It’s Happy National Eat Your Vegetables Day, have you had yours?
Some of the easiest ways to get those plant-based foods are with a smoothie, salad, or soup. But today – we’re making a bowl of incredibly healthy and easy lentil soup with kale and rice.
Not only is it healthy — it’s filling, tasty, and satisfying. Feel free to throw in some bread rolls or whatever other sides you want. There are no rules here. We’re just eating green and cheap.
Also, good news: this recipe has really affordable ingredients in it. I used just a few fresh ingredients, but everything else in this lentil soup comes from your typical household pantry.
Pro-tip: if you ever had a tough time finding pantry items at your local store, Amazon sells a bunch of seasonings and dry foods on their website. When I can’t find something, in particular, that’s the place I go to.
Easy Lentil Soup With Kale And Rice Recipe
Cooking Notes:
- If you want to go oil-free, you can use a splash of water to replace the oil.
- If you don’t have sweet onions, any onion will do.
- I added leftover cooked rice. However, you’re welcome to use fresh.
- If you want this soup soupier, just add more water and seasonings.
- Some folks don’t dig kale stems in their stew (I do). Remove them if need be.
- If you let the rice sit in the soup, it will soak up the water. Serve the rice when you serve the soup.
- This makes about 4-6 servings.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup small green lentils
- 1 cup cooked rice
- 2 cups kale, washed + chopped
- 2 whole carrots, washed + chopped
- ½ sweet onion, chopped
- ½ bell pepper, washed + chopped
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tbsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp dry basil
- 2 tsp red wine vinegar
- 5 ½ cups of water
- 1 tbsp oil (if you’re oil-free, just add a little bit of water instead to cook the veggie base)
Directions:
- Prepare and chop all of your vegetables (kale, carrots, onion, and bell pepper).
- In a large pot over medium heat, add the oil, chopped carrots, onions, and bell pepper.
- Stir and cook until soft, about 5-7 minutes.
- Throw in the kale and cover pot. Cook down for 2 minutes.
- Next, stir in the tomato paste and mix well. Let everything cook for 4 minutes.
- Now it’s time to throw in your bay leaves, basil, garlic powder, chili powder, salt. Combine well.
- Add the lentils, water, red wine vinegar. Stir to combine.
- Bring everything to a boil. Then, lower temperature to a simmer.
- Cook the soup for 30-35 minutes. Cover pot.
- Serve with rice stirred in.

Dee
Love it!! My whole family love it. I add squash and potatoes too. It came out delicious.
Chefyl
Thanks for sharing this recipe– it took a little more effort than i usually put into lentil soup, but came out quite tasty, so was worth it! The proportions were perfect, and the kale stems i included wound up nicely chewy. I also added one sweet potato, after chopping and microwaving it for 3 minutes (not sure that was necessary, but really didn’t want underdone chunks in the soup).