With fall being in full swing, soup season has officially started so it’s time for another healthy, hearty soup recipe. This nourishing Vegan Curried Pumpkin and Lentil Soup is vegan and involves only 5 minutes of prep work. It can be enjoyed as a starter but tastes equally good as a main dish.
How to Make This Vegan Pumpkin Lentil Soup
Start by preparing the butternut squash. In order to save time, simply cut it in half, drizzle with some salt and olive oil and roast it in the oven, together with 4 cloves of garlic (skin still on).
If you chose to use dry lentils, start cooking your lentils according to package instructions. This recipe also works with canned lentils.
Remove the garlic from the oven after about 20 minutes. Leave squash in the oven until it’s soft (a knife should easily be able to pierce into the flesh). The amount of time needed will depend on the size of your squash. Once ready, scoop out the flesh using a big knife. Then put it, together with all the other ingredients into a blender and blend into a thick soup. Blend until smooth and enjoy with toppings of your choice!
Ingredients & Substitution Notes
- Butternut Squash: You could also use a sugar pie pumpkin or even sweet potato instead but the taste might be a bit sweeter. Roasting the butternut squash will help release it’s delicious natural flavors and I definitely prefer it over using canned pumpkin! Alternatively, you could try our simple Homemade Pumpkin Puree. There's no oven required to make it!
- Lentils: You could either use dry or canned lentils- both will work. When using dry lentils, one extra step will be involved (cooking the lentils). You could use yellow lentils, dry red lentils or brown lentils would work too. When using dry lentils I recommend using dry split lentils- they need much less cooking time. Alternatively, you could also use canned lentils. This will save more time and the recipe will taste the same.
- Vegetable Stock: I use store bought veggie broth powder in all my recipes that contain veggie stock. I make sure that it contains almost no additives- it might take a while to find an appropriate one but once you’ve found a brand that you like, it saves a lot of time and energy. With the veggie stock powder that I use, 1 tablespoon of powder is enough to produce 2-3 cups of veggie stock. But that might be different in your case. Alternatively you could also use chicken stock.
- Coconut Milk: The coconut milk adds some great taste and more creaminess to this soup. You could use any other plant milk instead such as soy milk or almond milk but the soup won’t be as creamy then. I wouldn’t use sweetened or naturally sweet plant milks such as oat milk because the soup might become too sweet.
- Nutritional Yeast: I highly recommend not to omit this ingredient. It has got a cheese-like flavour and can’t be replaced by any other ingredient. You can usually get it in health food stores or bigger grocery stores.
Side Dish Options
- Bread: As with any other soup, I love having (toasted) bread as a side dish. I highly recommend naan bread (find an easy recipe here), pita or any other type of flatbread.
- Sandwich: You could take it up a notch and enjoy your bread in form of a sandwich. Recipe for a Green Goddess Sandwich can be found here. Grilled Cheese Sandwiches would also make a great side dish. Make sure to use vegan cheese if you want this recipe to be vegan.
- Salad: Are always a good idea as either a starter or accompanying the soup. Try this recipe as an example.
Possible Toppings
- Pumpkin Seeds: You can use either store-bought ones or roast the seeds that you removed from the pumpkin. They add some crunchiness and additional texture!
- (Roasted) Lentils: Add a scoop Crispy Roasted Lentils.
- Homemade Croutons: Croutons would also make a great addition to this soup!
- Extra Spices: I like adding some cayenne pepper and red pepper flakes to add some spiciness. You could even add some chili powder if you like it hot! A little goes a long way here!
- Fresh Herbs: I also highly recommend adding some fresh herbs such as parsley or coriander!
FAQs
This creamy pumpkin soup can easily be prepared the evening before. Simply store it in a maison jar or an airtight container with a lid on in the fridge and reheat it in a large saucepan. Make sure to add your toppings of choice shortly before serving!
Absolutely! Simply thaw in the fridge or on the counter overnight before consuming it.
Other Soup Recipes You Might Like
Vegan Curried Pumpkin Lentil Soup
Ingredients
- ½ butternut sqash * or sub heaped cup of homemade pumpkin puree
- olive oil
- 4 garlic cloves (skin on)
- ½ cup (100g) dry split lentils or 1 cup (180g) tinned lentils + more for lentils as topping
- ½ cup (120ml) coconut milk
- 2+ cups (450+ ml) vegetable broth
- ½ teaspoon cumin powder
- 1-2 teaspoon curry powder
- 2 tablespoon nutritional yeast
- salt & black epper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180°C.
- Cut butternut squash in half and remove the seeds. Drizzle with some olive oil and salt. Then put it, together with the garlic (skin on) in the oven and roast for about 45-60 minutes depending on the squash’s size or until a knife can easily pierce into the flesh.
- If using raw lentils, wash lentils in a sieve. Then cook with accoring to package instructions. Skip this step if using tinned lentils.
- Remove garlic from the oven after about 20 minutes or as soon as it's soft.
- Once the butternut squash is ready as well, take it out of the oven and scoop out its flesh.
- Put it, together with all the other ingredients into a (high speed) blender and blend until smooth. Alternatively, you could also usean immersion blender.
- Taste and adjust salt. Gradually add more broth/ water/ coconut milk if you prefer a thinner consistency.
- Add some additional (tinned) lentils, cayenne pepper, pumpkin seeds and some fresh herbs as a topping and enjoy!
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