Plant based picnic with pasta chickpea salad

Hello friends of the Hive realm. Today I am sharing a sunny day with you here in Canada. I usually complain non stop about the weather but I'm taking a break. We have some warmth and sunshine finally.

Even though I'm exhausted from work, I had to take the opportunity to feel the sun before winter comes back. My favourite way is to go to the park with my significant other and have a picnic.

Too tired for a plant based barbecue, we had some items made at home, and brought with us.

Sometimes the best way to create a dish is to use up what random items are in the fridge and pantry. I had an abundance of canned chickpeas for convenience and pasta that I bought on sale. I usually have spinach and cherry tomatoes all year round in my fridge. Yes they are imported even when they are growing here. Sometimes a fresh market will have locally grown items but I can't always get there.

Chickpea pasta salad
500g chickpeas cooked or canned
1 package of pasta 400g
80 grams chopped red onion
2 cups shredded cabbage
1 pint cherry tomatoes
75 grams baby spinach
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1 jalapeno (optional)

For my pasta salad I added green and purple cabbage, not only for texture but also for colour. My mandolin is a handy tool to finely shred the cabbage the way I like.

I opted for red onion which is something I like in salad to eat raw.

I added a jalapeno pepper for some mild heat. When I was growing up and was a young adult, adding a hot pepper to a pasta salad would have been unheard of. These days pasta salad comes in all shapes, sizes, and flavours

After boiling the pasta, I added ice to it while it was draining. I also rinsed in cold water to cool it as fast as possible to avoid over cooking.

While the pasta was draining I added the other items together.

The spinach was organic baby spinach which is my favourite for a salad. If I'm cooking with it I usually use a more mature one.

While I mixed the pasta with the other items, I realized there was an abundance of this salad. This is good for leftovers so no problem.

My dressing was made from as random of items as the salad itself. I knew one thing. It would have fresh lemon in it for sure.

Back in the day, here in Canada, the two classic pasta salads were dressed with either mayonnaise or oil and vinegar. Each person may have added preferred seasonings into it, but those were basically it.

This dressing is creamy and tangy the way I like.

Dressing
3 tablespoons vegan mayo
1/4 cup tahini
1/4 cup lemon juice
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
3 or four garlic cloves
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
3 tablespoons agave nectar
1 teaspoon thyme
Salt and pepper to taste

The dressing was poured onto the salad before leaving to the park. I couldn't make up my mind to put it on first or take the dressing. The easiest way would be to mix it first so I opted for easy.

I had some baguettes that were given to us by Marc's mom so they would become a bruschetta to tag along with the salad.

I always have fresh tomatoes in the fridge so these were simply diced, along with red onion and dressed with a vinaigrette. It is simple to make and on a toasted baguette it's a good snack for a hot sunny picnic.

Ideally roma tomatoes would be used as they have less water. I didn't have those so I took as many seeds out as possible from the tomatoes. I would have added basil but I didn't have any. The bread was grilled at home on my electric grill, then dressed at the park.

I didn't take photos of this, as it was an after thought, done quickly before leaving.

Bruschetta
3 large tomatoes or roma tomatoes diced
1 cup diced onion
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic minced
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste.

Mix everything together and get to the park!

We found the most perfect spot where we had a good amount of grass to ourselves.