This Lentil Salad is a delicious make-ahead meal loaded with plant-based protein. Toss it together for a party, or keep it in the fridge for an easy lunch!
If you are looking for a way to sneak more lentils into your life, this salad is a delicious way to do it. Lentils pack nearly 18 grams of protein into each cooked cup, and when you pair them with freshly diced veggies, you’ll have a flavor party in your mouth.
Assemble this salad recipe over the weekend and enjoy it for the next 5 days. It’s delicious chilled, straight from the fridge for an easy meal prep idea.
If you’d like to change things up, top it with a sprinkle of feta cheese, or baked chicken breasts, or serve it as a side dish with your favorite main course.
Ingredients You’ll Need
The beauty of this lentil salad recipe is you can use any vegetables and herbs you have on hand. Feel free to swap the red bell peppers for cherry tomatoes or baby spinach. You can use lemon juice instead of vinegar if that’s what you have.
Buying pre-cooked lentils from the store will save you time, but you can cook them from scratch in about 25 minutes. Use brown, black, or green lentils for the best results. (Red lentils are too mushy for salads.)
How to Make Lentil Salad
1. Cook the lentils.
If you are not starting with pre-cooked lentils (they are available canned or vacuum-sealed in the chilled section of the grocery store), add the dry lentils to a saucepan and cover them with water. You can use chicken broth or add a bay leaf to the cooking water if you’d like to add more flavor. The lentils will triple in size as they cook, so make sure you use a large enough pot.
Bring the liquid to a boil, lower the heat, and cover the pot with a lid. Simmer until the lentils are tender, about 20 to 25 minutes. Be sure the lentils are always covered in liquid during this time so that they will cook evenly.
When the lentils are tender, pour them through a fine mesh strainer to drain any excess cooking liquid. Set them aside to cool.
Don’t have enough lentils? That’s okay, too! I’ve made this recipe with just 3 cups of cooked lentils (about 2 cans or a 1-pound vacuum-sealed pack), and it still turns out delicious with a higher veggie-to-lentil ratio. Add salt to taste when using fewer lentils because you won’t need as much.
2. Prepare the dressing.
In a large bowl, combine the olive oil, vinegar, dijon mustard, maple syrup, garlic, 1 teaspoon of salt, and black pepper. Whisk well to mix.
3. Add the veggies.
Add the diced red onion, cucumber, celery, and red bell pepper to the bowl of dressing, and toss well.
4. Mix it all together.
When the lentils have cooled, stir them with the sliced almonds and raisins.
Adjust the seasoning to taste, adding a little extra salt, if needed, to boost the flavor.
Set the salad aside to marinate for at least 15 minutes. The raisins will plump as the salad rests, and then it’s ready to serve. Use a slotted spoon for serving to allow any excess liquid at the bottom of the bowl to drain away, and garnish with fresh parsley or fresh mint leaves.
Leftover salad can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. Shake the jar well before serving again to ensure the dressing is evenly distributed. The salad tastes even better the next day!
Frequently Asked Questions
Unlike beans, you don’t have to soak lentils before cooking them.
You’ll need to taste-test the lentils to check for tenderness after 20 minutes of cooking. (Rinse them off under cold water to help them cool down quickly; don’t burn your mouth!) The age of dry lentils can affect their cooking time, so the timing might vary each time. Older lentils take longer to cook than fresher ones, and it’s nearly impossible to know how old they are when you buy them at the store. Adding salt or acid to the cooking water can also slow the cooking time.
Looking for more lentil recipes? Try Instant Pot Lentil Soup, Stuffed Spaghetti Squash, Red Lentil Soup, or Lentil Bolognese for more ideas.
Best Lentil Salad
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups dry green or brown lentils (or 4 ½ cups pre-cooked lentils)
- ¼ cup olive oil
- ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon stone-ground mustard
- 2 small cloves garlic , minced
- 1 ½ to 2 teaspoons fine sea salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 cucumber , diced (about 1 ½ cups)
- 1 red onion , diced (about 1 ¼ cups)
- 1 red bell pepper , diced (about ¾ cup)
- 3 celery stalks , diced (about 1 cup)
- 1 cup golden raisins (optional)
- 1 cup sliced almonds (optional)
Instructions
- To cook the lentils, combine 1 ½ cups of dry lentils with 4 ½ cups of water. Bring the water to a boil in a saucepan that is large enough for the lentils to triple in size as they cook. Once boiling, lower the heat to a simmer and cook until the lentils are tender, but still firm, about 20 minutes.
- While the lentils are cooking, prepare the dressing. In a large bowl, combine the oil, vinegar, maple syrup, mustard, garlic, 1 teaspoon of salt, and black pepper, then whisk well to combine.
- When the lentils are tender, drain any excess liquid and rinse the cooked lentils under cold water to stop the cooking process and help them cool down faster.
- While the lentils cool, you can dice the cucumber, onion, bell pepper, and celery if you haven't already. The smaller you dice them, the more flavor you'll get in each bite. Add the chopped vegetables to the large bowl of dressing and toss to combine. Add in the cooled lentils, and stir again.
- Add in the raisins and sliced almonds, if desired, then season with additional salt, as needed. Serve right away with a slotted spoon to let the excess dressing drip away, or transfer the salad to an airtight container to chill in the fridge. Shake or stir before serving again to make sure the dressing is evenly distributed.
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Notes
Nutrition
If you try this lentil salad recipe, please leave a comment and star rating below, letting me know how you like it.
Very good! It is fine without almonds and raisins, but those add-one make the salad more flavorful and enhance the texture. I used 3/4 cup of dark raisins and 3/4 cup toasted almonds.
LOVE THIS!!! SO FRESH! I’m slowly getting into lentils and this helped with that! Thank you!
Great tasting lentil salad. I used the already cooked lentils from Trader Joe’s so the salad was so fast and easy! The dressing is very tasty and I used water instead of oil in it!
love it so much!! i started eating more plant based, and these delicious recipes keep me going. it’s such a good feeling when i find both healthy and tasty recipes. definitely recommend.
How can I substitute oil in this recipe?
This is one of my absolute favorite recipes ever! Always a hit with everyone, a great addition to any holiday table as well as a delicious make ahead lunch to enjoy all week. Love the crunch and diversity of taste in every bite, I usually add in cranberries instead of the raisins.
My family loved this salad. I used red lentils and even added some fresh zucchini to it. Delicious!
I can’t get enough of this salad! So good! Love that this is the kind of food I can feel good eating. 🙂 Thank you for the recipe. FYI, I used regular yellow (ballpark) mustard, only half a red onion, and regular raisins – not golden. Cooked my lentils in the Instant Pot too. Thanks again!
I made a batch of this salad for dinner at my friend’s house. I served it over a bed of baby kale and arugula. It was a big hit and tasted better each subsequent day!
What is the serving size for the nutrition info?
Do you think cranberries would work instead of the golden raisins?
Or sliced grapes? Too weird? ha ha
How many lunches will this make if I meal prep for the week?
I made this last night and it was amazing! That was my second time making it. The first time I used maple syrup and the second time I replaced it with honey. Both were amazing but my family decided we prefer the maple syrup. Thank you!
This was amazing! One of the best salads I have had. I made it as written but I added romaine to the arugula. This is the type of salad you can eat often.
I have never left a review in my life but this was so good I had to.
Thank you for the recipe.
EXCELLENT dish!! I brought this to a weekend at the beach and we ate it for lunch, dinner AND breakfast. Everyone loved it!!
I’m so glad it was a hit!! Thanks for letting me know, Betsy. I appreciate your feedback!
This is now my go to potluck dish. Love the raisins and I toasted almond slivers. Sliced the onion on a mandolin so it can be removed easily if someone doesn’t like raw onion.
Super easy to make. Delicious and very filling!
Delicious recipe! Question, is 1 cup considered 1 serving? Thanks again!
Delicious – the portions are just perfect – i used green onion cause it was the only type I had and added the slivered almonds – its actually much lighter than i expected. I am so over all these salads that have lemon, this was a nice change – will add to my fav’s list.
Very yummy, and stays fresh for many days, so truly an excellent make-ahead lunch. I made with raisins and almonds and didn’t serve over greens, but will try that next time. Thank you!
This salad is delicious! I substituted Dijon mustard since I didn’t have stone ground and used only 1tsp of salt. This recipe is one that I will definitely be making again!
This is a fantastic recipe, so flavorful and satisfying. In order to make it processed oil-free, I substituted tahini for the olive oil. Magnifico!
2tsp. Seems like a lot of salt. Is this really the correct amount?
I do use 2 teaspoons of salt for this salad (since it’s huge!) but you can always start with a lot less, if you’d prefer. Salt is easy to keep adding as you go, and the flavor will mellow significantly when chilled in the fridge.
This is a real go-to for my family! I omit the raisins and add a few chopped Kalamata olives!
My go-to pot luck dish, there’s always someone who raves about it and asks for the recipe 🙂
This is so good I save it for the last thing in my lunch. It’s my dessert!
Now I don’t usually leave recipe reviews because they always are missing something – but this one isn’t! The dressing is spot on and the choice of vegetables is perfect. Thanks!
This is so yummy and fresh for lunch! I made a half batch (4 servings) just as the recipe called for substituting an orange pepper for a red one, Persian cucumbers for an English one, and slivered almonds for sliced ones. I think my sea salt was also a bit more course than fine. I am so excited about taking this to work for lunch this week. The golden raisins and almonds are an excellent addition and this is a really easy and filling salad to make. This is definitely going into my regular rotation.
I followed this recipe exactly, which is unusual for me, but I actually had all the ingredients. 🙂 It is SO DELICIOUS! I have shared it with a bunch of people. Thank you so much for this healthy and delectable recipe!
I made this ahead and stored in mason jars so I could take this on vacation with me. I was nervous to add the almonds and dried fruit, but it works so well together. I added a bit of feta also. So glad I made this!
I ate this salad all through my pregnancy when I had gestational diabetes, and it was so satisfying, filling, and excellent for managing my blood sugar. Two years later and I still adore it.
Made this today. Loved it. Did not have maple so used local honey. Added fresh parsley for freshness and sprinkled some feta on top. Keeper 😍
Got a pound of lentils from Trader Joes and followed this recipe exactly! DELISH! That dressing is soooo good! Will definitely make again! Thank you!
This was sooo gooood! Loved the way it was tangy, sweet, crunchy, chewy! My husband–who is no big ban of lentils–loved this as much as me! He won’t eat lentil spaghetti or lentil sloppy joes, but he snarfed this! I’ll definitely start including it in our regular rotation! Thanks so much for sharing your wonderful recipes with us!
My family loves this recipe. Sometimes we add in some bow tie pasta noodles too. A real crowd pleaser!
This was amazing and easy to make.