Description
This healthy and nutritious Instant Pot lentil soup is low in calories and high in fibre. It’s tasty, super simple to make and is vegan-friendly and gluten-free.
Ingredients
1 medium onion, finely diced
1 large carrot, diced into cubes or into thin strips
1 large red bell pepper, diced into small cubes
1 long red chilli (jalapeño), seeds out and finely diced
1 1/2 cups dried yellow lentils, rinsed and drained (you can use other lentils too)
1 tin (14 oz / 400 g) crushed or diced tomatoes
3 garlic cloves, finely diced or grated
1 teaspoon dried thyme (or oregano)
2 bay leaves
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon salt (see notes)
1 teaspoon cumin powder
2 vegetable stock cubes + 8 cups water or 8 cups veggie stock (see notes)
Juice of 1/2 lemon
To serve: fresh cilantro (coriander) or parsley and an option of Greek yoghurt, sour cream or dairy-free yoghurt and grated cheese.
Instructions
- Turn the Instant Pot. Add all of the ingredients and stir through.
- Close the lid and point the pressure vent to Sealing. Set to Manual, HIGH pressure and adjust the time to 12 minutes. The Instant Pot will take 10-15 minutes to come to pressure and the countdown from 12 minutes will begin.
- Once the timer stops, allow the pressure to release naturally for about 5 minutes and then use the quick release method to let off the rest of the steam (carefully point the top pressure valve to Venting and step away).
- Open the lid and stir in the juice of half a lemon (about 2 tablespoons). Taste for salt and pepper and adjust as you please. Serve as is or feel free to stir in a dollop of yoghurt or sour cream and top with some grated cheese. Fresh cilantro on top is lovely.
Notes
If using low-sodium vegetable stock, add 1 teaspoon of salt to the broth. Otherwise, only add 1/2 a teaspoon and then taste for salt once the soup is cooked.
We used yellow lentils but you can use any coloured lentils in this soup.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 2 cups
- Calories: 325
- Sugar: 10.6 g
- Sodium: 1706.9 mg
- Fat: 1.3 g
- Saturated Fat: 0.2 g
- Carbohydrates: 61.9 g
- Fiber: 10.8 g
- Protein: 19.3 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg