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Is this not the prettiest soup that you ever did see?! This curried coconut lentil soup is so vibrant and is so creamy delicious! It is packed with flavor from the curry and spices. The coconut milk gives it a luxuriously creamy texture.
The best part?! It’s all put together in the Instant Pot!
I don’t cook with lentils EVER and I don’t know why. They’re so readily available and they’re a great source of protein.
They’re so versatile because you can basically mix anything together with the lentils and it’ll soak up all the flavor.
This soup is my new obsession and I hope it will be yours too. A lot of readers have requested Instant Pot and vegetarian recipes and I think that this combines the best of both worlds!
Instant Pot Curried Coconut Lentil Soup
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tablespoon ginger paste
- 1 tablespoon curry powder
- ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- ¾ cup (144 g) dried red split lentils
- 13.5 ounce (383 ml) can unsweetened full fat coconut milk
- 1 ¼ cups (296 ml) water
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- 14.5 ounce (411 g) can crushed tomatoes
Instructions
- Press sauté on the front of your 6-quart Instant Pot. In the insert, add the onion, garlic, ginger paste, curry powder, crushed red pepper flakes, lentils, coconut milk, water, salt, and pepper. Stir to mix then let it come up to a simmer then press cancel. Immediately add the can of crushed tomatoes LAST and on top of everything else and do not stir it in. Pressure cookers seem to not like tomatoes for some reason and you will often times get a BURN notice. If you don’t stir the tomatoes in and just let it sit on top, you should be fine.
- Close the lid of the pressure cooker and make sure that the vent is set to sealing.
- Using the manual function, use high pressure and set the cook time to 15 minutes.
- Once the soup has finished cooking, let sit for 15 minutes before you quick release the pressure. You can choose to either quick release it or let it naturally release, depending on how hungry you are or when dinner is!
- Divide evenly into bowls and garnish with parsley or cilantro on top.
Notes
Nutrition
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Just made this….and WOW!!! Seriously so amazing!!!! My husband and I both loved it so much. I made 4 servings, but now I’m wishing I made more. I have to admit, I was nervous after seeing all the ‘burn’ comments. But I followed the recipe exactly and had no problems at all! No tweaks needed. This recipe is here to stay at my household. Thank you so much!
I made this and turned out perfect! I am making again with my other family members in other states and we will compare how they turn out. So flavorful! I had no issues with it sticking.
This recipe is so quick and easy. It is amazing and versatile. So glad I stumbled upon this
What is the white garnish pictured on top of the soup along with the cilantro ?
Sour cream
Burn notice. This recipe needs modifying or not doing in an instant pot.
I’ve actually made this three more times after I received comments about this and I haven’t gotten the BURN notice. However, I did give instructions in the recipe notes on how to try to avoid this. Sorry it happened to you.
I’ve made this numerous times and never got a burn warning. It’s one of my favourites – and I just dump the tomatoes on top
Now my sister wants to make it but doesn’t have an instant pot. How long should she cook it?
she could cook it on the stove or slow cooker
Delicious! Thank you! My family and I loved it:)
My favorite instant pot recipe. Perfect for meal prepping lunches.
Thank you! So glad to hear this.
First off, excellent recipe. I do add a bit more post cook to the seasoning, but I think that is something everyone does when making a dish they find online. I had some minor challenges with the burn issue. For any struggling with that, it’s extremely easy to dump it into a pot and finish it off in there. But I have found a few tricks that help avoid it, and since employing them things have been pretty easy.
So some people mentioned the lentils were causing the issue. I don’t know if they are or aren’t, but to be safe I stir all the other ingredients and add them last after the fact. That may or may not be helping, so take that for what you will.
The big thing that I think is helping though is how I add the tomatoes. Since the instant pot is a tad narrow, when I made the recipe initially I kinda tilted the can slowly into the pot, since you can’t really fit the whole thing in there. This meant the tomatoes were dropping a good ways and likely getting the speed to fall to the bottom. What I’ve been doing lately is pouring the can into a ladle or saute spoon and then lowing that into the broth and sorta turning it to lay it on top. Since doing this I’ve not had the burn issue once. So maybe the key is to sort of baby the tomatoe into the pot so to speak.
Sorry for the long post. Either way I loved this and it’s easily one of my most repeated recipes. Thank you for posting it!
Thank you for sharing your tricks!
Subbed minced ginger for ginger paste. I also like a lot of spice and garlic so I added more chili flakes and 3 large cloves garlic. I added a little more than 1.5 cup of water. Other than that I followed the recipe exactly and did not get a burn warning. I served it over some jasmine rice for a hearty and filling meal. It turned out delicious! Will definitely bookmark this recipe to make again.
Yum! I’m glad you didn’t get a burn warning! Woohoo! :)