Lentil Kale Soup
This Lentil Kale Soup is hearty and loaded with nutrient dense French lentils and mushrooms, garlic, lots of herbs and finished off with balsamic vinegar. Easy to put together and meal prep for meals throughout the week.
Why You’ll Love This Lentil Soup
- Hearty and filling. Lentils always make me feel satisfied. It’s not surprising considering that they provide both fiber and protein. Paired with extra fiber from the other vegetables inside, this soup will keep you energized.
- A good way to use up ingredients. This recipe was honestly inspired by the fact that my mother-in-law gave us an abundance of mushrooms recently. Making this soup helped to use them up along with some kale that was on it’s way out too.
- Many traditional lentil soups often have some type of ham or meat added to it for umami flavor. We balance that out by using plant-based umami filled ingredients like nutritional yeast and mushrooms.
Key Ingredients and Substitutions
- French Lentils: Small lentils like these are my favorite as they have the best texture in my opinion. They also don’t get mushy when cooking. I typically find these in my local grocery store. However, if you can’t find them, green and brown lentils also work.
- Kale: This hearty green wilts perfectly at the very end of cooking. You can add as much or as little as you like. And if you aren’t a fan of kale, you can always swap for something like spinach.
- Mushrooms: Small button mushrooms work really well. White or baby bella mushrooms in particular are what I usually use. Shitake could also work here, just make sure to remove the stems as they are very woody.
- Nutritional Yeast: A big umami enhancer. For some of my non-vegan friends who want to make this soup that don’t normally use this ingredient, feel free to replace with 1 tablespoon soy sauce or tamari for that umami flavor.
- Garlic: As always, the more garlic in a recipe, the more I like it. I provide my suggestion in the recipe, but feel free to use more or less based on your own preference.
- Herbs: Sage, rosemary and thyme were my main go to herbs. However, if there is an herb blend you prefer more, that works here too.
- Vegetable Broth: A good quality vegetable broth works lovely here. If you want, you can also use a homemade vegetable broth recipe as well.
- Balsamic Vinegar: Use a good quality balsamic vinegar here as we use it to help finish off the soup. The tang from the vinegar along with it’s natural sweetness helps to marry all the ingredients together. If you don’t have vinegar, a good squeeze of fresh lemon juice at the end also works wonderfully.
How to Make This Soup
It’s all about layering your flavor. Start by sautéing the basics: onion and celery in a pot until the onions have softened. Now add in the sliced mushrooms and continue to sauté to release their moisture. Once the mushrooms have released a majority of their moisture and the pan starts to dry up, add in your garlic and sage and sauté until the garlic is fragrant.
If needed at this point, deglaze the pan with a splash of vegetable broth. Add in your nutritional yeast and coriander and stir well to combine. Follow with your lentils, and toss around to coat with your ingredients. Pour in the vegetable broth and add the remaining herbs on top including the bay leaves.
Bring the soup to a boil and reduce to a simmer, allowing the soup to cook for about 25 minutes. Stir in the kale and cook for an additional 5 minutes until the kale has wilted. Remove from heat and stir in the balsamic vinegar and adjust salt and pepper to taste before serving.
Tips for a Delicious Lentil Soup
- Fresh herbs make a big difference. While you can absolutely use a combination of dry herbs, you get more fresh and robust flavor from using fresh herbs. I used a combination of sage, thyme, and rosemary.
- I recommend French lentils as they are small and maintain their texture when cooked. However, brown and green lentils work well too if you can’t get your hands on smaller lentils. Red lentils cook differently, so if you need a red lentil specific recipe I’d recommend trying my Sweet Potato Red Lentil Soup.
- Left out tomatoes in this recipe to help those with sensitivity to it, but feel free to sauté 1 tablespoon of tomato paste or 1 cup crushed tomatoes with your vegetables before adding the broth.
- Adjust the amount of broth based on your preference. At the end, if the lentils absorb too much broth, you can add a little more broth to help get it to your desired broth to lentil ratio.
- I like this soup chunky and brothy, but if you prefer creamy, you can use an immersion blender to blend up some of the soup to your preference.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes! Make a big batch of this soup, allow to cool completely and then store in individual containers. You can place this soup in the freezer for up to 3 months. I love saving it in portion sized containers as it makes it easier to thaw and have the amount you want without having to defrost the whole batch of soup. To warm from frozen, place the block of frozen soup in sauce pan to reheat on the stove top until warmed through.
You can store this soup in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
Lentils are great because they can be cooked from dry quickly compared to items like dried beans and chickpeas. Depending on the variety you get, your lentils may take 13 minutes to 30 minutes to cook until tender.
In a perfect world, we would have fresh lentils to cook and they would be done by the allotted time on their package. However, there are some reasons why you might end up with lentils that haven’t cooked all the way through.
1. Your lentils might be old. Older lentils and beans that might be 1-2 years old can still feel crunchy and hard after cooking, so make sure that your beans and lentils haven’t been sitting in the pantry forever.
2. Another thing is that you may not have sifted through your lentils. Often times, small pieces of debris like dirt and small pebbles might still be mixed in with the lentils. If they aren’t rinsed thoroughly or picked over, you might end up cooking with it and getting that not so pleasant crunch.
How to Serve
Always great to serve this soup along with some hearty whole grain breads and garnished with some fresh parsley. And if you like spice like I do, I often finish this off with a sprinkle of red pepper flakes as well.
You can also enjoy this soup as a side served with a hearty sandwich or salad. My favorite sandwich to go with this would be my Tofu Panini. For salad, I am always a big fan of this soup paired with my Chopped Kale Salad.
More Hearty Vegan Soup Recipes to Try
- Roasted Tomato and White Bean Soup
- Smoky Chickpea Kale Soup
- Vegan Lasagna Soup
- Creamy Quinoa Coconut Soup
- Black Bean Soup
Lentil Kale Soup
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
- Category: Soup
- Method: Stove Top
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This Lentil Kale Soup is hearty and loaded with nutrient dense French lentils and mushrooms, garlic, lots of herbs and finished off with balsamic vinegar. Easy to put together and meal prep for meals throughout the week.
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 medium yellow onion, diced
- 2 stalks celery, chopped
- 2 cups mushrooms, sliced
- 8 leaves fresh sage, chopped
- 6 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1/2 tsp ground coriander
- 1 1/2 cups French lentils
- 6 cups vegetable broth
- 8 sprigs fresh thyme
- 1 sprig fresh rosemary
- 2 bay leaves
- 2–3 cups kale, roughly chopped
- 2 tbsp good quality balsamic vinegar or the juice of one lemon
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Warm your oil in a large pot over medium heat. Sauté the onions and celery with a pinch of salt until the onions have softened, about 2-3 minutes.
- Add in the sliced mushrooms and continue to sauté to release a majority of their moisture, about 3-4 minutes. You should notice your pan starting to dry up a little bit with some of the caramelized bits from your onion and celery at the bottom.
- Stir in the garlic and sage and sauté until the garlic is fragrant, about 2 minutes.
- If needed at this point, deglaze the pan with a splash of vegetable broth then add in your nutritional yeast and coriander and stir well to combine.
- Add in your lentils, and toss around to coat with your ingredients.
- Pour in the vegetable broth and add the thyme, rosemary and bay leaves.
- Bring the soup to a boil, then reduce to a low simmer, allowing the soup to cook for about 25 minutes.
- Stir in the kale and cook for an additional 5 minutes until the kale has wilted.
- Remove from heat and stir in the balsamic vinegar and adjust salt and pepper to taste before serving.
Notes
Fresh herbs make a big difference. While you can absolutely use a combination of dry herbs, you get more fresh and robust flavor from using fresh herbs. I used a combination of sage, thyme, and rosemary.
I recommend French lentils as they are small and maintain their texture when cooked. However, brown and green lentils work well too if you can’t get your hands on smaller lentils. Red lentils cook differently, so if you need a red lentil specific recipe I’d recommend trying my Sweet Potato Red Lentil Soup.
Left out tomatoes in this recipe to help those with sensitivity to it, but feel free to sauté 1 tablespoon of tomato paste or 1 cup crushed tomatoes with your vegetables before adding the broth.
Adjust the amount of broth based on your preference. At the end, if the lentils absorb too much broth, you can add a little more broth to help get it to your desired broth to lentil ratio.
I like this soup chunky and brothy, but if you prefer creamy, you can use an immersion blender to blend up some of the soup to your preference.
If you tried this recipe or any other recipe on the blog, then let me know what you thought in the comments below! And if you loved it, don’t forget to rate it too. Feel free to follow on Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok for the latest nutrition tips and recipe videos.
★ Catherine
I qm hoping to make this, this long weekend before my mushrooms go bad. I will be using green or brown lentils since I cannot find French and i dont have fresh herbs so I will use dried. 🙁 I’m also planning on cutting the recipe in half because I am cooking for one.
Any reccommendations on adjustments to make? Do I have to soak the lentils or is it sufficient to pick through and rinse them? The steps only seem to imply rinsing lentils not soaking them..
Can I use a combo or water and veggie broth? In order to boost umami what do you think about adding saffeommthreads, a bit of tomato paste and a dash of coconut aminos?
W
Really love your blog and the Instagram. You do a great job of helping newish vegans who consider themselves foodies take it up a notch.
Hi Lynn! So grateful for you to ask. Hoping this helps as a response. Green or brown lentils should work. They might need less time to cook, but should still become nice and tender in this soup. Generally a good rule of thumb is between 17-20 minutes in this style of soup. No need to soak, but if you do, just note you might not need as much broth. And yes, you can use a combo of water and veggie broth. You can readjust the salt at the end until it tastes how you prefer. Coconut aminos would work great as would the tomato paste. If using tomato paste, just make sure to sauté it with the veggies so that it cooks down a bit and doesn’t overpower the soup. I would say 1-2 tbsp should be enough for this. Hoping you enjoy the soup and so grateful for the kindness!