Luxurious Turkish Lentil Soup
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The creamiest Turkish lentil soup you’ve ever had, oddly made without even a drop of cream! This soup is vegetarian-friendly, loaded with veggies, and so comforting. Naturally gluten-free and can easily be made vegan!
Serving up bowlfuls of Turkish Lentil Soup in 100º weather like it’s my job.
Guys. Guys. Guys. This is the creamiest, coziest, warmest, most comforting lentil soup to come out of my kitchen in possibly forever. We’re talking about a veg-friendly soup that contains almost 20 grams of protein and makes for the perfect summer lunch. All you need is a slice of toasted crusty bread drizzled with EVOO and a few rubs of a garlic clove to serve as a side.
Why are we talking soup in summer? This past week 1/2 my family went down with a summer cold and all anyone wanted is warm, creamy soups to sip on to make it all better.
Golden drizzles of delish-us-ness.
What you won’t find in this homemade lentil soup is even a drop of cream, and yet I have the audacity to call this the creamiest, most luxurious Turkish Lentil Soup.
My lentil soup is free of cream, milk, yogurt, and nuts. If you’ve been following the blog for a while now, you know I love adding creaminess to soups with a few tablespoons of pesto because the nuts add such a rich taste to the whole soup.
I’ll tell you what; there’s no pesto in this soup either.
Not only is this soup recipe gluten-free, but it’s also vegetarian-friendly, and with a simple swap of one ingredient, you can make this into a vegan Turkish lentil soup.
Okay, I think I’ve built up enough suspense. This veggie-loaded soup is made creamy with two simple ingredients:
- potatoes
- butter
I don’t know what it is, but something incredibly magical happens when you combine yellow split peas or yellow lentils with a big old russet potato. In the magical world of the Instant Pot, the two ingredients get together and cook up for 15 minutes and then it’s as simple as running a hand blender through the whole thing or just transferring it to a regular blender and giving it a whiz. We add the butter in two steps: a couple of tablespoons to cook the onions and carrots and the last two when everything is blended and just about ready to serve.
For my vegan friends, swap the butter for olive oil, it’ll be just as delicious.
Friends, I have to ask. Is anyone else as confused as I am when it comes to lentils and split peas? I mean why so many categories? Why can’t we just call it all lentils, or split peas, or better yet, DAAL? Because if you’re even remotely Indian, it’s just all daal. Doesn’t even matter what kind.
So to simplify, you can make this Turkish lentil soup with yellow lentils or with yellow split peas, which would then technically be called Turkish pea soup but really who even cares! The peas will take a little more pressure cooker lovin’ than the lentils. About an extra 5 minutes worth and really, regardless of whether you use peas or lentils this soup is ??
To be clear, this is a very mild soup that’s easily adaptable to your tastebuds. I like adding a dash of cayenne to the soup while it cooks, squeezing on fresh lemon juice to my bowl and sprinkling it with a handful of fresh garden herbs. <– my parents garden, not my own; I’m a plant killer.
This is my 30-minute soup recipe that requires 15 minutes of hands-on time and makes six big lunch size servings with a solid 18 grams of a protein punch.
The perfect desk lunch for busy weeks and bonus points for not even having to touch the stove!
Summer sunshine in a bowl.
Luxurious Turkish Lentil Soup
The creamiest Turkish lentil soup you've ever had, oddly made without even a drop of cream! This soup is vegetarian-friendly, loaded with veggies, and so comforting. Naturally gluten-free and can easily be made vegan!
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons butter (or olive oil)
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 1 large carrot, diced
- 1 ¾ cups yellow lentils (or 1 ½ cups yellow split peas)
- 1 lb. russet potatoes, diced
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 5- 6 ½ cups of broth (vegetable or chicken)*
- ¼ teaspoon ground turmeric
- cayenne pepper
- salt, to taste
- lemon wedges, parsley, etc. for topping
Instructions
- sauté: Heat 2 tablespoons of butter or olive oil in the instant pot on the sauté setting. Add the onions and carrots and sauté until the onions just barely start to brown, about 9-10 minutes. Add the potatoes, lentils, tomato paste, 5 cups of broth, turmeric, and if desired, 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper. Cover the Instant Pot, hit the bean/chili button and adjust the pressure time. 10 minutes for yellow lentils, 13-15 minutes or split peas depending on how old they are. Once the timer goes off, turn the knob to vent.
- blend: Using a hand blender or by transferring the soup to a traditional blender, blend the soup completely. You may need additional broth to thin the soup out. I ended up using 1 additional cup to blend/thin soup to my liking. But note that the soup will thicken as it sits, to make sure you have a little extra broth or add water.
- Adjust salt to taste and stir in the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter. You can also add additional cayenne if you prefer spicier soups. Feel free to serve with lemon wedges and tons of chopped parsley. I go back and forth on the lemon wedge, love it with it, love it without it!
is this a good choice for you?
nutritional values calculated using yellow split peas. They are almost the same using yellow lentils – 25 additional calories. (2 more grams of protein, 4 more grams of carbs)
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18 Comments on “Luxurious Turkish Lentil Soup”
Can you please explain what does 1 3/4 cups mean? Is it 1 + 0.75 cup of lentils, or it’s ~1 cups of lentils.
Same for 5-6 1/2 cups of broth.
They weren’t clear for us.
1 3/4 would be 1.75 cups of lentils or 1 1/2 (1.5 cups) of yellow split peas. For the broth, you’ll use 5 cups in the instant pot and then adjust with up to an additional 1.5 cups of broth if you would like to thin the soup out (which I do recommend.) Hope that helps!
For fear of being one of those people… I swapped sweet potato for the regular potato and this soup was fantastic! I can see with using regular potato that the soup might need a bit of a flavour boost, but with the sweet potato it added a perfect oomph. A few toasted coconut chips took it over the top! Will definitely make again.
This looks so amazing! Do you think I could substitute with green lentils? Can’t wait to try this out!
Hmm.. not sure on the green lentils. I think the timing should be the same as the yellow lentils but just not too sure if the texture will come out just as smooth on the green lentils as it did on the yellow. Would love to hear how it went if you try it though!
This was absolutely delicious! I made this on the stove top, as I didn’t have an Instant Pot. Added a teaspoon of ginger garlic paste and half a teaspoon of crushed dried red chillies while sauteing the veggie.
How long did you cook it for on the stovetop?
I just made this recipe! I sauteed the onion and carrot and then added everything to a slow cooker, which I left on high for 4 hours. I used red lentils as that’s what I had, red potatoes instead of russet, and avocado oil instead of butter. I also halved the recipe since I’m just feeding myself. I love this recipe! I usually over-spice my lentils. This recipe really lets their simple, wholesome flavor stand out. Plus you can’t beat how freaking simple it was to make. Was great topped with nutritional yeast. I love that it’s kind of a blank slate — might stir in some lemony parsley pesto at dinnertime?
one suggestion if not using instant pot. I soak my lentils or split peas overnight rinse and then cook them. cuts down on stove top time.
Thanks for your input, Karen!
This was fantastic! i will never eat a non-pureed lentil soup again. I made it on the stovetop, and I think my lentils took 30 or 35 minutes to soften. I added toasted cashews for texture. I like the lemon wedge — the soup demands a little acid. What else could I tweak to give the soup a little more acid? My go-to is pickled red onion, but I can’t envision that making sense in this context.
Glad to hear you enjoyed it Emily! Have you tried sumac powder? It’s got a acidic taste that would be great sprinkled on this as a finishing touch. It’s commonly used in Persian cuisine but I think the flavor would be fabulous with this soup. A tiny drizzle of pomegranate molasses would also be interesting. 🙂
I made the soup! It was absolutely delicious. I added toasted cashews for a little texture. I prepared the soup on the stovetop, and I think the lentils took about 30 minutes to soften. Keep the vegetarian recipes a’comin’!
This soup sounds incredible!! This definitely inspires me to start pureeing my lentil soups 🙂
This was delicious! I used yellow split peas and don’t have an instant pot, so I cooked it on the stove. My peas took about 45 minutes to get soft, but they may be old. \just keep checking. Don’t put salt in until they are cooked, as salt can keep legumes from getting tender. Thanks for a good recipe!
I love that you included “Luxurious” in the name of this recipe because it looks so velvety and smooth! I have never had Turkish lentil soup before, so this would be a great new recipe to try! Your photos are gorgeous too! 🙂
I don’t have an instant Pot; how would you make this recipe on a stove top or slowcooker? Any suggestions?
Haven’t tried it on the stove or slow cooker before, so you may need to play around with the cooking time a bit. I’d sauté the onions and carrots in a pot and add the remaining ingredients from step #1 and let the soup come to a simmer. Reduce the heat so that it maintains a gentle simmer and cook for 20-30 minutes. You’ll need to check and make sure the lentils or peas cook all the way through. It’s okay if they’re softer as you’re blending it up anyway, just make sure they aren’t underdone. Hope you enjoy the soup, Deanna! 🙂