Name: Lemon Lentil Soup
Prep time: 1 min
Cook time: 4 min
Total time: 25 min
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon Olive oil; 3 cloves Garlic ((minced or pressed)); 1 cup Red lentils; 1/4 teaspoon Salt; 1/4 teaspoon Pepper; 1/4 teaspoon Garlic powder; 1/4 teaspoon Paprika; 1/4 teaspoon Turmeric; 5 cups Vegetarian broth; 1 Lemon ((zest and juice))

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This Lemon Lentil Soup can be done on the stove or Instant Pot. Both versions are simple and quick. The soup is light, healthy, and delicious! It’s also vegan and gluten-free.

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This recipe was originally published on April 24, 2008. It is now updated with more information, variation, photos, and video.

I’ve been blogging for over a decade now. Originally it was a Russian blog on a LiveJournal platform (if anyone is interested, that blog is still live although I haven’t updated it in many years).

Then I had a friend build me a custom site with a custom blog. That old custom blog slowly evolved into this site.

Third recipe that I posted on this site was for this particular Lemon Lentil Soup, it was posted in spring 2008. The only difference the original recipe was made on the stove. After years and years of making this delicious Lemon Lentil Soup, I finally adapted it to be made in Instant Pot.

This recipe is a staple in my kitchen and for a good reason. It needs only a handful of ingredients that are usually in my pantry and just a few minutes to prep.

A few years ago I posted a recipe for Lentils and Brussels Sprouts Skillet along with an amusing anecdote about my husband loving lentils so much that he often makes lentil soup as his midnight snack. Well, this Lemon Lentil Soup is the recipe that he makes!!

You can cook this Lemon Lentil Soup on the stove top or in Instant Pot. The soup is really fast and easy to make. The result is delicious, refreshing, healthy, and tasty Lemon Lentil Soup. It is also naturally gluten-free and vegan.

Ingredients to make Lemon Lentil Soup

Most recipes for Lentil Soups call for onions, carrots, and sometimes celery. I don’t use any of those ingredients. I tried and found that they add no extra flavour to the soup, so I omit them just for the sake of simplicity and speed.

However, you could use onions and carrots and other vegetables. I will discuss different variations for this recipe below. But these are the basic ingredients that I use when I make my Lemon Lentil Soup.

Olive oil
Garlic (fresh or jarred)
Seasonings (I use salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika, and turmeric)
Red lentils
Vegetable broth (you can use any kind you like)
Lemon (zest and juice)

How to make Lemon Lentil Soup on the stove

I’ve made this Lemon Lentil Soup on the stove countless number of times and the technique between stove top and Instant Pot soups varies slightly but this is just a personal preference.

Heat a little bit of olive oil in the pot.
Add the minced (or pressed) garlic and sauté for 1-2 minutes stirring constantly. Make sure that garlic doesn’t burn. You just want the oil to slightly infuse with the garlic flavour.
Add the red lentils, mix, and cook for another 2 minutes.
Add your seasonings.
Add the broth.
Bring everything to boil, reduce the heat to medium-low, cover the pot with a lid and simmer for 15 minutes.
Once cooked, add the fresh lemon zest and lemon juice.

Enjoy!

How to make Instant Pot Lemon Lentil Soup

Making Lemon Lentil Soup in Instant Pot isn’t actually much faster as electric pressure cooker takes a long time to come to pressure. However, I like the ability to just close the lid on my Instant Pot and forget about it for a time. No need to bring anything to boil, reduce to simmer, make sure that the soup doesn’t boil over.

So, whenever I make it in Instant Pot, I omit the steps of sautéing the garlic, thus making this soup a real “dump and start” recipe. It is super easy to make!

Add all the ingredients to Instant Pot.
Cook on High Pressure for 4 minutes.
Add the fresh lemon zest and lemon juice.

Note: if you have time and energy then by all means, feel free to sauté the garlic in Instant Pot first!

Enjoy!

Easy-peasy!

How long it actually takes to make Lemon Lentil Soup in Instant Pot

Making Lemon Lentil Soup in Instant Pot (this is one of the models I have) isn’t much faster than cooking it on the stove but it’s much more convenient. At least for me.

If you are using the amount of ingredients listed (and not doubling the ingredients), then it takes about 15 minutes to come to pressure, 4 minutes to cook, and 5 minutes to release pressure. Add another minute to zest and juice the lemon and you get 25 minutes.

Cooking this soup on the stove takes about the same time as you need to get the broth to boil and then simmer.

Can you double the ingredients?

This original recipe makes about 4 small servings, maybe starter size servings, or it makes 2 large servings. If you want to double the ingredients, then you can but I would reduce the liquid a bit.

For some reason 1 cup lentils to 5 cups broth works well but 2 cups lentils to 10 cups broth makes a slightly thinner soup, although it is still delicious. If you’d like to double the ingredients, I would use 2 cups lentils to about 8 cups of liquid.

Also note, the time to come to pressure and release pressure will increase when you increase the amount of ingredients, especially liquid.

More lentil recipes

Ingredients and Variations for Lemon Lentil Soup

As I mentioned above, most Lentil Soup recipes use onions and carrots. I personally like how simple the flavour and texture of this particular Lemon Lentil Soup is and I don’t add anything else. However, you could definitely add other ingredients and they all would work well with either stove top or Instant Pot versions.

Onions, carrots, celery
- If you can’t imagine making a soup without starting it with a base of onions, carrots, and celery (also known as mirepoix), then by all means, feel free to add them.
- You can add a little bit of diced bell peppers also.
- You can mix and match any of these vegetables any way you like in this recipe.
Garlic
- Fresh garlic is more flavourful and better, however, if you don’t have time to mince garlic or just don’t have fresh garlic, then you could totally use jarred minced garlic as I used in the video for this recipe.
Potatoes
- I find that this Lemon Lentil Soup is thick and almost creamy on its own but you could definitely add potatoes to it to make it more filling.
- I would dice the potatoes into relatively small pieces, so that they’d be melt in your mouth tender.
- No need to adjust timing for Instant Pot cooking as diced potatoes most definitely will cook in 4 minutes.
- You might need to adjust timing for stove top cooking of this soup and test potatoes for doneness as 15 minutes might not be enough for some potatoes.
Seasonings
- To be honest, I don’t usually measure my seasonings and just add a little bit of whatever I have on hand. I often add cayenne powder also.
- You could really change the flavour of this soup by using various seasoning mixes.
- Try your favourite curry powder, taco seasoning, cajun spices, even my Khmeli Suneli Spice Mix would work wonderful in this soup.

Lemon
- I love the fresh and bright lemon flavour of this Lemon Lentil Soup.
- If you don’t like too much lemon and tang in soups, then feel free to use less lemon juice and you could omit the lemon zest.
- For a fun twist, try lime juice.
Broth
- For a vegan version, use vegetable broth.
- However, you could use chicken or beef broth also if you are not following a vegan diet.
- Whatever version you prefer, I always use Better Than Bouillon base for my stocks.
Sausage (if not following a vegan/vegetarian diet)
- My husband likes adding smoked sausage to this soup or even pepperettes.
- For the stove top version, sauté the sliced sausage with the garlic. Then follow the directions.
- For the Instant Pot version, you could either sauté the sliced sausage or just add pieces and cook the soup without sautéing.
- I personally prefer the vegetarian version of this soup more.
Frank’s Red Hot Sauce
- We absolutely love adding a few splashes of Frank’s Red Hot Sauce to this soup!

More Instant Pot Soup Recipes

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