Chicken and veggie pasta salad

This budget pasta salad is a great light meal or hearty side! It's expecially good on a hot summer day when no one wants to spend too much time in front of a stove.

• 1 540 mL can chickpeas
  
  
• 1 150 g can of chicken breast
  
  
• 1 454 g package of pasta
  
  
• 1 cup frozen mixed veggies
  
  
• 1/2 cup balsamic salad dressing

1. Drain and rinse chickpeas and canned chicken.
   
   
2. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil on the stove. Add pasta, and cook according to package directions.
   
   
3. Two minutes before pasta is done cooking, add frozen vegetables to the boiling water in the pot. Once pasta is cooked (but not mushy) and veggies are warmed through, pour pot into colander in the sink.
   
   
4. Gently mix drained beans, chicken, and salad dressing in a large bowl until combined. Add pasta and veggies, and stir.
   
   
5. Serve salad immediately, or cool in fridge and serve cold.

• Any smaller pasta shape, like macaroni, penne, or rotini are great in this salad. Long thin noodles, like spaghetti, will not work as well.
  
  

This is a "kitchen sink" recipe; you can put just about anything in it, and it will come out tasty! Some suggested variations are below:

• Replace the chickpeas with any kind of canned bean you like, or use dried chickpeas instead of canned.
  
  
• Swap the chicken out for another kind of canned meat; salmon or tuna would both be tasty.
  
  
• Use a different salad dressing, if you'd prefer; ranch, greek, or ceasar salad dressing are popular. Or try making your own vinegarette, by mixing equal parts vinegar or lemon juice and olive oil, with herbs and spices of your choosing.
  
  
• Clean out your crisper by using fresh vegetables instead of frozen; spinach, cucumber, and tomatoes make a Mediterranean inspired salad, while broccoli and cubed cheese may go better with a ranch dressing.

• Keep covered in fridge for 3-4 days.
  
  
• Pasta salad will not freeze well.

Recipe adapted from Eatright.org

Food is Too Expensive! was funded by the City of Saskatoon through our Healthy Yards partnership, the Cyril Capling Trust Fund of the College of Agriculture and Bioresources, and the Department of Plant Sciences. Focus group research to inform this work was collected by CHEP. Thank you all for helping us make healthy food more accessible!