Pasta salads are made for the spring and summer time. They’re cold, refreshing and the flavor combinations are endless! So, I find myself making one a week around Friday using whatever I have leftover in the fridge. This week’s feature is this spinach pasta salad. It’s made with short cut pasta, fresh baby spinach, chickpeas and a sweet and savory sundried tomato dressing!
The result is a load of nutrition packed pasta salad with the carbs we all crave. But, the salad has enough protein and vegetable servings to make this meal well-balanced. In fact, there are 19 grams of protein per serving!
This spinach pasta salad makes for easy peasy lunches over the weekend or a perfect side dish for grilling chicken or fish outside. Just buy a jar of simple sun dried tomatoes with minimal ingredients and that alone takes care of all the flavoring you’ll need for this dish! Make this once and you’ll always keep sun dried tomatoes a staple in your pantry to make it again and again.
If you’ve tried this healthy-ish feel good Spinach Pasta Salad recipe or any other recipe on FeelGoodFoodie, then don’t forget to rate the recipe and leave me a comment below! I would love to hear about your experience making it. And if you snapped some shots of it, share it with me on Instagram so I can repost on my stories!
More pasta salad recipes
- Greek Pasta Salad
- Avocado Pasta Salad
- Caprese Pasta Salad
- Mediterranean Pasta Salad
- Pasta with Cherry Tomatoes
- 12 oz ditalini pasta or pasta of choice
- 1 7 oz. jar sundried tomatoes
- 2 cloves garlic crushed
- 3 Tbsp Red Wine Vinegar
- 1 15 oz can chickpeas rinsed/drained
- 1 cup fresh baby spinach
- 2 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Cook pasta according to package instructions. Drain and rinse with cold water until no longer hot.
- In a large bowl, pour the complete contents of the sundried tomatoes jar with the oil from the jar included. Mix in the crushed garlic and the red wine vinegar and slightly whisk the ingredients until well incorporated to create the dressing for the pasta salad.
- Add the pasta to the bowl that contains the dressing and toss together.
- Add the chickpeas and the fresh baby spinach and toss again to combine. Carefully add more olive oil if needed until the pasta salad is coated to your liking.
- Sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese and salt and pepper to taste, if you desire. You can keep out the Parmesan cheese to make this a vegan option.
- Enjoy this hot or cold, and store in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 5-6 days.
