Hooray for easy soups! This is the type of recipe that saves the day. Very few ingredients, fast, and really delicious. Not to mention the fact that it’s super healthy and ripe for fun, customized toppings. Tuck this recipe for Curried Red Lentil and Pumpkin Soup into your bookmarks, because I promise it will become one of your regulars.
“So, what’s this about custom toppings,” you say? Well… You can go creamy with a dollop of plain yogurt or sour cream, spicy with a few red pepper flakes or sriracha, crunchy with pepitas (pumpkin seeds) or croutons, or fresh with a few sprigs of fresh cilantro. Or hey, DO THEM ALL. I won’t judge.
Don’t have canned pumpkin? About a cup and a half of mashed sweet potato or butternut squash would probably be pretty tasty in this soup, too. Just make sure they’re really soft and well mashed so there is no stringiness in the final soup. Oh, and speaking of that, you can take an immersion blender to the finished soup for a super silky finish, if you’d like. Me? I prefer to have a little texture.
Curried Red Lentil and Pumpkin Soup
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- 1 Tbsp olive oil $0.12
- 1 yellow onion $0.31
- 2 cloves garlic $0.16
- 1 Tbsp grated fresh ginger $0.10
- 15oz can pumpkin purée $2.00
- 1 cup dry red lentils $1.34
- 6 cups vegetable or chicken broth* $0.78
- 1 Tbsp curry powder (or to taste) $0.30
- Dice the onion, mince the garlic, and grate the ginger (use a small hole cheese grater). Sauté the onion, garlic, and ginger in a large pot with the olive oil over medium heat until the onions are soft and transparent.
- Add the pumpkin purée, red lentils, broth, and curry powder. Stir to combine.
- Place a lid on the pot, turn the heat up to medium-high, and allow it to come to a boil. Once it reaches a boil, turn the heat down and simmer on low for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. After 20 minutes the lentils should be soft and the soup slightly thickened.
- Taste to adjust the curry powder or salt as needed, then serve.
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Step by Step Photos
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Dice one yellow onion, mince two cloves of garlic, and grate about 1 inch or 1 Tbsp worth of fresh ginger (I use a small-holed cheese grater). Sauté the onion, garlic, and ginger with 1 Tbsp olive oil in a large pot over medium heat until the onions are soft and transparent. (More info about cooking with ginger here.)
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Add one 15oz. can of pumpkin purée. Make sure you get plain pumpkin purée (aka “solid pack pumpkin”) and not canned pumpkin pie filling.
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Add one cup dry red lentils. I used red lentils for this soup not only because of their color, but because they break down quickly and thicken the soup, sort of like split peas. Green and brown lentils tend to stay whole and take a little longer to cook than red lentils.
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Okay, so far we have sautéed onion, garlic, and ginger, plus pumpkin and red lentils…
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Finally, add 6 cups of vegetable (or chicken) broth and about 1 Tbsp curry powder. Curry powder varies quite a bit from brand to brand, so you’ll have to taste and adjust with this one. I suggest starting with 1 Tbsp and moving up from there. You can use either hot or mild curry powder. If you have mild curry powder, but want the soup spicy, you can simply add a pinch or two of cayenne pepper.
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Stir the soup to make sure everything is mixed and the canned pumpkin is dissolved into the broth. Place a lid on the pot, turn the heat up to medium-high, and let it come to a boil. Once it reaches a boil, turn the heat down to low and let it simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally (lid on).
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After 20 minutes, the lentils should be soft and broken down. Taste the soup and adjust the curry powder or salt to your liking.
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And then go wild with the toppings! Or just serve it with some crusty bread to dip into all that goodness.
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Curried Red Lentil and Pumpkin Soup – It really is that easy.
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