Lentil Potato Soup Recipe (Italian style)

This Italian style lentil potato soup is an incredibly flavorful and aromatic recipe. This soup is primarily served during the Lenten season and is the ideal comfort food to warm you up during the winter months. Thanks to the hearty lentils and potatoes, light tomato sauce, and excellent spices this dish is a one-pot wonder that’s so easy to make. We frequently cook a big pot and then store it in the fridge for small leftovers or freeze larger portions for later. Check out this yummy Mexican lentil soup for another delicious take on lentils.

This lentil and potato soup with Italian flavors is currently one our favorite recipes. It’s so easy to whip up and it’s meatless.

It relies heavily on pantry staples and a few vegetables. Therefore if you have a well stocked pantry you may already have most of the ingredients needed on hand.

If not, don’t worry! What I love about lentil soup is that it’s very adaptable to what you have available in your kitchen.

What are lentils?

Lentils are a type of legume. They are common ingredients in cuisines all around the world. It’s a cheap and versatile ingredient popularly added to soups, salads and stews.

Lentil potato soup recipe ingredients

Lentils

We’re using brown lentils for this soup but the green variety would also work well.

Seasonings and Spices

Second to our star ingredient are our seasoning and spices which will give amazing flavor to our broth. Our spices lend that nice smoky flavor and earthiness to our broth. Garlic, Bay Leaf, Parsley, Basil, Cloves, Salt, Thyme, Pepper, and Oregano all work hand in hand to create an aromatic and perfectly seasoned lentil soup. If you want the fresh kind, feel free to swap that for dried but we’re using the latter to make good use of our spice rack. We’re also using olive oil to sauté the ingredients. Finally, we’re adding heat with some red pepper flakes.

Vegetable base

This recipe uses water and Better Than Bouillons seasoned vegetable base. We’re adding color and emulsifying the broth with some canned tomatoes and tomato sauce.

Vegetables

We typically use onions, celery sticks, carrots, and a lot of gold potatoes to pack our soup with even more nutrients. With the base flavor of the onions and tomatoes coupled with the spices, you can use practically any vegetables you have on hand.

Parmesan rind and cheese

Adding a parmesan rind to the soup while it simmers adds an amazing flavor. We like to garnish our soup with some of the fresh grated cheese as well.

Our ingredients may seem like a lot but don’t feel daunted by them. You only need a few minutes of prep time to make this protein-dense soup, and then it simmers away on the stove by itself until it’s time to eat!

How to make dutch oven lentil soup

I like to make this soup in a dutch oven however you could always use a regular pot.

Heat up the dutch oven over medium heat and add the olive oil.

Once hot add the diced onion to the pot and season with salt and pepper.

Cook for a few minutes then add the minced garlic and continue to cook for another minute.

Next add the chopped carrots, celery and the potatoes.

Then go in with the oregano leaves, thyme leaves, basil leaves, parsley flakes and bay leaves.

Give it a good stir.

Now it’s time to add the tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, rinsed lentils, crushed red pepper, water, vegetable base and parmesan rind.

Give everything another good stir and bring to a boil.

Then reduce heat to medium low and cover.

Cook for 30 minutes.

After the 30 minutes have passed check the veggies and lentils to see if they are tender. Also check for salt and add some if needed.

If the veggies and lentils aren’t done continue to cook for another 10 minutes or until tender.

After the soup is done cooking make sure to remove the bay leaves before serving. You can also remove what’s left of the parmesan rind.

Looking for more delicious and easy soups?

Soups are probably our favorite things to make especially in the chilly Fall and Winter seasons. They’re yummy, easy and they make use of what you already have in your pantry and fridge.

One of the most economical yet tasty soups I like to make is this black bean soup with masa dumplings. My kids favorite soup is definitely this sopita recipe. What I like about both of these recipes is that they’re meatless.

When we’re feeling under the weather which happens more often than not during the winter season, I like to make Mexican chicken soup which is also known as “caldo de pollo”. It’s very comforting and helps us feel better.

Lentil and potato soup recipe

This lentil potato soup is just the thing you need to warm you up on a cold day. Not only is this soup super delicious, it’s also inexpensive as it makes good use of the spice cabinet and pantry.

I hope you give this recipe a try. If you do, I’d love to hear what you think of it in the comments below.

Thanks for visiting!