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.
This is an absolutely gorgeous salad! I love dill – and I definitely think it is the most underrated herb. I spotted black lentils for the first time in months at my grocery store this week so I can’t wait to give this a try.
I hoe you love it, Hayley! Be sure to report back.
hi, in England we dont have those pickled peppers. is there an alternative?
Hi! Someone suggested pickled jalapeño peppers (not sure if you have access to those) or you could try pickling them on your own. Someone subbed roasted red peppers when they made it and enjoyed that. Let me know what you try!
How would other lentils work? I happen to have French and brown.
Hi! You can replace as needed, although I love black here. You will need to adjust cooking time accordingly. Follow my perfect lentils as a guide.
Can you substitute red lentils for the black?
Hi Lisa! Red lentils aren’t quite as sturdy, so they may not hold up as well. Although, you can substitute if that is what you have on hand.
Sounds delicious! Can’t wait to try. In Australia and having trouble finding pickled pepperoncini…would pickled jalapeños work?
That would be a good replacement! It might be a little hotter, depending on your jalapeños. Let me know what you think!
I happened to have all the ingredients on hand tonight (except dill – I’m not a fan, so I used a little of the pepperoncini juice instead) and I had some cooked lentils to use up, so I gave it a try. YUM! What an unusual, surprising mix of flavors! The only part I’m not crazy about are the shredded carrots, and it’s a texture thing, not flavor. Maybe next time I will dice them instead. But I am thoroughly enjoying it tonight for dinner, so thank you for such a creative and delightful dish!
I’m so happy to hear you loved it and made it fit your tastes, Maddie. Thanks for making this one and leaving your feedback.
Just finished making and eating my first bowl of this salad – yum! I love dill. I did sub out the pepperoncini for some roasted red pepper, since I’m not a fan of pepperoncinis. Added some cubes of dill havarti also. Ready for some delicious lunches at work this week!
THIS LOOKS SO GOOD. So, here’s a confession: whenever I see a recipe that calls for making your own lemon tahini dressing, I skip that part and just go with a bottle of Annie’s Goddess dressing, which is vegan, organic, and widely available in grocery stores. So I will TOTALLY make this salad with a bottle of Annie’s instead of the homemade dressing.
I hope you try it!
I thought the same thing, however, I went ahead and made the dressing, and OMG. Its way more amazing than the goddess, and so easy! Now I use it all the time. :)
The dressing is so good it made me want to cry.
That’s powerful dressing, ha! Thanks for sharing, Katrin. I’m happy you liked it.
This salad is amazing, I did not have black lentils and it worked fine with green but I watched the cooking time closely as I did not want them to get mushy. The peperoncini Adds great flavor! Definitely a keeper!
I’m glad you were able to substitute and enjoy it, Lisa! I appreciate you sharing your experience.
I love lentils done in many ways!
Especially indian Dahl…but they most times they effect me with wind. Does anyone know a simple preparation method to prevent them causing flatulence and irritation?
Sprout them before cooking.
Oh my goodness this is so good! It’s something different and tangy! The only change I made was cutting down on the dill because I am not a huge fan. The dressing — it’s a good thing I didn’t eat the entire dressing before the lentils were ready! It is just fab. Thank you!!!!
Thank you for sharing! I’m glad you were able to make it fit to your liking, Karen.
loved this one. I used lots of pepperoncinis and flakes. Thank you !
You’re welcome, Lucy!
I just had to try this combination of flavors and am so pleased with the result. Using what I had on hand – mung beans, no French or black lentils; shredded red cabbage, no carrots (who has no carrots on hand?!?); minus parsley. Even with my adjustments it is so delicious. Thank you for the recipe!
I’m happy you loved it, Sophia! I love that you were able to get creative with this recipe and use what you had on hand.
I made the salad today – it is really tasty!
It will become a recurrent recipe, for sure.
Thank you!
Hooray! I’m glad you loved it. Thank you for your review.
I was looking for a new way to use lentils and made this for dinner tonight; it was delicious! I added diced summer squash and zucchini, so good.
I like your spin on it, Tracie! Thank you for sharing.
This salad was a big hit with my family! I almost didn’t make it because the combination of ingredients sounded odd. But it called for all the things I needed to use up in my fridge, so I went for it. Really delicious. I made it exactly as per the recipe (including the egg), except no peppers, which I didn’t have. The dressing is great and could be used for many other salads.
Thank you for sharing! I’m happy it was a hit with your family.
YUM! This a very tasty salad and easy to do. It’s light and filling at the same time. I used my instant pot for the lentils, and just used a whisk for the dressing. I will be making this salad again (and again and again!) Five stars!
Thank you for sharing, Gail! I can’t wait for you to make it again. Thanks so much for your review!
This is a fantastic salad. It’s a keeper. However, I put the pepperoncini in the blender with the dressing, and OMG way too hot. I’m wondering if this salad is freezable? Or if I make it again without the pepperoncini if that will take it down a notch? But even though my kids can’t eat it, and I can barely stand the heat, the flavour is fantastic. Truly, a genius salad. Thank you so much for creating it for us! :0)
Hi Wanda! Thank you for sharing how you made this and sorry it was too hot. I’m not sure this would be the best salad to freeze, sorry! It does make great leftovers, though.
What leftovers? By day two it had toned down. I made it again and did not blend and it was normal hot, and fine! But still no leftovers past the second day. This salad is insane good. Oh…I think the pepperoncini in oil are the best; in vinegar the flavour diminishes too quickly. Thanks again!
I’m so glad you loved it, Wanda!
This is a delicious and hearty salad. We absolutely love it! The addition of red pepper flakes gave it just a hint of heat that made it so tasty. Thank you Kate! This will be a go-to salad for picnics. :)
Thank you for your review, Hillary! I’m happy it’s going to be a go-to for you.
I made this tonight and WOW! This dish is delicious! And that dressing is ridiculously tasty. I accidentally got unpickled peppers at the store so I chopped them up and then followed one of your “quick pickle” recipes! It was a win! Love this. Thank you!
You’re welcome, Jill! Thanks for trying it and letting me know your thoughts :)
Outrageous lentil salad recipe!!! The tahini dill dressing is especially delicious and I can already imagine using it for other recipes. Thanks for this one… it’s a keeper!!!
I made this salad last week and loved it! I used green lentils, will use black lentils when I find them again, which tasted great. I put a fried egg on top and loved it so much I had it for lunch for three days. Delicious!!!
Thank you for sharing and letting me know your feedback, Marianne!
This is an amazing Kathryne…and it looks sooo yummy & more colorful as well..and i was read a new way uses of lentils….i will trying to make tonight…Thanks for sharing…..!
What did you think, Lily? I hope you loved it!
This recipe gets a 5 star after a day of sitting in the fridge, and a 3 star if you eat it right away. Right away, I found the salad too sesame-y with the tahini. The following day though- FABULOUS!! The dill and pepperoncini peppers come alive. Difficult to find the black lentils, limited supply at Whole Foods.
Yes, it marinates and is great as leftovers! Thank you for sharing, Eve.
I start my weekly menu planning on Cookie and Kate website, I have loved every other recipe I’ve tried and many have become family favorites.
But this one was along the line of “well, that was a lot of work for not much rave” effort. I could not find black lentils at the grocer, so that may have been the kiss of death from the start. The dill was fragrant and that helped redeem the salad. Maybe my tahini was too bland? At any rate, this was good but not something I will make again.
Oh no! I’m sorry you didn’t love this one. It is best with black lentils or you could do with green. I have found tahini to vary significantly. What brand did you use? Some are honestly, just not great.
Excellent salad – incredibly flavourful and fresh. The dill was a nice change for us and the pepperoncini peppers was a great addition. We loved it so much we made it two weeks in a row!!
I’m excited you loved it, Steph! Thank you for sharing.
I made this last night! Our whole family loved it (including the kids, aged 9, 7, 6, and 4). I’m so happy to have another summer salad recipe!
A big hit with everyone it seems! I love it. Thank you for sharing, Christy!
Kate I have yet to try a single recipe of yours I didn’t like. I made this last week and it was so good I’m making it again today. Officially one of my favorite recipes! I am a huge fan of dill and the combination of flavors truly taste amazing together. Havarti dill was a great addition to this salad.
One of your favorites! Yes, I love it. Thank you or sharing, Lacy.
This is such a good interesting and refreshing recipe! I’ve already made it twice!
I love you have made it twice already! Thank you for sharing, Jessica.
Me too Jessica! My new favorite summer salad!
Nice recipe but made as directed found the salad to be quite ‘dry’. Added some extra virgin olive oil and more fresh squeezed lemon juice which helped immensely.
I’m sorry you didn’t love it. I appreciate your feedback!
I made this recipe and really loved it. It will be one of my go to recipes for group gatherings (if we ever get to do that again) and myself.
I’m happy to hear that, Sherri! Thank you for sharing.
A friend of mine made this for lunch the other day. It was outstanding!
Really, really good, only omitted the fill because I didn’t have any
Love this! I made double the dressing and added it on a bed of rice. Very fresh!
Tangy is one of my favorite flavors! This recipe turned out great. I had to use common brown lentils, which were fine but less pretty than the black ones. I packed a bowl of this salad and a can of white wine for a socially distant picnic in the park — delicious and fresh.
Have made a few of your recipes before and LOVED them all (including baked oatmeal, granola, a few soups, etc.), but today was the first time I clicked over just to peruse, and I happen to have everything I need to make this. I know what I’m having for lunch today! Super excited about this.
Finally made this for lunch today. It was great! My husband really liked it too! Everything worked so perfectly together. Another winner from you! Thanks
What a great recipe! I have to say, I started making this and realized the lentils I thought were in the cupboard were not. So I subbed two cans of chickpeas and it turned out really well! Otherwise, I followed the recipe exactly. Grating the carrots was a bit of a chore by hand, so the chickpeas are a nice shortcut if you’re looking for one. The dressing is AMAZING!! Best tahini dressing I’ve ever had. Will definitely be making this again and again and again.
This a delicious and unusual salad. My husband also loved it and even my kid ate it, although he didn’t love it as much as we did. The tahini in the dressing and the pickled peppers make it irresistible! I used regular large lentils.
Excellent! Didn’t have black lentils on hand but had French green. Not a big fan of tahini so I used a couple of Ts of Greek yogurt in the dressing. Also, perfect timing finding this recipe today as I just picked a bunch of dill and was wondering what to do with it all!
Thank you for sharing, Toby! I’m happy you loved it.
Delicious and different! Made as written, except for one shortcut…used prepared lentils ( “Steamed Lentils” from Trader Joe’s). Topped with dill havarti (also from TJ’s). This recipe is a keeper, like most everything else I have tried from C+K. Thank you!
this is the bomb diggity! i love trying new recipes and this is just delish. Looking forward to lunch tomorrow :)
Making now! I realized I am out of lemon but have apple cider vinegar and white vinegar – what would you recommend? Thanks!!
Hi! You could try lime juice if you have it. But, vinegar can work too. Let me know what you try!
So I tried a mix of mostly lime juice, but added some pepperoncini juice and it turned out so good!!
Incredible! This is the first time I have cooked lentils and I love it
Thanks a lot!
We loved it! Thank you
You’re welcome, Trina! I’m happy to hear you enjoyed it.
Super delicious. I used French green lentils instead of black lentils, mixed in crumbled feta, and served it with a crispy fried egg on top for dinner.
I’m glad you loved it, Natalie! Thank you for your review.
Made this today with your pinto soup- SO good- I love tang and this hit the spot, didn’t even need to add my Harvarti cheese- scrumptious!
Wow, this salad is super tasty! I love the texture but also the interesting blend of flavors. I omitted the cheese because i steer away from dairy but I really don’t feel like it needed it. Didn’t have black lentils so I used green instead. I devoured it very quickly. My new favorite salad! Thank you Kate!
Thank you for sharing how you made it, Heather! I’m happy to hear that.
This salad is fabulous! Thank you! Love all of your recipes – Lesley
You’re welcome, Lesley!