Quick, easy, nutritious and frugal, this Sweet Potato and Red Lentil Soup is just bursting with flavour from the sweet root vegetables, earthy lentils, chillies and spices – perfect for warming you up on a chilly winter’s day. It’s also vegan, vegetarian, gluten free and dairy free.
Uuurgh, the weather here is miserable today. Grey and rainy and cold and just bleurgh – and it’s making me feel bleurgh too! But what better way to fight the winter blues than a big pot of spicy Sweet Potato and Red Lentil Soup?
This soup as absolutely jam packed with goodness: sweet potatoes, peppers, parsnips, carrots, onions and red lentils ensure you are getting in a big chunk of your 5 a day, plus a good dose a healthy protein from the lentils and the chillies, garlic and ginger will surely help keep those winter colds at bay?
I like to make a massive vat of this soup on Sunday evening – eat some of it with warm soda bread on Sunday night, then portion up the rest into individual serving and refrigerate or freeze them for delicious, healthy and above all EASY lunches for the week.
You can either reheat the soup in the microwave at work or in a pan on the stove at home.
I have worked quite hard over the years to create the ‘perfect’ recipe for this Sweet Potato and Red Lentil Soup and I am really pleased with the recipe below, but of course you could absolutely tinker with the quantities to suit your preferences and/or what you have in the fridge. Just keep to roughly 1.5kg (3.3lb) of veggies and you’ll be on the right track. The red lentils could be swapped for another pulse – chickpeas or haricot beans, for example, and the spices can be whatever you want them to be!
To make the stock for this soup I have used a vegetable stock cube – one from Kallo which is organic, gluten free and vegan. But feel free to use fresh vegetable stock if you prefer. Alternatively, if you don’t need this to be vegan or vegetarian, fresh chicken stock works well (or a chicken stock cube!).
Do you prefer soup chunky or smooth? For me it definitely depends on the soup: personally I prefer this Sweet Potato and Red Lentil Soup with a bit of texture. To keep it chunky, I suggest using a hand blender. However if you prefer your soups super smooth, I would really recommend using the Froothie Optimum 2.3 Blender – it’s amazing at getting soups silky smooth! (If you want to find out more read my Froothie Optimum 2.3 Blender review.)
If you like this Sweet Potato and Red Lentil Soup recipe, you might like to try some of my other soup recipes on my blog: my favourites include my Creamy Tomato and Roasted Red Pepper Soup, my Spicy Moroccan Chickpea Soup and my Butternut Squash, Chilli and Coconut Milk Soup – which is one of the most popular recipes on my blog! To find all my soup recipes, check out my soup archives.
If you like Sweet Potato and Red Lentil Soup…
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Sweet Potato and Red Lentil Soup (Vegan)
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 onion diced
- 1 medium sweet potato cut into 1cm cubes
- 3 medium carrots cut into 1cm cubes
- 2 small parsnips cut into 1cm cubes
- 2 bell peppers (I like to use 1 red and 1 yellow), cut into bitesize pieces
- 2 cloves garlic crushed or grated
- 3 cm ginger grated
- 1 teaspoon dried chilli flakes
- 200 g red lentils
- 2 litres hot vegetable stock or chicken stock, or water
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Put the olive oil and onions in a large, wide saucepan. Gently fry the onions with the lid on over a low heat for 5 minutes, until softened but not brown. Stir occasionally.
- Turn the heat up to medium and add the sweet potato, carrots, parsnips and peppers and fry for a further 3 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the garlic ginger and chilli and fry for 2 more minutes.
- Add the lentils, stock and a couple of twists of black pepper, plus some salt if necessary (I find that usually the stock is salty enough).
- Bring to the boil then reduce to a gently simmer, with the lid on. Cook for 20 minutes, or until all the vegetables are soft. Stir occasionally to prevent sticking.
- Blend the soup to your preferred texture, and add a little boiling water if it is too thick.
- Serve with crusty bread.
Notes
Want to find more great vegetarian meal ideas? Check out my collection of Easy Peasy Vegetarian & Vegan Recipes…
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Balvinder says
I love lentils in any way!
Eb Gargano says
Me too!! Eb x
Corina Blum says
You can’t beat a big batch of soup at this time of year. I often make a big pot at the beginning of the week for easy weekday lunches too. I love the fact you’ve got some fresh ginger in here too – I think it goes brilliantly with root vegetables. Thanks so much for sharing with #CookOnceEatTwice x
Eb Gargano says
Thanks Corina. It’s so lovely to have a fridge stocked with healthy homemade soup for lunches! And I totally agree…root veggies and ginger is such a lovely combo 😀 Eb x
Lou says
This sounds fabulous; I’m looking for soup inspiration so will give this a try for work lunches next week. And I love my Froothie too, especially for smooth soups 🙂
Eb Gargano says
Thanks Lou, hope you enjoy it as much as we do – let me know how it goes! And lovely to meet another Froothie fan. It’s so awesome for making soup super smooth, isn’t it? Eb x
Mandy says
This looks like a lovely warming soup. My kids aren’t particularly keen on soup so we don’t eat as much of it as I’d like but making a batch on a Sunday night for lunches during the week (when they’re at school) is a brilliant idea.
Eb Gargano says
Aw, shame your kids don’t like soup much. I have to say my kids aren’t always the biggest fan of soup – but this one the absolutely adore. We actually call it ‘orange soup’ in our house – but I didn’t think that would be a great name for SEO purposes!! Having a freezer full of healthy, homemade soup for weekday lunches is the best! Eb x
Michelle Frank | Flipped-Out Food says
If cozy PJs, a nice warm blanket, and a warm fireplace came in edible form, this soup would be IT. This soup has everything going for it, from the yummy flavor profile to the nutrient content. Brava!
Eb Gargano says
That is THE BEST description of this soup – it absolutely is…and as a bonus it’s easy and healthy too – result 😀 Eb x
Nichole Goodland says
This looks really yummy and something for me to try. 🙂 #brillblogposts
Eb Gargano says
Thanks Nichole! I’d love to know what you think if you try it 😀 Eb x
Jo / Jo's Kitchen Larder says
That’s what warming, wintery soup is all about. Love the fact that it’s got variety of gorgeous root vegetables and red lentils which are my favourite. Perfection and yes big batch sounds good to me 🙂 x
Eb Gargano says
Thanks Jo! Yes it is the perfect winter soup, and so easy to make a big vat of it and store in the freezer ready for speedy lunches – you can even cook from frozen if you forget to defrost. Eb x
Kat (The Baking Explorer) says
This looks absolutely delicious!
Eb Gargano says
Thanks, Kat 🙂 It really is!! Eb x
nicole says
Ooh, going to try these with sweet potatoes and also maybe throw in some golden beets that came from my grocer delivery this week. Kids will never know. 🙂
Eb Gargano says
Oooh – I love the idea of adding in some golden beets too – do let me know how that works out! Eb x
Kirsty Hijacked By Twins says
Mmmm I love a good bowl of soup and lentils are such a versatile ingredient. This looks like a bowl of comfort. Thank you for sharing with #CookBlogShare x
Eb Gargano says
Thanks Kirsty – ‘a bowl of comfort’ is the perfect description 🙂 Eb x
Mel says
Sweet potato and red lentil soup (with a bit of homemade bread!) is one of my favourite things in the world. It’s warming, delicious and it’s got that slight coarseness from the lentils I absolutely love. Great recipe!
Eb Gargano says
Mine too – it’s a good combo, isn’t it? Perfect for when the weather is miserable! Eb x
Kate - Gluten Free Alchemist says
Perfect soup for the weather Eb. Delicious! x
Eb Gargano says
Thanks Kate 🙂 Eb x
Debbie says
Hi Eb, it just so happens that I bought far too many sweet potatoes the other day (in my defence, they were on special). I make a big slow cooker full of soup every Sunday, so when we come in from our Sunday walk there is something hot and satisfying ready to eat. I think this Sundays soup will be this one. We don’t get parsnips here, so I hope that omitting them doesn’t alter the taste too much.
xx
Eb Gargano says
Oh I LOVE the idea of going off for a Sunday walk and coming back to a big pan of warming soup 😀 And what a great use for special offer sweet potatoes!! It’s fine to leave the parsnips out. In truth I have made this recipe many, many different ways…usually according to what we have in the fridge and cupboards. It’s very flexible! Eb x
Emerald says
Hi Eb. Wow, I could eat this right now! It may be June and approaching high summer. But I’m restricted to soup and smoothies for the next month because I had radiotherapy treatment recently and swallowing is still painful. And I’d much rather make my own vegetarian soup than buy a ready-made tub, so I’m off to rummage through your recipes. ?
Eb Gargano says
Oh I am sorry to hear you so restricted with your eating at the moment! Hope it gets better soon (and that the radiotherapy did what it was supposed to). Hope you find lots of stuff you like on here!! Eb 🙂
Karen White says
I made this a couple of weeks ago to have with some of your soda bread. It’s a delicious and healthy soup.
Eb Gargano says
Oh yay! I am so happy to hear that. And thanks especially for the 5* rating! Eb 🙂
Kelly Still says
Hi Eb would it be ok to use green lentils instead?
Eb Gargano says
Yeah – that would be fine. Eb 🙂