Sopa de lentejas, or Mexican lentil soup, is filling, hearty, and flavorful. Serve a warm bowl of our vegetarian-, vegan-friendly sopa de lentejas to your Sunday football crowd.
Lentils belong to the same family — legumes — as peanuts, beans, and peas, including soybeans, snow peas, and chickpeas. There are many types of lentils, distinguished by color. Brown, black, red, and green are the most common types, and each have subtle differences in flavor. For our sopa de lentejas recipe, we chose brown, but you can alter this to your taste.
Why You'll Love This Sopa De Lentejas Recipe
Nothing better suits the fall season than soups, and this soup is robust and comforting. It is vegan by default but can be made with chicken or beef stock for those that want a heartier taste.
This recipe utilizes the Instant Pot, keeping your time in the kitchen short and cleanup at a minimum.
Thyme and garlic are classic cold-weather flavors that’ll remind you of home no matter where you are.
What You Need To Make Lentil Soup
Your equipment list is short. All you need is your Instant Pot, measuring utensils, a cutting board, and prep knife.
For the soup base, we use vegetable stock, but chicken or beef is acceptable. We build on the soup’s flavors with yellow onion, garlic, salt, and thyme, and bring substance through the brown lentils and carrots.
Finally, adding a heap of baby spinach to the finished soup gives added nutritional value.
How To Make Sopa De Lentejas
First, prep the onions and carrots. Slice the onions thin and cut the carrots into half-circles. Set aside three cloves of garlic. Leave the skin on the garlic cloves but cut a slit into the side.
Set the Instant Pot to sauté mode, or medium heat. Add the olive oil and sautée the skin-on garlic cloves until they are golden and fragrant. The olive oil will absorb garlic flavor. Using a fork or tongs, carefully remove the garlic cloves and squeeze out of skin back into the pot.
Add the onion and carrots and sautée until soft and aromatic, around 10 minutes.
Next, dump in the lentils, salt, thyme, and vegetable stock. Close the Instant Pot lid, set to high pressure, and cook for 10 minutes.
Allow the Instant Pot to undergo a natural pressure release for 15 minutes. Release any remaining tension and open the lid.
Add in the baby spinach and stir. It will wilt in the residual heat.
Serve and enjoy!
Sopa De Lentejas Recipe Notes
To make this earthy soup into even more of an autumnal delight, try adding sweet potato or pumpkin. While not traditional additions to sopa de lentejas, these ingredients bring more body and fall-like warmth to the recipe.
Leftovers should be stored in a sealed container. Refrigerate for up to five days, or freeze for up to five months.
Frequently Asked Questions
Sopa de lentejas can be made in a soup pot or Dutch oven. If you do, soak the lentils for 15 minutes ahead of time to reduce cook time. You should still follow the recipe’s steps, but cook covered on medium-low for approximately 20 minutes or until the lentils reach your desired level of tenderness.
Lentils are already a wonderful source of protein with around 18 grams per cooked cup. To keep the recipe vegan, you can add nutritional yeast, quinoa, sweet potatoes, sweet corn, tofu, tempeh or seitan as an additional protein source. For carnivores, consider a side of pork ribs, or make sopa de lentejas con carne by adding your preferred cut of beef, cooked to your liking before dumped in the soup.
Celery and more carrots are perfect to give sopa de lentejas a more homey, nostalgic feeling. You could also top your soup with some pickled jalepeños for added zing. A dash of clove or cinnamon could be a secret ingredient that warms you up body and soul.
If this soup is too watery for your liking, add a couple tablespoons of tomato paste when you add the lentils and broth.
Sopa de lentejas
Classic sopa de lentejas, made in the Instant pot for maximum convenience. Comfort food at its best, just in time for fall.
- Prep Time: 1 minute
- Cook Time: 10 minutes on high pressure + 15 minutes of natural release
- Total Time: 26 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: Stews and soups / vegetarian-vegan friendly
- Cuisine: Mexican
Ingredients
-
- 1 yellow onion
-
- 2 carrots
-
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
-
- 3 garlic cloves
-
- 1 ½ cups brown lentils (or your preferred type of lentil)
-
- 4 cups veggie stock (or a meat-based stock if you’d like)
-
- 1 teaspoon salt
-
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
-
- 3 cups baby spinach
Instructions
- Start with cutting the onion and the carrots. Slice the onion thinly and cut the carrots into half-circles (one long-ways cut followed by horizontal slices). Set aside three cloves of garlic. Leave the skin on the garlic cloves but cut a slit into the side.
- Set the Instant Pot to sauté mode, or medium heat. Add the olive oil and sauté the skin-on garlic cloves until they are golden and fragrant. The olive oil will absorb garlic flavor. Using a fork or tongs, carefully remove the garlic cloves and squeeze out of skin back into the pot.
- Add the onion and carrots and sauté until soft and aromatic, around 10 minutes.
- Dump in the lentils, salt, thyme, and vegetable stock. Close the Instant Pot lid, set to high pressure, and cook for 10 minutes.
- Allow the Instant Pot to undergo a natural pressure release for 15 minutes. Release any remaining tension and open the lid.
- Add in the baby spinach and stir. It will wilt in the residual heat.
- Serve and enjoy!
Leave a Reply