Notes

This makes a big pot of soup, far too much for my little two person family, but it freezes fantastically and I love having a few jars in the freezer. It’s a total life saver for busy or tired (read: burned out) days and since I usually have brown rice or sourdough bread around, it’s a meal.

If we’re having it for dinner and I don’t have either of those, I usually make these coconut oil biscuits. I don’t mind having the soup on its own but let’s be real, carbs make everything better.

Like all soups, there are a couple of tricks to keep in mind. This is a very flavourful one, with plenty of spices, tomatoes, and vegetables adding a lot – but if you taste the soup at the end of cooking and it tastes bland or flat, you need salt or acid. If it tastes salty enough, add a squeeze of lemon. Most of the time vegan soups are lacking salt, though. Season your food!

More Great Soups

Kale, White Bean, and Lemon Soup
Roasted Tomato, Zucchini, and Eggplant Soup
Creamy Cauliflower Potato Soup
Chickpea Noodle Soup
Spring Green Minestrone
Or, check out this collection of cozy cold weather soup recipes!

Front view of carrot red lentil soup with rice and spinach in a bowl with a spoon.

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Yield: 6

Carrot, Red Lentil, & Spinach Soup

Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 35 minutes
4.47 from 77 votes

Ingredients

Metric – American
  • 1 teaspoon olive oil
  • ½ red onion chopped
  • 5-6 medium carrots about 3 cups, cut into 1cm (3/4 in.) slices
  • 3 cloves garlic minced
  • 3 cm piece fresh ginger minced
  • ½ teaspoon cumin
  • ½ teaspoon turmeric
  • ½ teaspoon fresh ground pepper
  • ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper to taste
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt to taste
  • 400 grams canned diced tomatoes
  • 1.5 litres vegetable stock
  • 150 grams red lentils
  • 150 grams frozen spinach**
  • Juice of 1/2 a lemon
  • Brown rice to serve

Instructions

  • In a large pot, heat the oil over medium. Add the onion and sauté for a couple of minutes or until soft and fragrant. Stir in the carrots, and cook for another minute or two.
  • Add the garlic, ginger, and spices, stirring to coat the vegetables. Now add the salt and tomatoes, stir, and pour the vegetable stock in.
  • Increase the heat to high, cover the pot, and bring the soup to a rolling boil. Add the lentils and reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 20-25 minutes, covered, or until the carrots are tender.
  • Stir in the spinach and turn off the heat, letting the hot soup thaw the spinach with the lid on. Add the lemon juice, taste, and season with salt if necessary.
  • Serve over brown rice and store leftovers in the refrigerator or freezer.

Video

Notes

** If you want to use fresh spinach, go for about 100g and remove any larger stems.
• Using the heat from the soup to thaw the spinach has two purposes – it brings the soup down to an edible temperature, and it keeps the nutrients of the spinach largely intact. And the colour stays nice and green!
• Sometimes I don’t add the lemon – if the brand of tomatoes you’re using is very acidic, you might want to leave the lemon out.

Nutrition

Serving: 1g Calories: 360kcal Carbohydrates: 18g Protein: 16g Fat: 0.5g Sodium: 412mg Fiber: 24g Sugar: 3g
© Alexandra Daum
Course: Soups and Stews
Cuisine: North American
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More Soups and Stews:

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Previous Post: « Rhubarb Almond Cake
Next Post: Asparagus New Potato Salad with Lentils »

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Comments

  1. Nidhi Patel says

    September 15, 2017 at 3:33 pm

    Ah! Perfect autumn hearty soup option, I am going to add this as a variety to my go-to autumn list. thank you for sharing. Love the photography 🙂

    Reply
  2. Dana Sandonato says

    September 15, 2017 at 3:33 pm

    This is such a gorgeous bowl of goodness. You can tell how wholesome this is just by *looking* at it! It can be tough to photograph broth-y soups beautifully, I find. But these photos are stunning. I'll definitely be making this over the cooler months 🙂

    Reply
  3. Gabrielle @ eyecandypopper says

    September 15, 2017 at 3:33 pm

    Yes! I make similar soups too in the winter. They're so simple to make, fast too for those busy weeknights, and packed with nutritious yumminess. Yours looks absolutely wonderful, it *almost* makes me excited about freezing temperatures. haha And I agree, I do like a big slice of crusty bread in my soup! 🙂

    Reply
  4. UrbnSpice - A Taste of Heart & Home says

    September 15, 2017 at 3:34 pm

    I love making soups and your nutrient rich recipe has me inspired on this brisk morning to pull out my soup pot. Your tip regarding adding the frozen spinach at the end is brilliant. I cannot wait to try your soup – thank you for sharing.

    Reply
  5. Karen Ahmed says

    September 15, 2017 at 3:34 pm

    Wow those pics are stunning and this soup looks so great for the cold months – bookmarking!

    Reply
  6. Alexandra Daum says

    October 7, 2017 at 7:54 pm

    Thanks, Karen, let me know if you make it!

    Reply
  7. Alexandra Daum says

    October 7, 2017 at 7:55 pm

    Thank you so much, and I hope you love it 🙂

    Reply
  8. Alexandra Daum says

    October 7, 2017 at 7:55 pm

    Hahaha almost, eh?! I'm never quite ready for cold weather either!

    Reply
  9. Alexandra Daum says

    October 7, 2017 at 7:56 pm

    Thank you so much, Dana <3

    Reply
  10. Alexandra Daum says

    October 7, 2017 at 7:57 pm

    Happy to hear it, Nidhi! It's a great soup to add to your rotation. Thank you 🙂

    Reply
  11. Karina Furman says

    October 21, 2017 at 5:29 am

    How many calories is a bowl of such a soup? Do you happen to know? Thanks.

    Reply
  12. Alexandra Daum says

    October 21, 2017 at 5:30 am

    I don't calculate calories, sorry! You could put it into a calculator if it's important for you to be really exact. It's a lower calorie soup, that's why I serve it over the brown rice.

    Reply
  13. Ellie says

    October 28, 2017 at 6:14 am

    I linked to this recipe from My Fitness Pal. It very precisely lists the nutrition information, with the calories as 254 per serving, but neglects to say what the serving size is! Maybe 1 1/2 cups? Anyway, this is delicious. I made it with about 1 lb. chopped fresh chard added to the last 5 minutes of cooking instead of spinach. I'm trying to use it up before the garden freezes!

    Reply
  14. Nicky Hawthorne says

    January 26, 2018 at 7:06 am

    made this. loved it. all the spices make it so hella tasty. sometimes soup can be bland, boring and really just a vehicle to eat as much bread as possible without becoming a lard-o. this soup stands on it's own. the boyfriend isn't a carrot fan so i swapped sweet pot. worked great. i went heavy handed on all the spices. could not be happier with this. THANK YOU

    Reply
  15. Alexandra Daum says

    January 27, 2018 at 2:05 pm

    Hahaha totally! I always think if I need a loaf of bread to get through a soup, then the soup isn't worth eating! You're so welcome <3

    Reply
  16. Anonymous says

    April 2, 2018 at 6:01 am

    Would I be able to use "split" red lentils or should I use "whole" green lentils instead?

    Reply
  17. Alexandra Daum says

    April 2, 2018 at 6:02 am

    I often make it with split red lentils, it works well!

    Reply
  18. Nina says

    September 21, 2019 at 7:12 pm

    Such a wonderful recipe! Thank you. I could easily eat half the pot in one day. I had some leftover pumpkin, threw that in too and it worked really well with thee rest of the ingredients.

    Reply
  19. Sam says

    February 2, 2020 at 12:01 am

    Would a can of chickpeas be a good addition to this?

    Reply
    • Alexandra | Occasionally Eggs says

      February 2, 2020 at 3:59 pm

      Sure!

      Reply
  20. Jenny Swartzbaugh says

    May 1, 2020 at 9:22 pm

    I had leftover lentils from dinner last night and searched for a recipe that I could use them in. I found this and just made it for lunch and am eating it now! It is delicious, even though I didn’t have vegetable broth. I’m going to put this on my regular rotation!

    Reply
  21. Nadia says

    June 22, 2020 at 8:20 pm

    Does this recipe call for uncooked lentils, or canned lentils? Or did you soak them?

    Reply
    • Alexandra | Occasionally Eggs says

      June 23, 2020 at 9:08 am

      Dried lentils – I don’t know if you can get canned red lentils. You can soak them beforehand if you prefer.

      Reply
      • Nadia says

        June 23, 2020 at 11:37 am

        Hey Alex. I used dry lentils, and I cooked the dish in my InstaPot for 25min instead. Served it over bulgar wheat, and sprinkled fresh coriander over. It was an absolute hit! Thanks! Sending your link to all my friends now!

        Reply
  22. Angelica says

    August 6, 2020 at 6:36 am

    5 stars
    I don’t ever leave reviews but I thought this was spectacular. My entire family gobbled it down. Even the 5 yr old.

    Reply
  23. Christine Scanling says

    February 10, 2021 at 10:58 pm

    This soup is very delicious Thank you ! it will definitely be a staple in my home ! 😊

    Reply
  24. KateLynn says

    February 18, 2021 at 7:35 pm

    So so so good. Thank you! I love serving it “over rice” rather than mixing it in so the rice doesn’t become sludge in the fridge. Why have I never thought of that before?!

    Reply
  25. Ivy says

    April 29, 2021 at 12:07 pm

    5 stars
    Made this tonight. Omg yum. I chucked in a little fresh chilli for just the right amount of warmth. So easy, so hearty – it’s feels good in your tummy and you just know it’s gonna boost your system. Even my carnivore man went back for seconds without even complaining about the lack of meat lol. This dish is a winner 💯

    Reply
  26. Isabel says

    September 22, 2021 at 9:22 pm

    Thank you for a marvelous recipe. We all loved it, delicious. Will be making it on a regular basis.

    Reply
  27. Jo says

    January 23, 2022 at 4:35 am

    Soup was delish! I used a small can of Rotel mild tomatoes, and the little heat was perfect.
    Correction on your carrot measure. One cm is equal to about 2/5 of an inch…not 3/4 of an inch.

    Reply
  28. nancyv says

    March 13, 2022 at 3:16 am

    Made this tonight – it was brilliant! I used Indian red lentils and they thickened up the soup nicely, no need for the rice I also made. The lentils in the photos here look like green lentils – do you use them interchangeably when you make yours?

    Reply
    • Alexandra Daum says

      March 13, 2022 at 4:35 pm

      Happy you like it! No, I always use red lentils for this recipe, I think these were just quite light in colour.

      Reply
      • nancyv says

        March 14, 2022 at 3:18 am

        Thank you. I LOVE it. Have already passed it along to a bunch of friends! 🙂

        Reply
  29. Lidia says

    May 15, 2022 at 8:09 pm

    5 stars
    Made it with fresh spinach. So good. Thanks for sharing

    Reply

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