Indian Lentil Soup Recipe (2024)

4.4 from 7 votes

4.43 from 7 votes

Course: Soup

Cuisine: Indian

Prep Time: 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes minutes

Recipe by: Helene Dsouza

• ▢ 1 ½ Cup Red Lentils
• ▢ 1 Tablespoon Oil
• ▢ 1 Medium Onion sliced
• ▢ 1 Teaspoon Brown Mustard Seeds
• ▢ 3 Curry Leaves optional, see Notes
• ▢ 1 Tomato diced
• ▢ 1 Tablespoon Ginger + Garlic paste or chopped, *see Note
• ▢ ¼ Teaspoon Turmeric Ground
• ▢ ¼ Teaspoon Red Chili Pepper Ground i.e Cayenne, Kashmiri
• ▢ 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
• ▢ Juice of one Lime
• ▢ Cilantro Fresh chopped, aka Coriander greens

US - Metric

• 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.

• Add oil to a pan and heat up, add in and fry your onion slices.

• Add the mustard seeds with the curry leaves and temper/stir-fry until the spices emit the fragrant aroma.

• Now add the tomato and ginger and garlic, Stir cook again.

• 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.

• Stir fry the spices on high heat for a minute, then reduce the heat again.

• 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.

• Pour in your broth, mix and add the scraped nutmeg and mix again well.

• Let the soup cook covered until the lentils are soft, that should take about 10 minutes.

• Take from heat season with salt to taste and add the lime juice. Mix well.

• Pour soup into serving bowl and garnish with fresh cilantro (coriander).

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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 Facts

Easy Indian Lentil Soup Recipe

Amount Per Serving (389 g)

Calories 413Calories from Fat 54

% Daily Value*

Fat 6g9%

Sodium 1578mg66%

Potassium 1010mg29%

Carbohydrates 65g22%

Fiber 28g112%

Sugar 7g8%

Protein 24g48%

Vitamin A 1320IU26%

Vitamin C 32.3mg39%

Calcium 67mg7%

Iron 7.4mg41%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.