Gordon Ramsay Lentil Soup Recipe

Gordon Ramsay’s lentil soup is a spiced red lentil soup made with cumin, coriander, garam masala, ginger, turmeric, and tomato purée, simmered in chicken stock for about 35 minutes. It’s the kind of soup that fills you up without weighing you down.

This recipe appears as “Spiced Lentil Soup” in Gordon Ramsay’s Ultimate Cookery Course, where he says that “with a good chicken stock at its base, you don’t need many ingredients to create a delicious soup.” His Healthy Appetite cookbook features the same recipe with an optional tempered seed garnish poured over the top.

The technique that makes this version stand out is the half-and-half blending. Instead of blitzing everything smooth, Ramsay blends only half the soup and stirs it back in. You get a creamy base with whole lentils still running through it, so every spoonful has texture.

FAQs

Why does Ramsay only blend half the soup instead of all of it?

Most lentil soup recipes go one way or the other: completely smooth or fully chunky. Ramsay splits the difference by blending only half and pouring it back in.

The blended portion gives the soup a creamy, thick body that coats the spoon. The unblended half keeps whole lentils in every bite, so it still eats like a meal rather than drinking like a sauce. It’s a small step that makes the texture far more interesting than going all-in either way.

Why does he cook the spices in oil before adding the lentils?

Raw ground spices taste dusty and flat. Cooking them in hot oil for two minutes before the liquid goes in activates the essential oils trapped inside, which is where the actual flavour lives.

You’ll know it’s working when the kitchen smells warm and toasty. His Ultimate Fit Food version makes the same point about garam masala specifically: “it’s important to ‘cook out’ the garam masala to get the best flavour, so don’t add the grated carrots until the aromas from the spices are released and the room is full of wonderful smells.”

What does the tempered seed garnish add?

The tempered mustard and kalonji seeds come from Ramsay’s Healthy Appetite version of this recipe. You heat oil until it’s very hot, drop in the seeds, and pour the whole thing over the soup when they start popping.

It adds a crackling, nutty contrast on top of the creamy lentils. The mustard seeds give a sharp, peppery bite while the kalonji adds a faint oniony sweetness. It’s completely optional, but it turns a simple bowl into something that feels more finished.

How is this different from his Bread Street Kitchen lentil soup?

The Bread Street Kitchen version takes a completely different direction. It uses Puy lentils instead of red lentils, which hold their shape and have a firmer, earthier bite. It also adds fresh tomatoes, red chilli, and paprika to the spice mix, giving it more heat and acidity.

The biggest difference is that the Bread Street version blends everything completely smooth, while this one stays half-chunky. It also simmers for 40 to 45 minutes instead of 25 to 30 because Puy lentils take longer to soften. If you want a heartier, thicker soup that serves 6, that version is worth looking at.

Why use chicken stock instead of vegetable stock?

Ramsay specifies chicken stock here because it gives the soup a richer, rounder flavour that carries the spices better. Vegetable stock works, and his Healthy Appetite version lists both as options, but chicken stock adds a savoury depth that lentils on their own don’t have.

If you’re making this vegetarian, use a good quality vegetable stock and consider adding a squeeze of lemon at the end to brighten it up. His leek and potato soup uses the same chicken stock base for the same reason: body and depth.

Can you make a lighter version of this soup?

Ramsay’s Ultimate Fit Food has a leaner take called Lentil, Carrot and Coriander Soup that comes in at 305 calories per serving. It swaps the six-spice blend for just garam masala, adds 1 lb (500g) of grated carrots for bulk and natural sweetness, and uses fresh ginger instead of ground.

That version isn’t blended at all, so it has a chunkier, more stew-like texture. It also uses vegetable stock and finishes with a squeeze of lemon instead of yoghurt. If you’re looking for something to pair alongside, his butternut squash soup has a similar warming quality but goes in a sweeter direction.