Go Back Email Link
An image of a hand dipping garlic toast into a bowl of lentil soup.
Print Recipe

Velvety Lentil soup with Mint and Sumac butter (Instant Pot Friendly)

Quick to make, nourishing, velvety, and spiked with a lemony mint and sumac butter just before serving, this plant based red lentil soup is a comforting balm to soothe what ails you.
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time20 minutes
Total Time30 minutes
Servings: 6 servings

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil I use olive or sunflower oil
  • 2 tablespoon tomato paste
  • 4 garlic cloves smashed
  • 1 heaping tsp ground cumin
  • 1 heaping tsp ground coriander
  • freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 small or ½ large sweet onion roughly chopped
  • 2 carrots peeled and roughly chopped
  • 1.5 cups red lentils rinsed just before using
  • 6 cups vegetable stock or broth extra may be needed
  • 1.5 lemons squeezed for juice
  • 2 tablespoon unsalted butter
  • 1 teaspoon dried mint
  • 1 teaspoon ground dried sumac
  • salt to taste

Instructions

For the Instant Pot:

  • Add the oil to the stainless steel inner pot of your Instant Pot. Set your Instant Pot to the saute function on low/medium and add in the tomato paste and the smashed garlic cloves, stirring and letting things sizzle in the oil for a few minutes until the tomato paste starts to darken in colour. Stir in the cumin, coriander, and a nice grind of black pepper and let sizzle for a moment until fragrant. Add the onion, carrots, lentils, and stock, and give everything a good stir.
  • Secure the lid, with the pressure release valve set to “sealing”, and set your Instant Pot to cook on high pressure for 6 minutes.
  • Important note: Once your Instant Pot has completed its cooking time, DO NOT release the pressure manually (as this will put you at risk of releasing boiling hot liquid out of the pressure release valve). Let the pressure release naturally on its own, making sure the locking pin has released (dropping down) before you unlock the instant pot and remove the lid.

For stove top:

  • Follow the instructions above, using a heavy bottomed soup pot on the stove, and cook your soup for approximately 15-20 minutes until the vegetables are soft and the lentils are almost dissolving.

For both methods:

  • Once your soup is cooked add in the lemon juice and puree the soup either using an immersion blender or in an upright blender, see note. Taste, and add salt as needed.
  • When ready to serve the soup, heat the butter over medium low heat (vegan or dairy, or substitute olive oil) in a small pan. When melted and starting to foam up, add in the dried mint and ground sumac, and let sizzle for about 10 seconds, making sure to stir. Ladle the soup into bowls, and then top each bowl with a generous teaspoon of seasoned butter and enjoy!
  • If you have leftover soup, if you want, you can stir the butter into the leftovers and skip the garnishing step for the remaining portions.

Notes

A word of caution on pureeing hot soup. Theoretically, you are not supposed to blend hot liquids in an upright blender, but I often do - just be extra careful when opening the lid to your blender - if you take the top off too quickly with hot liquid inside, the liquid can splash up towards you. Taking the lid off quite slowly lessens the chance of this happening, and I guess I like to live on the edge because I do blend the soup while it is still quite warm. If you prefer not to blend a hot liquid for sensible safety reasons, let the soup cool to room temperature, then blend as desired, or use an immersion blender.