Tangy Lentil Salad with Dill & Pepperoncini
This lentil salad recipe features bold dill, tahini and pepperoncini pepper flavors! It's tangy, crisp-tender, and delicious. Vegetarian and gluten free.
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on July 17, 2024
Some of my recipes start off with a strong concept or challenge, while others are designed to satisfy a craving. This lentil salad falls into the latter camp. It’s exactly what I’ve been craving lately.
This salad is tangy, crisp-tender, a little spicy, and quite satisfying. The earthy lentils and carrots ground the more bold flavors, so they’re not too overwhelming.
Dill, tahini and pepperoncini peppers aren’t everyone’s favorite ingredients, I know. I love them—the more, the better. If you’re not a fan, you’ll find some options to change up the recipe in the notes.
Better yet, try my classic lentil salad, Greek lentil salad with spinach and sun-dried tomatoes, or my lemony lentil and chickpea salad with mint. Those are all safer bets!
Lentil Salad Serving Suggestions
This salad makes a nice lunch as is, and keeps well in the fridge for several days (it tastes even better the next day). So, it’s perfect for packing for lunch.
Or, you could serve this salad for dinner by topping your bowl with a fried egg, or maybe some roasted cauliflower. It’s also nice over leafy greens, perhaps with an extra drizzle of olive oil and lemon juice on top.
Please let me know how this salad turns out for you in the comments. I hope you love it like I do.
Tangy Lentil Salad with Dill & Pepperoncini
This lentil salad recipe features bold dill, tahini and pepperoncini pepper flavors! It’s tangy, crisp-tender, and delicious. Recipe yields about 6 to 8 side servings and keeps well for up to 4 days.
Ingredients
Salad
- 1 ½ cups black beluga lentils
- 1 bay leaf
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2 cups grated carrots (about ¾ pound or 5 to 6 medium carrots, peeled and grated on the large holes of a box grater or in a food processor fitted with a grating attachment)
- ¾ cup fresh flat-leaf parsley
- ¼ cup (⅓ ounce) fresh dill leaves, tough stems removed, torn into small pieces
- ½ cup chopped celery (about 2 ribs)
- ½ cup thinly sliced green onion
- ½ cup chopped pickled pepperoncini pepper
- Optional cheese: ½ cup tiny cubes of havarti, havarti dill, mild cheddar, or crumbled feta
Tahini-dill dressing
- ⅓ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- ¼ cup lemon juice
- ¼ cup (⅓ ounce) fresh dill leaves, tough stems removed
- 2 tablespoons tahini
- 1 clove garlic, roughly chopped
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt, to taste
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes (scale back or omit if sensitive to spice), to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
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To cook the lentils: Fill a medium-to-large saucepan with water, leaving several inches of room at the top. Bring it to a boil over high heat.
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Meanwhile, sort through your lentils for debris, then rinse your lentils in a fine-mesh sieve under running water until the water runs clear. Set aside.
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Once the water is boiling, add the rinsed lentils. Add the bay leaf and salt. Set the timer for 16 minutes. Reduce the heat as necessary to prevent overflow and to maintain a lively simmer.
- Meanwhile, make the dressing in a food processor: Combine the olive oil, lemon juice, dill, tahini, garlic, salt, red pepper flakes and several twists of black pepper. Blend until smooth, pausing to scrape down the sides and the bottom of the bowl as necessary. Set aside.
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Once your timer has gone off, use a fork to scoop out a few lentils and test for doneness (careful, they’re hot). Your lentils are done when they are pleasantly tender throughout (not mushy or falling apart) and taste nicely earthy (undercooked lentils tend to taste somewhat metallic). If your lentils aren’t fully cooked yet, retest every 1 to 2 minutes until they are. Once cooked, strain off all the excess water.
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Pour the lentils into a medium serving bowl, and discard the bay leaf. Pour in all of the dressing, and stir to combine. Add the grated carrots, parsley, the remaining dill, celery, green onion, and pepperoncini peppers. Wait to add the optional cheese until the lentils are just warm (not hot enough to melt the cheese).
- Stir to combine. Season to taste with additional salt (for overall flavor), red pepper flakes (for heat) and/or black pepper. If the salad isn’t tangy enough for your liking, you could add a tablespoon more lemon juice or chopped pepperoncinis.
- This salad is ready to serve, though it tastes even better after a 20-minute rest. It keeps well in the refrigerator, covered, for about 4 days.
Notes
Make it dairy free/vegan: Don’t add cheese.
Serving suggestions: This salad is great on its own, but you can make it more of a complete meal by topping it with a fried egg, roasted cauliflower or cauliflower “steaks.”
Change it up: You could omit the bay leaf and tahini if you don’t have them on hand, though they do offer some nice flavor. If you hate dill, skip it—you might like some extra parsley to make up for it.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
Can I use green/brown lentils instead?
Hi! Yes, I love black here but that would work as a substitute.
We made this today alongside some roasted vegetable sandwiches. Only had brown lentils on hand, but they worked out well. Loved it, but I’m going to add even more pepperoncinis to the leftovers to boost the tang (as suggested)! We went with dill havarti on the cheese front– highly recommend it.
That sounds delicious, Austin!
I make these tangy lentils often. Delicious!
That’s great! They are delicious. I appreciate your review.
This is one amazing salad! I have made this salad on many Sundays, and I eat it for lunch throughout the week. The dressing is light and delicious, the beans are healthy and filling, and the dill & pepperoncini peppers are a must! So good.
Thank you Kate.
This is rather labor intensive, but SO FREAKING GOOD! I made it last summer as well… Question: do you think the dressing would freeze well? I got a ton of dill in my CSA this week and not sure what to do with it all. If the tahini won’t work for freezing do you have something else you would suggest? Thanks so much! Love you recipes!!!
I’m glad you enjoyed it! I’m not sure how all these ingredients would hold up frozen. Sorry!
I am making this salad for the 3rd time. I’m bringing it to a picnic. It’s a unique combination of ingredients—just love it. I’m sure it will be a hit.
I have purchased your book and use it often. I have also given it as a gift on two occasions.
I love that! Thank you for your support, Carole.
yum yum yum and I never really liked lentils. Also, I reckon you could use this sauce on other salads or potatoes with good effect!
I was super excited to try this recipe! I substituted canned lentils (couldn’t find the black), didn’t use the onions or garlic, julienned the carrots, doubled the carrots and celery, used the red pepper chili flakes…it was SO DELICIOUS! I do love lentils, dill and pepperoncini peppers, so this recipe is a winner for me! Can’t wait to try the black lentils!
Thank you for sharing, Jenny! I’m delighted you loved it.
I made this exactly as written except I substituted green lentils because that’s what I had on hand. My book club and I loved it and I will definitely be making it again!
Absolutely delicious! I had to improvise as I didn’t have a few of the ingredients. I your made your lemon tahini dressing in place of the dill tahini dressing as I didn’t have any dill. I added some pimento stuffed olives in place of pepperocini peppers. Just devoured the whole salad with my husband! Thanks Kate, I’m loving your recipes!
I’m glad you loved this salad and my other recipe, Sarah! I appreciate your review.
Delicious! I’m not being that person who completely changes the recipe. I just used what I had and made it work, had I had all the ingredients I wouldn’t have changed a thing because Kates recipes are always on point. Only change in the dressing was dried dill and because of that added some flat leaf parsley. For the salad didn’t have carrots used kale, radish greens, red onion, & pea shoots. Used green lentils instead of black. Used pickled jalapeños instead of the pepperoncini Grilled some halibut to have with it, AMAZING!!
Thank you for sharing how you adapted it to fit your tastes, Katie!
Oh my goodness—YUM! This was absolutely worth the trip to the grocery store for Beluga lentils. I like the mix of textures and flavors, and I love how sturdy and inexpensive it is, great for a potluck. I used jarred dillweed; otherwise, I followed the recipe exactly.
I’m now a diabetic and need to add lentils to my diet, this looks like a great start. I’ll add homemade feta cheese and an animal protein to kick back the carbohydrates and slow digestion further. Looks like another winner from Cookie and Kate!
I have made dozens and dozens of Kate’s recipes and this one is my absolute favorite. To be fair, they have all been absolutely sensational, but the flavors of this one pop spectacularly. I love the dill, and the pickled peppers. And the Crunch!!! I made it exactly, just omitted the cheese. I have to get tahini on line, and I just ordered another jar even though I have plenty left……I don’t want to be without this salad at all this summer. Xoxoxoxo
(Baby Grace is one lucky little girl!)
Hi,
I have made this a couple of times and it is really great. I was wondering if you have an alternative for the dressing though as Tahini is expensive here. Thanks!
Hi Fredrick, sorry to disappoint but I don’t have a great alternative without testing something out.
What a surprise! This is wonderful! I kept tasting as I went along, and wondering whether I would like this dish. The last ingredient I added was the peperoncini – it is truly the secret ingredient. It made an enormous difference, and once I added it to the salad, I realized I didn’t need the cheese (I had been planning to add some feta). I’m not a huge fan of parsley, and it kind of got drowned out by the other flavors, so I probably won’t use it next time. Overall, a big win, especially when topped with a fried egg for a bit of extra protein. Thank you!
I’m glad you loved it Jane! Thank you for your review.
I really like the recipe, keep it up!
Oh my gosh this salad is amazing! The dressing is incredible . I followed the recipe exactly with no changes. It was so good I had to eat more!!! I did squeeze on a little lemon at serving as I lost some of the dressing on the sides of my Vitamix. I don’t have a food processor, but that’s next on my list. Thanks for such a great recipe! I absolutely loved it!!!!
I love to hear that, Mary! Thank you for your review.
We loved this hearty salad! It took some prep time, but for two people there is enough for another meal. I served it cool. Trying to get more vegetables into a carnivore husband of 56 yrs., and this was well-received by him. Oh, had to adjust since no fresh dill was available so I used dry dill weed. Couldn’t taste it at all. No black lentils, so used yellow. Eliminated the spicey peppers. Not missed. Too many vegetarian recipes use hot spices. We cannot tolerate them. PS. I bought your cookbook! Looks great.
Great to hear, Marianne! I appreciate your review.
This is the most unusual recipe and it is simply delicious. All the flavors work so well together. I highly recommend trying this.
Thank you for your comment, Jeanine! I’m delighted you enjoyed it.
Is this 1 1/2 cups dried lentils — or cooked lentils?
This is measured dry. See cooking in the instructions.
I’m hoping someone can answer my previous comment/question quickly as I’m getting ready to cook this. Does 1 1/2 cups lentils refer to dried lentils (before cooking) or cooked lentils. Thank you!
Somehow the brininess ended up making this salad remind me of a tuna salad- i LOVE this.
Loving this for my lunch all week long. Might add more pepperoncini and juice and dill as the week goes on to perk it up. Love all the crunch, flavors and textures. Also used Havarti with Jalapeno (store was out of dill havarti) and it was great.
That’s great to hear, Jill!
Soooo good! Second time making this in a week. It tastes better after the first day, so perfect for work lunches. There is so flavorful, I didn’t really notice the dill havarti, so that would be the only thing I would eliminate. I end up adding some of the pepperoncini juice to the finished salad.
Thank you for sharing this recipe. Made this salad first time yesterday. Turned out great. As an Indian, we eat lentils everyday but this salad offers a unique way to have them. Will definitely make it again.