What a wonderful combo of flavors, simply soup-erb! Sub’d butternut & buttercup squash, &1/2 tsp. 5-spice powder for the star anise. Enjoying leftovers tonight w/the Seeded Flatbread ! – Anticipation….

I just made this and thought I’d share my little tweaks. I ended up using my immersion blender to puree it at the end, which seemed necessary because the squash didn’t entirely fall apart when I added it to the soup. After blending it I liked it twice as much. I also swirled in a dollop of creme fraiche, which made it deliciously velvety. the garlic croutons are a must. The ginger and anise flavor was very subtle – I’d use more next time.

I just made this and served it to my 3 kids and they gobbled it up! I used the last of my baby hubbard squash and it turned out amazing. Please don’t stop the lentil soup recipes, my family loves lentils and I feel so good serving them!

Funny — I just made Martha Rose Shulman’s marinated french lentils with your (Mark Bittman’s) Millet Butternut Squash bake as a meal for a sick friend. For dessert: Nikki’s Healthy Cookies. This soup would have meant one less dish! Must try this!!

Yum! I have been in total soup mode this week. Must be that end-of-winter rush for warmth. I love kabocha and can’t wait to try this one.

I was needing an iron-rich meal and made this soup last night. I’m not usually a fan of lentils, but this was delightful! Definately making again. I couldnt’ find the kabocha squash, so i used acorn instead. Also, i diced some sweet potatoes and threw them in with the onion/fennel mix.. really nice!

Love this soup!!! I love making soup and this one went straight to the top of my list! Had it for a little birthday gathering for my sister-in-law and got rave reviews. When it was finished I thought it just a bit more like stew than soup so put in 2 cups of veggie broth and it was perfect! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

I love lentil recipes. This sounds delicious.
Thank you.

Any ideas for using beluga lentils? I know the Big Sur Bakery cookbook has at least one.

I made this yesterday – delicious. I thought needed a bit of depth and freshness at the end though so threw in a handful of torn black olives, fresh coriander and lemon juice for the last few mins cook time. Really brought the earthy gingery tones out. Another fantastic recipe Heidi!

I gave this recipe a try last night. The combination of flavors proved to be excellent and it is such a delicious soup! I love your idea for the garlic croutons – made mine from a round sourdough loaf. It will be tricky to ever eat soup without them again…

Made this for lunch today and used sweet potatoes instead of squash since that’s what I had on hand. I cubed the cooked potatoes and added them to the bottom of the bowl before ladling the soup into it so they wouldn’t disintegrate. It was crazy good…the perfect thing for a cold day! Thank you for the fantastic recipe!

Thank you for posting recipes that freeze well. As a working Mom, I rely on them!!

My co worker just made this and brought it in to share it was wonderful.

look delicous

Yum! 🙂

hello – this book looks adorable, I’d like to order copies for a couple of veggie friends, are the recipes all or mostly vegetarian? adorable. thanks for finding it and sharing it, but then, that’s what you DO 🙂
HS: Hi Sarah, yes all the recipes are vegetarian. Without having the book in front of me, I think they might even be vegan. Not 100% positive though.

Ohhhh I can’t WAIT to try this!! Looks soooo yummy!! Thanks for all of yuor delicious posts!

Ginger and star anise, what a great idea.

Made this last night but roasted the last addition of veggies with more root vegetables I had on hand…then I ordered the book!

No, no – don’t stop the lentil soup recipes from coming! They’re one of our favorite winter staple. I could make a new one every day, so thank you for this one. I’ve never paired anise with lentils before, so it will be a treat!

Thank you for posting this! I was just lamenting that there seems to be no way to vary lentil soup. I was wrong!
I happened to have just picked up a little packet of whole spices at an Asian grocery store intended for pho. It included cinnamon, cloves, coriander, star anise, and cardamom. I made a tea/broth out of this to cook the lentils in and skipped the ginger. I also used shallots and celery in place of the onion, leek, and fennel, and I doubled the lentils without doubling the squash. It came out wonderfully. Really great. So thanks again to you and Rebecca Stevens!

Sweet. I have been obsessed with soup this winter, but I haven’t come across anything nearly as unique as this. Can’t wait to try it!

Made this and it was exquisitely sublime.
I followed the reicipe to a ‘T’ until the end when I sauteed some kale, throwing it in at the very last. I’m sure the kale touch is something I learned from 101 Cookbooks!
Thank you for the mmmmmmmmmm.

This looks delicious. I can’t find fennel here in Japan very often. What would you suggest as a substitute?
I will echo a lot of other comments. Never feel that you have to refrain from posting a lentil soup recipe.

It’s been SO unseasonably cold here in S. FL but I do welcome the change. I’ve been craving soups all the while.
I made your Chickpea Hot Pot yesterday – spiced it up with some hot sesame oil and a few flakes of crushed red pepper – otherwise to the letter – and left overs were even better!
I will seek out a kabocha squash this weekend to give your newest lentil version a whirl 🙂

gosh, that looks good! I’ll have to give it a try — I’ve been making lentil soup the same old way for years…this will be a nice change!

I just made this tonight and had to come leave a comment because it is one of the best soups I have ever made. Honestly I was not expecting to like it much–I had a kabocha on hand that needed to be used when I came across the recipe and decided to try it since I had all the ingredients on hand.
As I was making it I didn’t have high hopes as I was having a hard time imagining how the flavors would come together. I was so very wrong–it is sweet and spicy and complex and just so wonderful!

Made this last night but had to substitute adzuki beans for lentils at the last minute when I discovered I was out of them. It increased the cooking time a bit, but was it ever worth it! The pot was devoured by myself and a few friends. I shared the recipe and added it to the list of must-revisit winter soups. Thanks!

hello! I made this soup last night for dinner and it was absolutely amazing. delicious flavor combination. I never thought of putting fennel in a soup!

oooh, i’m recently obsessed with the texture of kabocha (see the recipe for squash with red beens in WASHOKU cookbook) – this combined with lentils looks fantastic!

I LOVE lentil soups and this is definitely a direction I’ve never seen before. Can’t wait to try it out.

What do you mean the last lentil soup for a while?! More lentil recipes please! I’ve never used kabocha squash. I usually buy just regular butternut squash, but now I must try kabocha!
ps: love love love recipes with homemade croutons. I never understood those crappy packaged ones!

Looks heavenly. I’m loving all the lentil recipes. Ordering her book through Etsy now!

I’m also confused about how the squash integrates itself into the soup. Does it need chopped up after I scooping it out? Or does it smooth out and thicken the broth after its added?
HS: Hi Tami, because the roasting softens so much, it blends right into the soup with a bit of stirring.

Where do you keep all your cookbooks. You must have THOUSANDS by now! Could probably start up your own library! 😉

Don’t stop – one can never have enough delicious lentil soup recipes!

This sounds amazing! I am a huge soup fan, so I am always looking for a good recipe.
I’m not sure if you have ever mentioned Moosewood cookbooks on any of your blogs, but I am completely obsessed with them. The one titled Moosewood Daily Specials has amazing soup and salad recipes. If you haven’t looked through it then I highly recommend checking it out!
Enjoy!!

This sounds amazing. I just bought a kabocha the other day and I have lots of lentils. The garlicky croutons seem to compliment it so well!
Jenn

I’m so happy I had all the ingredients for this on hand. I spent this afternoon making it, and it is absolutely delicious and perfect for the snowy weather we’ve got here today in New Hampshire. The red pepper flakes are a must-add!

I made this last night…same day I received the post. Very yummy! I think I might make it subbing sweet potato for the squash next time. I used butternut squash, as that was about all available when I shopped.

Stupendo come sempre!!! Ciao

Kabocha can do no wrong, and this is a combination I hadn’t thought of. Looks wonderful.

I like how you used the sweet licorice taste of fennell, as well as the awesome taste of ginger. I wonder how sweet this soup is. I will try cooking this for my parents and siblings soon! Love the posts, keep on rolling!

Great recipe! I love it.

I’d love to master this recipe. I know lentils are healthy, but I always have had failed foodie experiences with them in the past. Here’s hoping! Naimah

All of your meals and deserts look very tasteful.

I almost wish it was winter so I could make this soup…

As I am reading this, it is snowing, I am finishing my site re-design tweaks, and my stomach is growling from looking at the main photo for this post.
P.S. The lentil recipes are awesome. And the daal recipe that you posted was scrumptious! My grandmother, a very picky Indian cook who rarely eats anyone’s daal, (she’s very picky about her daal for some reason!) enjoyed your daal recipe a lot (cooked by yours truly). Great post and stay awesome.
I’ll bookmark this one.
HS: Happy to hear it Kamran 🙂

This soup looks hearty and delicious, Heidi.
Nisrine

This soup looks hearty and delicious, Heidi.
Nisrine

Thanks Heidi, I recently put together a whole product around healthy vegan winter soup recipes on video, and this one would have been fabulous to include. I just bought a package of star anise, too!

I MUST chime in with my ode to Heidi’s lentil soup recipes! I love the simplicity of her red lentil soup dish(try it if you haven’t!)….it has become a classic in my kitchen and even my salty Maine father who prefers cookies over much of anything healthy asked for a second helping. I have some french lentils in my cupboard just waiting for this soup!

Nice take on lentil soup! I can’t say I’m quite sure what star anise is but I’m going to have to check it out. I’m on lentil kick myself 🙂

No apologies on those lentil soup recipes. This sounds divine. I’d just about had my fill of winter squash, but this sounds AWESOME.

What is Star Anise & is it readily available at most grocery stores or is it a specialty item?

Oooohh! It looks so good, I’m so making this and I’m not gonna tell my friends about it until I perfect it!

Oooh, I love ginger, pumpkin and star anise!! Such a shame that it is summer here in Australia – not soup weather at all.
Mustn’t forget this recipe!!

While I feel sure “coins of ginger” means slices that resemble the shape of coins of money, it also implies don’t chop, grind, etc., the ginger, so it’s a useful term.
However, ginger comes in SO many sizes where I shop (and for those of us trying the recipe for the first time), it might be helpful if we had an estimated width, or average diameter, like 1/2″, or 1″. Since these two exampled sizes provide more than double the difference in surface area, it would be useful to know.

Great timing as I have a few squash left in the cold pantry.
If I may recommend a great squash to grow for soups, consider a Pacific NW favorite, sweet meat winter squash, and also red kuri squash. Both taste great and are relatively easy to grow. They are the best keepers, that is they store well in a cool room until spring without rotting.

OOOH – “moons”, “coins”, “bulbs”…….it just makes it sound so much more fun!!!
I can’t wait to slice up some coins of ginger.

I avoided lentils because I thought my kids wouldn’t like them. Super wrong mama me. Adding this to my hoard of lentil recipes. Merci!

it was perfect

Oh, I love lentil soup but never considered adding in winter squash to the mix. Brilliant!
Looks like the cookbook has other good lentil soup recipes too!

all I had on hand was black lentils – and no leeks or fennel, alas – but extra onion, a good dose of red pepper flakes, and it was still delicious!

Yum.

I cannot wait to try this, I’ve only recently discovered how wonderful lentil soups are!

That sounds really tasty. I adore a good soup; lately I’ve been coming across a few French lentil soup recipes in particular. I take that as a sign that it would be an excellent idea to make it!

Wow! What a fabulous recipe. We are big fans of your blog here at How2Heroes!

Yummmm…will try it soon. On another note, I made a quick quinoa salad with an asian flavor combination for lunch today. Although the recipe inspiration did not come directly from any of your recipes, the inspiration to create something really simple, yet flavorful with whatever ingredients I have on hand is totally from you. Thanks for teaching me a whole new way to look at cooking, and food. I owe you bigtime.

Mmm! I never get tired of lentil soup recipes.

I like all your recipes and l also want cake recipes especially the one without rich ingredients l mean a simple recipe.

Yes, please keep the lentil soups coming!
I have a question about the squash which is scooped out of the skin. Do you then chop it up before adding to the soup or are you adding spoonfuls and does it cook down into a puree??

I’ve never seen the term “coins of ginger”. Can I assume that means slices, perhaps through the middle of the root?

In my opinion, there is just no such thing as too much lentil soup. Of course, my fily doesn’t always agree with me. I can’t wait to try this one, and have some squash ready to go!

Funny, as much as I do NOT like black licorice, I am a sucker for fennel anything. And with the addition of ginger and squash?! this sounds wonderful.

Ah, the sounds of a store called “The Curiousity Shoppe.” What’s not to love about that?!
Squash and lentils is a gorgeous, delicious, healthy combo. Looks so tasty. Keep the lentils coming, they’re nutrient-dense and economical. Why stop?

Wow, the spices in this sound really amazing. I can’t wait to try this out!

I love trying new lentil recipes; this looks fantastic, Heidi…perfect for a chilly February day like today…I’m sure this will warm me right up..looks quite tasty and hearty. Have a great day!

Never apologize for lentil soup recipes, and never ever stop posting them! I love your innovative takes on the delicious but oft-overlooked little pulse.

This soup sounds amazing! I have a butternut squash on my counter and now know exactly what I’ll be doing with it. I’m very interested to see how the anise and ginger flavors will combine. Thanks for the great recipe!

Is there anything better than the lentil? I could eat them every day of the week.
The soup looks amazing. Can’t wait to try it. Thanks for the introduction to the cookbook. And thank you for your blog in general. I really appreciate it. I finally bought your cookbook the other day and I’m really enjoying that as well.

Yum… anise, fennel, and ginger make everything wonderful.

Any fresh new squash recipes and I am in! It is always in February when I start getting the “not another squash for dinner” feeling. Can never get enough new ones this time of year.

The combination of anise and ginger sounds fantastic! What a great take on lentil soup.

Lent is beginning and lentils in every shape and combination are eaten in abundance at our house for the next 6 weeks so please keep sending lentil recipes! This one looks wonderful!

Don’t mind the lentils at all! Especially if they keep coming with roasted winter squash — delicious!

A simple but amazing recipe, I like the anise-ginger touch.

I don’t mind the excess of lentil soup either, nice to have them all lined up before Spring arrives (which this year seems to be taking forever…..)
I dislike lentil soups thickened with flour (unfortunately, my husband’s family default recipe, which he loves… 🙂

Oh I would use lentils as often as you like – I love seeing these recipes!

I have been wanting to make a lentil soup for a couple of weeks now and have been looking for a great, not your standard lentil soup recipe and this one looks perfect. I even have all of the ingredients on hand!

I have no problem with lentils soups! Please please keep them coming! This one sound delish.

Heidi, please don’t stop the lentils coming! I love lentils (have 4 kinds in my pantry right now) and I’ve recently discovered that I love fennel as well. Looking at this makes me think how wonderful a bowl of lentil soup might be for supper tonight : )

I’ve made lentil soup a lot of ways, but this sounds really unique. Love the addition of fennel and leek. Just made split pea soup with leeks and they made it extra flavorful.

My boyfriend is sick; and this looks absolutely perfect for him.
… Too bad he prefers Chicken Noodle Soup from a can. Men. What can you do?

No, please don’t stop with the lentil dishes! They’re so good, I can’t get enough of them this time of year! This version sounds delish!
And I love the Curiosity Shoppe. Never been to the physical store, but I love clicking over to their website now and again.

i like absolutely everything about this recipe. the spices sound amazing, as does the fact that kabocha squash is involved. that is one squash i haven’t really dealt with all that much, so i will definitely have to try this recipe out!

This soup is great! I made it tonight, but I used split peas instead of lentils (same cooking time) and anise seed instead of star anise – my grocery store didn’t have stars. Delicious and super filling.

If I’m keeping track of your lentil soup recipes, I assure you I am only doing so happily, maybe even greedily. I love lentil soup! I think lentil soup is the BEST winter food, hands down. I’m actually making a pot right now! This one looks especially fabulous (squash is my second favorite food to eat when its cold out) and I can’t wait to try it.
P.S. I’ve never commented before, but I have been LOVING your blog for quite a while. Thanks so much for all you do here!

This looks amazing. I’ll add it to the long list of Heidi recipes to try. I love your cooking notes — they let us into your creative flair and I always learn so much.
If I could be any blogger in the whole wide world, I would want to be you.

This soup looks wonderful. Something I must try very soon!

oh the book looks absolutely adorable!!
as for the soup, as much as it looks delicious, i don’t care for star anise and fennel (the latter of which also happens to be hard to find and expensive over here)… so i might just have to skip it or maybe throw in something else instead. chopped celery maybe? mmm i’m getting hungry now (lunchtime here!) 🙂
HS: Chika, I suspect you could do any number of variations. I’ll also mention that I kept thinking of five-spice while making this. Maybe using it along with some creme friache as a swirl or something.

This soup looks amazing. I admit to some slowness because I stared at the following sentence for quite some time:
“Oil and salt the squash and roast cut side down (in a rimmed baking pan) with the 1/2 cup / 120 ml of water…”
and I wasn’t sure if I poured the water into the baking pan or if I put the cup on a rack below the baking pan to steam up the oven.
HS: Heh. Ok, I reworded it a bit. You should pour the water into the pan. Well, that’s what I did, and it worked well 🙂

yes – please don’t stop with the lentil/bean soup recipes!!
i just made a big pot of the ribollita soup tonight to eat tomorrow and through the week, and we had your brown rice red lentil soup, made earlier in the day, for dinner! cant wait to add the kabocha lentil soup recipe to my repetoire!

I adore squash and lentils/beans together in warm winter salads, but it never occured to me to combine them in soup (doh!). This sounds so fine, for right now.

warm thanks to you for another great soup recipe. just wanted to note that the last sentence in paragraph two needs to start “these” and not “this.”
i hope that you’ll be able to track down a copy of the rosendal garden cafe’s cookbook from stockholm sometime and do a few healthier takes of their food. they are a botanical garden and city paradise cum bakery/cafe in stockholm with organic food, etc….
HS: Thanks for the suggestion Anna, I’ll try to track down a copy of that book. A visit to the actual cafe might be better though 😉

No need to stop with the lentil soups! They’re always tasty and generally easy. This one is a very unexpected combination of flavors.

Yeah more lentils! Growing up, my mom made a lot of lentils during Lent. Thanks for sharing this find. What an interesting combination.

Yum! Looks and sounds amazing. Am definitely cooking this.

Amazing soup. I love the blend.

This looks like quite a hearty soup! I love the sweetness, nuttiness and thickness that kabocha adds, and I’m just imagining the wonderful spicy flair spike by star anise and ginger. Fantastic!

I love the combo both anise and ginger! The flavors together must be amazing!