Turkey Lentil Soup with ground turkey OR leftover turkey. This hearty soup is loaded with vegetables and lentils in a rich tomato broth. It’s an easy stove top recipe ideal for the holiday season and any cold winter day.
This hearty Turkey Lentil Soup is outrageously good, a great source of protein and once of my favorite recipes this time of year.
The V8 juice in this soup adds another level of flavor and extra nutrition you can’t get from just tomato sauce.
You’ll find step-by-step instructions to make this soup below.
What’s in Turkey and Lentil Soup?
- olive oil
- salt and black pepper
- lean ground turkey (OR use chopped/shredded leftover turkey)
- onion
- carrots
- celery
- garlic powder
- tomato paste
- diced tomatoes
- lentils
- V8 juice
- turkey stock
- small shells, ditalini or other mini pasta
- parsley
- wedge of parmesan cheese
How to make Turkey Lentil Soup:
Ground turkey method:
Add the olive oil to a large pot then drop in the ground turkey over medium high heat. Season with salt and pepper and sear 3-4 minutes.
Break up the turkey into small pieces with a wooden spoon or spatula then drop in the chopped onion, carrots and celery.
Season with garlic powder, salt and pepper then continue cooking 6-8 minutes over medium heat until the carrots start to soften.
Stir in the tomato paste and cook 2 minutes then add the diced tomatoes and lentils.
Add the V8 juice and turkey stock and if your Parmesan cheese has a rind, add it into the pot as well.
Cover and simmer 15 minutes or until the lentils are starting to soften but still have some bite to them.
Stir in the pasta then cover and simmer over low heat 8-10 minutes or until the pasta and lentils are tender (cooking time will vary with the size of pasta used).
Add the chopped parsley and if any of the parm rind remains, remove it. Taste and adjust for salt.
Serve hot with grated parmesan cheese on top and some nice crusty bread.
How do I make this recipe using leftover turkey?
To use leftover turkey just leave out the step adding ground turkey then stir in about 2 cups of leftover turkey cut in bite size pieces after you add the V8 and stock.
VARIATIONS AND SUBS:
- Chicken broth, chicken stock or vegetable broth can be used in place of turkey stock.
- I usually use brown lentils but you can also use green lentils or red lentils. The type of lentil may depend upon what you can find in your grocery store.
- A small squeeze of lemon juice into each bowl would be delicious.
- Wilt in a couple of cups of baby spinach near the end of the cooking process.
HOW TO STORE LEFTOVERS:
Store leftover soup in an airtight container in the fridge up to 3 days.
This soup also freezes really well. I store mine in individual containers (16-20 ounce) – perfect for an easy lunch or dinner.
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Turkey Lentil Soup
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 pound ground turkey OR 2 cups leftover turkey cut bite size
- salt and pepper
- 1 medium onion diced
- 2 medium carrots diced
- 2 stalks celery diced
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 14 ounces diced tomatoes canned
- 1 cup lentils
- 5 cups V8 juice
- 2 1/2 cups turkey stock
- 1/4 cup small pasta (ditalini, small shells, etc) uncooked
- 1/4 cup fresh parsley finely chopped
- Freshly grated parmesan cheese + rind if it has one
Instructions
GROUND TURKEY:
- Add the olive oil to a large pot then drop in the ground turkey over medium high heat. Season with salt and pepper and sear 3-4 minutes.
- Break up the turkey into small pieces with a wooden spoon then drop in the chopped onion, carrots and celery. Season with garlic powder, salt and pepper then continue cooking 6-8 minutes over medium heat until the carrots start to soften.
- Stir in the tomato paste and cook 2 minutes then add the diced tomatoes and lentils.
- Add the V8 juice and turkey stock and if your Parmesan cheese has a rind, add it into the pot as well.
- Cover and simmer 15 minutes or until the lentils are starting to soften but still have some bite to them.
- Stir in the pasta then cover and simmer over low heat 8-10 minutes or until the pasta and lentils are tender.
- Add the chopped parsley and if any of the parm rind remains, remove it. Taste and adjust for salt. Serve hot with grated parmesan cheese on top and some nice crusty bread.
LEFTOVER TURKEY:
- To make this soup with leftover turkey leave out the step adding ground turkey then stir in about 2 cups of leftover turkey cut in bite size pieces after you add the V8 and stock.
Maritza Rodriguez says
The soup was awesome instead of using the V8 I had leftover juice from a piece of meat I had cooked in the Crock-Pot.Tthe juice gave it a wonderful flavor. I didn’t have two tomatoes so I use two roma tomatoes. I used three types of shredded cheese instead of just the one type of cheese.The rest I kept it as the soup requested. I served with garlic bread.
Bernie says
Hi Maritza – So glad you liked it! Soup is one of my favorite things to make. I love that you customized it to what you had on hand. That’s one of the things that’s best about making soup – all in! Garlic bread is an idea side too 🙂 Enjoy the day.
Christine says
Making this tonight… curious as to what constitutes a “serving” in the nutrition info… 1 cup?
Bernie says
Hi Christine – one serving is about 1 to 1 1/2 cups of soup. Thanks for stopping by – I hope you enjoy the soup 🙂
Denise says
Love love this recipe!!! I make 2 batches and share with my friends and right around this time of year the requests start, Sometimes I add a dash of red wine:}
Bernie says
Hi Denise – this makes my day! So glad you love this recipe so much — what a friend you are sharing it too — and I love the addition of red wine – bet it adds even more flavor. Thanks so much for the kind words and taking the time to comment — Bernie
Wonderful cook says
Made this soup last weekend and it was a huge success! Delicious recipe, thank you.
Bernie says
Hi — thank YOU for making this recipe and your kind words. It’s one of my favorites from fall to spring. So glad you enjoyed it too – Bernie