You've probably seen the Viral Kale Caesar Pasta Salad with crispy smoked chickpeas and a creamy tahini caesar dressing, all thrown together in a bowl of corkscrew pasta. This is my version – High Protein Kale Caesar Pasta Salad that’s less of a new recipe and more of a swap.
The original comes from Jessica Hoffman at Choosing Chia, and the dressing is the reason it went everywhere. Tahini does what egg yolk does in a real caesar, except without the raw egg. Dijon and lemon bring the sharpness, and a nutritional yeast brings the savory part. Whoever built that dressing knew what they were doing, so I didn't touch it. I didn't touch the chickpeas either.
What I changed is the pasta. The original calls for eight ounces of regular fusilli, and eight ounces of refined flour is the reason a bowl of pasta salad might taste like lunch but feel like a nap an hour later. I swapped traditional pasta for Chef's Kiss, a pasta made from lupin beans instead of wheat. That one move takes a bowl from about 15 grams of protein and 8 grams of fiber to roughly 30 grams of protein and 25 grams of fiber. The bowl looks the same and tastes the same. Your afternoon doesn't.
This is the pasta salad I make on Sunday and eat for lunch until Wednesday.
A Fab Four Pasta Salad? It’s Possible!
The original gets close to Fab Four but falls over on the pasta. Here's how my remix plays into the Fab Four pillars:
- Protein: Around 30 grams a bowl, and most of it is the pasta. Lupin is a legume, so Chef's Kiss runs about 21 grams of protein per two-ounce serving where regular fusilli runs closer to 7. The chickpeas add about 5 more, the Parmesan adds another 3, and the tahini contributes a little on top of that. Protein is the first thing I look for in a meal because it's what tells your brain the meal actually happened, and a bowl of regular pasta salad rarely gets there.
- Fat: About 25 grams, and it's doing the job fat is supposed to do. Tahini and olive oil in the dressing, a little more oil on the chickpeas, Parmesan on top. Fat slows gastric emptying, which is the technical way of saying it keeps food in your stomach longer so the carbohydrate behind it trickles into your bloodstream instead of flooding it. That's the actual mechanism behind this bowl holding you for four hours instead of one.
- Fiber: This is where the swap earns its keep. Chef's Kiss brings around 20 grams of fiber per serving on its own, because lupin is one of the highest fiber foods on the shelf and this brand adds psyllium husk on top of that. The chickpeas bring another 4 or 5 grams, the kale a couple more. Call it 25 grams in one bowl. For most adults that's close to a full day's fiber in a single lunch, so if lupin and psyllium are new to your gut, start with half a bowl the first time and let it catch up.
- Greens: Five cups of kale, and I mean actual kale, not a garnish. This is the part I already loved about the original. Most pasta salads are pasta with a rumor of a vegetable somewhere in the bowl. This one is a kale salad that happens to have pasta in it, and once it's shredded fine and massaged with a little oil, it softens enough that nobody at my table pushes it aside.
The Protein Math
These numbers come from USDA figures and the Chef's Kiss label, and they'll shift slightly depending on the pasta shape and how much dressing you use.
- Original (regular fusilli): Calories: 403; Protein: ~15G; Fiber: 8G; Total Carbohydrates: ~45G; Net carbohydrate: 37G; Fat: ~20G
- Kelly's (Chef's Kiss): Calories: about 500; Protein: about 30 g; Fiber: about 25 g; Total carbohydrate: about 45g; Net carbohydrate: ~ 20 g; Fat: about 25 g
Numbers are per bowl, or a quarter of the full recipe.
The math breaks down like this: two ounces of Chef's Kiss is roughly 21 grams of protein and 20 grams of fiber. A quarter of the can of chickpeas adds about 5 grams of protein and 4 to 5 of fiber. Parmesan adds about 3 grams of protein, and the dressing and kale each add a gram or two. If you'd rather keep the calories closer to the original, six ounces of pasta instead of the full eight still lands you around 26 grams of protein and 20 of fiber.
Tips and Swaps from the Be Well Kitchen
- More protein. Shredded rotisserie chicken or grilled chicken takes a bowl past 40 grams. Shrimp works, and so does a can of white beans layered on top of the chickpeas.
- Dairy-free. Skip the Parmesan and add another tablespoon of nutritional yeast to the dressing. The tahini is already doing the creamy work, so you won't miss the cheese as much as you'd think.
- Greens. Romaine for kids, or half kale and half arugula for something with more bite. Spinach works too but goes limp fast, so dress it right before eating rather than ahead of time.
- Pasta. Any legume-based pasta gets you most of the way there. Chickpea or lentil pasta lands around 13 grams of protein and 5 to 8 grams of fiber per serving, a real improvement over wheat yet still well short of lupin. Regular fusilli works too, you'll just be making the original.
- Dressing. Makes about 3/4 cup. If it thickens in the fridge, loosen it with a splash of water and a squeeze of lemon.
- Storage. Keep the chickpeas in a separate jar on the counter so they stay crisp, and store the dressed salad in the fridge up to 3 days. Lupin pasta holds its shape better than wheat once it's dressed, which is the other reason this is my meal prep bowl of choice.
- If you want a shortcut on protein prep, The Masher shreds two rotisserie chicken breasts right in the bowl in about 30 seconds, if you're adding the chicken option above.
This isn't the first time lupin pasta has earned a spot on this blog. If you liked what it does here, my basil green goddess lupin pasta salad is worth a try, too.
