Weeknight Slow Cooker Lentil Soup
This weeknight slow cooker lentil soup makes the perfect lazy weeknight dinner. This is a hearty vegetarian soup loaded with two types of lentils, sweet potatoes, and veggies!
Crockpot Lentil Soup
There’s nothing better than enjoying cozy soups when the weather starts to get cold out! This Slow Cooker (or crockpot) Lentil Soup Recipe is a great healthy and hearty recipe that can be eaten as a main dish, an appetizer or for lunch. This recipe is naturally vegetarian and vegan friendly, and gluten-free.
I use this slow cooker to make this recipe, but it can also be made in a regular pot or an instant pot.
Can you put raw lentils in a slow cooker?
The quick answer is yes!
Unlike most legumes, lentils do not need to be soaked or cooked before you put them in the slow cooker. I would recommend giving your lentils a quick rinse before adding them to the slow cooker since there can sometimes be some dirt on them depending on the type of lentils. Red lentils can also have a slightly bitter flavour if they aren’t rinsed before using them.
But this is the best part of this dish – it is so easy! The lentils do not need to prepare them beforehand!
What makes lentil soup healthy?
This soup is one of those hearty soups that can be an appetizer if you want a small portion, or if you’re like me and want a big bowl, this soup is a full-on MEAL. It is also full of nutrients, so you will be getting a meal that feels like it should be not healthy, but it is!
We’ve got:
- Red lentils: light in flavour, soft and add great texture to the soup.
- Green lentils: a bit bolder in flavour and have more of a bite to them.
- Sweet potatoes: sweet and satiating and help thicken the soup.
- Carrots: great for adding flavour.
- Kale: Adds nutrients and a great texture.
All the makings of a perfectly acceptable hearty, filling and protein-rich vegetarian soup! Lentils are full of fibre, protein and packed full of B vitamins. They also have a great amount of iron, which is something all my vegetarians and vegans think about since they do not eat iron-rich red meats.
This soup will require 10 minutes of prep, and then your crockpot will do the rest of the work for you. Just throw everything into the crockpot in the morning, turn it on for the day, and next thing you know you’ll be coming home to a delicious already made dinner! (Thank you crockpot, thank
If you’re looking for some more slow cooker recipes make sure to make this crockpot Moroccan chickpea stew and this slow cooker quinoa chili next!
Recipe variations and substitutions:
- You can use all red lentils, or all green lentils in this recipe if that’s what you have on hand.
- You can also substitute both of these lentils for any type of lentil you love.
- Add in any of your favourite veggies like cauliflower, broccoli, spinach, or white potatoes.
- Mix up the herbs in this recipe with your favourite herbs.
- Add in some rice for an even more hearty filling soup.
Tips for making this recipe perfectly
- This weeknight slow cooker lentil soup is already quite hearty and loaded with some veggies, but you can always add some more of your favourites to the mix! Regular potatoes, cauliflower or turnips would work particularly well!
- One thing I always like to do when making recipes in my slow cooker is to brown my onions and garlic in a pan. You can just throw these directly into the slow cooker completely raw, but they won’t get that same delicious caramelized flavour. So this step is always working the extra couple minutes for me!
- Depending on how big your vegetables are, you may need to adjust the amount of broth you use slightly to make the soup a little thinner. You can always add a little extra broth at the end to make the soup your desired consistency.
If you tried this Weeknight Slow Cooker Lentil Soup or any other recipe on the blog let me know how you liked it by leaving a comment/rating below! Be sure to follow along on Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook for even more deliciousness!
Weeknight Slow Cooker Lentil Soup
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 4 hours
- Total Time: 4 hours 10 minutes
- Yield: 8 servings 1x
- Category: Main
- Method: Slow Cook
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
This Weeknight Slow Cooker Lentil Soup is easy to make, hearty, filling and packed with veggies!
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp avocado oil (or vegetable oil)
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 5 garlic cloves, chopped
- 1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut into cubes
- 2 medium carrots, chopped
- 1 celery stalk, chopped
- 1 cup dried green lentils, rinsed
- 1 cup dried red lentils, rinsed
- 8 cups of vegetable broth
- 1/2 tsp-1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 2 bay leaves
- 5 tsp herbs de Provence or mixed dried herbs
- 1 cup kale leaves, shredded
Instructions
- Heat the avocado oil in a pan on medium-high heat then add the onion and let cook for 2 minutes. Add the garlic and let cook another 2 minutes, then pour the onions & garlic into the slow cooker.
- Add all the rest of the ingredients, except for the kale to the slow cooker. There should be enough liquid to completely cover all the vegetables. (If there’s not, add some more broth)
- Cook on low for 8 hours, or high for 4 hours.
- 15 minutes before serving, add in the kale & remove the bay leaves.
- Taste and adjust any seasoning if necessary.
- Serve with freshly chopped parsley if desired.
Notes
If you don’t have a slow cooker I recommend this one.
If your soup becomes very thick while cooking, just add in some more broth at the end.
I just a reduced-sodium vegetable broth so I can control how salty the soup turns out.
This weeknight slow cooker lentil soup is already quite hearty and loaded with some veggies, but you can always add some more of your favourites to the mix! Regular potatoes, cauliflower or turnips would work particularly well!
One thing I always like to do when making recipes in my slow cooker is to brown my onions and garlic in a pan. You can just throw these directly into the slow cooker completely raw, but they won’t get that same delicious caramelized flavour. So this step is always working the extra couple minutes for me!
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/8th recipe
- Calories: 165
- Sugar: 3g
- Fat: 2g
- Carbohydrates: 30g
- Fiber: 13g
- Protein: 11g
Keywords: crockpot lentil soup, lentil soup slow cooker, vegetarian lentil soup, vegan lentil soup
I have tried many lentil soups, and this one is my favorite! It’s a great meal for when I am running out of grocery because I usually have everything on hand! I love the taste of the two different lentils together! This will become a staple recipe in my house.
★★★★★
So happy to hear you love the recipe Meg!
This was so easy to make and came out delicious! I am no cook…so to have something that I can put together without burning the house down AND that everyone enjoyed: a quadruple A+++++++! Thank you so much for such a delicious and healthy recipe!
★★★★★
So happy you enjoyed the recipe Jennifer! 🙂
Glad you enjoyed the recipe Jennifer!
So excited to see how this soup turns out! Thoughts on adding rice?
HI Celia, you can definitely add rice-though if you add it dried to the soup you’ll need to add more liquid otherwise the rice will absorb all the soup!
Super Easy and Very Tasty!
★★★★★
Thanks Renne! Glad you enjoyed!
Very flavorful. Thank you. I just made for the first time and we loved it. Question: What do you consider a “small bowl?” I’m trying to watch calories so I’m wondering if that means like 1 cup or..? Thanks!
★★★★★
Hi Hillary, about 1-1/2 cups roughly!
Great recipe! Question though, can you freeze this?
★★★★★
Hi Trevor, thank you for the review. You can definitely freeze this recipe 🙂
Do you think I could sub butternut squash for the sweet potatoes?
Hi Courtney, Yes! That would work just fine!
This was so good! Thanks for sharing it. I skipped the step of precooking the onions and garlic because I’m lazy and it was great! This will go on the dinner rotation!
★★★★★
Thanks so much for the review Kim! Glad you enjoyed the recipe 🙂
So delicious! THANK YOU…
So happy you enjoyed Sarah!
So easy and quite flavorful. Would be wonderful with a nice bread. Thank you for the recipe!
★★★★★
Thanks for the review Anna! So glad you enjoyed this recipe 🙂
I do not have a slow cooker, can I make it in a regular pot?
Yes you can! just cook everything down in the pot until the veggies are tender 🙂
Perfect for this rainy day. Good flavors.
★★★★
Hi Jane, thank you for the review! Glad you enjoyed.
This recipe was amazing and I made it in an Instant Pot. I put it to pressure cook on high for 15 minutes and let it manually release for 10 or so minutes. Could have used more salt but otherwise delicious and quick!
★★★★★
Hi Elli, thank you for the review! SO great to hear this recipe turns out well in an instant pot, thanks for sharing your tips!
Seriously the perfect soup for winter!
★★★★★
Thank you for the review! Glad you enjoyed!
Just made this for dinner tonight! So satisfying and full of warm yummy flavour!
★★★★★
Thank you so much Lucy! 🙂
I’m at home with the flu, but managed to chuck all these ingredients in and after a restful day I had this dinner to look forward to! It was so delicious and exactly what I needed 🙂 x
★★★★★
Hi Becky, glad the soup was what you needed for your flu! I hope you feel better soon 🙂
Easy and delicious!
★★★★★
Hi Julia, thank you for the review! Happy to hear you enjoyed the recipe!
Will be making this again, it was absolutely delicious!
★★★★★
Thank you for the review, Angela! Glad to hear you liked the recipe 🙂
Ok trying to make my fist crock pot super soup,so far so good smells wonderful…..wish me luck,ps. Thank you for the recipe.
Hope you like the recipe Rose!
This lentil stew looks so comforting and delicious! Perfect for cold and dark days! ?❤️
★★★★★
Thank you so much Bianca! And yes exactly! Nothing better on a dark and cold day 🙂
This soup looks so comforting! Such a perfect fall recipe. 🙂
★★★★★
Thank you so much Ela! Nothing I love more than a comforting soup on a cold day!
It’s so awesome seeing the finished result of these photos you did the tutorial on! Ugly soups for the win! 😉
Thanks so much Sarah! And yesssss hehe 😉