Hurry The Food Up Vegan and Vegetarian Recipes For Busy People
The Burger Issue
It’s an old story, we’ve all been there before; long day at work, the last hour comes, so does another, and suddenly you’re hungry – really bloody hungry.
On the way home is a McDonalds, so you treat yourself to two or maybe even three €1 burgers. They taste alright, they fill you up a bit.
It wont hurt, you tell yourself. But it probably will. Your body and your wallet. It’s certainly not a long term solution to a hungry belly anyway.
I needed to end this vicious cycle – and that’s where Jenny came in. I’ll always thank her for this – her carrot and lentil soup.
Jenny: “No, it’s really so simple to make.”
At first I “only” appreciated the taste, thinking that I couldn’t possibly make it myself because it tasted so good, and I’m crap at cooking. Always have been.
But I asked for the ingredients and cooking time anyway. 5 ingredients, 25 minutes. Hmmm…easier than I thought.
I tried it myself a few days later, preparing for the classic “this takes much longer and tastes much worse” result. But no, it was just as good as Jenny’s version.
I did it again, it worked again. As it has done every time since.
To see if I wasn’t just assuming that it actually made sense to swap some cheeseburgers for the soup (assumption is the brother of all fuck ups after all) I investigated.
Turns out the soup is healthier than pretty much anything I’d ever eaten before..
Health Benefits – Carrot and Red Lentil Soup
The soup (red lentils and carrots) contains a lot of fiber, which is great, because most people eat less than 50% of the daily recommended amount (1).
Fiber has some great benefits: it decreases the risk of diabetes, heart attacks and other stuff (2).Fiber actually makes you feel full too – you won’t be hankering after any other food for a while.
Can you say the same for a burger?
You’re less hungry throughout the day. You eat less. You lose weight (3). That’s a win-win in my book.
And finally one bowl contains around 30g of protein. That’s better than a couple of burgers. If I went to the gym, I’d be laughing!
Beginning of the End of the Burger Issue
Jenny’s red lentil soup is a fantastic step towards a healthier life with less burgers. And it’s a tasty one too.
Spiced Carrot and Red Lentil Soup
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 carrot
- 1 onion
- 5 cups vegetable broth
- 1 cup natural yogurt
- 1 cup red lentils, dried
Optional:
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 clove garlic (1 clove = ½ tsp dried)
Instructions
- Get a pot, pop it on a low heat and add the olive oil.
- Cut the carrots, onion and grate the garlic.
- Throw them in the pot, cook for a minute or two and chuck the lentils in after.
- Stir a little until the lentils are covered with oil (they open their pores which then tastes better).
- Add the vegetable stock and yoghurt.
- Let the soup simmer for 15-20 minutes on low heat.
- Season with salt and pepper.
- Add the lemon juice.
- Blend it with a hand blender if available, don’t worry if you cant.
- Ready (eat with bread, add your favourite herbs for variety, and some more yoghurt or sour cream)
Yay, Jenny and yay, you! McDonald’s is nasty and lentils are not. That soup looks amazing.
hahaha, thanks for the props, Linda! 😀
Just tried this but added in a celery stalk I had knocking around and just chucked in water randomly. Also used 4 heaped dessert spoons of yoghurt which I think was about half a cup. Result was tasty and filling, but looked like smooth thin corn chowder and very yoghurty.
Very nice and restau styled with urfa chili flakes or za’atar (I’m not being a food snob – my gf keeps buying exotic spices and then not knowing what to do with them, so am trying to use them up).
For a vegan Turkish soup, replace the yoghurt with canned tomatoes and add ground cumin (I grind it in a pestle and mortar which is quick, you will have to use more if you buy ready ground), mint if you have it and chili if you like it spicy.
Hi Helen!
Hahaa, but I think it’s very cool to have some exotic spices stashed up at home. Fun to play around with them 🙂
Thanks for the tip to make it vegan! Cumin is THE BEST!!!
I just made thus wuth a few adjustments and it’s amazing!
I didn’t have any lemon, so I added a tomato since that’s a bit sour too. And I made it with canned lentils, which I added after 15 minutes instead since they don’t need to be cooked. Threw in some random spices to complete it.
Only downside is the amount of salt.
Really glad to hear you enjoyed it! It was one of our first recipes and I still love it :). The tomato was a good idea, I bet it worked a treat. Yes, the canned stuff does usually tend to be higher in salt – if anybody else is wondering about that then a low-sodium stock would be a great alternative (in fact they’re pretty good to use anyway!).
I make my soup in a slow cooker. Dump all the ingredients into it in the morning then blend it that night. Put leftovers in fridge or freezer. Super easy and the house smells divine.
That indeed sounds super easy to do!! Will have to try it out with my instant pot. That has a slow cooker function as far as I remember 🙂
Hello! I started your 7 day high protein diet, and today i made this soup. It’s fantastic, but there was 1,5 liters of soup and thats two portions? Do i really eat 0,75 liters of soup one time?
I really like your website, thanks for that!!
Hi KaisaFIN,
sorry for the slow reply! It was a bit hectic around here the last couple of days (I hope Dave and Kat don’t mind me saying that their second baby arrived just last week!). About the soup: you can definitely make it 3 servings, that would surely be better than going for 0,75 liters of soup at once! Btw it’s a very freezer friendly recipe. Thanks a ton for giving our high protein meal plan a shot and we hope it’s going well!
Wow. Simply amazing and so easy to make 🙂 What a great idea to put lentils in a soup! Much more filling and it adds a great texture to it! I added one small sweet potatoe that I had left in the fridge and a tea spoon of cumin and it tastes great! Looks like I’m going to make this often! Thank you so much 🙂
Hi! I’m on a dairy free diet. What could I replace the yogurt with to make this soup? Looks delicious!
Hi Michelle! I’ve also recently started swapping out yogurt for non dairy, and I usually go a soy yog of some sort. I often go for Alpro, it’s pretty tasty! You could also skip out the yogurt and go for an oil instead – pumpkin, for example. I hope that helps!
Hi! I have been looking for a red lentil recipe. I can’t eat yogurt but was wondering if I could swap for sour cream?
Absolutely, Ashley! Alternatively cream or creme fraiche would work very well too 🙂
vegan sour cream (Tofutti) cashew nut cream, or plain chopped tomatoes instead.
Hi! Just wondering about the calorie content – 200g lentils (if going for the metric version) are 100g per portion, but 100g red lentils already have more than 340 calories, so I am not sure if the 302 calories per serving are correct… am I missing something? Thanks!
Hi Laura, thanks for writing. You’re right, the values do seem slightly off. I’ve just run the recipe through our new analyzer and have updated the recipe. Thanks again, and enjoy!
Hey Dave,
Also had a few concerns about the caloric intake for this soup in regards to your 7-day diet plan. On the plan it says
Red Lentil Soup with a slice of bread
(350 kcal, 24g protein, C)
Should I hazard a guess this is a little out? Or do I just split into smaller portions?
Thanks
Hi Miles, good spot! We’ve recently updated the nutrient card in this recipe, but missed it in the meal plan. We’ll update that now, too. Thanks for pointing it out – for now a half portion would be about the right amount (with bread), or a 2/3 portion without bread 🙂
aaaaargh! 79 Carbs per serving?!! do you know how much insulin I’m going to have to take to eat that? Really defeats the high protein.
Bummer 🙁
Nope, I’m not super familiar with diabetes. But I know that it can be a toughy to go veggie as a diabetic due to the high carb meals. Also, please note that one serving is around 550 kcal. So its a biiiiig bowl of soup. Ingredient wise you wont find anything really carb heavy. Not sure how to do much better than this if you want to go low carb as a veggie.
Hi there, I only have canned lentils, is there a way I can use them instead? should I just add them at the end?
Hi Shawna! Yes, totally! Canned lentils are more than fine. Yep, just add them in the last three or four minutes, they just need warming through, really 🙂
Loved this. Left out the yoghurt. Added garlic and lemon juice. Plenty of fresh black pepper. Very nice. Thank you.
Nice! Really glad you enjoyed it. You’re more than welcome, Shona 🙂
In my experiment with this soup recipe, I added the following 5 spices based on a “Moroccan Lentil Soup” recipe on a cedar spoon.com:
1/8 t. cinnamon
1/4 t. paprika
1/2 t. turmeric
1/2 t. cumin
1 t. coriander
Yummy! 😀 Thank you Dave! Love your site – doing the 7-day high protein plan now.
Thanks Anna! Those additions also sound great. Coooool, enjoy the protein plan!!
Very easy and delicious, just my style. I noticed that ‘Jenny’s Secret Carrot and Red Lentil Soup’ became ‘SPICED Carrot and Red Lentil Soup’ where the recipe is listed. Mmmmm … made me wonder about the ‘spiced’ as there are none in the recipe? Anna’s suggestions above sound good though, might give them a try next time.
Heya Sue! Glad you enjoyed . Good point – I just had a quick look at the very original recipe stored in the archives – and it’s the same. I guess there were never any other spices – maybe we just liked the name :D. I bet a tsp of curry powder wouldn’t go amiss, though 🙂
Hi can you tell me is it really about 600gm per serving? thats alot, what if I cant eat it all?
Hi Melody! That sounds about right for a serving :). I’d say if you can’t eat it all in one go then it’s definitely possible to keep in the fridge and reheat within a day or two – otherwise freezer should be fine as well!
Hi,
I tried the recipe today and am still wondering how something so quick and easy can be soooo delicious!?
Thanks so much on the recipe. I know it will become our new staple 🙂
Aww, thanks Monika! Very kind of you to say, and really glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for writing, too 🙂
Done this one for the n-th time, and still happy with the easiness and flavours – added a personal twist this time… leftover red veggies out of the fridge: red paprika, red onion, purple carrot.. the result is a fun coral red soup topped with fresh thaï basil 🙂
I’m becoming more and more vegetarian since I discovered your blog in 2016 and just can’t keep up how many people ask me for your recipes. It’s so easy to share with friends since everything is so delicious and easy !
Hi Letizia, ah wow!! So you’ve been with us for ages, thank you! Really happy to hear we’ve been able to inspire you to go more and more veggie – that’s absolutely our goal. Your additions to this recipe sound great – deffo gonna add purple carrot the next time I make it! Thanks for writing – see you around the site 🙂
Really enjoy this recipe, I make it at least once a month. Easy to make, very good flavor. Tasty way to end the day. I love trying out all the high-protein vegetarian dishes!
Yay, thanks Vanessa! Really glad you like it! Deffo lots of protein to be found in the veggie world 🙂
This looks great in the pics and video but I made it last night using the portions for 4ppl… and 10 cups of broth was way too much liquid! It was so watery and very disappointing.
Im sorry to hear that, Tiffany! Deffo gonna try it out again soon. As far as I know the amount of broth was fine. Will get back.
Wow this came out so good! I was skeptical at first because mine looked a lot different from the photo while it was first coming together but the end result was so delicious! I also just started the 7 week high protein meal plan because I have been doing a pretty heavy duty weights program and noticed I was lacking energy and just not getting enough nutrients & calories to keep my body going properly! Excited to see how this will effect my energy levels and overall performance. Thanks for the yummy recipes !!
Ah thanks Julie! Really glad you enjoyed it so much, that makes me happy to read. Good luck with the weights and workouts, I hope you get the energy levels sorted! No doubt the soup can help 🙂