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Easy Indian Lentil Soup Recipe
4.4 from 21 votes

Easy Indian Lentil Soup Recipe

Flavorful not hot spicy Indian lentil soup with split red masoor dal lentils, a couple of spices and other healthy ingredients. This soup is great all year round but of course most suitable when the days get shorter and cooler. See notes for ingredient advice.

Prep Time
5 mins
Cook Time
20 mins
Total Time
25 mins
Servings: 3 servings
Calories: 413 kcal
Course: Soup
Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients

  • 1 ½ Cup red lentils
  • 1 Tablespoon neutral cooking oil generic cooking oil
  • 1 Medium onion sliced
  • 1 Teaspoon mustard seeds brown variety
  • 3 curry leaves optional, see Notes
  • 1 tomato diced
  • 1 Tablespoon ginger paste or chopped, *see Note
  • 1 Tablespoon garlic paste or chopped, *see Note
  • ¼ Teaspoon Turmeric ground
  • ¼ Teaspoon red chili pepper i.e Cayenne, Kashmiri, ground
  • ¼ Teaspoon black pepper ground
  • ½ Teaspoon cumin seeds ground
  • ½ Teaspoon coriander seeds ground
  • 5 Cups water mixed with concentrated stock
  • Pinch nutmeg
  • Pinch salt
  • lime juice juice of one lime
  • cilantro chopped, aka Coriander greens, fresh

Instructions

    Cup of Yum
  1. Wash and keep your red lentil to soak for about 20-30 mins. That will reduce your cooking time a bit and save you stove energy as well.
  2. Add oil to a pan and heat up, add in and fry your onion slices.
  3. Add the mustard seeds with the curry leaves and temper/stir-fry until the spices emit the fragrant aroma.
  4. Now add the tomato and ginger and garlic, Stir cook again.
  5. Next, reduce the heat so that you can add the spices one by one without anything burning on. Add in the turmeric powder, the chili powder, the black pepper, the cumin powder and the coriander powder.
  6. Stir fry the spices on high heat for a minute, then reduce the heat again.
  7. Add the lentils to the pan and stir fry for a minute on high heat again. This I believe helps in releasing the taste of the lentils for the soup flavor.
  8. Pour in your broth, mix and add the scraped nutmeg and mix again well.
  9. Let the soup cook covered until the lentils are soft, that should take about 10 minutes.
  10. Take from heat season with salt to taste and add the lime juice. Mix well.
  11. Pour soup into serving bowl and garnish with fresh cilantro (coriander).

Notes

  • Curry leaves are optional because they are not always available. However, I do suggest you get them because the curry leaves add real flavor to the Indian dal soup. Curry leaves btw have nothing in common with curry powder. These are two very different ingredients. Curry leaves grow on the curry plant tree. The leaves taste best when fresh, in fact, curry leaves are rarely used dry in India. You can purchase fresh curry leaves here for a reasonable price.
  • For the Ginger and Garlic paste, you can also use fresh ginger and garlic but I prefer the paste because it mixes in better and the ginger in paste form helps to thicken any soup or sauce. Yet feel free to use ginger and garlic fresh, substitute 1 tbs paste for 2 fresh garlic clove and ½ inch fresh ginger and chop fine. You can also buy ginger garlic paste.
  • You may double the dal soup recipe to prepare more. That way you can meal prep for the week and besides lentil soup heated up again the next day usually tastes better.4. If you feel your soup is getting too thick, add some more water to the soup at the end. Sometimes I add about 100 milliliters more, depending on how liquid I want my soup.
  • If you are short on time, you can skip the soaking part of the lentil. red lentils usually cook fast but the soaking can reduce it a bit and with the soaking the tend to cook evenly and get nice soft.
  • I add the mustard seeds and curry leaves after the onion has been added because the mustard seeds don't jump up that much when the onion is in the pan.

Nutrition Information

Serving 389g Calories 413kcal (21%) Carbohydrates 65g (22%) Protein 24g (48%) Fat 6g (9%) Sodium 1578mg (66%) Potassium 1010mg (21%) Fiber 28g (112%) Sugar 7g (14%) Vitamin A 1320IU (26%) Vitamin C 32.3mg (36%) Calcium 67mg (7%) Iron 7.4mg (41%)

Nutrition Facts

Serving: 3 servings

Amount Per Serving

Calories 413

% Daily Value*

Serving 389g
Calories 413kcal 21%
Carbohydrates 65g 22%
Protein 24g 48%
Fat 6g 9%
Sodium 1578mg 66%
Potassium 1010mg 21%
Fiber 28g 112%
Sugar 7g 14%
Vitamin A 1320IU 26%
Vitamin C 32.3mg 36%
Calcium 67mg 7%
Iron 7.4mg 41%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.