20 Minute Cold Lentil Salad with Herbs
Your new weekday lunch hero is here: this filling, flavourful lentil salad takes just 20 minutes to throw together! It’s packed with protein- and fibre-rich lentils plus plenty of nutrient-dense herbs like mint, parsley and green onion.
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cup dry French green or black lentils about 3 cups cooked
- 2 cups diced cucumber about half a large
- 1 lightly packed cup curly parsley minced
- ⅓ lightly packed cup fresh mint thinly sliced
- 1 green onion thinly sliced on the diagonal
- ½ cup pitted green olives halved, I like Castelvetrano
- ⅓ cup almonds chopped, sub sunflower seeds for nut free!
- ¼ teaspoon dried chile flakes
- salt to taste
- Fresh Lemon Dijon Vinaigrette I like a large clove of garlic in the dressing for this salad
Instructions
- Bring a medium pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add the lentils, reduce heat to medium and cook until lentils are al dente, about 12-18 minutes.
- Meanwhile, whisk up the lemon dijon dressing directly in your serving bowl, and add the cucumber, parsley, mint, onion, olives, almonds and chile flakes.
- When the lentils are cooked, rinse them with plenty of fresh cold water and drain well. Add the lentils to the serving bowl and toss well. Taste and adjust salt as desired.
- If you've got 15 minutes, letting the salad sit for a bit helps the lentils suck up the flavour but it's ready to eat when you are!
Notes
You can adapt this recipe to any lentil you have on hand EXCEPT red lentils...too mushy!
Different varieties, brands and ages of lentils need different times to cook...see the blog post for some lentil cooking tips (it may take longer than stated in recipe!).