Herbed Golden Lentil Soup
If you’re craving a cozy, nourishing meal, this herbed golden lentil soup is the kind of recipe you’ll want to return to again and again. Made with a blend of red lentils and petite golden lentils, warming spices, nutrient-dense greens like kale and bok choy, and finished with fresh herbs, this vegan lentil soup is deeply comforting while still feeling light and wholesome.
It's a one-pot soup that also happens to be gluten-free and oil-free, it's easy enough for a weeknight, and perfect for meal prep.
Whether you’re looking for a cozy plant-based dinner or a nourishing soup for chilly days, my Herbed Golden Lentil Soup delivers rich, layered flavor with minimal effort.
Have you arrived here from YouTube? If so, welcome!
If you missed it, you can watch me make this Herbed Golden Lentil Soup in my YouTube video.
Click below to watch (the video will open in a new window), and then return here afterward to reference the instructions.
Don't forget to like the video and subscribe to the channel, too!
Shortcut Tips: If you're short on time and/or ingredients, try this:
- Omit the butternut squash, or use frozen butternut cubes instead of fresh
- If you don't have butternut, substitute diced potatoes and/or carrots
- Use only one variety of lentils: red lentils OR petite golden lentils
- Skip the brown basmati rice, or substitute white basmati rice instead (in which case you can add it to the soup at the same time as the lentils) -- this saves 20 minutes of simmering time
- Use any other greens in place of the kale and bok choy, or skip them entirely
- Instead of fresh herbs, substitute dried parsley, coriander, and/or basil
- Skip the green onions (scallions)
Quick note: Some of the links below are affiliate links, which means I'll earn a very small commission if you make a purchase through my link, at no additional cost to you. Your support makes my work possible and I appreciate you very much!
💡 Scroll down for equipment recommendations 👇
👉 Click here to download a printable copy of this recipe.
Ingredients
This recipe yields 6 servings.
- 4 cups (1 quart) vegetable broth, divided
- 1 medium red onion, diced
- ¼ tsp salt
- 4 large cloves of garlic, minced (or more, if you love garlic)
- 1 tsp grated fresh ginger
- 1½ cup butternut squash, diced small
- 6 cups water
- ⅓ cup brown basmati rice, rinsed well
- ¾ cup split red lentils, rinsed well
- ¾ cup petite golden lentils, rinsed well (aka split mung beans or moong dal)
- 1 Tbsp curry powder
- 1 Tbsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp fermented black garlic granules*
- 1 tsp ground turmeric*
- ½ tsp smoked paprika*
- ¼ tsp ground ginger*
- 1 tsp dulse (seaweed) granules*
- 5 to 6 kale leaves, sliced into ribbons
- 1 head of baby bok choy, sliced into ribbons
- 1 small bunch fresh parsley leaves, chopped
- 4 green onions (scallions), sliced
- Drizzle of coconut milk or dollop of plain, unsweetened plant-based yogurt for garnish
*Spices marked with an asterisk are optional but recommended. See below for shopping links.
Instructions
In a soup pot, heat about 4 Tbsp of the vegetable broth over medium-high heat, until simmering. The exact quantity doesn't matter so much; it will be just enough broth to thinly cover the bottom of the pot.
Equipment note: I love to use an enameled cast iron Dutch oven for soups, because the iron maintains even heat and helps caramelize the onions better than my other ceramic nonstick pots. In the video and photos I'm using a 5-qt round enameled cast iron Dutch oven.
Once the broth is simmering, add the diced onions. Sprinkle them with about ¼ tsp of salt.
Stir the onions occasionally, until they have softened significantly. Much of the broth will likely have evaporated in this time, as well.
Add the minced garlic and grated ginger.
Stir for about a minute, until fragrant.
Add another ¼ cup of vegetable broth and the cubed butternut squash, if using.
Ideally, you'll have chopped the squash into a pretty small dice. This will help it cook quickly and also make it easier to eat the soup with a spoon.
Stir and sauté the squash for about 5 minutes, until it begins to soften visibly.
If you're skipping the squash, then you can continue to the next step right away.
Add the remaining vegetable broth and 6 cups of water.
Bring the broth to a boil. Add the brown basmati rice.
Stir the rice into the soup, reduce the heat to medium, place the lid on the pot, and simmer the rice for 20 minutes. We are giving it a head start over the lentils because brown basmati rice takes longer to cook than lentils.
If you decide to substitute white basmati rice in place of brown to save time, then you can continue to the next step and add the lentils right away -- at the same time as the white rice -- because they have roughly equal cooking times.
Next add the red and yellow lentils.
Stir these in and allow the broth to return to a boil.
Now we'll add the spices.
This recipe includes a few spices that are essential to the recipe, and others that are optional but that significantly enhance the flavor of the soup if you add them (the optional spices are marked with an asterisk in the ingredients list).
Let's start with the essential ones:
Add 1 Tbsp curry powder, 1 Tbsp cumin, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp salt, and ½ tsp black pepper.
Stir these in.
You can choose any or all of the following optional herbs and spices to take the flavor of this soup to the next level, depending on your taste:
Add 1 tsp Trader Joe's fermented black garlic granules for a smooth umami flavor similar to that of roasted garlic.
Add 1 tsp of ground turmeric for its anti-inflammatory antioxidant power, golden color, and flavor.
Add ½ tsp smoked paprika to contribute a rich, subtly smoky flavor to the soup.
Add ½ tsp ground ginger to boost the flavor of the fresh grated ginger we added earlier, and to contribute even more digestive support and ant-inflammatory properties.
Add up to 1 tsp of dulse granules. Dulse is a variety of seaweed, and it contains valuable minerals, including iodine, which is important for good health.
I actually add dulse granules to pretty much every soup I make, because they're so beneficial. It's an easy way to sneak some extra health-boosting minerals into one's diet. Incidentally, I always add them to salads and often to curries, as well.
Stir it all together and allow the lentils and rice to simmer in this flavorful broth for 15 minutes.
Now carefully taste the soup to test the texture of the rice and lentils. Are they fully cooked? If not, continue simmering for another 3 to 5 minutes and test again.
Once the lentils and rice have cooked to a nice, "al dente" texture, we'll add the leafy greens: sliced kale and baby bok choy.
This might seem like a ton of greens, but they wilt significantly once you stir them into the broth.
Then add the chopped fresh parsley...
and the sliced green onions (scallions)...
Then stir these in.
Turn off the heat. We're not trying to cook the greens, only to wilt them.
Taste the soup again, and this time, adjust the seasoning to your liking.
Does it need more salt? More curry powder? More cumin? Add a little and taste it again. Over time, you'll develop a sense of how each spice or spice blend impacts the flavor of the overall dish.
This is an excellent cooking skill to cultivate, as it'll allow you to customize any recipe to your own taste whenever you cook, rather than relying exclusively on the recipe creator's recommendations.
Be brave and take some chances; just start small, because you can always add more spices, but you can't take them out once they're in there.
Ladle the soup into soup bowls.
Garnish each with some more chopped fresh parsley and sliced green onions.
And if you want to be even more "extra," a little drizzle of lite coconut milk or a dollop of plain, unsweetened plant-based yogurt takes this soup into the stratosphere in terms of flavor.
And a slice of toasted whole grain bread is amazing for dipping.
This is the perfect cozy winter meal, but I make it year-round (often without butternut squash in the warmer months), because it's super delicious, so easy, absolutely packed with plant-based protein, and feels like a health-boosting elixir, which of course is great anytime.
Serve and enjoy!
Equipment Recommendations
The links below are affiliate links, so I'll earn a small commission if you place an order, at no additional cost to you. Thank you! Your support helps make my work possible.
🌸 Enameled cast iron Dutch oven: https://amzn.to/4k5aZGh
🌸 Epicurean cutting boards: https://amzn.to/4qsNEQR
🌸 Stainless steel colander: https://amzn.to/4qBBPIu
🌸 Stainless steel and silicone kitchen utensils: https://amzn.to/4bHvbLX
🌸 East Fork pottery: https://eastfork.mention-me.com/m/ol/en1ij-stefanie-dougherty
You'll save $20 off your first order with this link 👆
If you see something in my kitchen not listed above and want to know where to get it, please email or message me and I'll find you a link if I can!
You can also check out my Amazon Storefront for a pretty complete list of my kitchen equipment recommendations: https://amzn.to/4gRYPOF
Ingredient Recommendations
🌸 My favorite curry powder comes from Simply Organic - This is currently out of stock on Amazon, but I'll update the link later if I can.
🌸 I buy my petite golden lentils (moong dal) in bulk on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3Lof8br
🌸 Same goes for my split red lentils: https://amzn.to/4sLVO8E
🌸 Trader Joe's fermented black garlic granules
If you don't have access to Trader Joe's, you could try fermented black garlic from Amazon in puree form instead: https://amzn.to/3Z7ANYF
🌸 I buy small canisters of dulse granules from Amazon: https://amzn.to/4a2jhel
🌸 Lite (canned) coconut milk for garnish: The best price will almost always be at your local supermarket rather than online, simply because of the weight. If you already have some plain almond milk or other plant milk in the fridge, you can substitute that instead.
🌸 Or plain, unsweetened, plant-based yogurt for garnish: Your favorite brand is fine, but if you've never bought it before, I receommend Kite Hill plant-based Greek yogurt. It's yummy! I also used it recently in my Mini Pecan Pies and Savory Harvest Galette recipes!
