Name: Roasted red pepper chickpea pasta
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 60 min
Yield: 3
Ingredients: 3 large red bell peppers, cored and cut into broad strips (500 g); 3¼ cups cooked chickpeas, drained and rinsed (500 g); 8½ oz dry short plant-based wheat pasta (240 g); 1 medium onion, cut into slim wedges (120 g); 3 garlic cloves, minced (10 g); 4 tsp olive oil, divided (18 g); 5 tbsp nutritional yeast flakes (20 g); 2 tbsp lemon juice; 1 tsp dried oregano; ½ tsp fine salt; 8½ cups water for cooking pasta and thinning the sauce (2 l)

Roasted red peppers and chickpeas make a thick sauce for short pasta without a separate cream substitute. Half the chickpeas are blended into the sauce, while the rest stay whole. The peppers keep their skins, so the main preparation is coring, slicing and spreading the vegetables across a tray.

Roast until the peppers are soft

Weigh the peppers after removing the cores and seeds, then cut them into broad strips. Slim onion wedges can share the tray, but tiny onion fragments may darken before the peppers soften. Toss both vegetables with their measured share of oil and salt before spreading them out.

Use enough tray space for a single layer. A pile of peppers can release moisture into the vegetables underneath and leave fewer browned edges. Turn the pieces halfway through roasting and check a thick pepper strip near the end. It should bend easily and be soft enough for the blender to break down.

Keeping the skins avoids a separate steaming and peeling stage. A powerful immersion blender can reduce them to small flecks, though the final smoothness depends on the appliance. Let the vegetables cool briefly and use a deep, heatproof jug so the blade can stay submerged while blending.

Let chickpeas provide the body of the sauce

Drain and rinse the chickpeas before weighing them. The amount means cooked beans, not the weight of a dry bag or an unopened can. Split them into two equal portions before starting the blender so there are whole chickpeas left for the finished pasta.

Blend the first portion with the roasted vegetables, nutritional yeast and measured initial pasta water. Keep working around the jug until there are no large bean pieces. The sauce should pour slowly; it can be loosened further when it meets the pasta.

Canada’s food guide includes chickpeas among plant protein foods. Here they also supply the sauce’s thick texture. Nutritional yeast adds a savory flavor, so use the flakes in the ingredient list rather than baker’s yeast intended for bread dough.

Reserve water before draining the pasta

Set a heatproof jug beside the stove before cooking, then take out the reserved water before tipping the saucepan into the colander. This leaves liquid available to adjust the sauce without adding another pot to the preparation.

Warm the garlic briefly in the emptied saucepan, add the sauce and whole chickpeas, then fold in the pasta once everything is hot. Add reserved water gradually; a large pour can turn a coating sauce into a thin broth.

For later meals, refrigerate shallow portions promptly and use within three days. The chickpea coating will thicken as it chills. Stir in a little water while reheating and heat the center thoroughly, following the storage directions in the card.

Storage & reheating

Refrigerate promptly in shallow containers, within 2 hours, and use within 3 days. Reheat a serving with a small splash of water, stirring until it reaches 74°C / 165°F throughout. The chickpea sauce will thicken in the refrigerator.

Substitutions

Use a gluten-free short pasta with its own package timing if avoiding wheat; check ingredient labels and recalculate nutrition and cost.
Cooked white beans can replace the chickpeas at the same drained weight, with a different flavor, nutrition and cost.

Cooking notes

Red pepper and onion weights are raw edible weights after removing cores, seeds, roots and dry skins. Roasted pepper skins remain in the sauce.
Most pasta cooking water is discarded; reserve only the amount needed for the sauce.
The high-protein classification is calculated for the original wheat-pasta and chickpea version, not for all substitutions.

Contains: wheat. Check the labels of your ingredients.

Ingredient	USD	CAD
red bell peppers, cored and cut into broad strips	$3.61	$3.06
cooked chickpeas, drained and rinsed	$1.64	$2.08
dry short plant-based wheat pasta	$0.92	$0.62
onion, cut into slim wedges	$0.28	$0.24
garlic, minced	$0.18	$0.09
olive oil, divided	$0.23	$0.21
nutritional yeast flakes	$0.73	$1.41
lemon juice	$0.07	$0.09
dried oregano	$0.04	$0.07
fine salt	$0.00	$0.00
water for cooking pasta and thinning the sauce	$0.00	$0.00
Recipe total	$7.70	$7.88
Per serving	$2.57	$2.63

Roasted red pepper chickpea pasta

Roast until the peppers are soft

Let chickpeas provide the body of the sauce

Reserve water before draining the pasta