Italian Style Lentil Soup is the perfect protein packed soup to start the year off right. This lentil soup features green lentils, vegetables, kale, and a mix of rosemary, thyme and oregano to create a savory, flavorful soup. Your family will love this vegan soup during those cold winter days.
January always means I have soups on rotation. I love creating filling soups to feed my family. This Italian Style Lentil Soup boasts a rainbow of vegetables including carrots, celery, diced tomatoes, red bell peppers, kale and zucchini.
The vegetables are then paired with the lentils, vegetable broth, spices and bay leaves and is simmered to create the perfect warming bowl of soup.
Finish the soup off with a squeeze of lemon juice, fresh parsley, crushed red pepper and freshly grated Parmesan cheese.
Make sure to serve this soup with crusty bread to soak up all of those delicious juices. If you are meal-prepping for the week this soup works great and will make nice leftovers for the week. You also can freeze this soup and have it on hand for a busy night.
When you need a filling meal that is easy to make this Italian Style Lentil Soup is the recipe for you!
Many of you have made some of my lentil soups like this Moroccan Carrot Red Lentil Soup, Lebanese Lentil Soup and this Lemon Lentil Soup.
Recipe Ingredients
You will love this easy recipe and the simple ingredients it uses for the marinade ingredients. It is one of my favorite recipes!
- Lentils: This soup uses green lentils. If you don’t have green lentils on hand you can also use red lentils.
- Vegetables: The mixture of vegetables are carrots, celery, bell peppers and zucchini. These veggies work so well together in this soup. Feel free to modify with whatever you have on hand.
- Spices: You can add a lot of flavor with spices. This mixture includes oregano, thyme and rosemary.
- Kale: I like to add greens to this soup. You can add kale but you also can add spinach.
How do you Make this Lentil Soup
Heat the olive oil large pot over medium heat.
Sauté the garlic until soft, about 2 minutes then add carrot, celery, bell pepper and zucchini, oregano, thyme and rosemary and sauté for 5 minutes.
Add the lentils, diced tomatoes, tomato paste and vegetable broth. Simmer on low heat for 20 minutes, or until lentils are tender.
Add the kale and stir until the kale is wilted.
Serve warm with lemon wedges, crushed red pepper, freshly parsley and Parmesan cheese.
Ways to Modify this Lentil Soup
- Vegetables: You can add additional vegetables to this soup too. Some options are bell peppers, cauliflower, jalapeños for spice, potatoes or sweet potatoes.
- Beans: Try adding beans to accompany the lentils in this soup. Two options I love to use are chickpeas or white beans.
- Grain: Sometimes I like to add a grain to my soups. You can try brown rice, white rice or quinoa.
- Meat: If you want to add meat to your soup try adding sausage, diced chicken, ground pork or even some crispy bacon.
- Lentils: You can use any lentil you like. I often will use red lentils because they become soft easily when making a soup. You could also use brown or yellow lentils.
- Blend: You can leave this soup chunky or you can blend it. With this soup I blend it with a hand held immersion blender. I blend all of the soup but some people prefer to just blend half of the soup.
Storage Tips
Store this soup in an airtight container for up to 4 days. To reheat you can heat on the stove.
More Lentil Soup Recipes
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Italian Style Lentil Soup
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 4 cloves garlic , minced
- 1 large carrot, peeled and diced
- 2 celery , diced
- 1/2 red bell pepper, seeds removed, diced
- 1 small zucchini, cut into halves
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon thyme
- 1/2 teaspoon rosemary
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 cups brown lentils, rinsed until water runs clear
- 1 can can diced tomatoes
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste
- 4 cups vegetable broth
- 2 cups kale, chopped {or greens of your choice}
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil large pot over medium heat. Sauté the garlic until soft, about 2 minutes then add carrot, celery, bell pepper and zucchini, oregano, thyme, and rosemary and sauté for 5 minutes.
- Add the lentils, diced tomatoes, tomato paste and vegetable broth. Simmer on low heat for 20 minutes, or until lentils are tender.
- Add the kale and stir until the kale is wilted.
- Serve warm with lemon wedges, crushed red pepper, freshly parsley and Parmesan cheese.
Notes
- You can eat the soup as is with the chunks of carrots, lentils and tomatoes or you can use a handheld immersion blender or regular blender to create a creamy soup. Sometimes I blend half and keep half chunky.
- Store this soup in the refrigerator in an air tight container for up to 5 days. You also can freeze this soup for up to 3 months.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Today’s post is sponsored by Heinen’s. As always, opinions are 100% my own.
Amazing soup, just what I needed for a rainy day!
Your Italian Style Lentil soup sounds wonderful, even though I’m not a big fan of lentils. I’ve made lentil soup before for lunch (hubs says no to lentils) and it was good. I believe your soup has more veggies in it, which I like. I’m making this over the weekend for lunch and am excited to try it.
I hope you enjoy it! You also can puree half or all of it if you prefer a more creamy texture.
I made this recipe over the weekend and it is the best lentil soup recipe I have (I’ve tried several)! I love all the veggies in it and it is hearty enough for lunch to keep me going the rest of the day.
Since my 1 lb bag of lentils produced about 2 and 1/3 cups of lentils I used them all as I don’t like little leftover bags/boxes of ingredients in my pantry. So I added another can of chopped tomatoes and more broth; I like my soups a little brothy. The result is fabulous.
Thank you for this wonderful recipe!
AnneK
I am so glad that you enjoy it! This one is a favorite of mine too!
Hi Julia, this Italian Style Lentil Soup sounds so comforting and delicious! I love how you packed in so many colorful veggies and herbs for added flavor. I also appreciate the suggestions for modifications to make it your own. I can’t wait to try it out and enjoy a warm bowl on a chilly day. Thank you for sharing
I hope you enjoy it!
Julia, I love this soup so much! Due to our work schedules, we only cook meals once a week and this one is perfect for a week! I love all the vegetables and that little bit of lemon juice is such a nice touch. Thank you!
It is so easy to throw together which is nice! Glad you like it. I always like using it throughout the week for leftovers too because it holds up well. Enjoy!
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