This Bean Pasta Salad is simple to make and great if you want something quick to eat. We're combining cooked pasta with a selection of beans, lettuce, kale, tomatoes, and drizzling it in a caesar dressing and grated parmesan. It's truly delicious and I really hope you enjoy it!
The glorious thing about a bean pasta salad is that you can really add in anything you've got leftover in your fridge. For this specific recipe, we're combining lettuce, kale (cavolo nero), baby tomatoes, chickpeas, and black beans in a big bowl to make our pasta and bean salad.
If you're looking for a few more salad recipes, check out my apple fennel salad recipe, no-celery chicken salad recipe or my chicken salad without mayo recipe!
For more pasta recipes, I think you'll love my pistachio pesto recipe or my easy curry pasta one-pot recipe!
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About Emily's Recipe
If you're new here, hi! I'm Emily - a recipe developer, food content creator, and cookbook author! Thanks for stopping by to check out my Easy Bean Pasta Salad recipe. I really hope you enjoy it and please do let me know in the comments if you give it a go!
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Texture: the pasta is perfectly al dente with crunchy lettuce and kale, juicy beans, and light and slightly crunchy tomatoes.
Taste: we've got caesar salad flavours going on which I love, so imagine loads of parmesan and a creamy sauce with the freshness of the beans, lettuce, kale, and starchy pasta.
Ease: super simple. Cook the pasta, then combine with the fresh ingredients. Top with the one jar sauce and you're done!
Top Tips: 1. don't use long pasta, use chunky small or short pasta like rigatoni, 2. salt your pasta water!! 3. you can bake your beans if you want a bit of a crunch.
Would I make this again? Yes. It's great for a prep-ahead lunch or summer dinner idea!
Ingredients and Substitutions
Pasta: we're using a short pasta for this recipe, a large fusilli style shape! But you could use penne, rigatoni, or macaroni.
Lettuce: any type of lettuce would be great. You could also use arugula/rocket.
Kale: I'm using cavolo Nero kale for this recipe, I think it adds a lovely rougher crunch and bite in the pasta salad with beans.
Beans: honestly, you can use whatever you fancy for this part! I'm using chickpeas and black beans because I think they're such a great combination. But you could use lentils, butterbeans, pinto beans, whatever floats your boat!
For the sauce: we need a handful of ingredients for this caesar salad inspired sauce. Get out some mayonnaise, dijon mustard, paprika, Worcestershire sauce, parmesan, garlic, and olive oil. Feel free to use vegan mayonnaise and parmesan for plant-based people.
The full list of ingredients and quantities is at the bottom of this blog in the recipe card!
Step by step instructions with photos
Step 1: Place your uncooked pasta into a pan of boiling water(very salted) water. Cook to packet instructions until al dente. Drain and run through cold water, drain again and set aside in a large bowl.
Step 2: Place your choice of beans into your pasta bowl. In this case, your drained and rinsed chickpeas and black beans.
Step 3: Next up, add the lettuce, kale, and tomatoes to the bowl.
Step 4: Combine all of your dressing ingredients in a medium-sized bowl. I like keeping the salad dressing reasonably thick so that it coats all of the ingredients really well. Taste and season accordingly.
Step 5: Drizzle your sauce over the bean pasta salad and combine until all of your ingredients are well coated.
Step 6: Top with grated parmesan and serve up! Enjoy!
What to do with leftovers
Storage: Place any leftovers in airtight containers and place in the fridge for up to 3 days. It's great for meal-prep or packed lunches!
FAQs
I love adding tinned lentils, pinto beans, butterbeans, or white beans!
Not quite, but it's easy to make vegan. Simply swap out the mayonnaise for a vegan version, and the parmesan with a vegan alternative.
Yes, just make sure to use gluten-free pasta!
For sure, if you want some meat protein, add some grilled chicken or fried steak. For a plant-based protein, add in some grilled extra firm tofu cubes.
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Easy Bean Pasta Salad
Ingredients
For the bean pasta salad
- 250 g pasta
- 150 g lettuce finely sliced
- 150 g kale de-stemmed and finely sliced
- 100 g cherry tomatoes sliced in half
- 400 g chickpeas drained
- 400 g black beans drained
For the dressing
- 3 tablespoon mayonnaise
- ¼ teaspoon dijon mustard
- ¼ teaspoon paprika
- 1 ½ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 3 tablespoon parmesan grated, plus extra for garnish
- 1 garlic clove minced
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Place your uncooked pasta into a pan of boiling water(very salted) water. Cook to packet instructions until al dente. Drain and run through cold water, drain again and set aside in a large bowl.
- Place your choice of beans into your pasta bowl. In this case, your drained and rinsed chickpeas and black beans.
- Next up, add the lettuce, kale, and tomatoes to the bowl.
- Combine all of your dressing ingredients in a medium-sized bowl. I like keeping the salad dressing reasonably thick so that it coats all of the ingredients really well. Taste and season accordingly.
- Drizzle your sauce over the bean pasta salad and combine until all of your ingredients are well coated.
- Top with grated parmesan and serve up! Enjoy!
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