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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 Â
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?Â
Serve this with 100% Whole Grain Dinner Rolls, Gluten-free Garlic rolls, tortilla strips or biscuits.
More 1 Pot SoupsÂ
- Broccoli Slaw Soup,Â
- Turkish lentil soup,
- Turmeric Laksa Curry Soup with fresh turmeric root,
- 15 min Indian Spiced tomato Soup,Â
- 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.Â
Video:
1 Pot Lentil Tortilla Soup (Instant Pot or Saucepan)
Ingredients Â
- 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
InstructionsÂ
- 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.
This looks like a great recipe and I am excited to try it! Recipe says it makes 3 servings, so is the nutritional value calculated for 1/3 of the total pot of soup?
Thanks for clarifying.
yes
This soup is a winner in my house. My child loves it too. I do the version with black beans and add chopped kale at the end. I love it with a splash of lime, tortilla chips, avocado, and shredded vegan cheese.
Yum
I love this recipe as written. Today I really wanted some, but didn’t have peppers, so I subbed sweet potatoes and added corn. Instapot for 5 mins. Excellent!
Awesome!
Wonderful recipe. I doubled everything and added a jalapeño and Serrano. Hubby keeps asking me to make this one.
those serranos though 🌶 🌶
I LOVE this recipe! Simple prep and cooks so fast in the instant pot. We all love customizing with toppings like sour cream, cheese, tortilla, avocado, cilantro. I also throw in finely chopped kale after its cooked for extra veggies!
sounds fun
I just made this with some variations, water sautéed onion, garlic, green bell pepper. I did not have thyme so used one bay leaf, no black beans so added one cup red lentils, no red pepper but added one Serrano pepper in addition to one jalapeño, pretty much doubled the seasonings, used about 3 tablespoons tomato paste. I ended up using about 5 cups of water with a little better then boullion vegetable broth. Set it in the instant pot no need to add lime or cilantro cause the flavor was spot on. I ate 2 cups , came out nice and creamy just the way I like it. This made alot of soup so definitely have about 2-3 nights more for dinner. Dipped oil free baked tortilla chips. It was really good. Definitely a keeper, thank you.
spot on!
I have made this so many times and I love it. I usually double the recipe and use white bean. I’ve paired this with rice, pasta, bread- and each combination worked well! Thank you so much for this great recipe!
So good! I had two servings and my husband had 3!!
My new favorite soup! I tried this because I needed to find high protein foods to cook for my elderly mom. I’d never tried red lentils before and wasn’t sure whether we would like them, but they are super high in protein, so I gave this a try. Wow! It was fast and easy to make, and truly delicious! I omitted the green bell pepper and jalepenos as they wouldn’t sit well with my mom. Instead of water, I used chicken stock (not broth, as stock has more protein). I also added some cooked shredded chicken for more protein (I cooked the chicken separately in my Instant Pot earlier) . It was outstanding! I’m an Instant Pot girl, but this soup is so fast and easy to make on the stove that I felt no need for the IP. The soup is just as tasty without chicken. I only added chicken to give it more protein for my mom’s diet. If you like tortilla soup, definitely give this a try!
Probably the best soup I’ve even eaten. Definitely the best soup I’ve ever made.
wow!!!!