Rotini Pasta with Garbanzo Beans and Sausage
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This is a filling dinner that comes together in a snap! Packed with protein pasta, hearty sausage, and low-fat garbanzo beans, you will stay full!
Dish Count :: 1 Sauté Pan, 1 Pot, 1 Cutting Board

Everyone needs more 30 minute meals. Life is getting busier, and we are running out of time all over the place. Is this a self imposed busyness? Who knows. But whatever it is, we don’t have time, and at least for us, finding time for a quick dinner is becoming harder to come by.
This is the second recipe I have made from Heather Christo’s new cookbook Pure Delicious. And as I was scrambling to find something to make, I realized I was short a few ingredients, but I made a few substitutions based on what was in the pantry. And you know what, if this recipe is THIS good with these simple subs – it is INCREDIBLE as written.

See what changes I made for this meal – that was done in, wait for it, 25 minutes!
Ingredients for Rotini Pasta with Garbanzo Beans and Sausage
- Protein Rotini Pasta (or Penne)
- Pork Sausage
- Olive Oil
- Red Onion
- Spinach
- Garbanzo beans
We are on a mission to eat our way through our pantry staples in the house. We are over brimming with multiple jars and cans of the same thing, because I am terrible at the whole “check what you have before you buy more” game. *eye roll*
So now that I have four cans of garbanzo beans, three jars of pasta sauce, five cans of tuna, and 2 bags of flour with two open in my cupboard – it’s time for a serious purge. The delightful thing is, when I saw this recipe, I had nearly everything to make it – or well the right things to substitute to widdle down my stores a little bit.
Heather’s original recipe calls for white cannellini beans, but garbanzo beans were substituted for easy. And since I couldn’t get my mitts on mustard greens, I used spinach. This recipe turned out absolutely perfect and I can’t wait to make it again.

If you haven’t seen the other pasta recipes I made from Heather’s book – check it out! It’s another staple in my lunch rotation now.
Inspired Homemade Recipes To Try
Pasta with Asparagus and Poached Egg
Print
Rotini Pasta with Garbanzo Beans and Sausage
- Prep Time: 10 Minutes
- Cook Time: 15 Minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
- Category: Main Course
- Method: Stove Top
- Cuisine: Italian
Description
This is a filling dinner that comes together in a snap! Packed with protein pasta, hearty sausage, and low-fat garbanzo beans, you will stay full!
Ingredients
- 1 pound Protein Rotini Pasta (or Penne), I used Barilla Protein Pasta
- 12 ounces Pork Sausage
- 2 Tbsp Olive Oil
- 1 Red Onion, sliced thinly
- 5 cups Spinach
- 1 can (15-oz) Garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
Instructions
- Bring pot of salted water to a boil. Add in pasta and cook until al dente, or to taste. Reserve 1/2 cup of the pasta water. Drain the remaining water and rinse. Set aside.
- While the pasta is cooking, cook sausage in the saute pan, breaking apart into chunks. Cook until lightly browned.
- Add in the olive oil, and add in the sliced red onion. Cook until the onion is just softened. Add in the spinach, and wilt.
- Add in the drained and rinsed garbanzo beans to the mixture and toss to combine. Add in salt and pepper to taste if you would like.
- Toss in the drained pasta. Add additional olive oil if desired.
Notes
Adapted from Heather Christo’s Pure Delicious Cookbook
Keywords: Pasta, Healthy, Sausage, Pork, Recipe
Mmmmmm….I wouldn’t mind diving head first into this!! YUM!
This is my favorite type of weeknight meal!
This looks so simple and delicious! I love the combination of sausage and chickpeas. Seems like a perfect weeknight meal! PS. I’m on a mission right now to eat through everything in our freezer!
Pantry meals are my favorite – I think my favorite thing to shop for!
haha I love the way you wrote how you are bad at checking before you buy because I am the same!! Yes just yesterday after buying peaches I realised I had a hidden stash of them in my fridge!! hehe
Love Heather’s recipes and this sure looks so good!!
Heather’s book has so many awesome recipes in it! Love this dish – I am a big fan of anything with sausage!
Hearty and uber tasty!!!
I’m in love with Heather’s book… so many beautiful recipes. This pasta is the perfect weeknight meal.
I can’t agree more with you! Between work and work, and other things in between, I think we need more than 24 hours in a day…mainly to get enough sleep and cook something healthy. Glad you share this one, definitely on my must-make list. Woot woot!
This was an easy quick dinner! I added garlic powder as I mixed the pasta with the rest of the ingredients and grated cheese at the end. I also threw in some red pepper flakes, but only on my bowl 🙂
We are currently in NY during the Covid-19 lock-down trying to make the best of it like everyone else. When I typed in all the ingredients I had on hand between my pantry and freezer, your recipe popped up!
Not to make light of what’s going on in the world right now, but our home needs a little levity each day so we don’t lose our minds . . . when the kids yelled down the hallway, “What smells so yummy?” I instinctively yelled back “Pandemic Pasta!” And hence, a new name for this dish was born. It got thumbs up all round and our kids scarfed down seconds. They have already asked that it be put on the calendar for next week.
We found out that a family friend made it through another day on a ventilator, and it gave us much to be thankful for as sat down together for this delicious dinner.
Thank you for your site. I look forward to trying more of your recipes 🙂
PAULINE!! You have no idea how much your comment means to me, and that I am so pleased it was a hit with the whole family – ESP the kiddos!! I am pleased to hear that your family friend is continuing their fight, and I will be keeping my fingers crossed for their recovery. My husband is a nurse at a local hospital, we live this much like you and your family – one day at a time. All the very best to you, and if you ever need a recipe or idea based on the ingredients you have – let me know! Of course, I will always find a way to steer it to my skillet triple chocolate nutella brownie. Because I know the kids would love it haha ~Megan