Name: Green lentil salad
Prep time: 1 h 15 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 1 h 35 min
Cuisine: Turkish
Ingredients: 290g Turkish green lentils (1 ½ cups), or replace with any kind of green lentils; 80g orzo pasta (⅔ cup); 12 dill sprigs; 2 spring onions; 2 large tomatoes, peeled and seeded; 4 big gherkins; 55ml olive oil (4 tbsp); 30ml red wine vinegar (2 tbsp); 1 tsp fine sea salt

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This green lentil salad (mercimek salatası) recipe comes to me from my beloved Turkish mother-in-law. She bulks up her salad with fresh vegetables and orzo pasta and drizzles everything with a good amount of olive oil and red wine vinegar.

Her green lentil salad is full of flavor and different textures! It’s a healthy side dish that quickly comes together but gets better the longer it rests in the fridge. It became one of my favorite ways to prepare lentils and I hope you’ll give it a try!

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🍇 Vinegar
💭 Substitutions
📋 Step by step
📖 Variations

🍇 Vinegar

The first time I tasted my mother-in-law’s green lentil salad I noticed there were two salad bowls. She told me it was because she likes vinegar, so she made a normal green lentil salad for us and a very vinegary one for herself. I thought ‘I like vinegar, every salad needs something to lift things’, so I tried some from her bowl and tears came to my eyes. Turns out she really really really likes vinegar.

I advise you to start with 1 tablespoon of vinegar, taste the green lentil salad, and add more if necessary. I find the dressing just right made with 2 tablespoons of vinegar. My mother-in-law makes it with 5 tablespoons!

💭 Substitutions

This is one of the rare Turkish recipes where substitutions work just as well as if you had gone to a Turkish store! You can replace:

Turkish green lentils (yeşil mercimek) with French Puy lentils or any other type of green lentils you can get your hands on. Check the lentils packet instructions though because cooking time may vary.
Turkish grape vinegar (üzüm sirkesi) with red wine vinegar. Red wine vinegar is called grape vinegar in Turkey, and cider vinegar is called apple vinegar. I think they are the same vinegars but they are called differently for religious reasons. It’s possible that the process of making vinegar in Turkey really is different and that because of my lack of understanding of the fermentation process, I don’t get the difference. I’ll tell you what, I’ve made this green lentil salad many times with either Turkish grape vinegar and red wine vinegar, and the salads taste absolutely the same to me.

📋 Step by step

→ COOK THE LENTILS

Rinse the lentils under cold running water. Add them to a pot, cover with water, and bring to a boil. Cook for 10 min. Stir in the orzo pasta and cook for 10 more min. Drain thoroughly and tip the lentils and orzo pasta into a mixing bowl.

→ MIX EVERYTHING

Whisk together the ingredients for the dressing. Add the chopped dill leaves, tomatoes, spring onions, and gherkins to the mixing bowl and stir. Drizzle the dressing over the salad and stir again. Taste and adjust the seasoning accordingly. Cover with plastic wrap and place the green lentil salad in the fridge for at least 30 min.

📖 Variations

As it is a salad, the recipe is pretty adaptable. You can easily double the ingredients if making for a large number of people. You can also use the recipe as a base and add anything that strikes your fancy (or that you need to use up). I think slices of goat cheese log, chunks of feta, toasted walnut halves, or a diced avocado lightly drizzled with lemon juice would be lovely additions to this green lentil salad.

Green lentil salad

Author: Amélie
Prep Time: 45 minutes
refrigeration: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 35 minutes
Yield: 4 servings 1x
Category: Side dish
Method: Stove
Cuisine: Turkish
Diet: Vegetarian

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Description

This Turkish green lentil salad is bulked up with fresh vegetables and orzo pasta. It’s a healthy side dish full of flavors and different textures!

Ingredients

Scale

290g Turkish green lentils (1 ½ cups), or replace with any kind of green lentils
80g orzo pasta (⅔ cup)
12 dill sprigs
2 spring onions
2 large tomatoes, peeled and seeded
4 big gherkins
55ml olive oil (4 tbsp)
30ml red wine vinegar (2 tbsp)
1 tsp fine sea salt

Instructions

Cook the lentils and orzo pasta. Put the lentils in a mesh strainer and rinse them under cold running water. Put them into a medium-sized pot and add 1 ½ liters (6 ½ cups) of water. Bring to a boil over high heat. Then, reduce the heat to medium and cook the lentils for 10 min, stirring from time to time. Add the orzo pasta to the pot and cook for 10 more min, stirring from time to time. By then the lentils should be tender but still have a slight bite to them. Drain thoroughly in a mesh strainer and tip the lentils and orzo pasta into the bowl.
Prepare the rest of the ingredients. Pick the dill leaves from the sprigs and discard the sprigs. Finely chop the dill leaves and add them to the bowl. Chop off the root end and the top of the green stalks of the spring onions and discard them. Finely chop the spring onions, the tomatoes and the gherkins. Add them to the mixing bowl. Stir everything.
Combine. In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, red wine vinegar and salt. Drizzle the dressing over the salad and mix again. Taste and adjust the seasoning accordingly, adding more salt or vinegar if necessary. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place the salad in the fridge. Leave it there until it becomes cold, at least half an hour. If you have time you can keep it in the fridge for longer as the flavors will improve over time. Stir the green lentil salad again just before serving.