Back at it again with the third meal prep idea for you this week to save and make. This is my Easy 30 Minute Chickpea & Kidney Bean Pasta Salad with: chickpea pasta, white kidney beans, kalamata olives, San Marzano tomatoes, parsley, pepper jack cheese, green bell pepper, cucumber, balsamic vinaigrette, and dried mint.
This one is great for all of my vegetarians and people who just love pasta salad as much as I do! The beauty of pasta salads is that they last so well in the fridge so it makes the perfect meal prep for either lunch or dinner. This one is a Mediterranean inspired pasta salad made with Eat Banza shell pasta. The reason why I used Eat Banza instead of normal pasta is for more protein! However, if you don't have Eat Banza, PLEASE feel free to use regular shell, elbow, rotini, or farfalle. And, to my dairy free people, PLEASE opt out of the pepper jack cheese, you do not need it! I added it for an extra kick of flavor and source of protein.
Whether you make this for one lunch/dinner one day or decide to use it as meal prep inspo, you are going to inhale it! If you want to meal prep this pasta salad, I have provided a detailed explanation of how to perfectly meal prep this salad without it spoiling! Let's get started.
Yields: 2 servings
Prep time: 20 minutes
Total time: 30 minutes
This recipe is gluten free and vegetarian.
Ingredients:
1. 3/4 box of Eat Banza chickpea pasta (regular pasta also works, feel free to use elbow, farfelle, shells, or rotini)
2. 1/3 cup of white kidney beans (cooked, drained, washed)
3. 8-10 kalamata olives chopped in halves
4. 8 San Marzano tomatoes chopped in halves (cherry tomatoes also work)
5. Fresh parsley to garnish
6. ¼ cup of cubed pepper jack cheese (this is to your liking)
7. 2 TBSPs finely diced green bell pepper (basically the equivalent of chopping the top off and using that whole piece)
8. 1 finely diced cucumber
9. 1/4 cup or less of balsamic vinaigrette (I used Primal Kitchen's)
10. 1/2 TSP of dried mint
11. Salt & freshly ground black black pepper to your liking
Instructions:
How to Make This Pasta Salad
1. First, boil a pot of water and add salt. Cook your pasta until al dente.
2. While you're waiting on the pasta to cook, grab a bowl.
3. In that bowl, add ingredients 2-8 in.
4. Once the pasta is done, strain and add it into the bowl with the ingredients. Mix very well.
5. Pour on the balsamic vinaigrette. Season with the dried mint, salt and black pepper to your liking. Mix very well again
6. Taste test for any salt, black pepper, or dried mint. Add if necessary.
7. Enjoy!
How to Meal Prep This Pasta Salad
1. First, grab 5 Tupperware.
2. Next, boil a pot of water and add salt. You're going to need 2 boxes of pasta. Cook your pasta until al dente.
3. While you're waiting on the pasta to cook, grab a large bowl. We are going to prep ingredients 2-8.
4. You're going to need: 1 14oz can white kidney beans, 15-20 kalamata olives chopped in halves, 15-20 San Marzano tomatoes chopped in halves, ¾ cup of cubed pepper jack cheese (this is to your liking), ½ cup of finely diced green bell pepper, 2-3 finely diced cucumbers, and 2 TBSPS of finely diced fresh parsley. Add all of these into the bowl and mix very well. If you want to add more of ANY ingredient, please go for it. Sometimes it's difficult to estimate how much of each ingredient is needed when meal prepping.
5. Now strain the pasta and add it into the bowl. Mix very well.
6. Let's make the dressing:
a. I want you to have very small Tupperware that can hold individual dressings.
b. When you meal prep a salad, you don't want to pour on the dressing beforehand because then over the course of the week, the salad will get soggy. So, you want to prepare each salad's dressing and place them in their own separate containers.
c. I have provided an example of these tiny glass containers and the link to buy them off of Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Containers-BPA-Free-containers-Microwave-Dishwasher/dp/B088YPTJL9
d. In each mini Tupperware, pour in 3 TBSPs of balsamic vinaigrette and ¼ TSP of dried mint. Add some salt to your liking. Mix well.
7. Now, evenly distribute the salad into each large Tupperware.
8. What I recommend doing to make sure the salads don't spoil over the course of the week (they won't, but precautions are good to take) is to cover each salad with a paper towel and then add the lid on.
9. No need to reheat this since it's just a pasta salad! Enjoy all week!
xoxo,