Side dishes · Pasta & grain salads

Ditalini chopped salad

Name: Ditalini chopped salad
Prep time: 25 min
Total time: 25 min
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients: 400 g cooked pasta, ditalini, cooled; 1 head romaine lettuce, finely chopped; 1 1/2 cups grape tomatoes, quartered; 1 cucumber cucumber, diced small; 1 cup chickpeas, drained; 1 cup mozzarella cheese, diced; 1/2 small red onions, finely sliced; 1/3 cup banana peppers, sliced; 2 tbsp red wine vinegar; 2 tbsp olive oil; 1 tsp dried oregano; 1/2 tsp salt; 1/2 tsp black pepper

The deli chopped salad that put a small tube pasta on Google's most searched list: everything cut to the size of the pasta so each forkful gets all of it. Chickpeas do the job salami usually does, which keeps it a lunch rather than a garnish.

Time: 25 min (25 prep + 0 cook)
Servings: 6
Per serving: 265 kcal
Protein: 11 g

Both directions are legitimate — the score measures fullness per calorie, not virtue. Every version is the same dish, rebalanced.

Ingredients

400 g cooked pasta, ditalini, cooled400 g
1 head romaine lettuce, finely chopped300 g
1 1/2 cups grape tomatoes, quartered200 g
1 cucumber cucumber, diced small200 g
1 cup chickpeas, drained150 g
1 cup mozzarella cheese, diced100 g
1/2 small red onions, finely sliced60 g

Dressing

1/3 cup banana peppers, sliced50 g
2 tbsp red wine vinegar30 g
2 tbsp olive oil30 g
1 tsp dried oregano2 g
1/2 tsp salt3 g
1/2 tsp black pepper1 g

Every ingredient links to its food page — same data, same score, same formula.

Steps

Cook the ditalini, drain and rinse under cold water so it stops cooking and stops sticking. Let it drain properly.
Chop everything else to roughly the size of the pasta — that's the entire technique, and it's why this tastes better than a salad with the same ingredients in bigger pieces.
Whisk the vinegar, oil, oregano, salt and pepper with the sliced peppers and their brine.
Toss everything together and let it sit 15 minutes before serving. It holds 3 days; the lettuce softens but the flavour improves.

Why this score

solidly filling

No single route carries this one — a moderate amount of protein, volume and fiber.

Three routes to fullness — one is enough

16% of kcal

79% water

19 g/Mcal

What pulls it down

How scores work

Computed on the finished dish, not an average of the parts: 1590 kcal goes into the pot, 1526 g of ingredients comes out as ~1526 g of food → 104 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water, and energy density is the score's biggest lever — so we show the math. Full formula here.

Per

Calories: 104
Protein: (16%); 4 g
Fat: (35%); 4 g
Carbohydrates: (49%); 13 g
of which sugar: 1 g
Fiber: 2 g
Sodium: 178 mg

Percentages are the share of calories from each macronutrient.

Computed from the ingredients' USDA data — nothing typed by hand. Every number is traceable, every score recomputable.

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Photo: AI-generated. Nutrition and score are computed from the ingredients with the published formula — this recipe hasn't been kitchen-tested by us yet.