Normally I serve pasta salad as a side dish. With the addition of chicken this pasta salad is filing enough for a lunch or dinner.
Recipe adapted from Food Network
Ingredients:
Pasta Salad
8 ounce box chickpea rotini pasta
1 pound chicken breast cubed
1 zucchini sliced and quartered
1 bell pepper diced
½ cup cherry tomatoes halved
1 avocado sliced
2 tablespoons minced fresh chives
1 teaspoon chipotle lime seasoning
Honey Chipotle Vinaigrette-
½ cup red wine vinegar
¼ cup nonfat plain Greek yogurt
2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 clove garlic
¼ cup olive oil
Directions:
- Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Cook pasta to al dente according to package directions. Drain and rinse with cold water.
- Add chicken breast to a nonstick pan. Spray with olive oil spray. Sprinkle chicken with chipotle lime seasoning. Cook on medium heat until chicken is cooked through.
- Cut chicken into bite size cubes.
- Add diced vegetables to a large bowl.
- Add chopped chicken to bowl.
- Add yogurt, vinegar, adobo sauce, chipotle pepper, olive oil, garlic, mustard, Italian seasoning, and honey to a food processor. Pulse to chop peppers and mix sauce.
- Add pasta to vegetables.
- Pour the sauce over the vegetables and mix to evenly distribute the dressing.
- Sprinkle chives over the salad. Toss to mix.
- Add sliced avocado and gently mix.
- Refrigerate until ready to serve. Mix well to redistribute dressing before serving.