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Ethiopian-Inspired Red Lentil Soup

November 20, 2006 By Susan Voisin 71 Comments
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This vegan Ethiopian lentil soup is very complex and aromatic and gets its distinctive flavor from an equal amount of 11 different spices.
Ethiopian-Inspired Red Lentil Soup

I’ve been busy lately, working on several projects at once and preparing for the holidays, and I haven’t had much time to develop new recipes. So this weekend I decided to adapt an old favorite, Berberé Stew, and turn it into a lentil and vegetable soup.

I’m a big fan of “meal in a bowl” type dishes that cover all the bases—vegetable, starch, and protein all-in-one—and this one fits the bill. It’s also quick, another plus in these hurried times.

Berbere (Ethiopian Spice Blend)

This Ethiopian lentil soup is very complex and aromatic. It gets its distinctive flavor from an equal amount of 11 different spices so that no one flavor predominates. I keep a jar full of the spice mixture, but if you don’t want to mix up a big batch, just start with 1/8 teaspoon of whichever of the spices you have and add more to taste. Try to keep the measurements equal (except perhaps for the cayenne), so that the flavors balance out.

More Vegan Ethiopian Recipes

If you love the flavor of Ethiopian spices, check out these recipes:

  • Ethiopian-Spiced Pumpkin Bisque
  • Berbere-Spiced Red Lentil Hummus
  • Chickpea and Turnip Stew with Ethiopian Spices

The excellent book Teff Love: Adventures in Vegan Ethiopian Cooking by Kittee Berns has so much more.

Ethiopian Red Lentil Soup
5 from 6 votes
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Ethiopian-Inspired Red Lentil Soup

Gluten Free
Nut Free
Soy Free
Sugar Free
Full of fragrant Ethiopian spices, this delicious red lentil soup is highly seasoned without being hot.
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Total Time 55 minutes
Servings 6
Author Susan Voisin

Ingredients

  • 1 large onion chopped
  • 1 pound potatoes cut into 1/2-inch chunks
  • 1 1/4 cup red lentils picked over and rinsed
  • 3 cups water
  • 2 garlic cloves chopped
  • 2-3 tablespoons berberé spice mixture below
  • 1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
  • 1 pound green beans fresh or frozen, cut into bite-sized pieces
  • 1-2 cups water
  • salt to taste
  • 3-4 cups fresh spinach

Berberé Spice Mixture (mix all together and store in jar):

  • 1 tablespoon ground cardamom
  • 1 tablespoon ground coriander
  • 1 tablespoon fenugreek
  • 1 tablespoon ground nutmeg
  • 1 tablespoon ground cloves reduce to 1 tsp. for less “clovey” taste
  • 1 tablespoon ground allspice
  • 1 tablespoon cinnamon
  • 1 tablespoon paprika
  • 1 tablespoon turmeric
  • 1 teaspoon cayenne use more to taste
  • 1 tablespoon ground black pepper
  • 1 tablespoon ground sea salt optional
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Instructions

  • Mix the ingredients for the Berbere Spice Mixture. This recipe makes enough for several batches of soup. Do not add it all to the soup!
  • Sauté the onion in a non-stick pan until it starts to brown. Add the potatoes, lentils, 3 cups water, garlic, and spice mixture. Simmer, covered, over low heat until lentils are tender, about 20 minutes.
  • Add the tomatoes, green beans, and enough additional water to create a thick soup. Check the seasoning, adding salt and more of the spice mixture if needed, and cook for about 15 more minutes.
  • Just before serving, stir in the spinach. Serve immediately. Makes 6-8 servings.
Nutrition Facts
Ethiopian-Inspired Red Lentil Soup
Amount Per Serving (1 serving)
Calories 283 Calories from Fat 16
% Daily Value*
Fat 1.8g3%
Sodium 208mg9%
Carbohydrates 56g19%
Fiber 13g54%
Protein 16g32%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Nutritional info is approximate.

Course Main Course, Soup
Cuisine Ethiopian, Gluten-free, Vegan
Keyword aromatic, quick
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This vegan Ethiopian lentil soup is very complex and aromatic and gets its distinctive flavor from an equal amount of 11 different spices. Naturally #vegan and #glutenfree.

Filed Under: One Pot Meals, Soups Tagged With: African, Eat-to-Live, Gluten-free, Greens, Nut-Free, Soy-free

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Comments

  1. William

    November 30, 2009 at 4:54 am

    Hi, I must admit I goofed up this recipe big-time. I don't know what I was thinking, but I decided to make a double recipe and made a double spice mix and added ALL 20TB of it to my lentils!! Imagine my panic when I realized and desperately tried to save all the precious ingredients and work by adding more tomatoes, water, and rinsing it to finally make it barely edible! So sad because I was really looking forward to it. Anyway, I wondered if Susan would have tried to salvage it (maybe add some fruit or something to neutralize all the bitter taste) or just thrown the whole thing out and started over?

    Just one question for next attempt, do you use ground Fenugreek seeds or Fenugreek leaves?

    Bill

    Reply
    • Marie

      June 28, 2010 at 6:27 pm

      Try adding yoghurt. It works wonder for Indian dishes!

      Reply
  2. SusanV

    November 30, 2009 at 8:40 am

    Bill, that's really depressing! The only thing I can think to do would be to make a whole new pot of lentils without any seasoning and use some of what you made to flavor it. You could store your extra-strength mixture in the freezer to use in future batches of soup.

    The ground fenugreek I have is made from the seeds. It's the only ground fenugreek I've been able to find.

    Reply
  3. William

    December 3, 2009 at 9:03 am

    Hi, Susan.
    Good idea–that did the trick! Sorry I didn't think about before rinsing 2/3 of the spices down the drain.
    Speaking of seeds, you wouldn't happen to know the name of the black seed used on top of Arab/Afghan style bread (bread that looks like Foccacio)?
    Bill

    Reply
    • vanessa

      November 29, 2010 at 10:35 am

      bill, you are probably thinking of black onion seeds. they are also known as kalonji or nigella seeds.

      Reply
  4. Anonymous

    December 29, 2009 at 4:40 am

    Keep working ,great job!

    Reply
  5. Anonymous

    January 25, 2010 at 4:16 pm

    I love your recipes. I will be visiting your blog often for delicious ideas!

    http://graciouslivingdaybyday.com/

    Reply
  6. Anonymous

    February 27, 2010 at 12:48 pm

    I tried it but looks like something went wrong. I put two much water and its like 10 parts water and 1 part the actual lintel stuff.

    Reply
  7. Amy

    March 18, 2010 at 12:47 pm

    I am going to have to try this! My husband loves red lentils and the spice mixture has a lot of the spices I use in the dal dish I make. BTW I found your blog when I was looking for an eggplant recipe and the Koran Barbecue sauce was a huge hit when I made it!

    Reply
  8. Lisa

    March 22, 2010 at 11:32 am

    This was so tasty! It will be lunch for the next week..The cayenne was a bit overwhelming, but I actually enjoy the kick! The only sub I made was crushing fresh tomatoes instead of canned..

    Reply
  9. caronah

    March 30, 2010 at 2:25 pm

    I made it exactly according to the recipe and it is a very flavorful soup. My husband thought it tasted too much of cloves, though, so I will use much less next time.

    Reply
  10. Jessica

    July 28, 2010 at 9:55 pm

    Are they black sesame seeds? The ones that go on the top of the arab bread?

    Reply
  11. Schedule

    October 29, 2010 at 8:14 pm

    You you could make changes to the page subject title Ethiopian-Inspired Red Lentil Soup | recipe from FatFree Vegan Kitchen to more better for your content you write. I enjoyed the blog post nevertheless.

    Reply
  12. Lilliane

    January 9, 2011 at 4:49 pm

    Just made your Ethiopian Inspired Red Lentil Soup. Had all the ingredients on hand except the fenugreek, so it is missing that. It is delicious! I cut down a little on the spice mixture because this is to feed a painting crew at church tomorrow, and some of them don’t much care for exotic spicy foods. Made a double batch, and used 3 TBS, which made it slightly spicy, but full of a really well balanced and intense flavor. Easy too, once the spice mixture is made, and now I have enough for another batch. My kind of recipe : ) Thank you so very much, love your blog!

    Reply
  13. Get Skinny, Go Vegan.

    February 28, 2011 at 8:02 pm

    YUM!!!!! You need a shopfront!!

    Reply
  14. Tim

    March 29, 2011 at 8:28 pm

    Oh man … this is the best recipe in the history of mankind. I can’t really describe how delicious this is.

    Reply
  15. Amira

    August 20, 2011 at 7:41 am

    I love this soup!

    Reply
  16. mzen

    October 2, 2011 at 7:34 pm

    Fantastic! Best lentil dish ever.

    Reply
  17. gfveg

    October 17, 2011 at 7:04 pm

    i love the idea of equal amounts of all these spices. and i love teff too, so i’ll probably end of trying the injera. what a find!! thanks!

    Reply
  18. Wendy Peffercorn

    November 4, 2011 at 1:06 pm

    This looks amazing, I can’t wait to try it. Could you add a “print” button to this page? Thanks!

    Reply
    • Susan Voisin

      November 4, 2011 at 1:24 pm

      I’ve just added it. Thanks for mentioning it! This is one of my favorite recipes and I didn’t realize there wasn’t a print option.

      Reply
      • Wendy Peffercorn

        November 5, 2011 at 11:01 am

        Thanks so much! I’m making it today and can’t wait. I’ll let you know how it goes!

        Reply
  19. Robert

    November 5, 2011 at 3:23 pm

    Thank you! I remember reading your post a while back so I dutifully printed off the recipe and made this today. I could not get spinach or green beans so added a bag of mixed frozen vegetables instead. My family (who are normally cautious of anything to rich in spices) loved it! It is now on the meal rotation list.

    The only thing I would say is that the cinnamon does come through rather strongly, so when I next blend up the spices I will reduce the cinnamon to maybe 2/3 tablespoon.

    Reply
  20. Wendy Peffercorn

    November 11, 2011 at 3:48 pm

    I really enjoyed this! I replaced some of the potato with sweet potato, which gave it a nice sweetness. I cut the clove down by half in the spice blend, but it still came through really strongly. I think I would cut it back even more in the future. This was a comforting, warm, meal in a bowl and I will definitely make it again, especially now that I have a jar of the berbere spice mixture!

    Reply
  21. Amy

    November 26, 2011 at 12:38 pm

    Thanks for this great recipe! I modified it a little based on what I had on hand and thought I’d share:
    subbed sweet potatoes for potatoes
    subbed collards for spinach
    reduced tomatoes by half
    reduced berbere to 1 T and added in 2 T peanutbutter
    Served over a bit of red quinoa
    Terrific! (Btw, I also LOVED the Ethiopian Pumpkin Soup recipe & so did my guests)

    Reply
  22. Liz

    January 4, 2012 at 12:10 pm

    I made this recipe yesterday and it turned out great! I used 3 Tsp on the spice mix, as I like this very flavorful and spicy. At first, the dish tasted a little bitter so I added some agave nectar, which sweetened it up just enough.

    Had tons of leftovers, which is great for work lunches. I’m eating it for lunch right now!

    Reply
    • Lysa

      February 1, 2012 at 1:21 am

      I just made this soup, It is SOOO GOOD!!! I must admit I was a bit lazy and just went to the local ethiopian store and got pre mixed berber.
      I used 3-4 TBP cause I love spicy, and I have a ton of left overs. I love it.Thank you:)

      Reply
  23. Joan

    November 2, 2012 at 12:50 pm

    Susan – I made this soup a few nights ago and it became a favourite instantly. I used a light hand when first adding the Berbere′ spice mixture but ended up adding <3T (plus more cayenne). It was fantastic! And the leftovers morphed into delicious variations over the next few days. Your website has been my go-to for new ideas since I discovered you . And there's always something that tweaks my interest. TUVM for the time and creativity you spend on this website. It's very much appreciated from this WFPS wet-coaster. ….. " diabetes is not a deficiency of metformin" ….

    Reply
  24. Barb

    December 12, 2012 at 7:03 pm

    This is a great dish. The only warning I have is that the spices are very strong & the dish turned out bitter from the turmeric. I am adding more water and lentils as I write this hoping I didn’t botch dinner and a whole pot of soup. I wish I started out with half of the spices and added as a needed

    Reply
  25. Yehudit

    January 11, 2013 at 9:55 am

    I just made this recipe. I found that I needed to add quite a bit more water than the initial first three cups. The spice mix smells wonderful as it cooked and it tastes great now. I haven’t yet added the spinach yet but will add it for each portion as I eat it. It has a nice spicy bite to it.

    Reply
  26. Kylie

    January 14, 2013 at 8:00 pm

    Just made this tonight and it was fantastic. Perfect dish to warm you up!

    Reply
  27. Perry

    January 17, 2013 at 1:20 am

    Susan,

    Does the nutritional information include the optional salt in the berbere mix? I’m on a low sodium diet, and I’m using some berbere mix that I bought at an ethiopian grocery in Portland. I’ve tasted it and it does have some salt in it, I imagine the same amount in your mix (it’s slightly salty, but not at all overpowering).

    Thanks…P.

    Reply
  28. Lilah

    January 28, 2013 at 10:33 pm

    This was sooo gooood! Definitely saving the recipe. Thank you!!

    Reply
  29. Filio

    June 10, 2013 at 4:46 pm

    Susan!!!! You outdid yourself with this one. I love spicy foods, and these spices were a combination I hadn’t tried before. Everyone, including some very picky family members, absolutely loved this. Fantastic flavors, filling and non-fat! What more could a girl hope for? 🙂
    Thank you again for all the goodies you post!

    Reply
  30. Katie Rose

    August 1, 2013 at 8:18 pm

    Such a wonderful recipe, Susan! I deviated a bit from your berbere spice mix, as I have a favorite berbere recipe I use, but otherwise stuck to your recommendations. A phenomenal, delicious, healthy meal. I served it with brown basmati rice. I have been vegan for five years now and I regularly cook from your blog because every recipe is a winner.

    Reply
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