25 Lentil Soups That Are Bowl-Licking Good

Pantry staples like dried lentils and canned beans make up the bulk of this soup and boost the fiber to cover more than half your daily goal. 

Sophisticated, hearty, and healthy, this light soup gets an added touch of richness from a drizzle of olive oil and sprinkle of Parmesan cheese on top. Crushed red pepper offers a kick of heat while French green lentils are the star of the show in this simple soup.

Unlike other dried beans, lentils cook in minutes. For those busy weeknights, serve Red Lentil Soup. This one-soup meal is ready in less than an hour.

For Bar Tartine in San Francisco, chef Nick Balla created this smoky, earthy soup as a tribute to his Hungarian-America father. Dried chiles, paprika sausage, hot paprika, and black garlic--regular garlic roasted for days until it turns sweet and jet black, with a licorice-like flavor--give the soup a rounded spiciness.

7 Fast and Filling Soups: Perfect for fast days, cook these meals, and then take single portions. Lose weight the 5:2 way. This healthy, quick and easy recipe is featured in the soups section of the new 5:2 Starter's Guide to The 2-Day Diet. The book provides a selection of over 100 tasty recipes to help you meet the daily 500 calorie allotment for the 2 days of intermittent fasting, as required by the 5:2 Diet.

This recipe can be made ahead—just wait to stir in spinach until after you reheat the soup.

If it's buried under bacon, then you know it's got to be good. This is a yummy comfort food perfect for the winter months and appropriate for all members of your family.

This soup has two layers of kumquats--cooked in the soup to become mellow and tender, and finely chopped with parsley for a bright topping.

We spiced up plain-Jane lentil soup with the addition of tender sweet potato chunks, fire-roasted tomatoes, and bacon. This rich, comforting, smoky soup is perfect if you are planning a tailgate event or weekend party because it can be prepared up to three days in advance and stored in the refrigerator. It tastes even better when the flavors have had a chance to marry.

Full of bold flavor and chockful of veggies, Curried Lentil Soup makes a great choice for a meatless lunch or dinner.

Lentils and chard are tasty partners in soup recipes. In fact, lentils pair well with all kinds of greens—from sweet spinach to pungent broccoli rabe, turnip greens, and mustard greens. Adding the chard toward the end of cooking keeps the color bright.

This one-hour soup is surprisingly simple to make, considering how much satisfying flavor it delivers. Lentils, a nutritional powerhouse full of fiber; make a hearty winter soup when combined with a little bit of sausage and a lot of vegetables.

After a hectic day at work, hearty bowlfuls of Vegetable-Lentil Soup await you in the slow cooker.

This hearty lentil soup features delicious cold-weather vegetables such as kale and sweet potatoes. Fresh thyme and basil and canned tomatoes give this soup even more flavor.

Thanks to the hearty ingredients this soup offers, appetites are sure to be satisfied."This recipe reminds me of a very good friend of mine…he used to make a lentil & sausage soup that I adored." —Michelle

The flavor of this dish improves on the second day, so it's ideal to make in advance. Add the chard just before serving to preserve its color. Stir in a little water when you reheat the soup if it's too thick.

This soup recipe is sure to heal what ails you. Consider it Chicken Soup 2.0.

The hearty crunch of pumpkin seed adds wonderful contrast to this rich, creamy soup.

SoupCycle in Portland, Oregon, offers soups with wacky names ranging from Flemish Farm (a vegan take on French onion soup) to Who Framed Ginger Rabbit (carrot soup with ginger). Owners Jed Lazar and Shauna Lambert call this lentil soup Pot of For Goodness Sake! because the ingredients are so healthy.

Thanks to your slow cooker, this dinner of Lemony Lentil Soup is ready by the time everyone gets home in the evening. Top this slow-cooker soup with a dollop of yogurt for added zing.

One of the best things about this supper--besides its great flavor--is that it can be ready in less than an hour, start to finish.

Lentils are a great source of Resistant Starch and fiber. Double or triple this recipe, and freeze leftovers in individual containers.

Spice up a hearty lentil soup with cumin, turmeric, chili powder and ground red pepper, and stir in canned diced tomato for both color and additional flavor.

Look for packaged precooked lentils without salt or fat added. We like Target's Archer Farms brand beluga lentils.

Throw smoked turkey, dried lentils, and a handful of other ingredients into the slow cooker in the morning, and you'll come home to a hearty and comforting meal. If you prefer to use dried oregano instead of the fresh, reduce the amount to 1/2 teaspoon. Dried herbs are very potent; a little goes a long way.