Healthy lunch recipe: Chickpea pasta salad

This large vegetarian salad, featuring chickpeas (also known as garbanzo beans), would be great on its own for lunch or as a side dish for dinner. The recipe is easily cut in half.

Chickpea pasta salad

• 1 l (4 cups) cooked corkscrew pasta, drained and cooled
• 1 can (540 ml/19 oz) chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 375 ml (1 1/2 cups) chopped celery
• 375 ml (1 1/2 cups) shredded carrots
• 2 sweet red peppers, chopped
• 4 green onions, finely chopped
• 50 ml (1/4 cup) crumbled feta cheese
• 75 ml (1/3 cup) light Greek salad dressing

In a large bowl, combine pasta, chickpeas, celery, carrots, red peppers, green onions and feta. Toss lightly to mix well. Add dressing and toss to coat well. (Make ahead: Pasta mixture can be prepared a day in advance. Refrigerate overnight and toss with dressing before serving.)

Makes 13 servings (250 ml/1 cup each).

Nutrition information per serving: 149 calories; 5 g protein; 2 g fat (1 g saturated fat); 3 mg cholesterol; 27 g carbohydrates; 4 g fibre; 227 mg sodium.

Source: Pulse Canada (www.pulsecanada.com)