Easy Turkish Red Lentil Soup with carrots, turkish spices, mint. Easy weeknight meal. Vegan Gluten-free Soyfree Recipe.Jump to Recipe
Soups are a great appetizer or a meal by itself served with a salad or flatbread. And Red lentils are a definite favorite in the house. Light, quick and versatile. No waiting for the beans to soak and cook.
Onions and garlic are cooked until translucent. Then the carrots and other veggies, spices are added and toasted, hen mint, tomato, lentils and water or broth and done. Once the lentils are cooked, blend the soup carefully and serve with croutons, cucumber, flatbread or a side salad. The soup tastes amazing unblended as well and can be served so.
More Soups from the blog
- Mushroom Chickpea Soup
- Curried butternut squash soup
- Chard Mushroom Shallot Pasta soup
- Chipotle corn Chowder
- Moroccan lentil soup
- Cream of Mushroom Soup
This recipe is inspired by a mix of recipes from allrecipes.com and other sites and have evolved based on my personal preference.
Cook the onions, garlic until translucent. Add the carrots, spices and mix in. Add lentils and water and cook until lentils are tender.
Serve the soup as is, or blend and serve.
Recipe Card
Turkish Red Lentil Soup
Ingredients
- 1 tsp oil
- 3/4 cup (120 g) onion chopped
- 3 cloves of garlic chopped
- 1/3 cup (42.67 g) chopped carrots 4 baby carrot or 1 medium carrot
- 1/2 tsp (0.5 tsp) ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp (0.5 tsp) paprika
- 1/2 tsp (0.5 tsp) dried oregano
- 1/4 tsp (0.25 tsp) or more black pepper
- 1/4 tsp (0.25 tsp) red pepper flakes
- 1 tomato chopped
- 1-2 tbsp (1 tbsp) tomato paste or ketchup
- 1 tbsp chopped fresh mint leaves or use 1/2 tsp dried mint
- 1/2 cup (90 g) red lentils
- 2 1/2 cups (2.5 cups) to 3 water or vegetable broth
- 1/2-3/4 tsp (0.5 tsp) salt or more salt
- red pepper flakes mint, lemon juice and olive oil for garnish
Instructions
- Heat oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add onions, garlic and pinch of salt and cook until translucent. 5 minutes.
- Add the carrots and the spices and mix well. You can also add in a good pinch of cinnamon for variation. Cook for 2 minutes.
- Add the tomato, tomato ketchup and mint and mix and cook for 2 minutes. You can add some veggies and greens veggies at this point.
- Add the red lentils, water and salt and mix. Partially cover and cook for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to medium-low and continue to simmer for a few more minutes until the lentils are tender to preference. Taste and adjust salt and spice and mix in. Add more water if needed.
- Cool slightly and blend with an immersion blender or regular blender(carefully). Serve in bowls with a garnish pepper flakes, lemon juice, a few drops of olive oil and chopped fresh mint(optional). Serve with croutons or flatbread of choice or a side salad.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Shannon
I’ve made this soup a few times and it’s always a winner in our home! So rich and spicy and conveniently comes together quickly. I added the cinnamon, as you suggested and some smoked paprika, doubled the cumin and finished with a squeeze of lime at the end. Thanks for this recipe!
Vegan Richa Support
yay! thank you, so glad you enjoy!
Ashley
Do you think this could work without the tomatoes/tomato paste or less of it? This looks so delicious but I have a sensitivity to tomatoes so was wondering if I could modify.
Vegan Richa Support
You can reduce the amount or omit the tomatoes, but note that the flavor will be quite different.
Raya
I used chicken stock instead of vegetable, added 1/4 cup brown rice and extra paprika and mint to taste. It turned out to be a lovely soup that we enjoyed tonight for dinner. Thank you! LOVE the Turkish flavour! 🙂
Vegan Richa Support
Yummy.
Nadia
My go-to recipe…delicious, and always have ingredients in my cupboard! Too easy!!
Vegan Richa Support
perfect healthy comfort food with pantry staples
Julia
The best lentil soup I have ever had! The flavor profile you built was amazing. I didn’t have mint or tomato paste so I subbed with regular parsley and red pepper paste. Adding this to my grocery list for next time. Thank you for sharing.
Vegan Richa Support
sounds nice the way you made it
Charlie
I spent a month volunteering in the northern (Turkish) part of Cyprus a couple of years ago. At weekends we’d stop at a 24hour restaurant on the way back from the city and get this soup. This recipe is very close.
Me elderly, sick father loves it. He barely eats anything. This is a great way of getting him fed and full of protein. I usually make double or more so we don’t have to fight over it 🤣
Gail
Followed the recipe as written, served with a squeeze of lemon. It was absolutely delicious and all four picky eaters loved it. So healthy too! Thank you very much Richa for your creative recipes.
Vegan Richa Support
Excellent Gail!
Beth Agosta
My daughter made this for us because I eat a plant based diet. She didnt have tomato paste so she used leftover marinara sauce. She served it with lemon wedges and plain oatmilk yogurt. It was amazing! I thought about it all the next day. The seasonings and over all flavor was amazing! Thank you !
Vegan Richa Support
so nice
in2insight
We loved this. Such fragrant flavors and just plain yummy.
Ended up making a double batch and did not blend.
Thank you for sharing!
Vegan Richa Support
Awesome
Kelly
This is a keeper – I blended it as recommended and really enjoyed it. I’ll double or triple this next time to last the week. I might also try it over rice or couscous without blending it. Super simple to our together and excellent flavor. Thank you!
Vegan Richa Support
triple?! wow
Emma
This is easy and delicious! Thank you so much.
Vegan Richa Support
thanks for popping in
Kathy
Wonderful. Serve with pita or naan and enjoy.
Vegan Richa Support
perfect accompaniment
Jane kennedy
Seriously delicious. With a squeeze of lemon and a little pita it’s absolute heaven!
Vegan Richa Support
nice rhymes
Amy
Hi, this recipe looks amazing. But I have a question about step 3 where it says “ You can add some veggies and greens veggies at this point.” I don’t see any mention of veggies (other than carrots but that’s in step 2) or green veggies anywhere. What does this refer to? Thanks!
Vegan Richa Support
just any of your favourite veggies!! whichever you like. and greens like spinach or kale etc.
Celia
This is a “may I have some more, please”, delicious soup, with a very nice spice mix!
Though, not wanting to go shopping, having only a couple of carrots, two tomatoes in the fridge (onions, garlic and tomato paste are always aplenty), tins of brown lentils in the pantry, and a blender that didn’t want to work, I had to modify the recipe:
I grated the carrots and used one tin of well-rinsed brown lentils. I didn’t add any mint and it tasted very nice as it was. We actually quite liked the little crunch of the grated carrot and not mushy lentils.
I’ll add red lentils to my shopping list and definitely will make this soup again! Thanks for sharing the recipe online, Richa!
Vegan Richa Support
thanks for popping in
Sheila
This one’s definitely a keeper! I made a big batch at the soup kitchen I volunteer at (144 servings!) and it was very popular. Thank you Richa!!! 😊
Vegan Richa Support
wow really? that’s heartwarming. thank you
Jamie Cathleen
I added celery and tomatoes to it. I forgot about the tomato paste.
Vegan Richa Support
thanks for popping in ♡ good to know