healthy menu meal plan #27

With all due respect to classic Mediterranean recipes like Italy’s pasta e ceci (pasta & chickpeas), there are days when I just want to mix things up and play around in the kitchen.

I really do love the original (so much so that it already appeared in this healthy menu series #6). Maybe that’s why I was pretty darn confident that a spin-off of the classic combination would be just as lovely.

And healthy. It’s no surprise that chickpeas - dried or canned - are a mainstay of the Mediterranean diet pantry as an affordable, nutritious, plant-based protein. They deliver healthy doses of folate (vitamin B9) which has the potential to lower blood pressure and the essential mineral, manganese, important to bone health.

So, in this rendition of the Italian classic, the core healthy ingredients didn’t change: the impressively-nutritious chickpeas and pasta. And my mandatory advice about skinning chickpeas still applied too. But the wrap-around flavors took a decidedly more summery turn. It may not be a classic yet, but it just might make it into your “put-it-on-repeat” repertoire. At least, I hope so.

Another one of my hopes is that I’ll find a place in your Memory Palace as the friend who taught you to rinse and skin your chickpeas before using them in a dish. It’s a 5-minute kitchen effort that yields an outsized benefit to the mouthfeel and finish of any recipe using chickpeas - making them silkier and creamier than you’d have ever believed possible.

Once the 5-minute prep is done, the rest of the featured recipe in today’s menu comes together as fast as it takes to boil the pasta, beginning with a deeply-flavored base before being gently warmed and folded together, ready to plate.

Once it’s ready for the table, I like to pair it with an extra serving of sautéed veggies and a light mixed green salad for a simple, tasty summer lunch.

As always, you’ll find a few extra recipe treats in the menu PDF besides the meal plan I promised you (mostly because I just can’t help myself). When I can, I’ll reach into the archive so that you don’t have to go hunting around.

But right now, it’s time to pull up a chair, grab a cup or a glass and join me in my Mediterranean kitchen while we work our way from one flavor-packed meal to another.

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