This simple Leek and Lentil Soup with carrot is easy and cheap to make. It has a lovely smooth texture, is filling, dairy free, and suitable for vegans. Just gently fry the vegetables and spices, add the stock and lentils and simmer then blend it all together.
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Homemade soups are so versatile and simple to make. For another easy soup with red lentils try this Roasted Red Pepper and Lentil Soup. Carrot and Cumin Soup has an earthy depth to it or for a thick velvety texture, try this Roasted Carrot and Red Pepper Soup.
Red Lentil and Leek Soup pairs well with these Cheese and Courgette Muffins or these easy 3 ingredient Cheese Biscuits.
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Ingredients
This soup Recipe uses just a few simple ingredients.
- Split Red Lentils - split red lentils work well in a soup as they don't need soaking and cook quickly. Find them in stores with other grains or beans.
- Leeks - choose firm leek with white stalks. Slice off the bottom part with the roots and discard the dark green leaves. Slice the white flesh and light green part width ways.
- Spices - cumin, paprika, and ground coriander go well together and add a depth of flavour.
- Ground Coriander - coriander is known as cilantro in the USA. Ground coriander is a spice with a slightly spicy lemony flavour.
- Lemon - this helps lift the flavour.
See recipe card for quantities.
Instructions
Making this simple carrot leek and lentil soup takes just over 30 minutes and can be made on the hob or stovetop, all in one pot.
Fry the onion, leeks, and carrot in a pan for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the spices and garlic and fry for 1 minute.
Add the vegetable stock and red lentils and simmer for 20 minutes, until the lentils are soft, stirring occasionally so it doesn't stick.
Blend the soup in a soup blender or with an electric hand whisk. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper, stir through the lemon juice and serve.
Top Tip
Blending the soup gives a lovely creamy texture, but you can leave some vegetable chunks in if you prefer.
Substitutions
The beauty of homemade soups is that you can add in other vegetables to use things up and reduce food waste.
- Other vegetables that go well include:-parsnips, celery, cabbage leaves, spring greens or chard.
- Lentils - split red lentils cook quickly. You can also use green lentils or brown lentils but they will require longer cooking. The colour will also be different.
- Gluten Free - if you need to make this soup gluten-free, be sure to use a gluten free stock. Some stock cubes contain gluten but you may find stock pots are gluten free and suitable for coeliacs. Always check the ingredients.
Toppings for Red Lentil and Leek Soup
Toppings not only look great when served on top of a soup, they can also add to the flavour.
- Herbs - add fresh parsley leaves or coriander (cilantro) leaves.
- Spicy - a few dried red chilli flakes will help spice up the flavour.
- Seeds - pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds are great toppings
- Feta Cheese - the strong flavour of feta cheese pairs nicely with the leek and lentils.
Serving Suggestion
Serve with some of the toppings mentioned above and some fresh crusty bread. It also pairs well with one of these recipes
- Cheese and Courgette (Zucchini) Muffins30 Minutes
- Easy Baked Cheesy Bites Recipe50 Minutes
- 3 Ingredient Flatbread10 Minutes
- Cheese Flan1 Hours 10 Minutes
Equipment
For this recipe, you will need the following :-
- Large Pan
- Measuring jug
- Electric hand whisk or blender
Sustainability
Soups are a great way to use up vegetables that are past their best. The spices in this soup recipe, cumin, paprika, and ground corinader are available to buy as Fairtrade. Lemons can also be bought as Fairtrade along with black pepper and olive oil. Fairtrade helps support some of the world's poorest farmers and helps them tackle the challenge of climate change through adapting their farming methods whilst caring for the environment.
Storage
You can store Leek and Lentil Soup in the fridge for 3 - 4 days. It will also freeze well for about 3 months.
Green Tip
Did you know that Lentils have a very low carbon footprint, help conserve water and promote bio-diversity? They are a sustainable food and a nutritious way to bulk out soups, stews, casseroles and even burgers (patties).
FAQ
Blending the soup with an electric hand whisk or in a soup blender will give a nice thick creamy texture. If you want to make it even thicker, you can stir through small chunks of bread. Be careful not to use too much liquid when cooking the lentils.
When making vegetable soups, one of the first steps is to 'sweat the vegetables' which means cooking them over a gentle heat with a lid on your saucepan. This process helps to soften the vegetables and draws out their flavour. It only takes a few minutes but if you wanted to skip this process, as long as the vegetables were allowed enough time to cook and soften during the simmering stage, you could. However, you may find the flavours not so good.
More Homemade Soup Recipes
Looking for other easy homemade soup recipes like this? Try these:
- Carrot and Cumin Soup30 Minutes
- Sweet Potato, Chilli and Ginger Soup30 Minutes
- Easy Roasted Red Pepper and Lentil Soup43 Minutes
- Carrot and Courgette Soup30 Minutes
Did you try this recipe?
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📖 Recipe
Leek and Lentil Soup with Carrot
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Equipment
- 1 Large Pan
- 1 Measuring Jug
- 1 Electric Hand whisk or Blender
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 Leeks about 600g / 21 ounzes, diced
- 1 Onion peeled and diced
- 1 Carrot about 200g / 7 ounzes, washed and diced
- 1 teaspoon Cumin powder
- 1 teaspoon Paprika
- 1 teaspoon Ground coriander
- 2 cloves Garlic peeled and crushed
- 200 g Dried split red lentils
- 1 litre Vegetable stock
- 1 Lemon juiced
Instructions
- Fry the onion, leeks, and carrot in a pan for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.2 tablespoon olive oil, 2 Leeks, 1 Onion, 1 Carrot
- Add the spices and garlic and fry for 1 minute.1 teaspoon Cumin powder, 1 teaspoon Paprika, 1 teaspoon Ground coriander, 2 cloves Garlic
- Add the vegetable stock and red lentils and simmer for 20 minutes, until the lentils are soft.200 g Dried split red lentils, 1 litre Vegetable stock
- Blend the soup in a soup blender or with an electric hand whisk. Season with salt and freshly groud black pepper, stir through the lemon juice and serve.1 Lemon
Notes
Ingredient Notes
-
- Split Red Lentils - split red lentils work well in a soup as they don't need soaking and cook quickly. Find them in stores with other grains or beans.
-
- Leeks - choose firm leek with white stalks. Slice off the bottom part with the roots and discard the dark green leaves. Slice the white flesh and light green part width ways.
-
- Spices - cumin, paprika, and ground coriander go well together and add a depth of flavour.
-
- Ground Coriander - coriander is known as cilantro in the USA. Ground coriander is a spice with a slightly spicy lemony flavour.
-
- Lemon - this helps lift the flavour.
Storage
You can store Leek and Lentil Soup in the fridge for 3 - 4 days. It will also freeze well for about 3 months.Nutrition per serving
The Nutritional Values are computer generated estimates based on industry standards and are provided as a helpful guide only.
Lynden Green
Absolutely delicious! However, unless you use pre prepared vegetables there is no way preparation time is 5 minutes! I agree with the person who said it was very thick and I added another half litre of liquid knowing from previous experience of cooking with lentils it will be thicker tomorrow. Looking forward to trying other soup recipes I’ve saved.
Claire Carter
So pleased you enjoyed it. Yes if you are going to use it the next day, you will need to add more stock as the lentils continue to soak up liquid.
Michelle
This is a very tasty soup. I love lentil soup and really like the fact that this one calls for leeks.
One question- what is a serving, 1 cup, 1.5 cups or 2 cups?
I compared this with Alton Brown’s lentil soup. Very similar in calories, fat,etc with the exception of sodium. Your’s says 1,019 mg (1 letre veg broth), Alton’s 570 mg with 4 cups broth. When I made this recipe I could stand a spoon up, very little broth. Which leads me to believe maybe more broth?
Claire Carter
Hi Michelle, I'm so pleased you like this lentil & carrot soup recipe. To answer your question, 1 cup is roughly equal to 250 ml, so yes, 4 cups is about 1 litre. The amount of sodium will vary depending on what stock you use. If you want to reduce the amount of sodium in the soup, then you can use a low-salt/sodium stock. The nutritional info in my recipe is generic, and it will obviously vary according to different vegetable stock brands. Hope this helps.
Jennifer
Excellent soup. Very easy to make. The only change I made was using homemade chicken broth instead of vegetable broth as I didn’t have any. But I think it would be very good with the vegetable broth.
Claire Carter
Hi Jennifer, so glad you liked it. Yes you can absolutely use chicken broth. I use vegetable broth or stock to keep it suitable for vegetarians.