Easy chicken and pasta salad

Written by Catherine Saxelby on Wednesday, 11 November 2009.
Tagged: diabetes friendly, easy, egg-free, low GI, low salt

  • Ready In: 20 mins
  • Serves: 4
Easy chicken and pasta salad

Whip up this quick summer salad for a lunch or light dinner - easy if you've got leftover cooked pasta. And it works with all sorts of ingredients. See some of the variations you can try below.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup small shell pasta
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 cup cooked chicken pieces, diced and skin removed (around 200g)
  • 1 punnet (250g/8oz) cherry tomatoes, halved
  • 1 avocado, diced
  • 2 tablespoons (60g/2oz) chopped sun-dried tomato
  • 1/3 cup chopped parsley
  • juice of 1 lemon

Nutrition per serve

One serve = 1720 kJ (410 cals), 22g fat (includes 5g saturated fat ), 32g carbohydrate (includes 7g sugars), 6g fibre, 55mg sodium. Read our nutrition rating system.

Directions

1. Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil and cook pasta for 8 minutes, until tender. Drain and rinse under cold water. Place in a large bowl, add olive oil and toss well.

2. Add chicken, tomatoes, avocado, sun-dried tomatoes and parsley to pasta and combine. Drizzle over lemon juice. Toss lightly and serve in a bowl.

 

Variations

Substitute 1 x 400g can of tun that you drain and add in place of the cooked chicken. Add in 2-3 tablespoons drained capers.

 Swap the chicken for 1 cup of any cold cooked meat you have leftover eg roast lamb, roast beef.  Add a dash of grated horseradish sauce to the pasta.