This super simple recipe for vegan lentil soup is incredibly tasty and made with simple ingredients from your pantry. You can prepare this lentil soup in a pressure cooker (Instant Pot) as a 1-pot meal.
Homemade lentil soup, which is full of plant based protein, is low in fat, oil-free and really super easy to prepare.
This lentil stew is a quick vegan dish for during the week with inexpensive ingredients. Creamy, filling, hearty.

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We get the great taste of the lentil vegetable soup thanks to the onions, carrots and potatoes.
Not just vegetarians and vegans will love this lentil soup, this vegan green lentil recipe is ideal as a quick meatless monday recipe.
This vegetable soup recipe is really very varied, you can add various vegetables or spinach or kale to eat your daily portion of green leafy vegetables.
This healthy lentil soup from the Instant Pot is a basic recipe for a delicious, spicy and creamy soup. You won't notice that this soup comes without jerky meat or soup meat at all.
Now let's take a look at the recipe. I'm not just giving you a quick recipe for a great vegan lentil soup but I'll show you how to make lentil soup and give you substitution options.
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Ingredients
Let's take a quick look at the ingredients in this hearty vegan lentil soup. You can find the exact quantities in the recipe card below.
Green Lentils
Water or Vegetable Broth
Carrot
Potatoes
Onions
Garlic Cloves
Parsley
Smoked Peppers
Apple Cider Vinegar
Miso Paste
White Pepper
Nutritional Yeast
Sea Salt
Substitutions
Lentils
I usually prepare this lentil soup with green or brown lentils. These keep their shape and at the same time thicken the soup.
You could also use black lentils, but this soup won't be as creamy as with green lentils.
I can't really recommend red lentils or yellow lentils, as they disintegrate very quickly and you end up with a mushy soup. If you want to use red lentils, I can recommend making red lentil dal.
Miso Paste
If you don't have miso paste at home or don't want to use it, I can recommend using soy sauce, tamarind or coconut aminos to create a delicious umami taste.
You can also add a teaspoon or more of my delicious stock powder to give it extra flavor.
Nutritional Yeast
Nutritional Yeast flakes are optional but I think they give that certain something and give the lentil soup a great taste.
Variations
For this soup, too, I would like to briefly discuss various forms of diets.
Gluten free
This vegan lentil soup is gluten free. If you choose to not use miso, but want to use soy sauce, make sure that you use a gluten-free soy sauce (tamarind) or coconut aminos.
Keto and Paleo
Legumes are not allowed in either diet, keto or paleo. Since this is a lentil soup, I cannot give you a recommendation for a substitution here.
Low Carb
If you want to eat low carb lentil soup, you can replace the potatoes with cauliflower florets.
Instructions
Dice the onion and the garlic clove. Fry them in a pressure cooker (instant pot) without the lid. Always add a sip of water so that they do not stick to the pot.
Cut the potatoes and carrot into bite-sized pieces and place them with the lentils and the water or vegetable broth in the pressure cooker.
Cook the lentils under high pressure for about 15-20 minutes. Let the pressure cooker cool down and let the pressure release naturally. Takes about 10 minutes. After the 10 minutes let the remaining pressure out.
You may have to add some more water or vegetable broth. Depending on how thick you like the soup.
Are the lentils soft enough for you?
Add chopped parsley, smoked paprika, apple cider vinegar, miso paste, white pepper, nutritional yeast and give it a good stir.
Bring to boil again and season with sea salt and pepper to your own taste buds.
Which Instant Pot Size?
Put this lentil soup in a 4-6 liter pressure cooker. You can also put it in an 8 liter pot.
Make sure that the pot is not too small, otherwise the soup may not be able to boil properly under pressure. Make sure you're not over the max line.
Prepare in Advance
This vegan lentil soup is easy to prepare in advance and is therefore a great meal prep. You can also prepare the soup in larger quantities, simply double the amount.
Serving Options
A delicious baguette, for example my whole wheat baguette, goes wonderfully with this soup. Or serve it with delicious rolls.
You can also serve rice with it, I don't think the soup needs a side dish and is great as a stew without anything to eat.
Storage
Have you cooked too much lentil soup and still have leftovers? No problem. I'll show you how to store them here.
How to Refrigerate It?
The vegan lentil soup can be kept in an airtight container in the refrigerator for about 5 days.
Simply warm the soup in a saucepan over medium heat until it is warm.
How to freeze it?
Freeze the lentil soup in portions. The soup will last there for about 2-3 months. To serve, remove from the freezer the night before and let thaw in the refrigerator. To warm up, perform the steps as described above over medium heat.
Tips
You can also add a little more apple cider vinegar. I usually add a sip at the end because we like the vinegar flavor in lentil soups. Here you can adapt it to your own taste.
If you don't have fresh parsley, just add 2 teaspoons of dried parsley.
If you want to season your lentil soup, make sure that you only add salty products such as miso paste after cooking. Salt can prevent the lentils from becoming soft.
Add chopped tomatoes, leafy vegetables and various herbs to the lentil soup so that it doesn't get boring.
Slow Cooker
Lentil soup should be great to prepare in a slow cooker. Simply let the lentils simmer in the slow cooker.
Proceed as above and fry the onions first and then add all the other ingredients and let it simmer on a low for the day.
Normal Pot
You can of course cook the lentil soup in a normal saucepan, but the cooking time will be longer. Check the consistency of the lentils every now and then and when they are soft, your soup is ready.
More vegan soup Recipes:
📖 Recipe
Vegan Lentil Soup
This super simple recipe for vegan lentil soup is incredibly tasty and made with simple ingredients from your pantry. You can prepare this lentil soup in a pressure cooker (Instant Pot) as a 1-pot meal.
Homemade lentil soup, which is full of plant based protein, is low in fat, oil-free and really super easy to prepare.
This lentil stew is a quick vegan dish for during the week with inexpensive ingredients. Creamy, filling, hearty.
Ingredients
- 2 cups (400g) green lentils
- 6 cups (1.5 liters) water or veggie broth
- 1 carrot in bite sized pieces
- 2 potatoes in bite sized pieces
- ½ onion, diced
- 1 clove of garlic
- ½ bunch of parsley
- 1 teaspoon of smoked paprika
- 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon of Marmite or Miso Paste
- ½ teaspoon white pepper, ground
- 1 tablespoon of nutritional yeast
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Dice the onion and the garlic clove. Fry them in a pressure cooker (instant pot) without the lid. Always add a sip of water so that they do not stick to the pot.
Cut the potatoes and carrot into bite-sized pieces and place them with the lentils and the water or vegetable broth in the pressure cooker.
Cook the lentils under high pressure for about 15-20 minutes. Let the pressure cooker cool down and let the pressure release naturally. Takes about 10 minutes. After the 10 minutes let the remaining pressure out.
You may have to add some more water or vegetable broth. Depending on how thick you like the soup.
Are the lentils soft enough for you?
Add chopped parsley, smoked paprika, apple cider vinegar, miso paste, white pepper, nutritional yeast and give it a good stir.
Bring to boil again and season with sea salt and pepper to your own taste buds.
Notes
Get more Tips in the Post.
Jenny says
Wow! This just sounds amazing! Such an interesting combo of ingredients im so excited to try!
veeatcookbake says
Glad you are excited for it. It is just yumminess.
Kate says
I love lentil soups. This one is similar to a soup I make often. Can't wait to try it! 🙂
veeatcookbake says
How do you make yours? Can't wait to see it 🙂
Christine @ Happy Veggie Kitchen says
Loving all the flavours in this soup! Marmite, nutritional yeast, smoked salt - some of my favorites things! I am definitely coming back to try this when we get a cool and rainy summer day - and that won't take long in London 😉
veeatcookbake says
hope you have some summer days 🙂 Can't wait to hear from you.