With a warming coconut curry broth and tender sweet potatoes, this is the coziest Instant Pot lentil soup you can dig your spoon into!

Hand holding bowl of lentil soup and spooning some up with a spoon with a blurred bowl of soup in the background.

Please Don’t Judge a Soup by Its Color.

They say we eat with our eyes, but I’m glad there’s an exception made for lentil soup. It isn’t the prettiest soup out there, but it’s a damn treat for those taste buds and that belly. Especially this time of year. What’s better than warming up on a chilly night with a helping of hearty goodness? This lentil soup recipe brings some serious flavor and comfort to your bowl with its warming yellow curry and coconut broth. It’s also full of nourishing ingredients, like sweet potatoes and turmeric, so it’s as healthy as it is cozy! This recipe makes a decent sized batch and you’ll be glad. Because you’ll be having this for dinner every night until it’s gone. Seriously—just grab a loaf of fresh crusty bread and call it a meal for a few nights.

Is Lentil Soup Good for You?

Lentils are extremely good for you, and so is this soup. The lentils alone offer up a hefty dose of dietary fiber, folate, and magnesium, making them a heart-healthy ingredient. They’re also incredibly high in protein so you can fill up on this soup as a complete meal. Add to that the sweet potatoes, carrots, zucchini, curry, and turmeric, and you’ve kind of got yourself a powerhouse. In my mind, you simply cannot go wrong with a soup like this.

Hand sorting through lentils in colander.

The Complete List of Warming Ingredients.

Do note that you can easily adapt this recipe by using a different medley of vegetables. I love using sweet potatoes and carrots, and I find zucchini to be a nice addition to soups. But you could sub-in celery, corn, peas, kale, etc. if you prefer! Here’s what I’ve used:

  • Olive or avocado oil
  • Small yellow onion
  • Sweet potato
  • Zucchini
  • Carrot
  • Garlic
  • Ginger
  • Yellow curry paste
  • Turmeric
  • Sea salt
  • Cracked black pepper
  • Green lentils
  • Coconut milk
  • Limes

Bowls of ingredients like chopped vegetables, lentils, curry paste, and chopped spinach.

How to Make Lentil Soup in an Instant Pot.

The Instant Pot is perfect for lentil soup because it removes the need to soak or pre-cook your lentils—AKA it makes life easier ;) Not to mention your sweet potatoes come out incredibly tender, too. 15 minutes under pressure and you’ve got hearty, wholesome perfection. Here’s how to make this bomb lentil soup:

  1. Start with a sauté. Set your Instant Pot to Sauté normal mode (not high), and once the pot has warmed up, drizzle in the oil. Add the onions and let them cook for about 5 minutes, until soft and fragrant, stirring occasionally. Then add the garlic, sweet potatoes, zucchini, carrots, ginger, curry paste, turmeric, salt, and pepper. Give everything a good stir until well mixed, and sauté for another 5 minutes, stirring often.
  2. Add those lentils! While the veggies are sautéing, transfer your uncooked lentils to a colander and rinse them under cool water. Then go through them with your hands looking for any hardened bits or debris that may have gotten lumped in with the lentils. When everything is good, add them to the Instant Pot and stir to coat them in the spices.
  3. Now, your broth. Cancel the Sauté function and add the coconut milk and vegetable broth. Stir well until the coconut milk is well mixed and there are no more clumps.
  4. Put it under pressure. Lock the lid into place, set the valve to “Sealing”, and set the Instant Pot to cook on HIGH pressure for 15 minutes. When done, let the pressure release naturally, which should only take about 10-15 minutes. After 15 minutes, you can manually release if need be.
  5. Get some bread and DIG IN. Open the lid, give the soup a good stir, and that’s it. Grab yourself a hunk of fresh crusty bread, squeeze in some lime juice, and go to town on that good stuff. SO EASY.

Six step process shots of preparing soup in Instant Pot.

Side shot close up of bowl of lentil soup garnished with a lime wedge.

Useful Tools for This Recipe:

Recipe Tips + Tricks.

  1. Green or brown lentils can be used in this recipe. I wouldn’t recommend using red or yellow lentils since they take much less time to cook and don’t hold their shape as well, so they’ll just become mushy.
  2. Be sure to use dried lentils in this recipe. Canned lentils are precooked and will result in a mushy undesirable texture.
  3. If you find the soup to be thicker than you’d like once the pressure cooking is done, simply stir in some broth until you get the consistency you’d like, and then adjust the seasoning (salt and pepper) to your preference.
  4. Feel free to change up the vegetables (swap spinach for kale, mushrooms instead of zucchini, etc.) Just keep the measurements in mind. This soup is already hearty and thick, so if you add too much, you’ll end up with more of a stew.
  5. This soup keep in the fridge in an airtight container for 3-5 days.
  6. You can freeze this soup for up to 3 months in an airtight container.

Two bowls of hearty lentil soup garnished with lime wedges.

Have You Made This Recipe?

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More Delicious and Hearty Soups to Curl up With:

Hand holding bowl of lentil soup and spooning some up with a spoon with a blurred bowl of soup in the background.

Coconut Curry Instant Pot Lentil Soup

With a warming coconut curry broth and tender sweet potatoes, this is the coziest Instant Pot lentil soup you can dig your spoon into!
5 from 27 votes
Print Pin Rate
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Natural release:: 15 minutes
Total Time: 45 minutes
Servings: 8 servings
Calories: 228kcal

Ingredients

  • 4 cups vegetable broth
  • 1 13.5 oz can full fat coconut milk
  • 1 cup dry French green lentils, rinsed
  • 1 cup peeled and cubed sweet potato (about 1/2 of a sweet potato)
  • 1 cup diced zucchini
  • 1 cup peeled and diced carrots
  • 1 small yellow onion, diced
  • 4 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 2 TBSP olive or avocado oil
  • 2 TBSP yellow curry paste
  • 1 TBSP freshly grated ginger
  • 1 tsp turmeric
  • 1 tsp sea salt, more to taste
  • 1/4 tsp cracked black pepper, more to taste
  • Lime wedges, for serving
  • Fresh chopped parsley, for serving

Instructions

  • Activate the Sauté on normal/medium (not high). When the pot is warm, drizzle in the oil and add the onions. Let them cook for about 5 minutes or until they're soft and fragrant, stirring occasionally.
  • Add the garlic, sweet potatoes, zucchini, carrots, ginger, curry paste, turmeric, salt, and pepper to the pot. Stir everything until mixed and sauté the vegetables for another 5 minutes or so, stirring often.
  • While the veggies are cooking, dump your uncooked lentils into a colander and rinse them under cool water, going through them with your hands to look for any hardened bits or small rocks (it happens). When clear, stir the lentils into the Instant Pot coating them in the spices.
  • Cancel the Sauté function. Now, stir in the coconut milk and vegetable broth; stir everything well until it's all blended.
  • Lock the lid into place, set the valve to "Sealing", and cook on HIGH pressure for 15 minutes. When it's done, let the pressure release naturally. This should only take about 10-15 minutes, but after 15 minutes you can manually release if needed.
  • Open the lid and give everything a good stir. Serve with fresh bread and a lime wedge. (I love adding a spritz of fresh lemon juice to my soups, but lime works really well with these flavors!)

Nutrition

Serving: 1g | Calories: 228kcal | Carbohydrates: 24g | Protein: 8g | Fat: 13g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Sodium: 993mg | Fiber: 7g | Sugar: 6g