High-protein Vegan Lentil and Bean Salad
- Updated on Nov 30, 2020
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Our vegan lentil and bean salad is quick, tasty and packed with protein – 40g per serving in fact!
What do athletes eat? We thought we’d try a new spin on a few recipes – and find out what the healthiest and fittest among us actually eat.
You’re still hitting the gym, the workouts are going well…and you are what you eat. So let’s find out.
The original recipe of this tasty high-protein salad was posted by Patrick Reiser, a Swiss bodybuilder, who won the natural bodybuilding championship in his country in 2013.
Patrick runs a fitness YouTube channel where he talks about his trainings routines and meal plans.
Even though we think the videos are sometimes a little silly, he definitely has great knowledge about nutrition and it’s worth checking out what he eats to stay in shape.
Health benefits
This is what Patrick Reiser had to say about his recipe:
- Good after a workout to recharge on carbohydrates and your glycogen storage (if post-workout food is what you need, try these vegetarian post workout meals now!). Glycogen is your body’s store of carbs and it’s important to restore these levels as they get depleted during your workout session.
- Also contains 40g of protein per serving (when the whole salad is considered one serving) which is of course important for muscle growth.
- Here you can find out more about optimizing glycogen.
And this what we have to say about his recipe:
- The sauce itself gives you plenty of freedom to be creative in the kitchen – you can make your own salsa, use a spicy sauce or even just a good ol’ tomato ketchup. That’s up to you.
- The lentil bean salad itself is loaded with protein – so important in so many ways. Vegetarian diets can easily provide enough quality protein in a diet (especially with recipes like this!): save your health, save your cash and save the planet.
We want to know:
- What’s your favourite exercise/workout?
- Are you sticking to your routines?
- And what’s your favourite post-workout meal?
High protein lentil salad FAQs
We’ve covered some of the most common questions about our lentil bean salad recipe below, but if you have others just let us know in the comments (and if you want more plant-based lentil recipes, check out these).
How long does lentil and bean salad last?
In the fridge, this salad will last for 2-3 days.
Do I eat it hot or cold?
Either way is delicious! This dish also works brilliantly as a make-ahead lunch if you need something high protein and vegan on the go.
Can you freeze lentil salad?
Whilst you can freeze it, this salad is best eaten fresh as you get the full range of textures, from the crunch of the peppers and scallions to the tender but firm lentils.
What goes with a lentil bean salad?
This salad stands alone well, but you could also serve it with fresh wholemeal or rye bread on the side.
Tips for using kidney beans in salads
This tasty lentil and bean salad recipe features kidney beans as one of it’s star players. A great vegan source of protein and high in fiber, these hard-working legumes are also an affordable cupboard staple. Here’s our tips on how to use them:
Rinse canned beans well
We recommend using canned kidney beans in this salad recipe. If you’re not familiar with canned kidney beans, they come in a starchy (and slightly slimy) liquid which is perfectly safe to eat but not all that appetising!
Simply rinse this off under cold water (pouring the can into a sieve or colander and running it under the tap will do perfectly.)
Enjoy raw or cooked
Canned kidney beans have already been soaked and cooked, so you can add them straight to salads if you’re using them cold. Or, if you prefer to cook them first, simply follow the instructions on the can to heat them thoroughly.
Ingredients
- ¾ cup red lentils, dried
- 1 can kidney beans (drained and rinsed, 1 can = 15.5oz)
- 1 bell pepper, red
- 3-4 spring onions
- Salt and pepper to taste
Optional
- 2 cloves garlic
- ½ cup tomato puree
- 2 slices wholegrain bread
Instructions
- If using dried red lentils then prepare according to package instructions (or just add 1 part red lentils to 1.5 parts of water with a little salt in a pot. Bring it to a boil and then let the lentils simmer for about 12-15 minutes depending on how soft you like them. Season with a little more salt, when the lentils are cooked. Alternatively you can cook them in veggie broth for extra flavour).
- Meanwhile cut the spring onions and bell pepper. Also grate the garlic.
- Get a big bowl and throw in all the ingredients, including the lentils and beans.
- Finally, if using, add the tomato sauce (as much as you like), give it a stir, do a taste test and, if necessary, season one last time with salt and pepper.
- Ready!
NOTES
Nutrition
Comments
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31 comments
Lentils and beans in one dish. Wow, here is the super healthy dish I need!
It really is a healthy one! And somehow the ingredients just go great together 🙂
I love the ingredients, the whole meal must be delicious. I have to make this recipe. Thanks for sharing.
Let us know when you do! If you’re cooking the lentils from scratch then you can cook them in stock too – I love them done that way…
I just realised I don’t have a workout meal. Well, the problem here is that I don’t work out at all. Maybe eating healthy dishes such as this one will motivate me better towards a more active lifestyle 🙂
I really believe that there is a connection. If you workout you want to make sure it coins into more muscles or a leaner body. So you autmatically try to improve your diet to leverage the effect of your workout. The same the other way round. The healthier you eat the more you’ll want to treatyour body well with physical activities. 🙂
Great recipe I use it regularly. I add a bit of hot sauce and put it inside a wholemeal pitta bread. Very satisfying
Mmm the hot sauce sounds great actually!
Not healthy bevore a first date with a woman 😉
Haha you’re not far wrong there Andre – you might find yourself with a little more air than usual, especially the first time you eat them 😉
First I wanted to let you guys know that I love the vibe that you have going on on your website, so fun! This recipe looks awesome, its going to be made for our dinner tonight 🙂 Just one little health tip that I would like to share….instead of using (highly processed) table salt in this recipe, use (natural) pink himalayan salt to boost the heath factor.
Thanks for the info, Sandra! let us know how you liked it 🙂
This recipe looks lovely but I can’t quite work out how this has 40g protein per portion?
For the whole salad I get about 14g from the lentils, 19g from the kidney beans and 6.5g from the rest of the ingredients is probably feasible- but that would be if one person ate the entire recipe – if you split it into two portions then you’re down to about 20g each?
Hey Sam, well spotted. The 40g protein is indeed for the whole salad – but for most people it would be too big as one big serving – 20g per smaller serving would be right. Will change now, thanks for pointing it out! Cheers, and enjoy! 🙂
Looking forward to trying this recipe! Are those shallots or scallions (a.k.a. green onions) in the picture? The recipe says shallots but just wanted to make sure.
Hi! Actually both finely chopped shallots or scallions are both fine, I use whichever I have more of that need to be used up. I think we did use scallions in the picture on that note. Thanks for pointing it out, have update the recipe 🙂
When you write tomato sauce, do you mean ketchup? Or tomato puree? Cuz ketchup is full of salt n sugar…
Just love love love this website! It’s a god send
Hi Tanja! Thanks for the props, awesome to hear you like our stuff 😀
We mean tomato puree. Passata it’s called as well I think. No to ketchup! hahaha
Hi There,
You guys are amazing. My husband and I love your recipes! We have been vegetarians all our lives and we have never been tempted to eat meat because of the varieties of food that we can prepare. We both LOOOOOVE to eat vegetarian food of any cuisine. I can cook healthy Indian recipes with my eyes closed 😉 But I always had issues finding a healthy but fun recipe which are not in my comfort cooking range. My husband found your recipes as part of our healthy eating target. Since I do most of the cooking, I am following your recipes for a week now and I love them. I am still finding my feet to chop veggies but I am sure I’ll be fine in a few days 🙂 Thank you for amazing recipes.
I have a question and appreciate your answer. We get canned legumes/beans with 2 different weights written on the can. One is total weight(400g), another is drained weight(240g). When you mention 400g of bean in your recipes, is it the total weight that you mention?
Thanks heaps,
Shree
Hi Shree, and thank you so much! We’re really pleased to have been able to help so much. Yes, chopping veggies can indeed take a while to get used to! My advice when chopping is to think like a production line – wash wash wash, peel peel peel, chop chop chop, bin bin bin. I hope that makes sense. Yes, good question! The tin weight (with beans for example) is the ‘wet’ weight, (so a full tin). So if a recipe says a 400g tin, that means the full wieght, with liquid. You can then drain it and use what is left :). I hope that helps, thanks again!
Just stopping in to say… You guys & gals here on HTFU are awesome! If you have to get “roped in” to eating vegetarian {cough, cough dear husband} this beautiful space helps you master all the “tricks” {flavor trumps meat }. I’m a lifetime fan!
Hi Correen, thanks so much for the warm feedback. I’m really happy to hear you like what we’re doing on our blog. We’ll keep at it 😀
And maybe we convince your hubby to eat leass meat some day as well, haha
the ingredient list doesnt include the shalotts.. How much do i need??? Do I need to cook the shallot and garlic? Or is this a cold salad?
Our bad, sorry Yashira! In the ingredient list it’s green onions and in the directions we wrote shallots by accident. It’s fixed now. Green onions all the way 🙂
And yep, it’s a cold salad. No cooking required.
Great recipe!! I love your recipes. Been using regularly and happy to say enjoyed all.Glad to say also enjoyed by grandsl
Tastes pretty good, but is there something off with the serving size listed above? I wanted to make 8 servings. The recipe above says it serves 2, so I took all ingredients and multiplied by 4. However, when I finished cooking and weighed out the 610g said to be one serving I ended up with gigantic portions and only about 5 servings. Can you help me understand what’s going on here? I’m tracking macros, so very important for me to know exactly what I’m eating. Thanks.
Hi Allie! Very good questions and I understand about wanting to be accurate when counting macros. My first guess is that the water weight is what made the biggest difference here. So I would say to still make it as you did and divide it into 8 anyway. Then you still have accurate portion sizes in terms of ingredients, which should then be correct for the macros. The lentils and beans in particular vary hugely with water weight depending on whether they’re dried/tinned, how long they’re cooked for, how much water they absorb etc etc and I’m almost certain that’s what’s caused the issue here. Hope that helps!
Why is there so much sodium?
Hi Megan, mostly from the tinned beans! I’d give them a quick rinse 🙂
Wow, on a specific type of diet right now… So thankful for this recipe! It was so tasty and filling and a workout sesh!
Glad you liked it! 🙂