This healthy Mexican Lentil Soup comes together quickly with simple pantry ingredients. But don’t let this simplicity fool you because this may be the best lentil soup I’ve ever had, and now you get to enjoy it too!
Lentils. We used to have them quite often and then one day I stopped buying them and then I totally forget about them completely. A shame really because lentils are so good and so filling. Not to mention a little goes a long way, and with a plethora of mouths to feed, something cheap that makes a lot is totally my kind of food.
Another great thing about lentils is that it is so versatile. You can pretty much throw whatever the heck you want into it and it will be the most delicious and hearty meal. But I have major googly eyes for the Mexican Lentil Soup. The flavor combo is superb and my kids absolutely devoured this!
I’m keeping this post short n sweet cause we all know you wanna get to the good stuff; the recipe! This is a vegetarian dish, but feel free to add in some chicken or sausage. Like I mentioned, lentil soup is versatile and adding one of those ingredients would make it most excellent!
One last thing, I promise…
Lentils love to suck up broth or water. When cooking, if you notice that it needs to have a bit more broth or water, throw it in. This dish is supposed to be like a thick soup, but not thick where you are just eating lentils, ya know what I mean!?!
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp avocado oil
- 1 medium red onion, diced
- 2 carrots, diced
- 2 bell peppers, diced (I like yellow and orange for this)
- 1 jalapeno, seeds removed and finely chopped
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 1/2 cups of lentils, rinsed
- 1 28 oz can of fire roasted diced tomatoes ( or 2,14.5 oz cans)
- 48 oz of vegetable broth
- 2 tsp cumin
- 1 1/2 tsp chipotle powder
- 2 tsp sea salt
- 1 1/2 tsp oregano
- OPTIONAL: squeeze of lime, avocado slices, cojita cheese, fresh cilantro
Instructions
- Heat up avocado oil in a large pot.
- Once hot, add in your diced onion and minced garlic. Stir until very fragrant.
- Next, add in the diced bell peppers, diced carrots, and chopped jalapeno. Mix together and cook for 2-4 minutes.
- Throw your spices in and mix to combine.
- Next, add the can of fire roasted tomatoes, lentils, and vegetable broth. Stir to combine. Bring to a boil, stir one more time, turn to low and cover the pot with a lid.
- Let cook for 45 minutes, stirring a few times throughout. It may need a bit of water or more vegetable broth added to it.
- After lentils are tender, ladle into a bowl and add a squeeze of lime, some avocado, cilantro and cojita cheese!
I hope that you love the snot outta this soup, like we do in our house. And if you are looking for other tasty soups check out my
WHITE CHICKEN CHILI SOUP and my ARTICHOKE LEEK POTATO SOUP
My Mom used to make this soup but began by frying chopped bacon and set it aside (vegans, omit this part). She also fried round slices of ripe plantains whose skins were very black, showing their ripeness and sweetness. She’d set them aside and added them after the test of the ingredients. She’d cook the lentils on their own in a pressure cooker to speed things up and assemble everything together. She’d simmer everything to combine flavors. Yummy!
Oh my!!! Those additions sound absolutely incredible!
Absolutely delicious!! Such an easy recipe and so good. I was set to make it on the stovetop, but then plans changed and I made it in the instant pot. Sautéed the vegetables as directed then cooked the soup on high pressure for 20 mins. Done! Will make this again and again!
Perfect! I’ve been wanting to make it in my instant pot!!
This was a delicious / easy dinner! I used the Instantpot instructions left by another reviewer and they were perfect (sauté, 20 min on high Presure). The heat was a little more than the kids (7,9) prefer and next time I would probably do 1 tsp chipotle instead of 1.5. Recipe is a keeper.
So happy you liked it! Yah, my kids LOVE spice lol.