An Easy Pasta Salad with Chickpeas

A more filling way to make a summer salad, this chickpea pasta salad is packed with vegetables, chickpeas, and whole grain pasta. It’s a fibre-rich meal (14 grams per serving as written) even if you want to use white pasta instead. While I wrote this recipe with warm weather in mind, I’ve also included some winter time alternatives in the ingredient substitutions list below.

Try it with the simple maple-mustard vinaigrette as outlined or substitute your favourite vinaigrette instead. Think of this as a base recipe that you can add to as you like – try extra herbs, feta cheese, more vegetables, fresh figs or stone fruit, or something like artichokes in oil. I almost always add peaches, apricots, or plums for a little sweetness if I have them on hand (see this summer pasta).

We make pasta salad all summer long as a good quick meal when it’s too hot to turn the oven on and we need something that needs very minimal cooking time. This is ready in the time it takes the pasta to cook so you’re not stuck in the kitchen on a warm summer day, and you’re not heating up the house too much either.

I don’t use affiliate links. Any links you see here are to other recipes or related information, not paid links.

Ingredients You’ll Need and Why

It’s an excellent classic pasta salad and vegan as written, with crunchy cucumber, sweet tomatoes, and a little kick from the onion, parsley, and olives. These are my notes from recipe testing, and you can find the full recipe card below with complete measurements and instructions.

• Chickpeas: use canned or home-cooked chickpeas. Either way be sure to rinse well before adding, and drain if using canned. You don’t want to add any cooking liquid. When I use canned chickpeas I usually drain and rinse, soak in fresh water for ten minutes, and then rinse again to improve the taste.
• Pasta: use a short pasta with some texture or ridges, like farfalle (bow tie), rigtoni, spirelli, and so on. Pictured is whole grain emmer pasta. I always use whole grain pasta for the extra fibre and better flavour but any short pasta will be good. If you need a gluten-free option, use something you know will hold up to the dressing. I recommend something chickpea based.
• Tomatoes: cherry tomatoes are great, and if you can get a couple colours even better – they taste different, and don’t just add more colour – but larger tomatoes will work too.
• Cucumber: one large English cucumber is about equal to two garden cucumbers. If using garden cucumbers like marketmore, taste a couple pieces, especially from the ends, before adding to the salad to make sure they’re not bitter.
• Parsley: fresh flat leaf parsley is best, but curly is fine if it’s what you have – flat leaf is generally a bit softer. Try basil as the best substitute, oregano, or even dill. See parsley substitutes for more ideas.
• Olives: leave them out if you don’t like them, but a handful of olives add a lot of flavour and a real salty punch to the salad. I like to leave them whole because I pick them out, and it’s easier to do when they’re big enough to see! Substitute capers for olives.
• Onion: a bit of sliced red onion really adds a lot to pasta salad, with a sharp taste that cuts through everything else. If raw onion is too strong for you or you’re sensitive to it, try shallots, salad onion, pickled onion, or omit it altogether if needed.
• Vinegar: the recipe is written with balsamic vinegar, which is a little fruitier and sweeter than most other common vinegar types. Substitute white wine, red wine, or apple cider vinegar, but don’t use white pickling vinegar.
• Oil: I recommend olive oil but you can use another light-tasting oil if preferred.
• Mustard: use a sharp Dijon mustard for the best flavour. Other sharp mustard can be substituted but don’t use yellow hotdog mustard. Keep in mind that mustard acts as an emulsifier in the vinaigrette, helping it thicken and preventing separation, so if you leave it out, the dressing will be more likely to separate (making it feel greasy) and will also taste flat.
• Maple syrup: this should be real maple syrup, to sweeten and add flavour to the vinaigrette. Substitute runny honey or your preferred liquid sweetener.
• Add-ins: outside of the summer months, try grated carrot, kohlrabi, or beetroot, finely sliced radishes, or roasted red peppers to replace the fresh vegetables.

How to Make Chickpea Pasta Salad

If you can make the vinaigrette and prep the vegetables while the water comes to a boil and the pasta cooks, you can have this ready in about 15 minutes from start to finish. If you know that you’re a little slower at prep and will need more time to cut the vegetables then prepare those first, before you start the pasta, to reduce stress.

Step 1: start the water for the pasta. While it’s heating up, make the vinaigrette by shaking the ingredients together in a jar, or whisking in a small bowl. I usually use a jar for the ease of it. If using honey instead of maple syrup, check to make sure it’s fully combined.

Step 2: cook the pasta a minute longer than instructed on the package, drain it, and transfer to a bowl to cool for a few minutes while you finish preparing the vegetables. This shouldn’t be for longer than five minutes, or else the pasta will start to dry out. Don’t rinse the pasta (unless you’ve really oversalted the water by mistake, then you can rinse it).

Step 3: add the chickpeas, vegetables, parsley, olives, and vinaigrette to the mixing bowl with the pasta. If you’re serving this to a group, you might want to mix in one bowl and then transfer to another serving bowl or platter.

Step 4: toss very well to coat the pasta in the vinaigrette and evenly distribute the vegetables. It can seem like a lot of dressing to begin with, but the pasta will absorb some of it and using too little will make for a dry pasta salad.

Expert Tips for the Best Pasta Salad

• Use textured short pasta: you want something that the onion, parsley, and vinaigrette can stick to. Avoid very smooth pasta like penne lisce for pasta salad and instead choose something with folds, ridges, or a spiral shape.
• Mix while warm: adding the vinaigrette to the pasta and mixing with the vegetables while still warm helps the vinaigrette be soaked up by the pasta, and makes for a more flavourful dish.
• Overcook the pasta: chickpea pasta salad is usually served cold, and pasta hardens as it chills. If cooked to al dente it has an unpleasant bite once chilled. Overcooking slightly helps to prevent this and keeps the texture pleasantly soft without being mushy or, on the other hand, dry and hard.
• Rinse the chickpeas: if using canned chickpeas, drain and rinse well, and certainly don’t add the liquid that’s in the jar or can. If cooking your own, also rinse before adding, especially if they’ve been refrigerated for a couple of days.
• Season the water: pasta is not worth eating unless the water it’s cooked in has been salted, and unseasoned pasta is like brushing your teeth without toothpaste. There’s nothing going on.

More Pasta Salad Recipes

• Vegan Pasta Salad – with artichokes, fresh vegetables, big white beans, and homemade Italian dressing
• Dill Pickle Pasta Salad – a fresher version of the prairie mainstay, with lots of pickles, red onion, and a mustard-dill dressing
• Avocado Pasta Salad – a very avocado-forward pasta salad with yogurt avocado dressing, sliced fresh avocado, dill, and cherry tomatoes. One of my favourites
• Greek Pasta Salad – everything you know and love about Greek salad, with pasta in the mix to make it a full meal