Food and Recipes Pasta Tangy Chickpea Pasta Salad Be the first to rate & review! The beautiful thing about pasta salad? You can tweak and customize it to your heart’s content. In fact, you really don’t need a recipe at all, which is exactly why we’re all for picking your favorite pasta—like penne, bowtie, fusilli, or even macaroni—and turning it into a veggie-packed pasta side dish to serve at every cookout, potluck, or casual supper. Cold pasta salad is something Southerners like to bring to any big-batch event, rain or shine, especially classic renditions like creamy ham-studded macaroni salad and crunchy broccoli-and-grape pasta salad. In this not-your-Mama’s recipe, we’ve paired a lemony Dijon-honey vinaigrette with orzo pasta, chickpeas, feta cheese, roasted eggplant, and chopped Peppadew peppers for a pasta salad with major Mediterranean flair. All of the flavors come together for a zingy side dish with just enough crunch, creaminess, and richness (from tender roasted eggplant!) to send your usual pasta salad recipe to the bench, at least for the week. By Pam Lolley Pam Lolley Pam Lolley developed and tested recipes for Southern Living Magazine in the Souths most trusted Test Kitchen for 19 years. She worked closely with the editors planning and packaging stories, collaborating with art and photo teams on food styling and recipe reproduction to ensure reader satisfaction, content quality control, and recipe authenticity history and cooking. Her area of expertise was baking and and pastry development and she acted as the point person for these areas in the Test Kitchen. With 30+ years of experience in the culinary field, Pam created and tested 1000s of recipes for Southern Living. Southern Living's editorial guidelines Published on May 12, 2020 Print Rate It Share Share Tweet Pin Email Photo: Antonis Achilleos; Prop Styling: Claire Spollen; Food Styling: Rishon Hanners Active Time: 15 mins Total Time: 30 mins Yield: 8 serves Ingredients 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice 1 teaspoon lemon zest 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard 2 teaspoons honey 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt 1/2 teaspoon black pepper 1 pressed garlic clove 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil 8 ounces pasta, cooked and drained 1 eggplant, cubed and roasted 4 ounces feta cheese 1 (15 ½-oz.) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed 1 cup chopped Peppadew peppers Directions Whisk together lemon juice, lemon zest, Dijon mustard, honey, kosher salt, black pepper, and garlic clove in a small bowl; slowly whisk in extra-virgin olive oil. Stir together pasta (cooked, drained, and rinsed with cold water), eggplant, feta cheese, chickpeas, and chopped Peppadew peppers. Add vinaigrette, and gently toss to combine. Serve at room temperature, or cover and chill. Rate it Print