This flavorful Instant Pot Vegan Lentil Soup is a crowd pleaser, it cooks in 15 minutes with hearty lentils, carrots, potatoes, onion, garlic, and thyme.
After successfully making my Instant Pot Jamaican Rice And Peas, I decided it was time to make this Instant Pot Lentil Soup recipe and it was an amazing win, perfect taste, and texture the first try. I served it a big bowl of my Kale Salad. I'm in love with my Instant Pot so much that I plan to purchase another one in the near future, one is just not enough and I love that after it cooks the dish, it keeps it warm for hours, I even reheat my dishes right in the Instant Pot.
I decided to make a Jamaican-style Lentil Soup, so I used thyme, ginger, allspice, and a little coconut milk. I added just enough coconut milk so as not to have a strong coconut taste, you can add more if you love the flavor. The flavor was hearty and out of this world. I added some dumplings after I took the photos but didn't include them in the recipe. In Jamaica, we love dumplings in our soup so I added some for my hubby.
You can check out my Gluten-Free recipe or my new favorite recipe that tastes and have the exact texture of regular white flour Jamaican dumplings is to use Pillsbury gluten-free flour, just add a little salt and water to form a dough, roll into dumplings and cook in the soup, might have to add extra water.
I used water plus 1 vegetable bouillon but you could use all vegetable broth instead and just adjust salt to taste after the soup is done. If you want you can saute onion, garlic, green onion, ginger
In only 15 minutes in the Instant Pot and my soup was ready to serve, this is amazing! I added onion, celery, garlic, ginger, and thyme. Next, I added the carrots, potatoes, and lentils, Then finally add water, vegetable bouillon, allspice, salt, cayenne and set the Instant Pot on the manual setting for 15 minutes. I used the quick release method and voila, dinner was ready to be served.
Health Benefits Of Lentils
Lentils are healthy and rich in nutrients and should be included as part of the diet: Want to gain muscles while on a vegan diet? Then you should eat more lentils. They’re high in fiber, protein, and folate. The fact is they can help you live longer, and they’re pretty much the perfect food. The little legumes have 250g of spermidine.
1 cup of cooked lentils contains:
- 226 calories
- 39 grams carbohydrates
- 18 grams protein
- 16 grams fiber
- 3.6 grams sugar
- 0.8-grams fat
Other Lentil Recipes To Try:
- Lentil Meatballs
- Vegan Lentil Loaf
- Jamaican Lentil Patties
- Vegan Lentil Stew
- Lentil Curry Lettuce Cups
- Creamy Lentil Pasta
- One Pot Taco Spaghetti
Nutrition
- Energy:
- 257 kcal / 1074 kJ
- Fat:
- 3 g
- Protein:
- 14 g
- Carbs:
- 43 g
Cooking Time
- Preparation:
- 15 min
- Cooking:
- 15 min
- Ready in:
- 30 min
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, or 1/4 cup water or vegetable broth for sauteing
- 1 medium onion, finely chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 green onions, chopped
- 2 ribs celery, chopped
- 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
- 2 sprigs fresh thyme, or 1 teaspoon dried
- 1/2 teaspoon allspice
- 2 medium carrots, chopped
- 1 medium white potato, peeled and diced
- 1 small sweet potato, peeled and diced
- 1/4 teaspoon Cayenne pepper
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1 1/2 cups lentils, sorted and rinsed, i used brown lentils
- 6 cups water, plus 1 veggie bouillon
- 1/4 cup coconut milk
Instructions
- Plug Instant Pot in power, press Saute mode, and heat oil or liquid if oil-free. Saute onion, garlic, green onion, celery, ginger and cook for about 3 minutes stirring constantly.
- Add thyme, allspice, carrots, potatoes, cayenne pepper, salt, lentil, water, vegetable bouillon and coconut milk. Stir.
- Cover Instant Pot and set at manual setting for 15 minutes making sure the valve is on 'Sealing'
- Use quick release to let the steam out (be careful steam burns) and serve.
- Note: if using stove top, follow instructions above and cook for 25-30 minutes on medium-high heat in a large pot.
Notes
Tried this today and it was a hit in a house of picky eaters. It was flavorful and simply divine! Perfect healthy, comfort food for a rainy Saturday afternoon. I added spinners of course ‘cause that’s what Jamaicans do😉). I am GF and have been struggling to find creative, easy, flavorful and healthy recipes. I am feeling inspired. Michelle, Thank you so much!!
That’s wonderful to hear Grace that you enjoyed my lentil soup recipe, I love the idea of adding spinners. I’m happy that you find my recipes inspiring and you took the time to share with us your feedback.
Question. I’m making this stew twice this week. First time I didn’t have fresh ginger so it didn’t matter but now I have fresh ginger and the recipe states to add the ginger twice. Do I add it to sauté or when I add the remaining ingredients?
David, it is definitely a typo, only once. Thank you very much on letting me know. I hope you enjoy!
Amazing!!! I used scotch bonnet pepper instead of Cayenne, and butternut squash instead of sweet potato. I added dumplings too. I also didn’t use an instant pot, but I still loved. I guess it’s safe to say that I will be enjoying your soup recipes all winter long.
Thank you for your feedback Charnele, loving your adjustments and I’m so happy it turned out great, I plan to share more soup recipes.
My family voted this the best soup I ever made. Thank you so much!
That’s wonderful, thank you very much Anne for your feedback. so happy your family enjoyed it.
Michelle this is so so good! Mine turned out mushy – but I wasn’t home and so it naturally released the pressure went on “keep warm” for a while before I tried it. So for people who won’t be watching it I’d recommend reducing the cooking time. The flavor is outstanding and we will make this over and over again!
Thank you very much for your informative feedback. I’m so happy you enjoyed it and will make it again. That sounds right that you should reduce time since the keep warm cycle will continue to cook the soup.
I don’t have a “manual” button on my Instant Pot model. How much time should I cook it under Pressure Cook?
Hi Joyce the Pressure Cook button replaced the Manual button on newer models. Use the same time and level.
Are the lentils tinned?
No Hungry girl, I used dried brown lentils
Do you have to use coconut milk?
No you don’t, I love the flavor and what it does to the soup but not necessary at all
Do you use the canned coconut milk?
I do Jennifer, I live in North Central Florida so I don’t have a choice, wish I could use fresh can you imagine how better that would be.
What would you use as a substitute for the coconut milk? Also, can you sub any other kind of oil if the recipe calls for coconut oil?
Thanks for all of your great recipes!
Alice you can leave the coconut milk out and just replace it with vegetable broth and you can either leave out the coconut or substitute it for olive. Thank you for your kind compliments, hope you enjoy!
This is excellent! Simple, healthy and full of flavor. Even my super picky son cleaned his bowl…twice :) So thankful to have stumbled onto your wonderful site.
Thank you Lana for taking the time to give me a feedback, I’m so happy that you and your son loved it!
I made this today and the flavor is great but I’ve misinterpreted something. What is the “manual” setting? I used 15 minutes on the pressure cooking setting….which left the lentils and veggies over cooked. I think I have the setting wrong….
Lois, right below the word pressure you should see the word Manual, press the manual then plus or minus to 15, that’s it.Here is what it looks like http://bit.ly/2CB5TwF
Just made this now and it’s absolutely delicious! It was my first ever Instant Pot recipe and it was a success ?
Congrats on your success Tracy, I’m so happy you enjoyed it, thank you so much for your feedback.
I wish there was a print button for your recipes!
Shelly will be coming in the New Year, can’t wait!
This looks wonderful but I’d like some clarification. The text says 15 mins under pressure but the instructions say 22 mins. Which is correct?
Oh my thank you, the rice is 22 minutes and my Instant Pot is mostly on 22, 15 minutes is the correct settings.