Easy Carrot Lentil Soup (30 Minutes)
This quick carrot lentil soup recipe is perfect for weekday dinners. Naturally vegan, it contains just 10 simple ingredients and comes together in less than 30 minutes.
Servings: 4 servings
Calories: 437kcal
Equipment
- 1 large pot
- 1 blender (jug blender is ideal but immersion works too)
Ingredients
- 1 medium onion
- 1 ¼ lb carrots (about 550g, or 4 very large carrots)
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
- ½ teaspoon turmeric powder
- ½ teaspoon cumin
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- 1½ cups lentils (270g)
- 4½ cups vegetable broth or stock (1.1 litres)
- 1 cup milk (I used almond milk, but any other works)
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Roughly chop onion and carrot, and peel and crush garlic.
- Add onion and garlic to a large pan with olive oil and sauté for 5 minutes - stirring frequently - until onion is soft and translucent.
- Add chopped carrot, chili powder, paprika, turmeric, cumin and pepper to pan, and sauté for 2 minutes more.
- Add lentils, vegetable broth and milk to the pan. Bring soup to a boil and reduce heat until gently bubbling.
- Simmer soup for 12-14 minutes, until lentils are soft.
- Transfer to a blender, and blend on high power for about 20 seconds until soup is creamy (you might need to do this in two batches).
- Return to the pot and add salt to taste (I usually find I need about 1 teaspoon salt). If your soup is thicker than you'd like, add a little more milk, broth or water. Reheat if needed.
- Serve in large bowls, optionally garnished with fresh cilantro or parsley, lime juice, chili flakes and dairy-free cream or yoghurt.
Notes
Store in fridge in sealed container for up to 5 days.
Carrots - If unavailable you could sub in another orange vegetable like butternut squash or sweet potato.
Spice mix - Adjust spice amounts as you wish, and sub for others if preferred.
Red lentils - You can sub red lentils for green or brown ones, but do note this will definitely change the colour of the soup, and they will need to cook for much longer.
Vegetable broth/stock - I don't recommend omitting this as vegetable broth adds so much flavour, but if desired you can use water instead. Just remember to add more salt.
Add more liquid as needed. This soup really does thicken up as it cools, so you might need to add more broth or water when you reheat it. This is normal!
Use a jug blender. A jug blender is recommended over an immersion blender because it's less messy (this soup splatters quite a lot) and allows you to blend higher quantities.
Nutrition
Calories: 437kcal | Carbohydrates: 66.1g | Protein: 27.8g | Fat: 7.2g | Saturated Fat: 1.2g | Sodium: 1000mg | Potassium: 1525mg | Fiber: 26.9g | Sugar: 12.9g | Calcium: 128mg | Iron: 7mg