Hearty Brown Rice Lentil Soup

Brown rice lentil soup is a budget friendly, hearty, and such a satisfying meal that’s perfect for leftovers! Made with simple pantry ingredients, the rice and lentils cook together in the broth for an easy, one-pot weekend soup. It’s vegan, gluten free, and dairy free—perfect for a cozy and nourishing dinner!

If you love making soup over the weekend so you have something to eat throughout the week, you should check out my soup recipes including White Bean Rice Soup, Greek Chickpea Soup and White Bean Pasta Fagioli.

Why you will love this recipe

• Satisfying meal: The simple ingredients come together to create a warm, delicious and super satisfying meal.
• Great for lunch or dinner, this healthy lentil and rice soup uses ingredients you likely already have on hand and requires minimal hands-on time.
• Budget friendly: the ingredients of this soup are very inexpensive, and this soup makes a large batch of soup (10+ cups). You could stretch this soup even further by adding an additional cup of lentils
• Great for leftovers: this lentil soup reheats well and can even be frozen to enjoy later. Be sure to add extra water or broth when reheating, as the rice and lentils tend to absorb liquid and thicken the soup as it sits in the fridge.
• Easy to double or triple for parties or guests: This would be great for feeding guests an inexpensive but hearty meal or served as an appetizer for parties.

Ingredients

• Onion, celery, carrots – these are a very traditional base of vegetables for soup that add flavor, texture and color to the soup. This is called a mirepoix.
• Brown (or green) lentils – lentils are hearty and inexpensive and easy to cook with. No soaking is required. I do not recommend using red lentils, as they cook they tend to get very mushy and would change the texture of the soup.
• Brown jasmine or basmati rice – you want a rice that cooks in about the same time as the lentils. Brown jasmine rice or brown basmati rice cooks in about 30 minutes and is perfect for this soup. If you are using a traditional brown rice, you may need to simmer the soup for 10 more minutes.
• Water + vegetable broth (or stock) – this combination provides flavor from the broth (or stock) but also helps keep the recipe budget friendly by using 1/2 water. Vegetable broth (or stock) can help infuse a lot of flavor into quick cooking soups, so I would not recommend using all water if possible.
• Spices – salt, dried thyme, garlic powder and bay leaves – these help to give the soup lots of flavor without overpowering the soup.
• Veggies – frozen peas and frozen spinach – adding frozen veggies at the end helps make this soup even heartier and helps to increase the veggie content of the soup. You can use whatever your favorite vegetables are here, but I always seem to have frozen peas and spinach on hand so that is what I used.

How to make lentil rice soup

Start by dicing the onions, slicing the carrots and chopping the celery.

Preheat a large pot over medium heat. Spray with avocado oil or olive oil spray (or add about 1 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil or avocado oil to the pot). Add the veggies and cook about 5 minutes. The onions should start to look transparent.

While the veggies are cooking, rinse the rice and lentils in a mesh strainer to get any excess starch off the rice and any dirt off the lentils. Be sure to do look over the lentils to make sure there are no small rocks or debris.

Add the rest of the ingredients except for the frozen peas and frozen spinach.

Turn the heat up to medium high and cover the pot. Bring the pot to a boil.

Once boiling, turn the heat down to low and allow it to simmer, covered for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes of simmering, remove the lid and add the frozen veggies. Turn off the heat. Let the veggies defrost and allow the soup to cool slightly before serving.

Top tips

• Use green or brown lentils. Red lentils get too mushy when cooking and will change the texture of the soup. You could also use French green lentils which retain their shape a bit more when cooking than green lentils.
• Be sure to rinse the lentils and brown rice. Rinsing the rice ensures that you get any excess starch from the rice. Pick through the lentils and check for small rocks before rinsing.
• Be sure to simmer with the lid on or the water will evaporate too much when cooking, and the soup will turn into a thick stew. If this happens, just add more water or broth. Taste again for seasoning if you have to add more water.
• The lentils and rice absorb liquid as they sit in the fridge, so you will need to add water to the soup before reheating.

What other vegetables could you add to this soup?

• Can of diced tomatoes + 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar (helps to cut the “canned” tomato flavor)
• Frozen, fresh or roasted bell peppers
• Thinly sliced zucchini
• Mushrooms (add these when you are sauteing the rest of the veggies before adding any broth).
• Fresh parsley

Common questions

Do you need to cook the rice or lentils before adding them to the soup?

No, this recipe is written to cook the lentils and rice together in the broth on the stove. That is why you bring the soup up to a boil, then simmer it. If you have cooked rice or lentils, see tips above.

What if you want to make a thinner soup?

This soup is quite thick and hearty. If you prefer a thinner soup, you can add more liquid. You could use water, vegetable broth (or stock) or a combination of both to thin out the soup. Be sure to taste the soup for seasoning if you add any additional liquid.

Can you double this recipe?

Yes, you can easily double the recipe if you have a large enough pot. You don’t have to do anything differently to the recipe to double it.

How to make this soup even more budget friendly?

A big portion of the expense for this soup comes from buying store bought vegetable broth. If you make you own vegetable broth from leftover veggie scraps (you can store them in your freezer until you are ready to make broth). The homemade broth is made with mostly leftovers or scraps you would have otherwise thrown away, making it almost free.

If you love soup, you should try

• Vegan Minestrone Soup
• Red Pepper Sweet Potato Soup
• Mushroom Soup
• Instant Pot Tuscan White Bean Soup