This Instant Pot Golden Turmeric Lentil Soup is a delicious, vibrant vegan soup made with coconut milk and spices. Dump it all in one pot and dinner's ready in 20 minutes!
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INGREDIENTS IN GOLDEN LENTIL SOUP
OMG you guys I have found my most favourite soup recipe EVERRRRRRRR!
This is another dump everything and push start kind of meal coming right at ya, and it's playing right into the turmeric trend that I'm really obsessed with these days.
Turmeric is supposed to have all kinds of health benefits from being an anti-inflammatory to helping to increase anti-oxidants in the body.
Here's what you need to make it:
- olive oil or butter
- onions, chopped
- carrots, chopped
- celery, chopped
- garlic minced
- ginger, minced
- coconut milk
- canned diced tomatoes
- vegetable broth
- turmeric
- cumin
- red lentils
- spinach
- lemon juice
HOW TO MAKE INSTANT POT LENTIL SOUP
This Instant Pot Golden Turmeric Lentil Soup is not only a delicious soup recipe, but it's also made in the pressure cooker so you don't have to spend an hour in the kitchen slaving over a hot pot of soup waiting for the flavours to mingle.
Another reason I love the Instant Pot. Instant soup! (almost…lol)
Here's how to make it:
- Add all the ingredients to Instant Pot except for spinach and lemon juice.
- Cook on high pressure for 3 minutes.
- Do a quick release of the pressure then open lid when it's safe to do so.
- Stir in spinach and lemon juice, then serve and enjoy!
YES, IT'S THAT EASY!
INGREDIENT SUBSTITUTIONS
Now let's talk about some substitutions you can make here.
I used red lentils and found they kind of broke down into the broth by the time they were finished cooking. I like the texture because it makes the broth a bit thicker with more substance, but the lentils are mush by this point so if you're looking for more of a lentil texture I would suggest adding French or green lentils because they will hold their shape better.
I also recommend using diced tomatoes and crushing them a bit finer with your hands or an immersion blender before adding so you still get the juices without there being too many chunks of tomato. I also tried this recipe with crushed tomatoes and really didn't like the taste or texture with the coconut milk so be sure to use diced tomatoes.
And of course, use full-fat coconut milk for a creamy soup, but know that you can substitute in light coconut milk if you're looking to cut calories. Sub in any other greens for the spinach in the end and I think next time I'm also going to stir in some red peppers when I throw in the spinach for a bit of extra colour.
MAKING THIS SOUP ON THE STOVETOP
You can totally also make this soup on the stove top. It's as simple as sauteeing your onions, carrots and celery in the olive oil for 5 minutes, then adding the rest of the ingredients, except for spinach and lemon juice. Bring to a boil, then cover with a lid and simmer for 30 minutes. Stir in spinach and lemon juice at the end, then serve and enjoy!
MAKING IT IN THE SLOW COOKER
Making golden lentil soup is also super easy in the slow cooker. Add everything except for spinach and lemon juice, just as you would with the pressure cooker, then cook on high for 3 hours, or on low for 6 hours. Stir in the spinach and lemon juice at the end and you're good to go!
STORING AND REHEATING
You can store this soup in individual portions in the fridge up to 5 days. To reheat, simply microwave for 2-3 minutes. I prefer to use glass meal prep bowls to store the leftovers in because you can immediately reheat individual servings right from the fridge instead of having to portion out the food after the fact, however you can also store the leftovers in a large bowl with a lid.
FREEZING THIS SOUP
You can freeze this soup up to 3 months as well! Simply store in individual portions and let defrost in the fridge overnight, or you can reheat in the microwave from frozen for 6-8 minutes, stirring halfway through the reheat time.
More Instant Pot soup recipes
Meal prep tools for this recipe
- The Instant Pot DUO Plus 60
is the version I use in this recipe - You need to buy red lentils for this recipe; other varieties won't work
- Grab some glass meal prep bowls if you plan on turning this recipe into leftovers
- Stock up on coconut milk here
- Freeze this recipe in glass microwave-safe bowls up to 3 months
is the version I use in this recipe
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Instant Pot Turmeric Lentil Soup
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 onions, chopped
- 2 carrots, chopped
- 3 stalks celery, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tbsp ginger, minced
- 2 (400mL) cans full fat coconut milk
- 1 (796mL) can diced tomatoes (in their juices)
- 1 cup vegetable broth
- 1 tbsp turmeric
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1 1/2 cups red lentils
- 4 cups spinach, chopped
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
Instructions
- Add all ingredients to Instant Pot in the order in which they are listed, except for spinach and lemon juice, making sure you add lentils last. Cook on high pressure for 3 minutes. Instant Pot will take about 15 minutes to come to pressure. Do a quick release of steam then open lid when it's safe to do so.
- Stir in spinach and lemon juice, then serve and enjoy!
Video
Nutrition
Kay says
I’m really excited to try this recipe, but I don’t have an Instant Pot. Would I be alright to use a slow cooker, or should I cook on the stove top?
Taylor Stinson says
I would cook it on the stovetop! You should be able to dump everything in, bring to a boil and simmer for 30-40 min 🙂
Lawrence says
Hello,
I was wondering…would it be a big deal if I used a whole bag of lentils? meaning 160z instead of just a cup. Do you think it would be a mistake?
Thanks
Taylor Stinson says
Hey Lawrence – I always recommend using exactly what’s written in the recipe for best results. If you added more lentils than 1 cup, it may result in a burn message or a super thick stew. If you don’t mind the thickness and it doesn’t burn on the bottom then you should be ok!
Emily says
I have someone in my family who is allergic to spinach. Do you have a recommendation for a substitute for spinach?
Taylor Stinson says
You can use kale or just leave the spinach out 🙂
Lucy says
are you using dry lentals or canned?
Taylor Stinson says
Dry lentils!
Lisa says
Thank you. I made it last night, it was amazing! absolutely delish. Very rich can only have one bowl but sooo good!
Stacy says
I’m so happy I found this recipe!! I used kale instead of spinach and added butternut squash because I had some that needed to be used up. This soup is AMAZING!! Thank you!
Julie says
I followed the recipe exact, but left out one onion. Mine were reeeeally large. Unfortunately i kept receiving a burn message. I improvised by putting it on the saute mode and cooking it like on the stove top. I had to add more vegetable broth because it kept becoming overly thick. Not sure what happened with it, but it received rave reviews either way!
Rose says
Hi there! I made this last night however kept getting a burn notice on the instant pot. I followed the recipe however used only 1 onion. 3 burn notices in a row. Never reached full pressure. However it did seem to cook and turned out tasty in the end. However took much longer then 3 minutes. Any suggestions on how to prevent this from occurring? Thank you!
Taylor Stinson says
Hi Rose – that’s very strange as there’s loads of liquid in this soup. I’m wondering if you stirred the pot before cooking? Sometimes that can result in a burn notice. Or if you didn’t put the oil on the bottom.
Lee McNair says
I noticed olive oil is not mentioned except in ingredient list and the instant pat recipe preparation at the beginning of this page does not include it at all. It would be easy to miss adding the tbsp of olive oil.
Taylor Stinson says
Hi Lee – olive oil is listed in the recipe. It’s not listed in the blog post text because it’s considered a pantry staple and not necessarily something you would need to run out and buy as you would with fresh ingredients.
Rehana says
Would it be ok to use fresh diced tomatoes instead of the canned ones? Not sure if this would make too much of a difference?
Taylor Stinson says
Hey Rehana – the taste and texture would definitely be different. I wouldn’t recommend it.
Tiffany says
I made this last night and it was so good! My husband is a huge meat eater and he loved it! He did not miss the meat! And, it was so easy to make!