How would you thicken a soup so it's not as watery?

[lenswoes]

I made a pan of lentil and vegetable soup for myself a couple of days ago. I haven't ever made soup before. I basically threw in chopped leeks, carrots, vegetable stock, pancetta cubes and about 3 handfuls of lentils. Cooked for about 40 minutes on the hob. It was nice but there was definitely room for improvement. The issue was that the soup was watery. I was aiming for a consistency like what you get from supermarket lentil and bacon soup in a carton. The soup from the carton seems much thicker and I think I prefer it that way. Is it likely that I used too much water, not enough lentils or both?

Those little croquettes of frozen mashed potato, chuck a few in and cook.

Smash

Add cauliflower

So add some flour to the veg and stir it until it sticks to it before you add liquid and blend.

Alternaticely add some potato.

I nearly always cook soup in my slow cooker and halve the amount of stock stated in the recipe as liquid does not reduce in a slow cooker. When it is ready I do a quick blitz with a hand blender, not so it is completely smooth but thickened and has some texture.

Spot of cornflower

I'd like to thank everyone for the great advice I have received. It turns out the solution was a fairly simple one. I just reduced the amount of water and increased the amount of lentils substantially. This resulted in the soup reaching a thickness which was much more to my liking. I actually have something else to confess to. I've been putting all the ingredients into the same pan when cooking the soup. I don't fry the vegetables beforehand. Is this an error on my part? I'm a bit reticent about frying veg and onions especially, as for me, they often end up burnt.

Read a few recipes……

Definitely cook the onions, celery and carrots first in oil or butter, withbth pancetta cubes if you're using them. You'll get a much better flavour.

A dash of lemon juice at the end will also lift the flavour.

Do any of the grocery stores that you frequent carry instant mashed potato flakes? They are a fantastic soup thickener. (Although, other people saying just bake / boil a potato and then mash it up and add it to your soup, yes that works too.)

Other things I've used to thick and soup include oatmeal, pasta and beans / lentils (in all of these cases I will cook these items, and then I use an immersion blender/ wand blender...or if you don't have one of those I suppose you could ladle the not so hot soup into a blender and do it that way... And pulse until the additions are at least 50% blended, so they're half thickening and half still recognizable solids

Courgette thickens a soup beautifully, sweated with the other veg, then zapped with a stick blender at the end of cooking. I use it in tomato soup or green soups like spinach, and it gives a rich mouth-feel without a massive carb content.