Chickpea Ditaloni Rigati: Protein- rich VEGAN pasta! 👌🏻

Hey Steemers! Well, I've been trying to eat a little better the last few days after what seems like weeks of over indulgence..

However, I was craving a bit of pasta last night so thought I'd try my hand at a healthy pasta dish incorporating chick peas- something I've never tried before.

I also wanted to try a new type of pasta- Ditaloni Rigati, which is made from wheat and semolina and is slightly heavier, with a firmer texture to ordinary pasta.

This dish really surprised me and I found I loved the varied textures of the pasta and the chick peas. The flavours are subtle but really fresh, having opted to blend tomatoes myself rather than using tinned ones (also giving me a great opportunity to try out my food processor for the first time woo!)

Ingredients (to serve 4) :

• 2 tbsp olive oil

• 1 onion, finely chopped

• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed

• 500g fresh tomatoes, roughly chopped

• 2 tbsp sun-dried tomato puree

• 1 tsp agave syrup

• 500ml vegetable stock

• 250g Ditaloni Rigati pasta

• 1 can chick peas, drained

• 6 tbsp grated vegan parmesan

Method:

• Chop the tomatoes or blend briefly in a food processor.

• Chop the onion.

• In a large saucepan, heat the oil and add the onions.

• Cook for 5 minutes until softened.

• Stir in the garlic and cook for a further 1 minute.

• Add the tomatoes and cover, cook for 10 minutes.

• Stir in the tomato puree, agave syrup, salt, pepper and vegetable stock and bring to the boil.

• Add the pasta, cover and simmer for 1 minutes.

• Meanwhile, grate the vegan cheese, or blitz in the food processor on a high speed until finely chopped.

• Stir the chick peas in to the pan and cook for 5 minutes.

• Stir in half of the grated cheese.

• Serve, sprinkling the rest of the cheese on top.

There it is! Such an easy dish and a nice change from the typical pasta dishes I return to again and again. Also great to have a plant based protein option to add to pasta rather than relying on meat substitutes.

I hope you liked this post, if you did please upvote, comment, resteem and follow me on @lolzwithlisa for more travel and vegan posts!