The Very Best Lentil Soup (We Tested 6 Popular Contenders!)
Table of Contents
Lentils have been a mainstay in the diets of ancient civilizations going back thousands of years. These powerful legumes have sustained life across the globe, and today, India, Pakistan, France, Lebanon, Italy, and many more countries still use them regularly. Though, in America they are generally not appreciated the same way. That’s a shame, because when cooked properly, lentils provide a range of flavors and textures that make them a versatile ingredient homecooks can easily master. One of the simplest and most delicious ways to enjoy lentils? Add them to a pot of soup.
Lentil soup is so comforting and nourishing. But if not prepared well, it can taste kind of bland. The key isn’t so much the cooking process (that’s easy), but rather in using the right combination of ingredients in the form of fat, spice, salt, and citrus. We tested six popular lentil soup recipes, each with a unique spin, to see which one brought the most flavor. One certainly did.
The Curry Lentil Soup from What’s Gaby Cooking is the total package. It has an exceptionally rich flavor and texture, thanks to a generous amount of spice, citrus, and aromatics. It’s everything you could ever hope for in a lentil soup.
Meet Our 6 Lentil Soup Recipe Contenders
We scoured the internet for the best lentil recipes before landing on these six. Common themes were spice, and lots of it. Curry, turmeric, citrus, and herbs all make regular appearances. Though, Ina Garten’s recipe is the outlier of the group. It goes a more traditional, American-centric route for soup, adding kielbasa and Parmesan cheese.
1. The Mediterranean Dish: This Mediterranean take on lentil soup utilizes spices like sumac, Aleppo pepper, garlic, cumin, and lime juice for a powerful wallop of deep flavor.
2. Ina Garten: The Barefoot Contessa’s classic lentil soup recipe introduces fatty kielbasa for a hearty stew. Ina also introduces red wine at the end of the cooking process, a fun curveball and a deviation from traditional recipes.
3. Carolina Gelen: This simple and stunning recipe from Instagram darling Carolina Gelen uses only heavy cream, tomatoes, shallots, and brown butter to elevate the humble lentil.
4. What’s Gaby Cooking: This curry lentil soup uses a wide array of flavorful ingredients, including coconut oil, coconut milk, and cilantro.
5. Every Little Crumb: A take on traditional Lebanese lentil soup, this recipe delivers a thick, earthy, deeply satisfying stew with a nice punch of turmeric and curry powder.
6. Cookie and Kate: This recipe brings leafy kale to the party. It also adds the necessary amount of acid and spice to liven up the mild-tasting lentils.
How I Tested the Lentil Soup Recipes
I cooked each recipe using the same vessel. The Dutch oven, a true kitchen staple, is versatile for soup and thus was the perfect vessel for each recipe.
I spread out the testing. I made 3 recipes a day over the course of 2 days. After tasting each, I made notes, jotting down whether or not I found anything lacking and if the recipe delivered on what it promised.
I tasted each soup side by side. On the second day, I tried one soup after another. I also tasted every soup again two or three days after to see if their flavor held up well.
Why You Should Trust Me as a Tester
I’ve worked in kitchens since the age of 15, and I’ve been writing, developing, and testing recipes for the last 7 years. I know how to evaluate ingredients, flavors, and the process of cooking itself. In addition, I’m also a restaurant critic and food journalist with vast dining experiences.
1. The Meaty Rib Sticker: Ina Garten’s Lentil Sausage Soup
Overall rating: 6/10
Get the recipe: Ina Garten’s Lentil Sausage Soup
Ina Garten’s recipe begins with a lot of prep work — carrots, celery, onion, garlic, leeks, and thyme all need chopping. Her recipe doesn’t feature a whole lot of spice, but the soup itself feels homey and comfortable.
This lentil sausage soup comes together by sweating aromatic vegetables, then adding chicken broth and lentils. Ina lightly suggests using homemade chicken stock, which will no doubt improve the recipe, but you may be more comfortable using a store-bought chicken broth. I used the latter.
Ina Garten’s recipe is filling, and the texture is chunky and hearty due to the kielbasa and healthy amount of vegetables, but it feels as though it’s missing a spark. It lacks spice and citrus, but does employ a stroke of genius by adding red wine at the end of the cooking process. By simmering, not reducing, red wine towards the end of the cooking process, there’s a tangy, wine-forward flavor that cuts through the lentils and kielbasa.
This recipe is a lot more work than the others, and I’ll be honest, the flavor here falls mostly flat, but for people who aren’t fans of curry powder, or those seeking a lentil dish that features hearty kielbasa sausage, Ina’s recipe will hit the spot.
2. The Hearty Stew: Cookie and Kate’s Best Lentil Soup
Overall rating: 7/10
Get the recipe: Cookie and Kate’s Best Lentil Soup
Cookie and Kate’s lentil soup recipe is all about proper proportions. It uses a judicious amount of olive oil, garlic, curry, and cumin. The process itself is familiar — sauté an onion, two carrots, garlic, and spices before adding a can of diced tomatoes, lentils, and vegetable stock.
The soup begins to shine, however, after you follow the instructions to partial purée. Puréeing a small amount of lentil soup creates a creamy, Velveeta-like mixture. Adding it back to the pot thickens and enriches the whole soup. It’s a wonderful technique to employ, especially if you find yourself out of flour.
Simmered kale adds a hearty, earth accent, and the final squeeze of lemon juice brightens up the soup as a whole. This is a lunch soup through and through — healthy, flavorful, and filling. The only reason it didn’t rank higher is because the later recipes honestly surpass this one in terms of flavor.
3. The Restaurant-Quality Soup: Every Little Crumb’s Middle Eastern Lentil Soup
Overall rating: 8/10
Get the recipe: Every Little Crumb’s Middle Eastern Lentil Soup
This recipe starts by dicing onion, carrot, and potato, then sautéing the trio in olive oil. This is also the only recipe on the list to feature potatoes, and while the recipe doesn’t specify what type of potato to use, exactly, I opted for a high starch russet, which infuses the soup itself with a hearty creaminess. Curiously, the recipe also lists, “1-2 carrots” in the ingredients. Let me say that there is a big difference between using one and two carrots for this recipe. I opted for two — the thought process being that the extra carrot will give the soup some additional sweetness, which will play well with the earthy tones of the red lentils.
This recipe also calls for a roux, but beware, it might make your soup too thick. The headnote says that the soup can be made with or without the roux. Using it will infuse the soup with an extra layer of buttery richness, but the soup may end up being slightly too thick.
This soup reminds me very much of the lentil soup given as an appetizer at many of the Lebanese restaurants in Dearborn, Michigan. Right down to the suggested lemon slice garnish, this soup feels traditional and restaurant-quality. It’s creamy, earthy, slightly sweet, and delightfully acidic. There’s also a suggestion of serving the soup with a side of green olives, which I can’t recommend enough. Everyone should get familiar with Lebanese lentil soup — this is a great introduction to it.
4. The Can’t Miss Creamy Soup: Carolina Gelen’s Lentil Tomato Soup
Overall rating: 8.5/10
Get the recipe: Carolina Gelen’s Lentil Tomato Soup
This recipe starts with simmering butter and heavy cream together to create a thick, cheese-like mixture that’s much like a béchamel sauce. Finely diced shallots cooked in the cream and butter creates a pungent, flavorful compound. Next, I added canned green lentils (which I purchased from Whole Foods), a can of Cento San Marzano tomatoes, and salt. To finish, I simply boiled the soup for 15 minutes until it thickened.
Carolina Gelen’s lentil tomato soup recipe is stunning and simple. With just 5 ingredients (plus salt), it comes together quickly and beautifully. It’s a fastidious recipe, one which uses few ingredients and requires much attention, but in a matter of 30 minutes I had a luxurious, creamy, flavorful, filling soup.
The soup itself is so darn creamy and flavorful that it’s indulgent. It’s probably more tomato soup than it is lentil soup, which is the only knock on the overall score, but hey, I’m not complaining. This soup is expertly equipped to deal with the harshness of winter. Next time, I’ll serve it with a gooey grilled cheese.
5. The Easiest Option: The Mediterranean Dish’s Mediterranean Spicy Lentil Soup with Spinach
Overall rating: 9/10
Get the recipe: The Mediterranean Dish’s Mediterranean Spicy Lentil Soup with Spinach
For this recipe, the cooking process is reduced to three simple steps—sauté the aromatics in spices, cook the lentils in said spices and broth, then finish with parsley and lime juice. This recipe is a stroke of genius — it comes together simply, and strikes a great balance by using both convenient and premium ingredients. Frozen spinach and low-sodium vegetable broth are easily accessible pantry staples, but this recipe should also be a signal for homecooks to stock their spice racks with tangy sumac and Aleppo pepper, which has a sweet, rich, and spicy flavor that goes beyond most store bought chiles.
Another bonus? This recipe features the least amount of prep work — the only chopping required here comes in the form of diced onions and garlic.
The flavor here is awesome. Parsley, sumac, aleppo pepper, cumin, garlic, onion, lime, and mint combine for a powerful symphony of Mediterranean flavors. It’s tart, tangy, spicy, earthy, and just wonderful. I found myself wanting to finish with a little more olive oil, and I would definitely take the recipe’s suggestion to serve with grilled bread. It’s hearty, but not so chunky that you feel like you’re eating a thick stew. This soup can be enjoyed alone, but will also complement any meal. It’s truly versatile.
6. The Most Flavorful: What’s Gaby Cooking’s Curry Lentil Soup
Overall rating: 9.5/10
Get the recipe: What’s Gaby Cooking’s Curry Lentil Soup
This straightforward curry features a boatload of warmth, spice, and brightness. Ginger, onion, bell pepper, a whopping eight cloves of garlic, plus curry powder and additional crushed red pepper, cilantro, and lime yields a deep, nuanced, powerful lentil dish that’s perfect for those who want more flavor from their lentils.
Gaby calls for coconut oil as the fat to cook the vegetables, and the whole dish sings because of it. Coconut oil has a high saturated fat content, and that fat really increases the luxurious qualities of this dish, not to mention its overall fragrance. I also really like that the recipe instructs to cook the lentils with the dry ingredients before adding liquid. Stirring and mixing the lentils with the vegetables and spices directly makes the dish appear much more flavorful.
Coconut milk again reinforces the soup’s richness, which ends up being smooth, warm, spicy, and bright. Gaby recommends serving each bowl of this lentil curry with additional cilantro, a drizzle of coconut milk, and a squeeze of lime. Those are highly flavorful garnishes, and a spectacular finish to an already spectacular dish. This is the soup I’ll be craving more often than not.
Further Reading
The “Beautiful” $3 Flower Tumblers at Walmart People Are Buying 2 at a Time
The One Cookware Brand That Gordon Ramsay Can’t Stop Talking About
