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Easy Tortilla Soup with Red lentils. 1 Pot 30 Minutes! Make it in a saucepan or Instant Pot. Add veggies of choice, garnish with tortilla chips or avocado. Vegan Gluten-free Soyfree Nut-free Recipe. Jump to Recipe
This easy 1 pot tortilla soup has red lentils, peppers, tomato, veggies that you want and a few spices. Put everything in a saucepan and simmer until done. I like red lentils in this soup as they cook quicker and make for a lighter dinner. Beans can be an issue for some for dinner, and this works out perfectly. You can also add in some uncooked washed quinoa while simmering. Add veggies of choice and serve with garnishes of choice. See Video Below.
Few ingredients, 1 pot, filling and quick. whats your favorite addition to tortilla soups?
Serve this with 100% Whole Grain Dinner Rolls, Gluten-free Garlic rolls, tortilla strips or biscuits.
More 1 Pot Soups
- Broccoli Slaw Soup,
- Turkish lentil soup,
- Turmeric Laksa Curry Soup with fresh turmeric root,
- 15 min Indian Spiced tomato Soup,
- Minestrone
- Mushroom chickpea greens soup.
If you make this simple soup, do tag me on Instagram!
What lentils to use in this tortilla soup
There are so many different lentils and names for them. Red Lentils come in various varieties. Red whole and unskinned lentils look brown and are called Indian brown or brown lentils, which take about 30 minutes to cook in a saucepan. When skinned, they are whole red lentils, called red lentils(!), take about 18 to 22 minutes. These are not as easily available. When skinned and split, they are called red lentils or masoor dal, which are quick cooking (11 to 13 mins) and are easily available. I use the split red lentils in this tortilla soup.
In recipes and shops the split and whole red lentils are often used interchangeably. There are many recipes on the blog that use red lentils by which I mean the split red lentils. Either will work here, the whole red lentils will just take a few minutes longer to cook.
Video:
1 Pot Lentil Tortilla Soup (Instant Pot or Saucepan)
Ingredients
- 1 tsp oil
- 1/2 cup chopped red onion
- 3 to 4 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 jalapeno, minced (optional)
- 1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper
- 1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 1/4 tsp oregano and thyme
- 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
- 1/4 tsp cayenne or chipotle pepper powder or both
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 cup red lentils, quick cooking lentils - masoor dal, washed and drained
- 2 cups water or broth
- 2 large tomatoes, finely chopped, or 1.5 cup crushed tomatoes from a can
- 1 to 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1/2 to 1 cup water or broth
- 1/2 tsp or more salt
- 1 cup cooked black beans
- Crumbled tortilla chips for garnish, avocado and other garnishes and lime juice
Instructions
- Heat oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and cook for 3 minutes Add jalapeno, bell peppers and mix and cook for 3 to 4 minutes.
- Add the spices and herbs and mix in. Add a pinch of allspice or loves for additional flavor if you wish. Add the washed and drained lentils and water and cook for 11 to 12 minutes or until al dente.
- Add the rest of the ingredients, mix well. Add other additions such as 1/2 cup corn or cooked black beans or other beans, veggies, some chopped up corn tortilla at this point. (I make the soup with or without beans , pictured without beans). Cook for 10 minutes or until desired consistency. Taste and adjust salt and heat.
- Add a dash of lime juice, garnish with chips, avocado, cilantro. See IP instructions in Notes.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I don’t have an instapot. Could this be made in a slow cooker?
its a stove top saucepan recipe with instant pot option. it takes 0 mins on the stove. It an probably be made in a slow cooker, i just dont know the times
I made this soup and loved it ❤️Great recipe
Another winner in our house. Your recipes are quickly becoming our favorite! Your spice combinations are spot on.
awesome!
I’m new to using an Instant Pot, and I’m a little confused by the note. It says to add a total of 2 cups of water or broth. Is that in addition to the 2.5-3 cups water/broth already in the recipe? Thanks!
no just 2 cups of water. For the saucepan you need the additional 1/2 to 1 cup more as the water evaporates. Water stays in in the Instant Pot, so generally you need less water than saucepan. So add rest of the ingredients except water, and 2 cups of water
My 5 year old hates entire categories of food including soup and stirfry. He loved this though and requested that I make it tomorrow as well. We omitted the jalepeno and cayenne to make it more kid friendly. Great, quick recipe.
yay! that sounds awesome!
One word “amazing” thank you for sharing!!
Absolutely delicious…warm, spicy, filling, and comforting!
I make this soup regularly and it’s DIVINE! Thank you Richa ????
This was so tasty and easy, thank you! I used chipotle chilli with adobo in place of jalepinos and it was great!
Richa, love your recipes! I will make this soup for this week. I was going to just make lentil veg soup then this one came up in my newsfeed and changed my mind!