5 Best Vegan Soup Recipes: Cozy Soups for Your Vegan Soul

It’s Vegan Soup for the Soul! All of these vegan soup recipes are easy to make with delicious flavors. The best part is that they’re all vegan, oil-free, and gluten-free so they work for a variety of diets!

I’m often asked for my favorite or top vegan soup recipes.

That’s tough, because I love a lot of soups.

A hearty soup is my go-to meal. Always easy to pair with salad and bread, or brown rice or quinoa, maybe some bread with cashew cheese or topped off with avocado. For me, it’s really easy to make a fantastic meal around soup.

Here Are My Top Vegan Soup Recipes

These are cozy soups that scream “comfort food”! But before we dive into the top five, I wanted to give a shoutout to Tomato Lentil Soup, Peanut Thai Vegetable Stew, and Sweet Potato Bisque with White Beans.

1. Mellow Lentil Sniffle Soup:

This is one of my most popular soups, so have to start the list of top vegan soup recipes! I hear from readers so often, how they love it, turning to it year after year through the fall and winter months.

When you’re feeling under the weather, or you just want a piping hot bowl of nourishing soup with pleasing seasonings… this is your pick. This recipe also in Plant-Powered Families.

2. French Lentil Soup with Smoked Paprika

I love this soup from LTEV for many reasons. Apparently, you guys do too, because every time I share it on facebook or twitter, it gets a flood of comments and shares.

It has a deep, robust flavor with added umami quality. It tastes like it’s been simmering for hours, when it takes just over a half-hour to cook.

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5 from 45 votes

French Lentil Soup with Smoked Paprika

French lentils, sometimes called Le Puy lentils, hold their shape nicely, a little more than brown (green) lentils do. They are lovely in this soup, which has deep, smoky, and earthy flavors yet is very quick to prepare and cook.

Course Soup

Ingredients

• splash water
• 1½ cups diced onion
• 1 cup carrot that has been cut in disks
• 4 to 5 medium to large cloves garlic minced
• 1½ teaspoons dried thyme
• 1¼ to 1½ teaspoons smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• ¾ teaspoon sea salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 2 cups French lentils rinsed (see note)
• 2 cups vegan vegetable stock check label for allergens
• 5 cups water
• ¼ cup tomato paste
• 1 bay leaf
• 1½ tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice optional, but nice
• 2 tablespoons chopped chives for garnish (optional)

Instructions

• In a large pot over medium heat, combine the water, onion, carrot, garlic, thyme, paprika, mustard, salt, and pepper.
• Stir, cover, and cook for 6 to 8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onion starts to soften.
• Add the lentils, stir, then add the vegetable stock, water, tomato paste, and bay leaf.
• Increase the heat to bring to a boil, then lower the heat to medium-low, cover, and cook for 30 to 35 minutes, or longer if needed, until the lentils are fully cooked through.
• Remove the bay leaf.
• Add the lemon juice, if using, stir, and serve, sprinkling with chopped chives, if desired. Serves 4-5.

Notes

• Kid-Friendly Tip: Your little ones might like the smoky flavor, but if you aren’t sure, ease off on the smoked paprika, starting with just 3/4 to 1 teaspoon. You can also add precooked pasta shapes to this soup, for packing in lunches.
• Savvy Subs and Adds: If you can’t find French lentils, brown (green) lentils substitute nicely. Red lentils do not substitute well as they do not have a similar texture.
• Serving Suggestions: Serve with crostini or baguette slices with Truffled Cashew Cheese (also in Let Them Eat Vegan), or a dollop of Spinach Herb Pistachio Pesto (also in LTEV).

3. Smashing Squash Soup

If you aren’t yet a fan of winter squash, or haven’t found a winter squash soup recipe to love – try this one!

First, the squash is oven-roasted, giving it more concentrated flavor, and then all the ingredients are blitzed up in the blender for ease.

The texture is silky, flavors smooth and earthy. All the recipe details (plus a squash prep video) in this post.

4. Lemony Chickpea Lentil Soup

This soup originates from my 3rd cookbook, eat, drink & be vegan. I’ve loved it for years, and our kids do too!

Our middle girl says it’s her all-time favorite soup. I think it’s that punch of lemon. She always likes to add lemon to soups, this one already has it! The base is a blend of red lentils with chickpeas, with a herb-y undertone. It’s balanced, delicious – satisfying. Give it a go!

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5 from 45 votes

Lemony Chickpea Lentil Soup

This soup has warm, earthy tones of cumin and thyme. It’s easy to make, and yields extra portions for leftovers or freezing. Pair this smooth-yet-rustic soup with a whole-grain bread or brown rice and a light salad.

Course Soup

Servings 6

Ingredients

• splash or water
• 2 cups onion diced
• 1 1/2 cups celercy diced
• 3 large cloves garlic minced
• 3/4 tsp sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 1 – 1 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1 cup dried red lentils
• 3 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas
• 2 cups zucchini or tomatoes chopped (I used tomatoes)
• 3 cups vegetable stock
• 2 cups water
• 2 dried bay leaves
• 1/4 – 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice

Instructions

• In a large soup pot on medium heat, add water, onion, celery, garlic, salt, pepper, mustard seed, cumin seeds, paprika, oregano, and thyme and stir to combine.
• Cover and cook for 6–7 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Rinse lentils. Add lentils and 21⁄2 cups chickpeas (reserve remaining 1 cup), zucchini or tomatoes, stock, water, and bay leaves and stir to combine.
• Increase heat to bring mixture to a boil.
• Once boiling, reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 20–25 minutes until lentils are completely softened.
• Remove bay leaves.
• Stir in 1⁄4 cup lemon juice, then using a hand blender, purée the soup, keeping some texture.
• Stir in remaining 1 cup chickpeas.
• Season with additional sea salt, pepper, and lemon juice if desired, and serve.

Clueing up the top vegan soup recipes with a new one for you! At least new to the blog. If you have Let Them Eat Vegan, you may have already tried it – and probably love it!

When readers connect with me about LTEV recipes, they often say “I didn’t notice this recipe right away, but wow it’s amazing”. I’ve mentioned before that I’d love to do that book over, because it lacks the photos and production quality that it deserves. I digress.

Back to the soup. This is your ultimate bowl of goodness. Beans ‘n greens, baby! You’ll make Dr. Greger proud every time you eat it. 😉 Beyond the beans ‘n greens, the broth is simply delicious!

image credit: Jessica Eagle

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5 from 2 votes

Beans ‘n Greens Soup

Forget chicken noodle soup! This is the kind of soup that will keep you glowing inside and out, with nutrient-rich kale and plenty o’ beans. Yep, this is proper good comforting soup that laughs in the face of all those ‘healing chicken soup’ theories!

Course Soup

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp water or more as needed, to saute
• 1 ½ cups onion diced
• 2 ½ – 3 cups red or yukon gold potatoes cut in chunks about 1 ½ – 2” thick
• 1/2 cup celery diced
• 1 cup carrots diced (or 1 cup red pepper, chopped in small chunks, added later, see note)
• 4-5 medium-large cloves garlic minced
• 1 ½ tsp dried rosemary leaves
• 1 tsp dried thyme leaves
• 1 tsp dried marjoram leaves or dried oregano leaves
• 1 ½ tsp ground mustard
• 1 tsp sea salt
• ¼ tsp freshly grated nutmeg see note
• freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 1 cup brown green lentils, rinsed (see note)
• 2 cups vegetable stock
• 5 cups water
• 1 tbsp red miso
• 1 1/2 tbsp blackstrap molasses
• 2 dried bay leaves
• 1 14/15 oz can cannellini beans (or other white beans), drained and rinsed
• 6-7 cups loosely packed fresh kale leaves, roughly chopped or torn (roughly 1 smallish bunch of kale, can use curly kale or dinosaur kale) (keep fairly large pieces, they will wilt significantly)

Instructions

• In a large pot over medium heat, add the water, onion, potatoes, celery, carrots (if using), garlic, dried herbs and spices, salt, and pepper.
• Stir through, cover, and cook for 6-8 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• If veggies are sticking, add another splash of water.
• Add the lentils, stir through, cover and cook for another few minutes, and then add the vegetable stock, water, miso, molasses, bay leaves and stir through.
• Increase heat to bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover and let cook for 30- 40 minutes, until the lentils are very soft and fully cooked. (If using the chopped red pepper, add after first 25-30 minutes of cooking lentils, see note).
• Turn off heat, add the cannellini beans (see note), kale, stir through, cover, and let wilt in soup for about 5 minutes.
• Remove bay leaves to serve, and taste to add additional salt and pepper if desired. 

Notes

• Spice Note: Nutmeg seems an odd addition to this soup, I know. However, it actually works nicely with bitter greens, and adds a subtle flavor to the soup that is very pleasant. Give it a try!
• Red Pepper Note: I add the red pepper a little later, just to preserve a little more of the freshness of the pepper. You can add it earlier if you prefer, or use carrot in place of red pepper – though I prefer the red pepper variation.
• Beans Note: Adding the cannellini beans later in the cooking helps preserve the white color of the beans. You can certainly add them earlier, with the lentils, if you want, but they will absorb the broth and turn a brownish color. Just for visual appeal, I prefer to add them later.
• Savvy Subs and Adds: Mung beans would make a good substitution for the green lentils if you have those handy. You can substitute other greens in place of the kale if you like, such as collard greens, swiss chard, or spinach. If using swiss chard or spinach, you won’t need to cook them through, just stir through for a minute and serve.

Hope you enjoy these selections. What are your favorite vegan soups? x Dreena