Creamy, Spicy Vegetable Lentil Soup: Freezer Meal for After Baby

I am a soup-loving kind of girl, and this vegetable lentil soup, which I created to have for easy, nutritious postpartum lunches, combines a bunch of my favorite ingredients! It’s flavorful, creamy, slightly spicy, and packed full of good-for-you whole foods. Since I was making it specifically for postpartum, I wanted to include nutritious, wholesome ingredients in this vegetable lentil soup. So obviously I tried to pack in some vegetables with a specific focus on healing properties. But I also wanted to incorporate warming spices, like ginger and cinnamon and black pepper, which are traditionally incorporated into postpartum food to aid healing and recovery.

How this Creamy, Spicy Vegetable Lentil Soup came to be:

About three weeks before Thad was born, I researched some of the best foods for postpartum, put a few on my grocery list, and after I got home from the grocery store, I started tossing ingredients into a large pot and tasting along the way. Thus, this soup was created!

I let it cool and froze it into individual portion sized bags so I could pull out a bag at a time for an easy lunch and reheat. I made that first batch quite spicy by adding cayenne pepper, which I haven’t included in this version of the recipe, but if you like spice as much as I do, you can add a couple shakes to help build the heat!

Now, back to why I love soup… Soup is just the best for preparing in bulk so you can freeze in family or individual-sized portions. It’s also fantastic for cold months when you need something to warm you from the inside out. And it’s an easy way to pack a lot of nutrition AND hydration into a meal. As a postpartum, breastfeeding Mama, those are important elements… And bonus, I can heat it up in a cup and DRINK it one handed while I breastfeed! So handy!

Why these specific, wholesome, nutritious ingredients:

The ingredients I put in this soup were selected specifically for health benefits after giving birth to a baby and doing the hard work of caring for a very young infant while healing from the inside out. While birth is a part of life that I’m passionate about seeing as a transformative and empowering, I am well aware that it is a big physical event in a woman’s life. Building a baby, carrying it to term, delivering it, and then recovering afterward taxes the body. So I try to make sure I’m doing what I can to support my body’s needs.

Additionally, since early postpartum is a time when sleep is a bit hard to come by (at least in long chunks!), I always feel like my immune system is a bit fragile. So I wanted to incorporate foods that help support my immune system to operate as optimally as possible.

What you’ll need to make this soup:

The ingredients I used in this vegetable lentil soup are listed below, along with the nutritional elements or benefits found in that ingredient:

Onions – Vitamin C, Potassium, B Vitamins
Garlic – immune support
Ginger – Antioxidant and possibly Anti-inflammatory
Sweet Potatoes – Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Antioxidants, Fiber
Carrots – Vitamin A, Fiber
Mushrooms – Antioxidants, B Vitamins, Potassium
Canned Tomatoes – Lycopene, Vitamin A, Vitamin C
Red Lentils – protein, iron, fiber, zinc,
Kale – Vitamin K, Vitamin C, Potassium, Fiber, Calcium
Parsley – Vitamin K, Vitamin A, and is a natural diuretic
Broth (ideally bone broth – substitute vegetable broth for vegan option) – Collagen, reduction in inflammation, protein
Coconut Milk – healthy fats, may reduce inflammation and be anti-viral and anti-bacterial
Red Chili Peppers – Vitamin C, Vitamin B6, Vitamin A, Antioxidant
Curry Powder – supports digestive health, circulation, blood sugar regulation
Cinnamon – Potassium, Magnesium, Calcium, and may be Antioxidant and Anti-Inflammatory
Salt – helps maintain hydration and electrolyte balance
Black Pepper – Antioxidant and Anti-Inflammatory

How to Make This Vegetable Lentil Soup:

The overall process and tools needed for making this soup is pretty simple. You’ll need a big stock pot, a wooden spoon, a cutting board, and a sharp knife.

Start chopping the vegetables. I began with the onion, garlic (I used pre-crushed garlic, but if you’re using cloves, you can do it early on), ginger, sweet potatoes, and carrots.

Heat the oil in the stock pot over medium heat, and then toss in the onions and garlic and ginger.

Next you’ll add your chopped veggies (see list above).

While those cook, you can chop your mushrooms, kale, and parsley.

Once the harder veggies have had a few minutes to start to soften, add the mushrooms and parsley, and the rest of the spices. You can add a splash of broth to keep enough moisture in the pot. Once the spices have had a chance to meld with the veggies for a few minutes, add in the rest of the stock.

I let this come to a boil and then turn it down to simmer for awhile. Since I often make soups in the morning while I’m working on school with Mara and Jemma, I’ll let the soup simmer for a few hours on the back of the stove, but 45 minutes should get everything cooked.

About 20-30 minutes before serving, I add the chopped kale and the coconut milk, and then do some taste testing. I’ll add more salt or pepper at this stage if needed.

After the final tweaking, it’s ready to serve!

What to serve with this soup to make it a meal:

At our house, soup is one of our simple, staple meals. Especially in the autumn and winter. So often a soup like this will be served with a loaf of my easy sourdough bread. If I’m feeling a bit more fancy, it is really nice with my herb and garlic focaccia bread, or breadsticks are nice.

Since there are a lot of veggies in the soup, I don’t stress about making sure additional veggies are served with it. But if I’ve made this for company or have fresh lettuce to use up, I’ll throw together a simple side salad to round out the meal with a bit of fresh crunch. Or, for a simpler option, a few carrot and apple slices work well!

And if my kids are feeling particular and complain about the spice level on a soup like this, I’ll add some greek yogurt or coconut yogurt to tame the spice down a bit.

Of course, in our house, we love kombucha, so this meal would be rounded out with a jar of cold kombucha for all of us – we’re big fans of my husband’s orange-mango kombucha!