Make this easy one-pot anti-inflammatory soup with veggies, lentils, wilted greens and cozy spices like turmeric and ginger! Perfect for meal prep, low-budget and family-friendly.
There’s nothing better than a pot of fragrant and cozy veggie soup after a long day! Especially when it’s as easy to make and nutritious as our anti-inflammatory soup with turmeric.
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Root veggies, protein-packed legumes, fresh greens, and anti-inflammatory compounds like ginger, black pepper, and turmeric join forces to create this delicious and healthy meal!
This soup is packed with nutrients and flavor, easy on your digestion, and perfect for batch cooking! Practically the ultimate healing comfort food for a lazy evening.
It’s a great alternative to creamy curry or bean chili and deserves a spot in your dinner rotation! Try our turmeric latte next.
Why you’ll love it
- Nourishing, cozy, and so good for you
- Perfect for meal prep
- One-pot beginner recipe
- Hearty, budget-friendly family dinner
- Easily customizable
- Packed with protein & fiber
- Ready in about 30 minutes
This weeknight-friendly winter recipe is made from simple staple foods and you can enjoy it over the course of a few days!
Ingredients needed
- Red Lentils — protein-packed, low in fat, quick-cooking and wonderfully textured.
- Potato — to make this soup more substantial.
- Carrots — adding some healthy beta-carotene!
- Celery — typical winter soup ingredient for added texture and savory flavor.
- Onion, Garlic, Ginger, Lemon Juice —for their delicious flavor and health-boosting properties!
- Baby Spinach & Parsley — beautiful & nutritious wilted greens.
- Vegetable Broth & Diced Tomatoes — that’s what is used for the flavorful liquid in our soup.
- Spices — you can go as crazy as you like here, our recipe suggests cumin, turmeric (plus black pepper, always go for that combo!), coriander seeds, paprika and salt.
Find the exact amounts and suggested ingredient swaps below.
You need only one large pot, chopping board, knife and measuring equipment to make this vegan soup!
How to make this anti-inflammatory soup
In a large pot, sauté onion, garlic, carrot, celery, potato and spices in a splash of water or oil for a few minutes, stirring constantly.
Add vegetable broth, tomato paste and diced tomatoes. Mix with a large spoon, cover, and bring to a boil.
Add lentils, give the soup a stir, then turn the heat to low and let your soup simmer for 15 minutes.
Once the potatoes are tender, not overcooked, add the spinach. Once it wilts down after a few minutes, turn off the heat.
Add parsley and lemon juice to the soup. Adjust to taste preferences with salt, pepper and more cumin, paprika, ginger or coriander. Enjoy!
Storage & serving suggestions
You can enjoy this homemade anti-inflammatory soup all on its own or serve it alongside rice, millet, quinoa, or vegan dinner rolls! It tastes great with vegan bread, from sourdough to healthy cornbread or nutty buckwheat bread.
We also love it with this vegan grilled cheese or another sandwich on the side!
Any leftovers can be stored, once cooled, in a lidded container in the fridge for up to 5 days and reheated on the stove or in the microwave.
This soup can also be frozen for up to 3 months!
Adjustments
Dietary
Sauté your veggies in olive oil and add some canned coconut milk to this soup to increase calories and fat!
Swap some of the lentils for non-starchy vegetables to decrease the calories and carbs in this recipe.
Substitutions
- Red lentils: use canned brown lentils or chickpeas.
- Spinach: kale or other leafy greens can be used.
- Tomato products: swap for more veggie broth & coconut milk.
- Veggies: feel free to skip any of them or replace with those listed below.
Add this to your soup
- Chickpeas
- Sweet potato
- Peas
- Bell pepper
- Fresh rosemary or thyme
- Butternut squash
- Black or white beans
- Green beans
- Cauliflower
- Broccoli
- Shredded cabbage
More dinner recipes
If you liked this plant-based soup, be sure to try some of the following goodness next!
- Quinoa Stuffed Aubergine
- Lentil & Kale Salad
- Lentil Mushroom Loaf
- Creamy Vegan Lasagna
- Quinoa Veggie Bowl
Did you make our veggie soup and like it? Share with us in the comments below and feel free to rate it, too. You can also Pin the recipe here!
Ingredients
- 1 onion finely diced
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 2 medium carrots sliced
- 3 celery stalks sliced
- 12 oz potatoes 340 g, peeled and cubed
- 2 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 2 tsp paprika
- 1- inch ginger piece peeled and grated
- 1 tsp salt
- Freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 4 cups low-sodium vegetable broth 880 ml
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 8.5 oz crushed tomatoes 240 g
- 6 oz red lentils 170 g, dry
- 2 cups baby spinach 60 g
- ½ cup fresh parsley 14 g, finely chopped
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
Instructions
Sauté veggies
- Place a large pot over medium heat and add the onion, garlic, carrots, celery, potatoes and spices (cumin, turmeric, paprika, ginger, salt and pepper).
- Sauté everything in a splash of water for 5 minutes, stirring frequently.
Add liquids & lentils
- Add the vegetable broth, tomato paste and crushed tomatoes. Stir and bring to a boil before adding the dry lentils and mixing everything well.
Cook
- Turn the heat to low, cover the pot and let your soup simmer for 15 minutes until the lentils are cooked and the potatoes are tender but not overcooked.
Add kale, parsley & lemon juice
- Season with more salt and pepper to taste, then add the spinach and let simmer for five more minutes.
- Turn off the heat, add the chopped parsley and lemon juice and divide between serving bowls. Enjoy!
Notes
- Instead of fresh spinach, you can also use sturdy greens like kale.
- Popular swaps include sweet potatoes, winter squash, brown lentils and green beans! Find more ideas in the article above.
- Make sure to always add black pepper when using turmeric powder in your recipe to increase the health benefits.
Alena Schowalter is a Certified Vegan Nutritionist who has been a vegetarian since childhood and vegan since 2012. Together with her husband, she founded nutriciously in 2015 and has been guiding thousands of people through different transition stages towards a healthy plant-based diet. She’s received training in the fields of nutrition, music therapy and social work. Alena enjoys discussions around vegan ethics, walks through nature and creating new recipes.
Hi , would this recipe work okay in an instant pot? Thx!
pretty sure it would, yes! you can sauté the onion, potato, carrot etc first, then add the rest of the ingredients, stir and cook for around 10 minutes. let us know how it turns out! :)
Amazing recipe! Thanks so much for sharinf
Thank you for sharing this recipe. I made this tonight for supper and it was nutritional and filling. This will be my go to recipe going forward. :) Side note: Love your website. It is very informative and user friendly.
so happy to read that, Stefanie! Thank you so much for taking the time and leave this lovely feedback ♡
This soup is a favorite in our household! What is your serving size when you say “Yield: 3?”
the recipe can feed 3 hungry people is meant by this serving size :) but really, just enjoy as much as you want of it, it’s super healthy and low in calories!
My boyfriend and I made this soup a couple nights ago and it was delicious and warming on a cold, winter night! I definitely recommend trying it. Thank you so much for sharing all of your amazing recipes!
I made this soup, it was easy and delicious. Thank you!
The best soup recipe I have ever made, and you can use change it up a little depending on what is in the fridge. I make this at least once a week!
When are you supposed to add the lemon juice?
great question and thanks for letting me know that I forgot to mention this ingredient! I add the lemon juice towards the end or right when I serve the soup :)
First off, we really enjoyed the soup! Two things for feedback: We followed the recipe and timing to a tee but the potatoes and lentils were way undercooked. We had to cook it for 15-20 more minutes. Secondly, the taste was very strong on tomatoes and not so much carrots. I think next time we’ll add an extra carrot and just do a one small freshly diced tomato. I’d also add more ginger, just for fun. Thank you we enjoyed dinner!
I love, love, love this soup. It feels nourishing with each delicious bite. I may try adding some squash and I love broth so, plan on increasing the amount of vegetable broth next time. This is absolutely one of my favorite soups!
I made this tonight because I have a cold and wanted something nourishing. It was really good. I used sweet potatoes and spinach. I also used darker lentils and think I need to buy red ones for the future. The dark ones take very long to cook. Going to explore your site for some more recipes. Thank you.
Could I mix in a bit of lite coconut milk at the end of cooking the soup? My friend made a lentil soup once where she put that in at the end.
Hi Lauren,
this is a great idea, yes! Adding some creamy dairy-free milk to soups is what we often do.
Enjoy the recipe and feel free to share if the added coconut milk made it super delicious :)
I added a can of coconut milk at the end. It was delicious!
What is vegetable broth? Do you mean a veg stock cube? Also, is the lemon juice simply for flavour, is it a key ingredient?
if you only have a veg stock cube, then dissolve it in water as instructed on the package to create vegetable broth :) lemon juice is just added for flavor and can be omitted.
So yummy and easy to make! “When are you done with your soup?” Asked my husband. “It’s ready!” “That was so fast!” I used many of the hints and tricks for using different ingredients (here’s a other one: Trader Joe’s ‘Holiday Vegetable Hash’ made it SO easy!). The soup was thick and insanely filling.
This is my absolute FAVORITE soup!!! Ate tons of unhealthy foods over the holidays and was craving this! I add in a whole can of coconut milk with the spinach and I use a whole can of diced tomatoes juice and all!!! Its yummy, filling and good for you! Thanks for an awesome recipe!!!
Hi Alena. This recipe looks awesome and I can’t wait to try it but can you please tell me why the sodium level is so high? Is it because of the canned tomato products? Thanks!
Thanks for the question! The nutrition information is automatically calculated by a tool and I cannot see the explicit items chosen for this calculation — it’s possible that the 4 cups vegetable broth (which I wrote down as “low-sodium”) make up much of the sodium content in the card. If you use no-salt-added tomato products and low-sodium veggie broth, it must be way below this number! Hope this helps
Great recipe, made it today for the first time. I’m new to your site, but love what you do! Thanks for all the great info!
thanks so much for the feedback, Lisa! let us know if you need any support x
This is my ultimate soup. I have made it so many times. I love the variations. With some chilli flakes it’s so warming in winter. With a bit of mince cooked first with the mirepoix, its a meal in itself. Or a tin of 4 bean mix it’s really satisfying and so healthy. Thank you
You do not give information about when to add the turmeric, cumin, coriander, paprika and grated ginger.
You have a lengthy list of ingredients, but you did not include when to add the turmeric, cumin, coriander, paprika or grated ginger. Unfortunately the soup was cooking with the lentils before I realized there was no instruction about when to add those ingredients. I don’t think you’d add grated ginger to soup that is already almost cooked. This is most unfortunate.
Hi Jody, thanks for your feedback! While the first sentence in my instructions is “Place a large pot over medium heat and add the onion, garlic, carrot, celery, potato and spices”, I do understand that merely writing “spices” might not be specific enough. In my kitchen, ginger counts as a spice and is always added in the beginning of my cooking along with paprika or coriander. I’ll be sure to clarify this in future recipes!
I was so sure I left a comment… but anyway Thanks for this awesome recipe and all variations. I make it almost constantly…now all other soups taste bland by comparison. Everyone wants the recipe after having some . So thank you again
sounds fantastic, thanks so much for sharing! :)
I’m trying hard to be whole-foods-plant-based. Usually I make a big pot of something and can’t even finish a bowl because I get bored. I ate one after another of this dish! I used kale and added coconut milk. I added a couple sprinkles of red pepper flakes for a little heat. Incredibly delicious. I could eat this every day all week! Thanks for the recharge into vegan!!!
Was looking for turmeric recipes and this is the first one I found. It’s so good I haven’t bothered to look for a second one- I just keep making this!
I tried this recipe and loved it! I did leave out the spinach because I didn’t have any but it was delicious, filling, and an excellent anti-inflammatory recipe!
This looks really good, but this recipe calls for one cup of tomatoes and tomato paste,aren’t tomatoes an inflammatory food ?
great question! I did my research on major platforms and scientific outlets before writing this recipe and none said that tomatoes should be avoided. Here’s WebMD on that issue: https://www.webmd.com/arthritis/psoriatic-arthritis/ss/slideshow-psa-inflammation-foods
Potatoes are also nightshades and should be avoided on an anti inflammatory diet.
Wonderful recipe! Thank you so much!
This recipe sounds wonderful. I can not eat potatoes. In your opinion do you think I could substitute sweet potatoes?
yes, sweet potatoes are great in this soup! let us know how you like it :)
I can’t WAIT to make this! As a busy working mom, how do you suggest I crockpot this beauty?
so stoked to read this, Kayane!! sorry I don’t own a crockpot so I cannot give you any tips here… perhaps Google can help?
Great recipe! I will definitely keep this to make again!
I made this, but used sweet potato instead and added a can of coconut milk at the end. It’s so flavourful, healthy and easy to make! Thanks for the recipe
Going to make this soup this week. I have a bag of sprouted lentils (black, green and brown lentils) but not red. Can I substitute these for red or is red the better choice?
your favorite lentils will work for this soup! we just prefer red ones because they cook quicker and have a slightly different texture.
can this soup be frozen?
yes! :)
I’m about to make the soup but I am very surprised by the instruction to sauté the vegetables in water. I’ve always saateed veggies in olive oil when making soup. Is there a reason for using water instead of oil?
Hi Carol, you’re right! Vegetables are usually sautéed in oil and you are very welcome to do so for this recipe. I’ve been cooking mostly oil-free at home for years now (you can sautée vegetables in many different liquids: https://nutriciously.com/how-to-cook-without-oil/), which can save you a bunch of calories. Hope this answers your question!
PS: When cooking for others, especially non-vegans, I always use oil :) I’m just accustomed to oil-free meals by now.
Will coconut milk from a carton work? Could there be a problem with curdling?
Coconut-based beverages that you can buy in cartons (like the Silk) are much, much less rich than even light coconut milk in a can, and also have a lot less coconut flavor. I haven’t tried this substitution yet but have used soy milk in the past and it was fine!
Even my 10 year old loved this one! So good, feel good filled. Lemon is a must!
Just made this and I think it’s delicious. Surprising my husband today for a non meat meal lol. I am positive I will make it again and enjoy it. Thank you for your recipe.
how can you convert this recipe to make in a crockpot?
I need to make large batches of this for a potluck. Would I quadruple the whole recipe or double the solid ingredients and quadruple the liquid only?
good question! this really depends on how watery or hearty you’d like your soup to turn out :) start with less liquid and add more broth as needed.
This soup is amazing. The ingredients are all things that are easy to have on hand and it comes together so beautifully. Love it! Thanks
I also would like to know how to convert this soup recipe to make in a crockpot. Thank you advance for your answer
I’m really surprised to see potato in an anti-inflammatory recipe. Potatoes are nightshades and are pro-inflammatory.
“Potato contains anti-inflammatory components such as resistant starch, fiber, and anthocyanins. Given the wide variation in potato germplasm for these compounds, there exists an opportunity to further develop potato as a potent anti-inflammatory staple crop.” Reddivari, L., Wang, T., Wu, B., & Li, S. (2019). Potato: an Anti-Inflammatory Food. American Journal of Potato Research, 96(2), 164-169. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12230-018-09699-z
My almost hundred year old mother said it was delicious. I didn’t change a thing except for adding a little more broth.
This soup is lovely,
I love this lentil soup! I used 8oz of the Lentils from Trader Joes (pre-cooked), I had no spinach or fresh parsley, I used dried parsley, powdered organic turmeric, fresh ginger & 1/2 c. diced red bell pepper & a 14.5oz can of diced tomatoes which gave it a nice flavor! I thought I made a mistake by putting a carrot into the food processor because it shredded but it made the soup nice and thick once it cooked down so maybe I’ll do that again! I cubed red potatoes they cooked quickly and tasted so good with the other ingredients! Great Recipe!
Could I put this soup in a mixer ? I don’t like lentils or big chunk of veggies so maybe I might like it that way…
Thank you.
sure Bernadette, just turn it to a pureed, creamy soup! I sometimes do that as well.
I’m excited to make this soup but want to clarify if it uses crushed tomatoes or diced tomatoes. There is reference to both at different times.
choose your favorite canned tomato product depending on whether you want the soup chunkier :) sorry for the confusion!
This was delicious! Adding it to my soup rotation! I subbed white sweet potatoes for regular ones (white ones are much less sweet), smoked paprika instead of paprika, doubled the crushed tomatoes and added 1/2 can coconut milk. Oh and my parsley went bad so I omitted it. Dunked toasted gluten free bread and it was perfect.
Just tried this soup— it’s fairly easy, healthy, inexpensive and really flavorful. It’s relatively filling, too. I had been feeling run down and like I had a lot of inflammation, and this is a wonderful, tasty find of comforting good health in a bowl. Will definitely make again!
i have made this 4 times since finding this recipe – it is SO EASY and fantastic for someone just dipping in their vegan toes. I will say, it takes WAY more than 10 minutes even just to chop everything but all the extra time in the world is worth it for this!
I love how versatile this soup is — you can use almost any vegetable you have on hand. I doubled the turmeric, added red peppers and coconut milk. Next time I will cube instead of slice the carrots. Thank you!
thanks so much for your wonderful feedback! Love your customizations :)