Melissa Clark's Red Lentil Soup

There’s almost nothing better than hearing, “Good dinner, Mom. This is so delicious!” from my toddler while he's eating something I’ve cooked for him.

Apr 11, 2025

There’s almost nothing better than hearing, “Good dinner, Mom. This is so delicious!” from my toddler while he’s eating something I’ve cooked for him. This was the enthusiastic reaction that he had while enjoying Melissa Clark’s Red Lentil Soup from NYT Cooking, a recipe that I had just discovered from the podcast I’m currently binging – The Dinner Plan with Maggie Hoffman.

I am always on the lookout for new weeknight dinner inspiration and discovered the podcast Didn’t I Just Feed You with Stacie Billis and Meghan Splawn this past September, only a few months before they decided to gracefully end the show (RIP). As their podcast came to a close, they directed us, overwhelmed and dinner-idea-starved parents, to The Dinner Plan, promising us that it would fill the DIJFY void that we so desperately needed.

The Dinner Plan invites one food professional each week to talk about what’s in their pantry, what they cook at home, how they think about meal prep and planning, and so much more. As someone deeply obsessed and interested in all things food, particularly the “food people” who have inspired me and whose passion reminds me of my own, I was immediately hooked after listening to my first episode.

You mean to tell me I get to collect new ideas for what to make for dinner during the week, AND I get access to a behind the scenes look inside the kitchens of some of the recipe developers and creators whose work I admire? I’m all in!

I scoured through Maggie’s library of past episodes and began flagging the ones I was most eager to listen to first. Melissa Clark’s name jumped out the second I saw it. As one of the most respected and, I would say, successful recipe developers from New York Times Cooking, having Melissa’s name on a recipe is like an immediate stamp of approval. Her recipes are generally quite simple (you’ll never find an unnecessary ingredient or step in her dishes) with familiar flavours that bring me comfort, and most of all, they are reliable. She has rarely steared me astray. More than that, as a person, she is just a delight. Confident without being boastful, bubbly without being insufferably perky, down to earth, and, to be totally honest with you, I can’t help but be drawn to the fact that she’s a redhead like myself.

In her episode, Melissa calls her Red Lentil Soup recipe “The only recipe that I never change,” which says a lot – this woman has a serious catalogue of recipes under her belt! It’s a pantry recipe made with only a handful of ingredients, all of which I typically have on hand – dried red lentils, chicken broth, onions, garlic, carrot, cumin, lemon, and cilantro (which you could easily make without if you have the anti-cilantro gene).

This recipe requires very little prep and very little cook time and can be made in one pot. While the accompanying video on the NYT Cooking App suggests blending part of the soup in a blender, I avoid cleaning my blender at all costs and found the immersion blender perfectly effective in achieving the ideal texture. While Melissa says she never changes this recipe, my only piece of advice is to double the batch because it is that good! It’s one of those recipes that is so delightfully low-effort, high-reward that it almost doesn’t make sense.

It’s delicious and full-flavoured, comforting, and bonus points for being a soup – ie, it can be made one day and quickly reheated for dinner later in the week, which is essential for much of my meal prep at the moment.

This soup was a major winner at our weeknight dinner table, and it has an official invitation to our dinner rotation. I have no doubt this recipe will become one that I turn to again and again for years to come!

Here’s the recipe: Melissa Clark’s Red Lentil Soup - NYT Cooking (see note below regarding the NYT Cooking paywall)

Bookmarked & Butter Stained

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