This lentil and chickpea soup is a tasty vegan soup easy enough for weeknights! In just a little more than 30 minutes, you have a delicious sweet and savory soup that beats a store-bought soup any day!
The combination of sweet potatoes, chickpeas, and lentils is delicious! They are the perfect blend of ingredients in this hearty vegan red lentil soup.
What's more perfect in the fall/winter months than to get comfy on your couch with a hot bowl of chickpea lentil soup while watching Netflix?
If you’re on the hunt for more soups to make, check out vegetarian potato leek soup and chickpea orzo soup.
Jump to:
- 💚 Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- 🛒 Ingredients
- ✅ How to Make Chickpea and Lentil Soup
- 🍽️ What to Serve with Red Lentil Chickpea Soup
- ❄️ How to Store
- 🔪 Helpful Kitchen Tools & Gadgets
- 💸 Money Saving Substitutions
- ♻️️ Zero-Waste Tips
- ❓FAQ
- ➕ More Easy Soup Recipes
- 📖 Recipe
- Red Lentil and Chickpea Soup with Sweet Potatoes
💚 Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Full of hearty, satisfying ingredients, including chickpeas, red lentils, and sweet potatoes.
- One bowl meal that’s great on its own or with some bread or an easy salad.
- A healthy chickpea sweet potato soup that’s naturally vegan and gluten-free.
- Great for meal prep.
🛒 Ingredients
Let's take a look at the simple ingredients needed to make a pot of lentil chickpea soup.
- Aromatics: We use a base of leeks, onions, garlic, and celery to create a depth of flavor in the soup.
- Sweet potatoes: The lightly sweet flavor balances out and blends well with the other seasonings in lentil chickpea soup.
- Vegetable broth: Cooking soups with vegetable broth adds more flavor to the soup than using water.
- Red lentils: This recipe uses dry red lentils, a type of lentil that cooks quickly.
- Chopped tomatoes: I really enjoy cooking with Pomi chopped tomatoes, but you can also use canned tomatoes too.
- Spices: Fresh ginger and coriander add earthy, pungent flavors to this lentil and chickpea soup.
- Chickpeas: Use canned or cooked chickpeas. You can even cook dried chickpeas in the instant pot to use in this recipe.
- Lemon juice: Added after cooking for a bit of bright flavors to the soup, which makes everything taste better.
- Cilantro and parsley: Stirred in for flavor right at the end plus some extra cilantro to sprinkle on top.
- Cashew cream: I use my recipe for all-purpose cashew cream.
- Harissa: This spicy red pepper adds a bit of spiciness to the soup that really works. You can also use another ground red pepper if desired.
✅ How to Make Chickpea and Lentil Soup
This vegan chickpea soup recipe goes together quickly and easily using an Instant Pot. Here’s an overview of what goes into the process.
Prefer cooking on the stove? The instructions are in the recipe card along with detailed instructions for the full recipe.
- Heat the olive oil using the saute function on the Instant Pot. Add the onion and cook for 5 minutes.
- Next, add the leek, garlic, celery, and salt to the pot and cook until the veggies soften.
- Add the sweet potatoes, broth, lentils, tomatoes, water, ginger, coriander and chickpeas to the Instant Pot.
- Cover with the lid and set it to cook on high pressure for 5 minutes, then release the pressure manually.
- After carefully removing the lid, add the lemon juice, cilantro, and parsley. Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Ladle into bowls and top with cashew cream, a sprinkle of chopped cilantro, and a dash of harissa on top for an extra kick of heat!
🍽️ What to Serve with Red Lentil Chickpea Soup
Since this soup is basically a meal in a bowl, you won't need much to turn it into a meal! Here are some of my favorites.
Bread: A simple side of homemade cornbread or store-bought crusty bread goes great with a bowl of hot soup.
Salad: Pair it with a simple salad such as this vegan Caesar salad or a grilled peach salad.
Sandwich: Half a sandwich and a cup of soup make a filling lunch. Try this one with a chickpea tuna salad or a vegan BLT.
❄️ How to Store
Leftovers are great, especially when it comes to soup. Have a cup for lunch with a salad. It's even great as a starter for dinner a couple of days after.
- Refrigerator: Store any leftover soup in the fridge for up to five days.
- Freezer: Leftover soup holds up well for freezing. Just double the amount you planned to make for your meal. Let the soup cool to room temperature for about 30 minutes. Then place the leftover soup in a freezer-safe container. It will store well for up to 3 months. Thaw frozen soup out in the refrigerator overnight before reheating.
- Reheat: Return the soup to a pot and add a little water or broth since it tends to thicken after being refrigerated.
🔪 Helpful Kitchen Tools & Gadgets
This hearty vegan red lentil soup recipe is incredibly quick and easy to make, especially when using an Instant Pot.
To save money and reduce waste, cook dry garbanzo beans in the Instant Pot instead of using canned ones. This should be done in advance of making the soup.
You’re also going to need some basic kitchen tools, including a knife and cutting board for chopping the vegetables, a wooden spoon for stirring, and some measuring cups and spoons.
💸 Money Saving Substitutions
- Swap the canned chickpeas. You need cooked chickpeas when making red lentil and chickpea soup. I find buying chickpeas from the bulk bins is a great way to save money but is also a more sustainable method of buying ingredients since it avoids cans or plastics.
- Make homemade cashew cream rather than purchasing a store-bought version.
♻️️ Zero-Waste Tips
Save the leek greens! Since you only need the white part but have to buy the whole thing, they’re often left sitting around unused.
Give them a rinse and store in the freezer until you’re ready to make some homemade vegetable broth. They work great to add flavor to broths.
❓FAQ
Yes and no. If you prefer using dry chickpeas, they will need to be cooked ahead of time. It's impossible to cook red lentils and dry chickpeas together as the red lentils require significantly less cooking time.
No, it's better to use instant release. It takes about 20 minutes for natural release to finish, and during that time, the soup will keep cooking and turn out overcooked.
➕ More Easy Soup Recipes
If you made this recipe, please leave a star 🌟 rating on the recipe card right below! You can also drop a review in the comment section. Your feedback is appreciated! And don’t forget to tag @themindfulfork so we can see your creations.
📖 Recipe
Red Lentil and Chickpea Soup with Sweet Potatoes
Ingredients
- ½ large onion diced
- 1 leek chopped (mostly white part)
- 2 garlic cloves chopped
- 2 celery stalks finely diced
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 large sweet potatoes peeled and cubed
- 32 ounces vegetable broth
- 1 cup red lentils rinsed
- 26 ounces chopped tomatoes I like Pomi tomatoes.
- 1 cup water
- 1 teaspoon fresh ginger grated
- 1 teaspoon coriander
- 1 cup cooked chickpeas drained
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons fresh cilantro chopped
- 1 tablespoon fresh parsley
Topping
- 1 cup cashew cream
- ½ teaspoon harissa
Instructions
Instant Pot Instructions
- Set the Instant Pot to the Sauté function. Heat the olive oil and add the onion. Sauté for 5 minutes and then add the leek, garlic, celery and salt. Cook for an additional 5-7 minutes until softened.
- Add the sweet potatoes, broth, lentils, tomatoes, water, ginger, coriander and chickpeas. Set the Instant Pot to high pressure for 5 minutes, then release the pressure manually.
- Add the lemon juice, 1 tablespoon cilantro and 1 tablespoon parsley. Stir and season with desired salt and pepper.
- Ladle into bowls and top with 1 tablespoon of cashew cream and a sprinkle of chopped cilantro. Add a dash of harissa on top for an extra kick of heat!
Stove Top Instructions
- Heat the olive oil over medium heat and add the onion. Sauté for 5 minutes and then add the leek, garlic, celery and salt. Cook for an additional 5-7 minutes until softened.
- Add the sweet potatoes, broth, lentils, tomatoes, water, ginger, coriander and chickpeas. Cover with a lid and cook for 20-25 minutes on low heat.
- Add the lemon juice, 1 tablespoon cilantro and 1 tablespoon parsley. Stir and season with desired salt and pepper.
- Ladle into bowls and top with 1 tablespoon of cashew cream and a sprinkle of chopped cilantro. Add a dash of harissa on top for an extra kick of heat!
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