Packed with TEN immune system boosting ingredients, this Immune System Booster Soup will not only give your immune system a boost… it’s also super easy to make and utterly delicious!
An easy way to boost your immune system
This easy peasy Immune System Booster Soup is packed with an amazing TEN immune system boosting ingredients:
All these ingredients are well known to help keep your immune system strong. Putting them all in a soup makes it easy and convenient to get all these ingredients in one hit… and it just so happens to taste absolutely delicious too!
This soup is also dairy free, gluten free and suitable for vegetarians and vegans – meaning everyone can enjoy its immunity boosting properties!
How to make Immune System Booster Soup
And this Immune System Booster Soup is so easy to make! All you need to do is gently fry the vegetables until softened. Then add the garlic, chilli flakes and spices and fry for 1 more minute. Next, add the carrots, sweet potato, red lentils and vegetable stock, plus a little salt and pepper, and simmer for 20 minutes. Finally, blend until completely smooth. Easy Peasy!
What to serve with Immune System Booster Soup
This delicious homemade carrot, sweet potato and lentil soup is best served with homemade bread. I recommend one of the following:
- Super Simple Wholemeal Bread
- Easy Irish Soda Bread with Yogurt
- Pumpkin Seed and Rye Soda Bread
- Guinness and Treacle Soda Bread
- No Buttermilk Soda Bread (Vegan & Dairy Free)
- Easy Soda Bread Rolls
(Shown here with Easy Irish Soda Bread with Yogurt)
Easy Irish Soda Bread with Yogurt
Make it your own!
I have spent a lot of time tinkering about to get what I consider to be the best combination and quantity of all the ingredients to make this soup as delicious as possible, while also cramming in as many immunity boosting ingredients as possible! But you can absolutely adapt this soup to suit your own preferences and/or what you have available in the kitchen.
You could:
- Use red onions instead of the standard brown ones
- Use fresh chillies instead of dried chilli flakes
- Add in a yellow or orange pepper, as well as the red one
- Use butternut squash, as well as or instead of, the sweet potato
- Use 4 teaspoonfuls of curry powder instead of the spices (or to taste)
- Use green lentils, cannellini beans or chickpeas instead of the red lentils
- Add a squeeze of lemon or lime juice in right at the end
- Use coconut milk instead of vegetable stock for a creamier soup
- Use chicken stock, if you don’t need this to be vegan/vegetarian
- Add shredded chicken in at the end, if you don’t need this to be vegan/vegetarian
What to do with leftover Immune System Booster Soup?
This soup keeps very well in the fridge and is very easy to reheat – making it a great ‘make ahead’ option.
Simply place the cooked and cooled soup in an airtight container in the fridge, where it will keep for up to 3 days.
To reheat, tip into a saucepan with a splash of cold water, bring to the boil and then simmer for 5 minutes or until the soup is piping hot all the way through.
You can also reheat this soup in the microwave, if you prefer.
Can you freeze Immune System Booster Soup?
This soup can absolutely be frozen! In fact, it’s a really great option for filling the freezer. (Top tip – make a big batch and freeze in individual portions!)
Place the cooked and cooled soup in an airtight container in the freezer, where it will keep for up to 3 months. Defrost overnight in the fridge and reheat as above.
If you like this recipe…
…you might also like:
Immune System Booster Soup (Vegan)
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 onions diced
- 1 red (bell) pepper diced
- 2 cloves garlic grated or crushed
- 1 cm ginger grated
- ½ teaspoon dried chilli flakes (or to taste)
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 2 teaspoons garam masala
- 250 g carrots chopped into small chunks (roughly 1cm / ½ inch cubes – See Note 1)
- 250 g sweet potato skin removed and chopped into small chunks (roughly 1cm / ½inch cubes – See Note 2)
- 150 g red lentils
- 750 ml vegetable stock (from a cube is fine - I used Kallo Organic Vegetable Stock)
- Salt and black pepper to taste (see Note 3)
Instructions
- Place the olive oil, diced onions and diced red pepper in a fairly large saucepan and gently fry the vegetables for 5 minutes, with the lid on, until softened but not brown. Stir occasionally.
- Add the garlic, chilli flakes and spices. Fry for 1 more minute, stirring occasionally. (Add a small splash of water if it gets too dry.)
- Add the chopped carrots, chopped sweet potato, red lentils, vegetable stock, salt and pepper and turn up the heat. Bring to the boil, then turn the heat right down and simmer for 20-25 minutes with the lid on, or until the vegetables are tender and the lentils are quite soft.
- Tip the soup into a blender and blitz until completely smooth. PLEASE TAKE CARE AS THE SOUP WILL BE VERY HOT! (See Note 4.)
- If necessary, return the blended soup back to the saucepan and warm back up to your desired temperature. Add more water if the soup is too thick for your liking. You may also wish to check the seasoning at this point too.
- Serve with homemade soda bread.
Notes
- I find, because this soup is blended until smooth, there is no need to peel the carrots. Not peeling the carrots has no negative impact on the final soup, means you get extra goodness from the skin and saves you a job!
- Peeling sweet potatoes can be a bit of a pain. A little hack to speed things up is to cut the sweet potato into thick disks, then place each disk (flat side down) on your chopping board and chop the skin off using a knife, cutting downwards all the way around each disk. I find this far quicker and easier than peeling!
- I prefer to only add black pepper to this soup, as the salt content of the stock cube makes this soup salty enough for my tastes.
- If you prefer, you can use a stick blender or a potato masher, or leave the soup un-blended.
- Suitable for freezing.
- Nutrition information is approximate and meant as a guideline only.
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Pamela Denny0 says
Not sure where the butternut squash goes in..
Eb Gargano says
Sorry, there was a typo in the original blog post and email newsletter. There is no butternut squash in the actual recipe, but it can be subbed for the sweet potato and/or the carrot and added in at the same time.
Benedict says
I have made Soda bread many times with Guinness and Black treacle. Added Oats this time ,Excellent result. thank you.
Eb Gargano says
Aw, yay – I am so happy to hear this! Thank you for this lovely review 😀
Lindy says
Can I sub powdered ginger for fresh? This looks delicious!
Eb Gargano says
Thank you! And yes you can, but you’ll want to add less as it’s more strongly flavoured – I’d start with 1/4 teaspoon and see how it goes (you can always add a little extra at the end if it’s not gingery enough, but you can’t take it out if it’s too gingery, so I’d always err on the side of caution!)