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.
Course Main Course, Soup
Cuisine Vegan
Prep Time 10 minutesminutes
Cook Time 20 minutesminutes
Total Time 30 minutesminutes
Servings 2litres
Ingredients
1teaspooncoconut or olive oil
½red onionchopped
5-6medium carrotsabout 3 cups chopped
3clovesgarlicminced
3cmpiece fresh gingerminced
½teaspooncumin
½teaspoonturmeric
½teaspoonfresh ground pepper
¼teaspooncayenne pepperto taste
1teaspoonsea saltto taste
400gjar diced tomatoes
6cups/ 1.5 litres vegetable stock
1cupred lentilssoaked*
1cup/ 150 grams frozen spinach*
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
Cooked brown riceto 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, to wake up the spices. Now add the salt and tomatoes, stir, and pour the vegetable stock in.
Increase the heat to high and bring the soup to a rolling boil. Add the lentils and reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 20-25 minutes, or until the carrots are tender. Stir in the spinach and turn off the heat, letting the hot soup thaw the spinach. Add the lemon juice, taste, and season if necessary.
Serve over brown rice and store leftovers in the refrigerator or freezer.
Notes
* Try to soak the lentils for 24 hours if you can. I like to soak red lentils as part of my batch cooking on the weekend and then freeze jars of them for this soup or red lentil patties. If you can't soak them or you forgot, just give them a rinse before adding them to the soup. ** 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!