It’s that time of year for soup, hot chocolate, Shepherd’s Pie, and cozy loungewear. And sitting by the fire. Oh, and Netflix. Did I mention I don’t leave my house in the winter?
This soup is perfect for cozy, cold winter nights when you’re craving something hearty and comforting yet healthy.
Bonus? It requires just 1 pot and around 45 minutes to make! Plus simple ingredients likely lying around your pantry right now. Let’s do this!
The base for this simple curry soup is onion, garlic, ginger, carrots, and potatoes. Lentils add plenty of plant-based protein and fiber (20 g fiber + 23 g protein per serving).
For the quintessential curry flavor, I relied on my DIY curry powder that I’ve been putting in everything lately (i.e. Crispy Tofu, Vibrant Green Curries, and Tofu Scrambles). While curry powder is not a common ingredient in traditional Indian cooking, it is a British invention inspired to evoke Indian flavors.
Last but not least is a generous serving of kale, which is added in the last few minutes of cooking for even more nutrition and a punch of bright-green color. Swoon.
I hope you all LOVE this soup! It’s:
Simple
Quick
Hearty
Flavorful
Healthy
Comforting
& Delicious
Plus, it reheats beautifully, making it ideal for cooking up a batch on the weekend and enjoying throughout the week for quick + easy lunches and dinners. It’s delicious as is, but it would also pair extremely well with my Coconut Curried Greens, Samosa Potato Cakes with Green Chutney, and Garlic & Herb Flatbread!
If you try this recipe, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it, and don’t forget to tag a photo #minimalistbaker on Instagram. Cheers, friends!
Curried Kale, Potato & Lentil Soup (1-Pot!)
Ingredients
SOUP
- 1 Tbsp coconut oil (or sub a neutral oil, such as avocado)
- 1 cup diced yellow or white onion
- 1 tsp minced fresh ginger
- 2 medium whole carrots (peeled and chopped)
- 1 pinch sea salt + black pepper (plus more to taste)
- 4 cloves garlic, minced (yields ~2 Tbsp as original recipe is written)
- 3 cups diced potatoes (I used 1/2 peeled sweet potato, 1/2 unpeeled baby yellow potato)
- 1 1/2 Tbsp curry powder*
- 5-6 cups vegetable broth (or store-bought- I like Imagine brand)
- 1 cup green lentils (thoroughly rinsed and drained)
- 1 Tbsp coconut sugar (optional // plus more to taste)
- 4 cups chopped green or purple kale
Instructions
- Heat a large pot over medium heat. Once hot, add oil, onion, ginger, and carrots. Season with a pinch each sea salt and black pepper and stir. Cook for 3-5 minutes, stirring frequently, until onions are soft and fragrant.
- Add garlic and potatoes and stir. Cook for 3-4 minutes to brown slightly, and then add curry powder. Stir to coat. Cook 2 minutes more.
- Add lesser amount of vegetable broth (5 cups or 1200 ml as original recipe is written // adjust if altering batch size) and increase heat to medium-high. Once at a low boil, add lentils, stir, and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 20-25 minutes, uncovered, or until lentils and potatoes are tender.
- Taste and adjust seasonings, adding coconut sugar for a little sweetness (optional), more curry powder for intense curry flavor, or sea salt and pepper for more balance. I added more of each.
- If the soup has thickened too much, add remaining vegetable broth (1 cup or 240 ml as original recipe is written // adjust if altering batch size) , stir, and cook until warmed through.
- In the last few minutes of cooking, add the kale and cover to steam until tender but still vibrant green – about 2-3 minutes.
- Serve immediately as is or with cilantro and fresh lemon juice (optional). This would also go well with my Easy Vegan Wheat Bread, or Garlic & Herb Flatbread! Store leftovers in the refrigerator up to 5 days or in the freezer up to 1 month.
Notes
*Nutrition information is a rough estimate calculated without coconut sugar and with lesser amount of vegetable broth
*Recipe (as originally written) serves 4 as an entrée and 6 as a side.
Laura says
I made this for some friends of mine and it was a huge hit! I made the following changes:
1. I doubled the amount of potatoes & carrots to make it more of a stew.
2. I added ~ 375g of frozen butternut squash once the rest of the soup was done cooking.
3. I used a scant 2.5 tsp of both curry powder & garam masala, 1 tsp garlic powder, and I doubled the amount of ginger. The flavour was wonderful!
4. At the very end I puréed some of the soup to give it a slightly thicker texture.
I served the soup with garlic cheese biscuits & a kale salad; delicious! Thanks so much for this recipe♥️
Amazing! Thanks so much for the lovely review and for sharing your modifications, Laura!
Katherine Day says
This is a delicious recipe. The coconut oil made for a tasty soup – I used up fresh thyme, but I look forward to making it with curry next time around.
Thanks for the great review, Katherine!
Ilene Arnsdorf says
Generally I really prefer red lentils to green or brown but this soup might be the game changer! So easy and so delightful. I used spinach because that’s what I had on hand. It worked well. I didn’t miss the toughness of kale.
Thanks for the great review, Ilene!
Hanna says
I made this tonight and was a hit even with my picky 7 year old. Only one slight modification was that I softened the spice of the madras curry powder (only kind I had on hand) with half a can of coconut milk. I put it in at the end with the kale and it gave the soup a smooth, creamy texture. It was so simple and will be making yet another minimalist baker recipe a staple in my house. Many thanks from MN!
We’re so glad you enjoyed it, Hanna. Thanks so much for the lovely review! xo
Erica says
This soup is fast becoming a favorite at my house! I accidentally used green split peas instead of green lentils (now I know they’re different!) but I simmered it a little longer and they were cooked enough. I also added a bunch more curry powder, some garam masala, and cumin for some more spice, and some coconut aminos (I’m soy free) for some sweetness/umami. I did spinach last time and kale this time – I think I prefer the spinach, but it’s a perfect midwinter soup to combat the cold and gray blahs! Thanks, Dana! :)
Amazing! Thanks so much for the lovely review and for sharing your modifications, Erica!
Christine says
This has become my staple/signature fall soup. So easy and flavorful – it’s also super adjustable. Sweet potato or regular potato, curry or italian spices, veggie broth or chicken, different lentils, kale or spinach – every time I’ve made it it’s a 5/5 star meal! Paired with fresh sourdough – out of this world! I am vegan and I’ve made this for meat eaters and they have all been blown away. I recommend this recipe to everyone I know!
Woohoo! We love to hear this. Thanks so much for the wonderful review, Christine!
Bethany M. says
Minimalist Baker is my go-to for nutritious & delicious recipes! The curried potato & lentil soup has won its way to the top of my favorite recipes! The weather where I live became drastically cold/icy over night, so I wanted to make a soup. I thankfully had basically all of these ingredients on hand. I omitted the carrots (didn’t have any on hand), and swapped fresh ginger for ground ginger. This soup is warming and comforting without the heaviness that can come with some soups/stews.
10/10 recommend trying this recipe!
Aw, thank you so much for your kind words and lovely review, Bethany! We’re so glad you love this soup! xo
Alyssa says
Hi I made this recipe as it is written. When I go to the part about simmering uncovered I was a bit skeptical and left my lid half on. I also thought adding 1.5 cups of dry lentils seemed like alot. It turned out like a cooked lentil dish, not a soup even with leaving the lid partly on. Most of the liquid absorbed of steamed off. Perhaps the recipe used canned lentils that were already cooked? I often parboil lentils for other recipes, so I should have done that here. If you make this, cook your lentils part way through before adding them if you are looking for soup.
Hi Alyssa, sorry to hear that was your experience! This recipe calls for 1 cup lentils vs. 1.5 cups – perhaps that was the issue?
Tara says
I just made this & only used only a ½ cup lentils –it turned out perfect! I followed the recipe & saved 1 cup of broth until end to thin it out a bit. We LOVED this soup!
Yay! Thanks so much for the wonderful review, Tara!
Barbara says
Consider pureeing with stick blender until slightly textured – not smooth. Have made a very similar soup with chicken and adding raisins! (remove chicken before pureeing) then add back in. Full meal.
Donna Brandt says
I was very pleased with this recipe and will be making it again. I was looking for a dairy free, curried lentil soup without tomatoes and this one was excellent. I served as recommended with lemon wedges, fresh chopped cilantro and my own home made oatmeal bread. Yum!
We’re so glad you found what you were looking for and enjoyed the recipe, Donna! And that oatmeal bread sounds super yummy! Thank you for sharing! xo
Aisha says
Made this on a rainy day and it was absolutely delicious! New soup staple! I topped it with some jalapeños and greens onions—amazing!
Perfect for a rainy day! Thank you for sharing, Aisha! xo
Sophia Richards says
Incredible!! This is such an easy dinner that is FULL of flavors!! I used date sugar instead of coconut sugar, and did oil free by sautéing the veggies in water instead of oil! So amazing!
Woohoo! We’re so glad you enjoyed it, Sophia. Thanks so much for sharing! xo
Christine Benjamin says
This soup will be a favorite made again and again. Family loves it. Super yummy. Only thing different that I did was add coconut milk (Trader Joe’s reduced fat canned coconut milk).
Yay! Lovely addition too. Thanks for sharing, Christine!
Vanessa says
I’ve made this in the past and loved it, but now can’t remember if I soaked the lentils or not. I see some people saying they did, but I am curious if the pre-soaked lentils got mushy simmering for 20 minutes? Seems like the potatoes would need more time than pre-soaked lentils? Any advise would be helpful. Thanks for the delicious recipes!
Hi Vanessa, we don’t soak the lentils for this one. Hope that helps!
Em says
It was good but I think needed more flavor. I should have added more curry powder but ran out.
I definitely recommend the lemon and cilantro!! If you have a can of diced tomato on hand I might add that too.
Thanks for sharing, Em! We’d suggest our DIY curry powder for best flavor.
Tina says
I really enjoyed this dish – it’s very pantry friendly. I didn’t have fresh greens and a limited amount of carrots but it still turned our wonderful with hearty lentils and potatoes. Paired with sourdough bread and I was satisfied. Thank you!!
Amazing! Thanks for sharing, Tina!
Klaida says
This soup sounds delicious!! Im excited to meal prep this soup for the rest of the week today. I’m using my instant pot instead of the stove, would you be able to tell me what I should adjust (amount of broth/cooking time), please? Thank you!
Hi Klaida, we haven’t tried this one in the Instant Pot, but other readers have! We’d suggest searching the comments to see what they’ve done. If you press “ctrl+f” on a PC or “command+f” on a mac, a find bar should pop up that allows you to search for specific words in the post and comments. Hope that helps!
Kamie says
This was so so good and a perfect bowl of warmth for the snowstorm we just had and the Arctic air rolling in behind it. I didn’t have enough curry, so I added in some masala spice and it added a nice cinnamon sweetness to it. I also added some chickpeas I had in the fridge. Made your naan recipe to go with it too. Thank you for this recipe! I’ve never actually made lentils before (thanks to Trader Joe’s for having ready to eat lentils) and this was so easy to just dump them in and let it simmer. I’ll have to try your instant pot recipe for lentils. I will definitely be making this again.
We’re so glad you enjoyed it and it helped keep you warm =) Thanks for sharing, Kamie! xo
Aarti says
Delicious and hearty. I omitted the coconut sugar but followed the rest of the recipe. The husband added some crumbled feta and a dash of olive oil to his. I preferred mine with lemon and coriander.
Thanks for sharing, Aarti!
Marc Lescarbeau says
This is my favorite soup ever … i’ve been doing it for a couple weeks and is still amazingly flavorfull. For alternate version, i exchange lentil for chickpea and they become creamy … thanks for the recepy. By the way, my daughter love your site and started cooking because of you, thanks
Aw, love that! Thanks so much for sharing, Marc!
H+H says
This was pretty good! We used just 1 tbsp curry powder for our preferred spice levels and left out the ginger, kale, and sugar. We added raisins for sweetness instead, and we finished the soup with lemon juice. We might try this again with sweet potatoes instead of regular potatoes.
Thanks for sharing your experience! Sweet potatoes are lovely for adding natural sweetness. We’d suggest using our DIY curry powder (linked in recipe) to maximize flavor and control heat to preference. Hope that helps!
Tawana says
Very warm and inviting! More stewy I think cause of the potatoes to me and I loved it! I felt professional make my own curry powder lol.
Subs: chicken better than bullion so more vegetarian than vegan
Omits: Coconut sugar, just cause I love the flavor, wish I would have just see what it would have tasted like, though.
Thanks for the yummy recipe!
We’re so glad you enjoyed it, Tawana. Thanks for sharing! xo
Barbara says
I made this for dinner tonight and it was fantastic! I used spinach instead of kale because that’s what I had in the house. I included a small amount of coconut sugar and a large amount of ginger and curry powder. It was hearty, warm, well spiced and delicious!
We’re so glad you enjoyed it, Barbara! Thanks so much for the lovely review! xo
weaver says
Made this last night, and it was so satisfying and easy. I have been mostly cooking in the Instant Pot lately, so I can attend to other things while my food is cooking. But really, soups like this are just as “plop and go” as IP cooking, and I need to do more of them. I ended up making some inadvertent alterations to the recipe, but it’s quite forgiving, so that is fine. For example, I realized we only had sweet potatoes, so I wasn’t able to do the mix of sweet and “regular” potatoes I had intended. I accidentally dumped in 7 cups of broth instead of 5, so I just eyeballed the lentils to add more than a cup. (As you can tell, by that point I realized I was beyond measuring things.) I didn’t have coconut sugar, but realized the sugar was more to alter the general profile of the flavor and just put in a spoonful of golden sugar I had in the cabinet. That was enough to kind of soften the flavor a bit, which I think is the intent. Then when I got to the end, I realized the kale I’d bought had gone bad, so we went without the greens.
I look forward to tryin this recipe again more as intended. But it really is so easy to just throw in what you have, and adjust the flavors to match your tastes. Definitely going into our regular rotation. I think that next time I may leave out the kale again, and steam it separately so we can add to our individual bowls. We are a small family, and I find that soups that have greens added at the end tend to not age as well for leftovers.
Thanks for sharing your experience!
Alex says
Wow this was so good!
I used swiss chard for the greens and added butternut squash instead of sweet potatoes and it was fantastic! I was working with what I had and I just wish I had some bread to go with it. I also added a bit of coconut milk but probably could have subbed the last cup of water for more of it.
Perfect for the first cool night of the year :)
Thanks so much for the lovely review and for sharing your modifications, Alex. We are so glad you enjoyed it! Next time, would you mind leaving a rating with your review? It’s super helpful for us and other readers. Thanks so much! Xo
Wendy white says
I switched kale with cabbage
Lemon for tart lime one bowl
And tart orange another added sugar @ salt at the very end to taste .
Delicious and comforting .
I love how the aroma of curry is beautiful and decadent!!!
I’m saving this one ☝️!!!
Thank you
Six stars ⭐️ Stars ⭐️🌟 ⭐️ 🌟 ⭐️
Amazing! Thanks for sharing, Wendy!
Kimberlee says
Can I use regular lentils instead of green or sprouted green lentils that’s what I have.
Sure!
Karin says
Lovely stew, I did not use garlic and it was still tasty. The dark flat leaf kale took 10 minutes to soften so I will add it earlier next time and not overcook the soup. I also soaked the lentils overnight and this worked well too.
Thanks for sharing, Karin!
Agnes says
Yummy. Prepared with less potatoes and added some soya cubes (dried) for extra protein ( I have two teenagers growing muscles) . Replaced green lentils with chana dhal yellow split peas ( or are those also lentils?)
Thanks for sharing, Agnes! We’re so glad you enjoyed it!
Manon says
So tasty! So easy! So quick!
I made it twice in 2 weeks and what a great recipe! Thanks for sharing it.
Today i made it in a rush and it taste good but when I did it the first time, following assiduously each step: it came out really beautifully. Friends passed by for lunch the following day and kept asking for more and for the recipe.
I didn’t add the sugar this time or the previous and used a fancy (spicy) curry powder. These two factors might affect the flavours but other than that, I just did what the recipe calls for.
Super happy to enjoy a healthy, easy and yet delicious dinner! Merci Beaucoup 😍
We’re so glad you enjoy it, Manon! Thanks so much for sharing!