Instant Pot Red Lentil Soup with Cumin and Lemon

By Sprig Originals ✓ · cooked up in Sprig

Split red lentils turn velvety in about ten minutes under pressure, so this whole pot of soup — sweet carrot, garlic, toasted cumin and a deep hit of tomato paste — is on the table in half an hour with almost no chopping. A big squeeze of lemon at the end wakes everything up. Ten pantry ingredients, one pot, and leftovers that thicken into something even better the next day.

Ingredients

• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 large yellow onion, chopped
• 2 medium carrots, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 3 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 1/2 cups dried red split lentils, rinsed
• 6 cups chicken or vegetable broth
• 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt, plus more to taste
• 1 large lemon, cut into wedges

Instructions

1. Set the Instant Pot to Sauté (normal). Add the olive oil, onion and carrots and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes, until the onion is softened and translucent.
2. Add the garlic and cumin and stir for 30 seconds, then stir in the tomato paste and cook 1 minute more, until it darkens slightly and smells rich.
3. Pour in about 1 cup of the broth and scrape the bottom of the pot clean with a wooden spoon — no stuck bits, no burn warning. Turn off Sauté, then add the rinsed lentils, the remaining broth and the salt and stir once.
4. Lock the lid, set the valve to Sealing, and pressure cook on High for 10 minutes. When the cycle ends, let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes, then carefully move the valve to Venting to release the rest.
5. Open the lid and blend the soup right in the pot with an immersion blender until mostly smooth but still a little textured, about 20 seconds. No blender? Whisk hard for a minute — the lentils collapse into a creamy purée on their own.
6. Thin with a splash of hot water if it's thicker than you like, taste and add salt, then ladle into bowls and squeeze a lemon wedge generously over each serving.

Chef's tips

Nutrition (per serving, estimated)

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