Italian-Style Creamy Herb Pasta with Courgette, Chickpeas & Parmesan

Italian-Style Creamy Herb Pasta with Courgette, Chickpeas & Parmesan — 22 mins family dinner · Vegetarian family dinners using chickpeas, feta, herbs, yoghur…

Italian-Style Creamy Herb Pasta with Courgette, Chickpeas & Parmesan — finished dish

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Ingredients

  • 75g pasta
  • 45g saved chickpeas from Dinner 1
  • 90g courgette, grated
  • 50g plain yoghurt
  • 15g parmesan, finely grated
  • 5g fresh basil or mint, chopped
  • ¼ garlic clove, crushed
  • ¼ lemon, juiced
  • 1 tsp olive or rapeseed oil

Method

  1. Cook pasta according to packet instructions. Cook younger-child pasta slightly softer if needed.
  2. Heat oil in a pan and cook grated courgette with garlic for 4–5 minutes until very soft.
  3. Stir in saved chickpeas from Dinner 1 and warm through. Squash some chickpeas lightly to thicken the sauce if needed.
  4. Remove baby and toddler portions of soft courgette and squashed chickpeas before adding parmesan or adult seasoning.
  5. Take the pan off the heat and stir through yoghurt, lemon juice and herbs.
  6. Toss with drained pasta, loosening with a splash of pasta water if needed.
  7. Serve with parmesan for adults and older children.

Storage and reheating

Cool cooked sweet potato, quesadilla filling and pasta within 2 hours. Refrigerate leftovers for up to 48 hours. Reheat cooked components until steaming hot throughout and only reheat once. Chickpea salad is best eaten fresh; save plain chickpeas for Dinner 3 before adding feta, honey, pomegranate or adult seasoning. For babies and toddlers, keep portions separate before adding salt, chilli, honey, whole pomegranate seeds, large amounts of feta or parmesan, or adult dressings.

Safety and substitutions

Use saved chickpeas only if they were cooled quickly and stored safely. Reheat until steaming hot throughout. Whole chickpeas can be a choking risk, so squash them for young children. Parmesan is salty, so keep baby portions cheese-free. Pasta should be cut short for toddlers and babies.

Why this recipe works

22 mins family dinner · Vegetarian family dinners using chickpeas, feta, herbs, yoghurt, lemon, spring onion and sweet potato. set · Uses leftovers. Part of a three-meal shopping base with household scaling.

Part of a three-meal set

Chickpea Salad Feature Set — A bright bazaar-style chickpea salad, Mexican sweet potato quesadillas, and an Italian creamy herb pasta using leftover chickpeas and herbs.

Updated 2026-07-20

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