Best Damn Instant Pot Red Lentil Soup

This recipe for Instant Pot Red Lentil Soup is such a wonderful alternative to split pea soup. Red lentil soup, while sharing a consistency with split pea soup, has it’s own unique and awesome flavor, and is also packed with fiber, iron and potassium.

What are red lentils?

Red Lentils don’t get enough credit in the legume world. They have a wonderful, delicate, slightly sweet flavor and provide a wonderful texture when cooked into a soup. They readily take on the flavors that are added to it, while providing a heartiness all their own. Reminiscent to split pea soup, red lentil soup is perfect for adding other flavors in the red color palette – especially fire roasted tomatoes.

Filled with delicious and flavorful vegetables

This recipe starts with onion, celery and carrots, when diced and sauteed in a little butter. This is called a mirepoix. It’s the base for many popular soups. The vibrant aroma that will have everyone asking “what smells so delicious?” After the vegetables are sauteed, we add a can of fire roasted diced tomatoes. I’m a huge fan of fire roasted tomatoes and they further accentuate the heartiness of this soup with rich, deep flavors. Finally we and the chicken stock, which I prefer over vegetable stock. I find the chicken stock better fills out the flavor profile of all the other ingredients. That said, you can certainly use vegetable stock if you wish.

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