French Lentil Pasta Salad (with Easy Homemade French Dressing)
This French lentil pasta salad is tasty and full of goodness – perfect for lunch, picnics, or an easy summer dinner. It’s got pasta, it’s got lentils, it’s got crisp and crunchy vegetables, plus a simple homemade French dressing to really bring it all to life. The end result is a colourful pasta salad that feels light and fresh, while still being filling enough to keep you satisfied.
You might also like: Chickpea Pasta Salad; Extra Special Tabbouleh Salad; Roasted Butternut Squash Salad.
A traditional French lentil salad doesn’t contain the pasta, but I think it’s a great addition. Not only does it bulk things out in a cheap and satisfying way, it also brings a softer texture, which is very welcome (it can be hard work chomping your way through a super dense, fibre-rich salad!).
This easy lentil pasta salad is perfect for meal prepping at the weekend and keeping in the fridge for a few days’ worth of lunches. Plus, it’s seriously easy to customise with your favourite veggies, herbs, and any other mix-ins you fancy (see below for some ideas!), so it’s a great recipe for using up odds and ends – I love a good fridge clearer!
🇫🇷 What is French Lentil Salad?
French lentil salad is a classic recipe that’s usually made with lentils (obviously), carrots, red onion, and an easy French dressing. I added the pasta because it transforms a simple side dish into a full meal – it’s the perfect cold lunch for a warm summer’s day!
Typically, you’d use Puy lentils (known in the US as ‘French green lentils’) to make a French lentil salad – however, I wanted to make sure this recipe was as easy as I could possibly make it, so I used a can of regular green lentils. To be honest, once it’s all mixed together, there’s no real difference, but regular lentils are cheaper and more convenient to cook with, which makes all the difference to me.
🍶 Easy Homemade French Dressing
Making a homemade salad dressing is super easy, but the key is to taste it – and I don’t just mean to eat a big spoonful from the jar and call it a day, but really taste it.
Think about how the flavours are balancing – does it taste a little too tangy? Balance it with a dash more honey. Is it already too sweet? Add a splash more lemon juice or mustard. Does it need more salt? Pepper? A splash more olive oil?
If you can practise tasting your dressings and getting the balance right, making homemade salad dressing rather than using shop-bought just becomes a no-brainer.
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🥗 Ingredients and Substitutions
Here’s what you’ll need to make this lentil pasta salad recipe.
Detailed ingredient quantities (in both US and UK recipe formats) can be found in the printable recipe card.
- pasta – you can use any kind of pasta you like (including wholemeal pasta), but a small, bitesized shape works a lot better than a long pasta like spaghetti!
- green lentils – I used canned lentils, so this recipe is really quick and easy (you know I love quick and easy…). If you prefer, you could boil some regular dried green lentils, or use Puy lentils (sometimes called ‘French green lentils’) for an even more authentic salad.
- carrots – I grated mine, but you could finely dice your carrots if you prefer.
- walnuts
- red onion (finely diced) – if you’d like to mellow the flavour of the red onion a little, you can soak it in water for 10 minutes or so before adding it to the salad.
- fresh parsley (or cilantro / fresh coriander, if that’s what you have on hand)
- homemade French dressing – honey, mustard, minced garlic, lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil
There are all sorts of things you could add to the classic French lentil salad ingredients to really augment this pasta salad even further. I decided to use some chopped walnuts for a nice bit of crunch, but you could add any number of other things:
- crumbled feta cheese
- cubes of roasted sweet potato
- cherry tomatoes (or sun-dried tomatoes)
- capers
- crumbled goat cheese
- radishes, cucumber, or any other crunchy vegetable
- your favourite leaves, e.g. spinach or arugula (rocket)
Becca’s Top Tip
If you’d like your salad to be extra saucy, you can double the quantities of the homemade French dressing ingredients.
You could also try…
Chickpea Pasta Salad
Extra Special Tabbouleh with Halloumi Cheese
Roasted Butternut Squash Salad
🖨️ Printable Instructions
French Lentil Pasta Salad
If you’ve cooked this recipe, don’t forget to leave a star rating!
Print Pin Comment(if you suffer from allergies, please double check all ingredients before eating)
Ingredients
- 225 g (~ 1/2 lb) pasta (I used farfalle)
- 2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 Tablespoon lemon juice (I used freshly squeezed)
- 1-2 teaspoons honey or agave
- 1/4 teaspoon minced garlic (1 small clove)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 390 g can green lentils, drained (235g, or ~ 1 1/4 cups, when drained)
- 1/2 red onion
- 50 g (~ 1/2 cup) walnuts
- Small bunch fresh parsley or fresh coriander (cilantro)
- 200 g (~ 7 oz / 2 medium) carrots
Instructions
- Boil the pasta in plenty of water, until cooked to your liking. Drain, and set aside to cool. To cool the pasta more quickly, and stop it from sticking together, you can add it to a bowl of ice water for a few minutes.
- To make the dressing, add the extra virgin olive oil to a small jar or bowl, and add the Dijon mustard, lemon juice, honey (or agave), minced garlic, and salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly with a fork or a small whisk, until the mixture has emulsified to give a cohesive dressing. At this point, you can taste the dressing and adjust the mixture to your taste (e.g. add a little more honey if it tastes too bitter, or add a little more salt if needed).
- Finely chop the red onion, roughly chop the walnuts and fresh herbs, and grate or dice the carrots.
- Add the drained and cooled pasta to a large mixing bowl, and add the chopped carrot, walnuts, herbs and red onion. Also add the French dressing. Mix thoroughly to combine. Serve chilled.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is approximate, and will depend on your exact ingredients. Please calculate your own nutritional values if you require accuracy for health reasons.
💭 Recipe FAQs
Yes! It tastes great for a couple of days. I do find that it becomes a bit less saucy over time, as the pasta absorbs the dressing, so if you’re planning to eat this salad over a few days, you might want to double the French dressing ingredients.
This French lentil pasta salad is great served on its own for lunch. Alternatively, you can serve it as part of a lunch spread, with other salads, bread, quiche, etc.
The only ingredient that’s not vegan is honey, but you can easily use agave or another vegan honey alternative if you’d like to.
