Hooray for easy soups! This Curried Red Lentil and Pumpkin Soup is the type of recipe that saves the day—very few ingredients, fast, and really delicious. Oh yeah, and did I mention how incredibly inexpensive it is?? Seriously, just pennies per bowl. It’s also freezer-friendly, super healthy, just happens to be vegan-friendly, and you can have fun customizing the toppings. It basically checks all my boxes! Bookmark this recipe for later because I promise it will become part of your regular rotation.
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Have Fun with the Toppings
I just LOVE any meal where I can add toppings and this soup is the perfect blank slate. Not that it’s not awesome on its own, it’s just that the flavors in this lentil and pumpkin soup are versatile and can handle being paired with all sorts of add-ins. So here are some ideas: go creamy with a dollop of plain yogurt or sour cream (as I do in my classic pumpkin soup recipe), spice it up with a few red pepper flakes or sriracha, toss in some crunchy pepitas (pumpkin seeds) or croutons, or sprinkle on a few sprigs of fresh cilantro. Or hey, DO THEM ALL. I won’t judge.
Can I Substitute the Pumpkin?
If you don’t have canned pumpkin, you can use about a cup and a half of mashed sweet potato or butternut squash in its place. 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 from the lentils.
Can I Use Brown or Green Lentils for Pumpkin Soup?
While you can use a different type of lentil, it will definitely change the outcome of the soup. Red or yellow lentils are best for this soup because of their mild flavor and the fact that they break down quickly when cooked, giving the soup a nice thick consistency (like split pea soup). A brown or green lentil will give the soup a much earthier flavor and have a chunkier texture.
What Kind of Curry Powder Do You Use?
I’m not very picky about curry powder and haven’t come across one yet that I don’t like. I do prefer to use mild curry powder for this soup, that way I can adjust the heat by adding my own cayenne pepper if I want. One brand that I’ve enjoyed is Sharwood’s mild curry powder. Or you can try making your own curry powder using this recipe for Easy Homemade Curry Powder from Spiceitupp.com.
Red Lentil and Pumpkin Soup
Servings 6 1.33 cups eachIngredients
- 1 yellow onion ($0.31)
- 2 cloves garlic ($0.16)
- 1 tsp grated fresh ginger ($0.10)
- 1 Tbsp olive oil ($0.16)
- 1 Tbsp curry powder ($0.30)
- 1 15oz. can pumpkin purée ($1.05)
- 1 cup dry red lentils ($0.67)
- 6 cups vegetable broth ($0.78)
- 1/2 tsp salt ($0.02)
Instructions
- Dice the onion, mince the garlic, and grate the ginger. Add the onion, garlic, and ginger to a large pot with the olive oil and sauté over medium heat until the onions are soft (about 5 minutes).
- Add the curry powder and continue to sauté for about a minute more.
- Next, add the pumpkin purée, lentils, and vegetable broth. Stir to combine.
- Place a lid on the pot and bring the soup up to a boil over medium-high heat. Once boiling, turn the heat down to medium-low. Simmer the soup, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes.
- Finally, taste the soup and add salt to taste (about ½ tsp). Serve hot with bread for dipping!
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Equipment
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!Love savory pumpkin recipes? You should also try our Spicy Coconut and Pumpkin Soup, Chipotle Pumpkin Pasta, or Easy Pumpkin Soup.
How to Make Curried Red Lentil and Pumpkin Soup – Step by Step Photos
Dice one yellow onion, mince two cloves of garlic, and grate about 1 teaspoon of fresh ginger (I use a small-holed cheese grater). Add the onion, garlic, ginger, and 1 tablespoon of olive oil to a large pot and sauté over medium heat until the onions are soft and translucent.
Add one tablespoon curry powder to the sautéed vegetables and continue to sauté for one minute more.
Next add 1 cup uncooked red lentils, 1 15oz. can of pumpkin purée (NOT pumpkin pie filling), and 6 cups vegetable broth. Stir to combine the ingredients.
Place a lid on the pot, turn the heat up to medium-high, and bring the soup up to a boil. When it reaches a boil, turn the heat down to medium-low and let the soup simmer for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes the lentils should be broken down and tender, resulting in a thickened soup.
Give the soup a taste and then add salt. Salt is what is really going to make the flavors pot, so don’t skip it! The amount of salt you’ll need will ultimately depend on the salt content of the broth you used, but I added about a ½ teaspoon of salt.
This was absolutely DELICIOUS
I did not have enough Curry Powder for the whole recipe, and had to use Garam Marsala- worked out great.
Will make again
Finally used the last hoarded can of pumpkin to make this today (can only find plain pumpkin at the drive-to store). My curry is perfectly spicy…I love this!
My husband is also lentil-phobic. I attribute this to equating lentils to a particular British poverty a la Neil from the Young Ones…haha. I LOVE lentils.
I have naan in the freezer to serve tomorrow and suspect this soup will get even better! Yum!
This soup is delicious! I used 4 cups of veggie broth and 2 cups of water and it was still plenty flavorful.
Thank you!
I bought red lentils when this was first posted and just made this soup for the first time yesterday – in fact, last night’s dinner was made entirely of budgetbytes recipes. This soup, naan, and greek marinated chicken. All around A+ from my husband, so I will be making all the items again. We had 6 servings of leftover soup and 4-5 leftover pieces of naan. All of it was so good.
My fiance and i made this using regular white lentils and it came out great! He likes to use this soup for his lunch at work!
Where did you buy the lentils that they cost so much?! At any Indian grocery store they are basically a few cents per cup :) They are my workhorse protein!
Unfortunately the only kind I could find them this time around (the red variety, anyway) were organic. :( Brown lentils are everywhere, but red can be a bit more hard to find around here.
Not sure if this has been asked already, but would this work in the slow cooker?
This one probably would, yes. It cooks pretty quickly already, so I’m not sure what the minimum you’d need to do with the slow cooker, but you probably can’t over do it, especially on low. So, if you need to cook it while you’re at work, 8 hrs on low would probably be fine.
Thanks!
I made this for my lentil-phobic omnivore boyfriend and he had four bowls. I used about two tbsp curry powder instead of just the one and a dash of cayenne for more spice.
I tried this today and it was tremendously good!!! The pumpkin added a delicious sweet note and a thick richness to the soup. It was filling and hearty and totally delicious. Thank you so much for your amazing recipes!
Oops forgot to give this the 5 stars it deserves!
I cannot stop making this recipe, it’s so easy (and cheap!) and the flavor is wonderful. It works great reheated for lunch the next day too.
For add-ons I do a dollop of sour cream, a drizzle of sriracha, a shake of red pepper flakes, and some chopped cilantro for garnish (I’d absolutely do pepitas too if I had them).
I never comment on recipes but I use your website all the time and felt like I ought to show my appreciation!
This is absolutely delicious! Thanks!
Yes! I just checked my pantry and I have ALL the ingredients needed! I know what’s on the menu later this week (butternut and veggies are already roasting in the oven for a soup right now).
I just have to say, thank you so much for this site. It’s wonderful, and it’s really helping us stay well fed and nourished on a stricter food budget!
I made this and it was really good! inexpensive and really fast to put together too! My husband added some left over meetballs to make it more filling for him but I liked it as is
My only problem with this soup is that I can’t stop making it!
I have a bag of yellow lentils I need to use up, so I think I’ll try this over the weekend using those. I do love traditional lentil soup, pumpkin soup, and curry…. so this sounds like a winner to me!