Lentil Salad
This delicious lentil salad is bursting with bright flavor and great texture. It offers a good amount of plant-protein and is quite simple to make. Using humble ingredients, it is highly-customizable and also comes together in less than 30 minutes. I love making a big batch to have in the fridge, as it’s great to have as a quick snack, and can easily be bulked up with some salad greens or cooked grains. It’s also fantastic served with crackers, in lettuce cups, or rolled up in a wrap. But most of the time, I just eat it straight up with a spoon!
WHAT KIND OF LENTILS TO USE
The French-style lentils you see here are from Rancho Gordo, one of my favorite companies! For lentil salads, you do want to make sure to use lentils that hold their shape once cooked. Therefore, green and black lentils are my top pick, brown lentils would be the second best option, and the varieties to avoid would be red or yellow. They become too tender and mushy!
HERBS FOR THIS LENTIL SALAD
The herbs you use for the lentil salad are totally up to you! I think the most cost-effective choice would be to buy one bunch of parsley and just use that as the main herb. But if you have it in the budget to buy some other soft herbs like dill, tarragon, or basil—that would be fantastic! I do like to throw in a small amount of woody herbs like fresh thyme, oregano, or rosemary for a nice depth but don’t break the bank. You can also use their dried counterparts for this, if you’d like. Lastly, if you have an herb garden like me, well then look at you go! Use what you are growing.
INGREDIENT OVERVIEW FOR THIS LENTIL SALAD
One of the most important ingredients for this lentil salad is a nice vinegar. I particularly love sherry vinegar for its beautiful round flavor. It is bright, slightly sweet, and nutty. For crunch, I love adding lots of diced celery and carrots. Minced shallots offer the perfect bite and nutritional yeast and tamari do what they do best—offer lots of umami! If you have some good dijon mustard, that works nicely here and to top, some toasted sunflower seeds are quite good but also not necessary.
SHOP FOR THIS LENTIL SALAD
Here are some of my favorite ingredients and items from my Amazon Storefront that you can use for this recipe. If you click these affiliate links and make a purchase, I will make a very small commission. This is no extra charge to you! This will help to support my business and allow me to continue sharing recipes, so thank you in advance:
Sherry Vinegar: This sherry vinegar is so divine and I love the bottle. It is worth the investment, I promise!
Nutritional Yeast: An absolute must for easily adding savory flavor to recipes. This brand is excellent.
Pepper Mill: One of my most-used kitchen items. I love this design and have been using this mill for years. I even gifted one to my mom!
Fleur de Sel: This sea salt is incredibly delicious and the light, crunchy texture is a stellar way to add dimension to any dish. I cannot recommend this brand enough! Buy it in bulk!
HOW TO SERVE THIS LENTIL SALAD
To be honest, I love this lentil salad all on its own but if you’d like to turn it into a more established salad, it mixes very well with greens. Once of my favorite lettuces to use with it is radicchio. One trick with this beautiful vegetable is to soak it in cold water if the leaves are wilted. They will crisp back up!
Another note to mention, this leafy vegetable can be quite bitter so what I like to do is chop it up and, in a separate bowl, toss it with a few additional splashes of sherry vinegar, a small drizzle of dijon mustard, a few cracks of black pepper, and a sprinkling of sea salt. Then toss to mix and season to taste. Then combine it with the lentil salad. I find that bitter vegetables like these really need a good hit of acid to help balance them out. But no matter what leafy vegetable you’d like to use, make sure to season it separately for maximum flavor.
ENJOY THIS LENTIL SALAD
I hope that you love this lentil salad as much as I do. Please feel free to customize it to your liking. You can really push and pull this one in many great ways. Below are a few questions that you might have and also some other lentil recipes for you to try. If you do make this recipe, please let me know in the comments below. I’d love to hear from you.
-Timothy
Absolutely! In fact, that’s the best part of this recipe. It keeps beautifully in the fridge and is downright delicious served chilled. Make a big batch and keep it tightly-sealed in the fridge for up to 5 days. I don’t think it will last that long though!
Yes! You can use whatever variety of lentil that holds their shape nicely but you could also use beans like chickpeas or cannellini beans. The seasonings and fresh herbs in this recipe will work well with both.
So my favorite way to eat this salad are with some crispy rice chips or saltine crackers. It is also delicious served with a warm grain like rice or quinoa and is great served in lettuce cups with avocado or rolled up in a wrap. You also can sprinkle it on avocado toast or toss it with chopped greens like romaine, spinach, or arugula. Serving this lentil salad with massaged kale is also quite lovely!
TRY THESE OTHER LENTIL RECIPES:
Lentil Salad
Ingredients
- 1 pound French green lentils, plus water and salt
- 3 bay leaves, dried or fresh
- 1 small strip kombu, optional
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more to taste
- Flaky sea salt, or Fleur de sel, to taste
- 2 teaspoons tamari
- 1½ cups diced celery
- 1½ cups diced carrots
- 2 cups fresh parsley, roughly chopped
- 1 cup fresh dill*, roughly chopped
- 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 3 tablespoons sherry vinegar, or red wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon fresh thyme*, optional
- 1 tablespoon dijon mustard, optional
- Big pinch red pepper flakes, less or more, to taste
- 1 small shallot, minced
- ½ cup toasted sunflower seeds, plus more to taste (optional)
Instructions
- Soak the lentils: Add the lentils to a medium to large bowl and cover with a few inches of water on the counter overnight. At this time, pick out any suspicious lentils.
- Cook the lentils: When ready to cook, drain the lentils, giving the water to potted plants, and transfer the lentils to a medium pot. Add a big pinch of salt, the bay leaves, and kombu. Cover with a few inches of water, mix well, and cook the lentils over high heat until at a boil. Once boiling, remove the bay leaves and kombu and strain off any white foam. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook until tender. This should take around 10-15 minutes, if that. Once done, drain the liquid off (you can keep this as a great broth).
- Toss and season the lentils: Add the drained lentils to large bowl. Drizzle over the 2 tablespoons olive oil, tamari, a few cracks of black pepper, and a pinch of sea salt. Mix well and taste. Add more salt and pepper, until the lentils are seasoned nicely.
- Mix in the other ingredients: To the bowl of seasoned lentils, add the celery, carrots, parsley, dill, nutritional yeast, vinegar, thyme (or other woody herb), mustard (if using), red pepper flakes, and shallot. Mix well. Give it a taste and add more olive oil and sea salt until the salad tastes balanced and delicious. You are in control here, so make your friends proud!
- Serve the salad: To serve, transfer some of the salad to a bowl and garnish with more fresh herbs, if desired, along with the toasted sunflower seeds, if using. A final drizzling of cold-pressed olive oil and a little flaky salt is always welcome!