Mini Penne Pasta With Chickpeas
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Mini penne pasta with chickpeas is one among easy toddler lunches or a dinner meal, and healthy as it is loaded with enough protein, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals needed as a part of meal for toddlers who are 3 years old, slightly picky, always wants something different and love to munch on different texture in a meal. This is the age where they are very curious in learning how to eat different foods. They also get attracted to colorful food.
Young children who are 4 or 5 years old will also relish this meal. This meal is loaded with protein from chickpea legume, vitamins and minerals from carrots and is prepared using homemade vegetable stock.
‘PASTA E CECI’ meaning pasta with chickpea is given a slight twist to suit toddlers and young children. So give your toddler / young child a taste of Italian cuisine with this yummy and simple pasta. They will love it!
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Ingredients
- For the pasta:
- 1 ½ cup mini penne pasta cooked
- ½ cup Garbanzo beans / Chickpea cooked
- ½ cup carrot cut into small cubes
- 1 garlic pod big sized, chopped
- 1 tbsp celery chopped
- 2 tbsp tomato chopped
- Salt and pepper to taste
- ½ cup vegetable stock homemade
- ¼ tsp Italian seasoning
- 2 tsp olive oil
- For the Vegetable stock:
- 1 bay leaf small
- 1 carrot chopped into big chunks
- 10 beans cut into big slices
- Any other leftover vegetables of your choice
- 3 to 5 Celery leaves with tender stalks
- 1 Onion small sized
- 1 Garlic pod cleaned and unpeeled
- 3 cups water
- Fresh or dried Parsley as required
- Fresh or dried Thyme as required
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Instructions
- For the pasta:
- Soak ¼ to ½ cup of dried chickpeas overnight and cook them until tender.
- Cook pasta according to the instructions given in the packet.
- Heat olive oil in a pan, gently fry carrots followed by garlic and chopped celery.
- Now add the chickpeas, tomato, vegetable stock, salt and pepper.
- Simmer and allow this mixture to cook until carrots are slightly soft yet crunchy, and most of the vegetable stock is absorbed.
- Check for the salt and spice. If required add some more pepper and salt.
- Toss in the cooked pasta.
- Drizzle little olive oil and sprinkle the Italian seasoning.
- Mix well and serve warm topped with some grated cheese if desired.
- For the vegetable stock:
- Wash and clean all the vegetables and celery leaves with tender stalk.
- Cut the vegetables into big pieces, all about the same size and place in a large saucepan.
- Add celery.
- Cut the onion into big pieces.
- Add the onion and the garlic into the saucepan.
- Add the spices bay leaf, thyme and parsley.
- Add water and bring this mixture to a boil.
- Reduce the heat and cover the saucepan partially.
- Allow this mixture to cook for 15 to 30 minutes.
- To test, just taste a piece of the vegetable, if the vegetable has its flavor, then the stock is not ready yet. Hence cook for some more time.
- Strain the stock through a fine mesh sieve (or line the sieve with a muslin / cheese cloth) into another bowl.
- Allow the stock to cool completely and transfer it to an airtight glass container.
- You can store this stock in refrigerator for 2 to 3 days.
Notes
- Adjust spices according to your kid’s taste.
- 3/4 cup of pasta yields approximately 1 ½ cup cooked pasta.
- The preparation time excludes the soaking time of chickpeas.
- In case you don’t have time to soak dried chickpeas overnight, you can use canned chickpeas direclty as they are already cooked.
- Cooking time includes the time of cooking vegetable stock as well.
- Looking for a pasta recipe for grown up kids?
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Rajeswari Annamalai
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