Turkish Green Lentil Salad Recipe – Ideal For Summer!

Share this article

Summer is when dishes like this green lentil salad recipe really come into their own.

What to eat when the weather is hot, hot, hot?

You know you need to eat but you just don’t know what you feel like.

Nothing too stodgy, that’s for certain.

That’s what we’ve been feeling like recently, now that it’s the height of the Fethiye summer.

One of the most pleasurable aspects of Turkish cuisine is the meze culture.

It means you can nibble on light, healthy foods without feeling overfaced.

We’re always on the lookout for new dishes to try so that we can add them to our ever-growing portfolio of meze & salad recipes.

And keep ourselves interested in eating tasty foods when the heat of the day is doing its best to persuade us otherwise.

Easy Turkish Green Lentil Salad Recipe

At the moment, we’re both back in training for one of the many runs in Turkey.

And trying to eat more healthily to lose a few pounds in the process, too.

Turkey Makes A Salad Great

Salads are great for that. And they’re perfect for the hot weather, too, of course.

And Turkish salads are even better because they’re so varied.

They pull you away from that habit of just throwing a bit of lettuce, tomato and onion into a bowl and becoming bored to tears with the same old, same old.

Think piyaz (white bean salad), think kısır (bulgur wheat salad), for example.

So tasty and different.

And what about doing something with those green lentils you’ve had sitting in the cupboard since you can’t remember when?

Green Lentil Ideas

We usually use our green lentils for making green lentil soup but it just feels far too hot for that at the moment.

So what else do the people of Turkey do with their green lentils?

Well, if they’re not cooked for too long, they’re more robust than red lentils.

And they make a great base for a light and refreshing (but also filling) salad.

Are you vegan and looking for some inspiration in the kitchen? Good news – this Turkish green lentil salad recipe can be added to your list of easy and healthy vegan recipes.

Why Green Lentil Salad?

This green lentil salad recipe (or yeşil mercimek piyazı) is the new favourite in our house.

We can’t get enough of it!

Here are a few reasons why, for you…

• It’s packed with all the simple salad ingredients we usually have in the fridge; especially at the height of summer – onions, spring onions, tomatoes, lemons and parsley.
• This green lentil salad recipe only requires a simple salad dressing of olive oil, vinegar and lemon – although, you’ll see in the recipe that we add a bit more tang.
• It’s a salad – we can play around with ingredients and their quantities. If we want more tomato, we can add more tomato into the green lentil salad recipe – our choice.
• Little added extras are always on the cards for us – pickled chillies make an appearance in our green lentil salad recipe but they are, of course, optional. Apart from the extra heat, it’s also a bit more ‘pickly zing.’
• It doesn’t require too much forethought or effort to make. Perfect – it’s summer and we’re too hot to think and work in the kitchen.
• And the best part is, even with so little effort or forethought, the final reward is joyous. Yeah, we love this salad!

Green lentils might not be the prettiest foodstuff to look at but they do make a cracking salad!

This green lentil salad recipe can make up part of your salad and meze table for summer barbecues.

You can eat it on its own with some lightly toasted bazlama or other crusty breads.

Or you can even just do what we do. Skip the bread and eat it from a bowl as a light lunch.

Right, Here’s Our Green Lentil Salad Recipe

Green Lentil Salad Afternotes

• Turkey has a raft of famous salad dishes. You could also try two of Turkey’s most famous salads; cacık yoghurt dip and also summery shepherd’s salad.
• As well as the dishes mentioned throughout the article, you can also follow our other Turkish recipes at home.

Share this article