Slow Cooker Greek Lentil Soup
Slow Cooker Greek Lentil Soup is a vegetarian soup with tomatoes, spinach, and Feta cheese and this is delicious! This is a must-make soup if you’re a fan of Greek flavors and if you check the nutritional it’s relatively low in net carbs.
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I’ve been a lover of lentils for quite a few years now so there are many variations of Lentil Soup on my blog, but when I spotted a recipe for Greek Lentils with spinach and Feta in the American Heart Association Healthy Slow Cooker Cookbook (affiliate link), I couldn’t resist turning it into a soup. And I added other ingredients like celery, tomatoes, and lots of stock so I could have a larger serving.
This Slow Cooker Greek Lentil Soup starts with just lentils, chopped celery and onion, garlic, vegetable or chicken stock, canned tomatoes, and spices, and if you chop the vegetables the night before it’s easy to throw in the slow cooker in the morning and let it cook all day. When you get home, add chopped spinach to the soup with some lemon juice and cook a bit longer, then scoop into bowls, add Feta, and you have a tummy-warming soup for dinner. I’ve never used Feta as a soup topper before, but I loved how it added a vibrant burst of flavor.
What ingredients do you need for this recipe?
- brown lentils
- vegetable broth
- onion
- celery
- Greek Seasoning (affiliate link)
- Dried Thyme (affiliate link)
- dried Greek Oregano (affiliate link)
- Minced Garlic (affiliate link)
- fresh-ground black pepper to taste
- can of petite diced tomatoes
- spinach leaves
- fresh-squeezed lemon juice, I used my fresh-frozen lemon juice
- Feta Cheese for serving (optional, but good)
What gives this recipe Greek flavors?
The ingredients that give this recipe Greek flavors are thyme, Greek oregano, Greek Seasoning, tomatoes, spinach, lemon, and of course Feta Cheese!
Want more tasty ideas for soup?
Use Soup Recipes to see all the soups that have been featured on Kalyn’s Kitchen. You can also use the Soup or Stew index to see all the slow cooker or Instant Pot soups featured on my other site!
How to make Slow Cooker Greek Lentil Soup:
(Scroll down for complete recipe with nutritional information.)
- Start with 2 cups regular brown lentils. (Lentils that are fresher will cook more quickly, so take that into account when you’re timing the soup.)
- You’ll also need 1 medium onion, chopped small, and 1 cup of celery, also chopped fairly small. (Do this the night before if you want to get this in the slow cooker early in the morning!)
- Put the lentils, onions, celery, vegetable or chicken stock, Greek Seasoning (affiliate link), Dried Thyme, dried oregano, minced garlic, black pepper, and canned tomatoes with juice into the slow cooker.
- Cook on high for about 4 hours or on low for 8-9 hours, until the lentils are as soft as you prefer. (Slightly longer cooking time won’t matter much, either on high or low.)
- Here’s how the soup looked after we cooked it nearly 4 hours on high. The lentils were soft but still kept their shape.
- When the lentils are softened to your liking, chop the spinach (and wash in salad spinner if needed.)
- Add the chopped spinach to the soup with the lemon juice, turn to high if cooking on low, and cook on high for 30 minutes more. (Add a little more stock at this point if the soup seems thicker than you’d like.)
- When the spinach is nicely softened, serve soup hot, garnished with Feta cheese if you’d like!
This is great with a tablespoon or two of crumbled Feta on top of each bowl if desired.
More Meatless Dinners You Might Like:
Vegetarian Index ~ Slow Cooker or Pressure Cooker
Mexican Red Lentil Stew
Spicy Red Lentil and Chickpea Stew
Indian-Spiced Slow Cooker Red Lentil Soup
Weekend Food Prep:
This recipe has been added to a category called Weekend Food Prep to help you find recipes you can prep or cook on the weekend and eat during the week!
Slow Cooker Greek Lentil Soup
Slow Cooker Greek Lentil Soup has tomatoes and spinach and this meatless soup is delicious with a sprinkle of Feta.
Ingredients
- 2 cups brown lentils (washed and picked over if needed)
- 8 cups vegetable broth (or more)
- 1 medium onion, diced small
- 1 cup chopped celery, chopped into fairly small pieces
- 1 T Greek Seasoning
- 1 tsp. dried thyme
- 2 tsp. dried Greek or Turkish oregano
- 1 T minced garlic
- fresh-ground black pepper to taste
- one 14.5 oz. can petite diced tomatoes
- 1 bunch spinach leaves, stems cut off, chopped and washed
- 2 T fresh-squeezed lemon juice (or a little less if you’re not that into lemon)
- crumbled Feta Cheese for serving (optional, but good)
Instructions
- Chop onions and celery and measure 2 cups brown lentils. (Do this the night before and store in the fridge in a Ziploc bag if you want to get this into the slow cooker quickly in the morning.)
- Put the lentils, onions, celery, vegetable broth, Greek Seasoning (affiliate link), dried thyme (affiliate link), dried oregano, minced garlic, black pepper, and canned tomatoes with juice into the slow cooker.
- Cook on high for about 4 hours or on low for 8-9 hours, or until the lentils are as softened as you’d like them. (Cooking time will partly depend on how fresh your lentils are; lentils that have been on the pantry or store shelf for a while will take a little longer to cook.)
- When the lentils are softened as much as you’d like, chop the spinach and wash in salad spinner if needed.
- Add spinach and lemon juice to the soup, turn slow cooker to high if you were cooking on low, and cook about 30 minutes more. (A little longer won’t hurt, but the longer you cook the spinach the darker green it will get.
- Add another cup or two of stock at this point if the soup seems thicker than you’d like.)
- Serve soup hot, with a tablespoon or two of crumbled Feta sprinkled on each serving if desired.
Notes
I used a Crock-Pot 5-Quart Programmable Smart-Pot Slow Cooker (affiliate link) for this recipe. If you’re going to cook all day, this type of slow cooker is a good choice because you can set it to cook for 8 hours on low and then it switches to “warm” after 8 hours.
Recipe inspired by Greek Lentils in the American Heart Association Healthy Slow Cooker Cookbook. (affiliate link)
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
8Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 108Total Fat: 1gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 0gCholesterol: 3mgSodium: 1367mgCarbohydrates: 18gFiber: 6gSugar: 5gProtein: 7g
Nutrition information is automatically calculated by the Recipe Plug-In I am using. I am not a nutritionist and cannot guarantee 100% accuracy, since many variables affect those calculations.
Low-Carb Diet / Low-Glycemic Diet / South Beach Diet Suggestions:
Slow Cooker Greek Lentil Soup is not super low in carbs but if you check the nutritional information you might be pleasantly surprised that it’s relatively low in net carbs. And low-glycemic dried beans or lentils are approved for all phases of the original South Beach Diet although portion size is limited for Phase One.
Find More Recipes Like This One:
Use Soup Recipes to find more recipes like this one. Use the Recipes by Diet Type photo index pages to find more recipes suitable for a specific eating plan. You might also like to Follow Kalyn’s Kitchen on Pinterest to see all the good recipes I’m sharing there. Click here for Slow Cooker / Instant Pot Recipes on my other site!
Historical Notes for this Recipe:
This recipe was posted in 2014. It was last updated with more information in 2021.
30 Comments on “Slow Cooker Greek Lentil Soup”
Is there a conversion for using an instant pot?
I’m guessing you could make this in an Instant Pot, but I haven’t done it that way so I wouldn’t be able to guess exactly how you would do it. (My site has been in existence for nearly 17 years, so I won’t ever be able to convert all the older slow cooker recipes to Instant Pot ones; there are simply too many slow cooker recipes to test them all.)
If you do try it, I’d love to hear what you did and how it worked.
This soup is INSANELY good! I cannot stop eating it. Thank you so so sooooo much for the recipe. There is a small chain in the northeast called Aladdin's that makes an amazing lentil soup. My husband and I are currently in south Texas with no sign of a good Mediterranean restaurant (or any good/healthy restaurant, in general). I calculated the nutrition info with 1/2 cup reduced fat feta for 8 servings and is as follows: 128 calories (!!!!!!), 2.2 g fat, 5 mg cholesterol, 902 mg sodium, 20 g carbs, 6 g fiber, 5 g sugar, 9 g protein. I am currently posting it to my Instagram feed it was THAT good!
Glad you like it so much!
We have made your wonderful soup again, and this time my son asked me to leave the tomatoes out (he's 3…). It's still delicious! Truly a great recipe. Thanks.
Thanks Katharine! And that's very cute that your 3 year old has such opinions about how food is prepared, love it!
Hi Kalyn, we've jsut tried it and "wow" is the verdict! Even my picky preschoolers! Thanks.
So happy to hear that!
Katharine, this is a recipe I've made several times for parties; hope you enjoy!
Thanks a lot, this is in our slow cooker now, slightly scaled down since our family has two preschoolers. Was pleased to find something else for lentils and tomato soup than a lentil chili, and as a bonus my celery has a place to go. I tossed in a carrot and some frozen peas since we have an abundance of both. Thanks–from Katharine in Brussels, who's using her husband's account 🙂