This Easy Lentil Soup recipe is a hearty yet full-of-flavor soup made with green lentils, carrots, celery, red bell pepper, spinach, and Indian spices in Instant Pot Pressure Cooker. This Green Lentil Soup is Vegan, Gluten-free and delicious!
Soup is one of the easiest ways to pack a lot of nutrition into your diet. You can easily customize the produce and seasonings according to the region and availability. This Lentil Vegetable Soup needs significantly less prep and is easy to make in an Instant pot in under 30 minutes. Enjoy it with a side of crusty bread, or serve it over basmati rice and salad on the side.
I have included Vegan Lentil soup with coconut milk version too below. If you are looking for more lentil (dal) recipes, check Dal tadka, Spinach Dal / Palak Dal, Panchmel dal, Whole green moong dal from my blog.
Table of Contents
Ingredient notes and substitutions
Here is everything that you’ll need to make this healthy lentil soup recipe.
- Lentils: Brown or Green lentils work best for this vegan soup. They will hold their shape and texture. I did not soak the lentils before adding them to the soup.
- Coconut oil: you can use any vegetable oil of your choice.
- Garlic: I have freshly minced garlic in this recipe. You can also add garlic powder instead.
- Vegetables: onions, carrots, celery, red bell pepper, and tomatoes are added to the soup. You can swap for other veggies like broccoli, zucchini, and cabbage.
- Vegetable broth (or water): use vegetable broth if you want vegetarian or vegan lentil soup. If you don’t have, you can use water.
- Coconut milk: I have used thick coconut milk, you can skip it if you dont prefer.
- Spices: I have used homemade ground cumin, turmeric, red chili powder (paprika), and garam masala to make Indian lentil soup. If you dont have these spices, use curry powder.
- Salt & black pepper: for seasoning
- Greens: I have used baby spinach here, Greens like kale, mustard greens, or chard also can be replaced with spinach.
- Freshly squeezed lemon juice.
How to Make Green Lentil Soup in Instant Pot
Firstly Wash and rinse the lentil, keep aside — Press SAUTE on Instant Pot. Add oil and once it’s hot, add minced garlic and saute for 30 seconds.
Next, add onions and saute until they soften.
Add celery, red bell pepper, carrot, tomato, and green lentils into the pot.
Then add dry spices like turmeric, ground cumin, red chili powder, curry, or garam masala powder into the pot. Finally, pour vegetable stock (or water) into the Instant pot along with some salt and black pepper.
Add in the lemon juice, baby spinach. Stir it all up until the spinach wilts. Green Lentil Soup is ready to enjoy!
**This Soup usually becomes thick during cooking or storing, hence thin it out with a bit of water or vegetable stock.
