Easy Lentil Salad
Updated Mar 07, 2026
Fresh Lentil Salad made with green lentils, chickpeas, cucumbers, roasted red peppers, onion, and parsley. A lemon, olive oil, garlic, and za'atar dressing.
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Lentil Salad is soo filling and fresh!
I make some version of lentil salad pretty often, especially when I want something I can keep in the fridge and scoop out over a couple of days. This lentil salad recipe started as one of those clean-out-the-vegetable-drawer situations, but the combination stuck and now I make it on purpose.
The base is green lentils and chickpeas, which makes it filling enough to eat as a meal. I like that this lentil salad has a lot of crunch from the cucumbers and red onion, plus roasted red peppers and herbs mixed in. The lemon, garlic, and za’atar dressing ties everything together and keeps it bright without being
Happy Cooking!
– Yumna
Lentil Salad Ingredients
- Green lentils: Look for the small ones for the best consistency. When they cook, they have a nice bite to them without being too soft. You can substitute with other types of green lentils, but don’t use red lentils since they tend to become too soft when boiled.
- Chickpeas: I use canned chickpeas that have been drained and rinsed. Or swap for your favorite canned bean.
- Red peppers: Use roasted red peppers rather than raw, which you can buy in jars at your local grocery store. Roasted peppers are sweeter and have a softer texture. You can substitute with raw if you’d like though.
- Cucumbers: This recipe uses Persian cucumbers as they have thinner skin and less seeds than English. They are interchangeable though if you can’t get Persian.
- Red onions: Red onions are milder than white or yellow so are great to use raw in salads. Dice them finely so that they aren’t too overpowering.
- Parsley: Or swap for cilantro, if you prefer.
- Dressing: Olive oil, lemon juice, za’atar, cumin, garlic salt and pepper.
How to Make Focus Lentil Salad
Easy Lentil Salad Recipe
This Lentil Salad combines green lentils, chickpeas, cucumbers, roasted red peppers, red onion, and parsley with a simple lemon, olive oil, garlic, and zaatar dressing.
Video
Ingredients
- 1 cup green lentils
- 1 15 ounce can chickpeas rinsed and drained
- 1-2 Persian cucumbers small diced
- ½ cup roasted red peppers small diced
- ½ cup red onion small diced
- ¼ cup fresh parsley chopped
Dressing
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon zaatar
- ½ teaspoon cumin
- 1 garlic clove pressed
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- In a large pot of salted boiling water, place the lentils and cook until tender, about 20 minutes. Once cooked, drain the lentils and rinse in cold water to chill. Transfer to a large serving bowl.
- While the lentils are cooking, whisk together the salad dressing ingredients until well combined.
- Add the remaining salad ingredients on top of the lentils.
- When ready to serve, pour the dressing over the salad and gently toss to combine.
Notes
My Top Tip: Allow the lentils to cool before adding any other ingredients. If they are still warm, they will start to cook and soften the other salad ingredients. When you drain them, rinse them under cold water to cool them quickly and stop the cooking process. Or to cool them super quickly, spread on a sheet pan in an even layer and let sit for a few minutes.
Storage: The undressed salad will keep well covered in the fridge for 3 days.
Nutrition
Calories: 405kcal, Carbohydrates: 48g, Protein: 18g, Fat: 17g, Saturated Fat: 2g, Sodium: 854mg, Potassium: 794mg, Fiber: 20g, Sugar: 3g, Vitamin A: 510IU, Vitamin C: 24mg, Calcium: 102mg, Iron: 6mg
Nutrition information provided is an estimate. It will vary based on cooking method and specific ingredients used.
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Recipe Variations
- Add some texture. Chopped almonds, walnuts or even pistachios are really nice here. I usually add ½ cup. If you are making this in advance, add the nuts right before serving so they don’t get soft.
- Top with feta. The flavors here work very well with tangy feta. Try mixing in ½ cup of crumbled feta.
Recipe Tips
- Don’t overcook the green lentils. They should still have a slight bite to them, so give them a little test before draining. Overcooked lentils can become soft and mushy, so they’ll break up when you mix them with the other ingredients.
- Chop everything finely. This will make all the ingredients easier to combine, so you get an even mix of everything.
- Rinse the lentils well. And look over for rocks or stones or anything you wouldn’t want to eat!
Serving Ideas
- This is a great side dish for my Pan Seared Chicken Thighs, Salmon Cakes or Grilled Chicken Kabobs
- Or top with Greek Chicken for a complete meal.
- Serve it as a dip! I love serving this with pita chips as a high-protein dip. Use store-bought or homemade pita chips.
Comments
I made this for a party and people were asking who brought it in. They loved it. Thanks, Yumna. Another excellent recipe.
I can hardly wait to try this, sounds like everyone loved it!
One question, do you have a serving size for the nutrition info? We are careful about our weight around here…
Hope you love it! Each serving is about 1 1/4 cups.
Thanks for that info! I just got the spice pack from Amazon, so will hopefully get it cooked up soon!
Thanks again!
We absolutely loved the Lentil salad! This will be made many more times at our house! Thanks so much for the recipe!
You’re so welcome! Happy to hear you enjoyed it!
I canโt wait to try this! Do you think rinsed canned lentils would work in this recipe? Thank you!
Hi Summer, great question. I’ve never made them with canned lentils, but I don’t see why they wouldn’t work. If you try it, you’ll have to come back and let me know your thoughts! Enjoy!
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