I LOVE Pasta and although I usually swap it for something like a baked sweet potato or spiralized courgette, (zucchini) I do feel slightly envious of my other half with his massive plate of spaghetti! Pasta is by no means a terrible thing to eat, the wholemeal variety is probably slightly better in terms of being higher in fibre and low GI. But I find that when I do eat either variety, it has a tendency to make me very bloated. I’m not actually following a wheat or gluten free diet myself (although maybe I should be!) but when I saw some Lentil and Lentil and Quinoa pasta while out shopping I thought I would give it a try. I cooked both of them as per the instructions on the packs, do take a look at these if you do decide to give them a go, as it does differ slightly from the wheat based pastas.
I found the ‘Ancient Harvest’ brand of Lentil and Quinoa blend in my local Poundland (no judgement please…I love a bargain and I am a proud Poundland shopper!). So it was very cheap and I thought I would try it. The fact it has 14g of protein and 7g of fibre per 57g serving also made me keen to give it a go. I’ll put the macros of it below for anyone who tracks:
Per 100g as sold (recommended serving size of this one is 57g dry product).
- Calories: 386
- Carbs: 62g
- Fat: 1.5g
- Protein: 25g
Now let’s talk Taste. Perhaps the most important thing. Well I’m not going to lie, it doesn’t taste exactly the same as regular white pasta. It’s not massively far off though, and with a sauce and a sprinkling of Parmesan it would be pretty good. Also having looked this pasta up online and £1 is a very reasonable price for it, so if you do have a Poundland near you, it might be a good idea to stock up.
Okay so moving on to pasta alternative number two. Red lentil pasta, this I picked up from Morrisons ‘Free from’ range and it cost £1.36. Again I will pop the macros below.
Per 100g as sold (it states a serving size to be 75g dry product by the way)
- Calories: 363
- Carbs: 59.3g
- Fat: 1.2g
- Protein: 26.2g
Now this ones tastes pretty good aswell. Again not identical to traditional pasta but, in my opinion, the nicest of the two. I would describe the taste as slightly ‘nuttier’ in flavour which is actually quite pleasant. This one also has marginally better macros but they don’t vary that much there.
Overall I am pretty impressed with the gluten free pasta alternatives that I have tried. Personally I just choose to eat them as they are a bit better nutritionally than regular pastas, but if you are following a gluten free diet these would be great. They are also a really source of healthy plant based protein for vegetarian and vegan diets.
Jess xox
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