Green Pasta Salad
Two tablespoons of dressing for an entire bowl of pasta salad — that is all this takes. Pesto and mayonnaise mixed together coat the cold whole wheat penne, green beans, peas, and chickpeas without sliding off the way vinaigrettes do.
Twenty-five grams of fiber from four sources and 28 grams of protein without meat, dairy, or protein powder. Fifteen minutes, six ingredients, one colander.
Two tablespoons of dressing for an entire bowl of pasta salad — that is all this takes. Pesto and mayonnaise mixed together coat the cold whole wheat penne, green beans, peas, and chickpeas without sliding off the way vinaigrettes do.
Twenty-five grams of fiber from four sources and 28 grams of protein without meat, dairy, or protein powder. Fifteen minutes, six ingredients, one colander.
Ingredients
- penne, whole wheat 3 ounces
- green beans (frozen) 1.25 cup
- garden peas (frozen) 3 ounces
- pesto 1.5 tablespoon
- mayonnaise 0.5 tablespoon
- chickpeas 4 ounces
Method
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Cook the penne according to the instructions on the package.
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Meanwhile, in a small amount of water, cook the green beans together with the peas until al dente in about 3 to 4 minutes.
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Drain the pasta, green beans and peas and rinse with cold water. Let it drain well in a colander.
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Make a dressing from the pesto and mayonnaise.
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Combine the penne with green beans, peas and chickpeas in a bowl and toss with the dressing to coat the pasta salad.
Drain the penne, green beans, and peas thoroughly — give the colander a few firm shakes and let it sit for a full minute before dressing. Frozen vegetables release more water than fresh when boiled, and the pesto-mayonnaise dressing is only about two tablespoons total. Any moisture left in the colander thins the dressing before you take the first bite.
Why This Works
Behind this recipe
Can I use regular pasta instead of whole wheat?
You can. Whole wheat penne delivers roughly 6 grams of fiber per 84-gram dry serving compared to about 2 grams in regular white penne. That difference matters here because the green beans, peas, and chickpeas already contribute fiber — switching to white penne drops the total but still leaves a high-fiber meal.
Why rinse the pasta with cold water?
Two reasons. The obvious one: it cools everything down for a cold salad. The less obvious one: cooling cooked pasta changes its starch structure. When researchers compared a chilled pasta dish to the same meal served hot, the cold version produced a noticeably lower blood sugar spike. Starch molecules re-crystallize as they cool, forming a structure that resists digestion.
Read the full evidence reviewIs 28 grams of protein enough from plant sources?
Twenty-eight grams sits well within the range researchers have studied for muscle protein synthesis per meal. The protein here comes from three sources — chickpeas, peas, and whole wheat — each contributing different amino acid profiles. Research on per-meal protein thresholds has examined how much the body can use in a single sitting.
Read the full evidence review
