You guys, I found pasta that's GASP....HEALTHY!

pinuplove

paperpudding wrote: »

ooh, morphing into a photos thread

am cooking spaghetti bolognaise for tea tomorrow - will post photo too.

This thread has inspired me to put baked ziti on the menu this week

AnnPT77

OK, photos. We wanna be well-rounded, so here's the "alternative faux food" chickpea rice/orzo, with "alternative faux food" zoodles, cranberry (Roman) beans, fire-roasted diced tomatoes, onions sauteed in macadamia oil, basil, and parmesan cheese.



Per serving, 542 calories, 33g protein, 19g fiber, lotsa nice micros. It's a faux food fest!

AnnPT77

ShinyFuture wrote: »

Experimenting and tossing things together is very freeing and educational: What's the worst that can happen, after all?


Oh, trust me, my family has several "hilarious" stories about just how badly things can go. I'm good with soup, but everything else needs a recipe. And sometimes even that doesn't help. One of the stories that gets trotted out on holidays is the lasagna that even the dog didn't want.

Yup, that's about the worst that can happen. Presumably, you learned something, and no one died (not even the dog). All part of the fun . . .

I could tell you about back in my early days of vegetarian cooking, decades back, when a common kitchen output was something we called "unidentified patties with brown sauce". I learned a lot.

Momepro

rheddmobile wrote: »

I really like lacinato kale, aka “the flat kind.” Especially baked into kale chips.

@Momepro Has your mom tried mung bean pasta? Nutritional profile is similar, no soy.

Never heard of it!

kshama2001

paperpudding wrote: »

90 minutes to make spaghetti bolognaise??

from pre-made store pasta?? or do you make your own pasta as part of the recipe? ( i admit I have no idea how long that would take as have never made my own pasta)

But I can make home made spaghetti bolognaise in 2o minutes (which really is 20 minutes )

@paperpudding a lot of that time was fussing with pancetta - first chopping it in the food processor, adding onion, celery, and carrot, and grinding to a paste, then sauteing, and sauteing, and adding tomato paste and sauteing some more, and then finally adding the ground beef. Also, this was a One Pot recipe, so the pasta was cooked in the pan with everything else - using another pan to cook the pasta while the sauce was simmering would have saved time.

Oddly, it took me exactly 90 minutes, which freaked me out. (I did saute the pancetta for less time then they said, b/c I had worked out earlier and my stirring arm was ready to fall off and using my left arm would have been awkward.)

I didn't get a picture but it is the cover recipe:

kshama2001

Also in that dutch oven cookbook is Couscous Risotto with Chicken and Spinach, which will be next Saturday's project.



I MIGHT USE BABY KALE INSTEAD

acpgee

kshama2001 wrote: »

paperpudding wrote: »

90 minutes to make spaghetti bolognaise??

from pre-made store pasta?? or do you make your own pasta as part of the recipe? ( i admit I have no idea how long that would take as have never made my own pasta)

But I can make home made spaghetti bolognaise in 2o minutes (which really is 20 minutes )

@paperpudding a lot of that time was fussing with pancetta - first chopping it in the food processor, adding onion, celery, and carrot, and grinding to a paste, then sauteing, and sauteing, and adding tomato paste and sauteing some more, and then finally adding the ground beef. Also, this was a One Pot recipe, so the pasta was cooked in the pan with everything else - using another pan to cook the pasta while the sauce was simmering would have saved time.

Oddly, it took me exactly 90 minutes, which freaked me out. (I did saute the pancetta for less time then they said, b/c I had worked out earlier and my stirring arm was ready to fall off and using my left arm would have been awkward.)

I didn't get a picture but it is the cover recipe:

I make bolognaise sauce in about 5 hours using Marcella Hazan's recipe. I have been using this recipe for a couple of decades. I do make quadruple batches to freeze.

https://leitesculinaria.com/84057/recipes-marcella-hazan-bolognese-sauce.html

bmeadows380

MikePTY wrote: »

So I've been craving pasta since this thread. Finally got a chance to cook it tonight. Plenty of fiber and protein in that meal.

If we're still exchanging foods, I'm more than willing to take this off your hands minus the avocado I just can't get into avocado in any form except guac

My mom bought me a pasta roller for Christmas since I'd been wanting to try homemade ravioli but just could not get the dough to turn out right trying to roll it out by hand. The first batch was absolutely wonderful, made with fat free ricotta and spinach and clocking in at around 105 calories for 5 of them that I paired with a homemade alfredo sauce that I got down to 167 calories. Paired it with some steamed broccoli for a pretty satisfying meal.

The dough recipe I found calls for 2 egg yolks per egg and 1 cup flour and come out to about 190 calories per serving, so I'm going to play around with it and see if I can get it down a little more than that by knocking out an extra egg yolk and see what happens (I've been told pasta dough is pretty forgiving lol) I made spaghetti on Friday night and loved the texture and flavor of the homemade stuff versus store bought and thought that it was more filling for me, too.

kshama2001

bmeadows380 wrote: »

MikePTY wrote: »

So I've been craving pasta since this thread. Finally got a chance to cook it tonight. Plenty of fiber and protein in that meal.

If we're still exchanging foods, I'm more than willing to take this off your hands minus the avocado I just can't get into avocado in any form except guac

My mom bought me a pasta roller for Christmas since I'd been wanting to try homemade ravioli but just could not get the dough to turn out right trying to roll it out by hand. The first batch was absolutely wonderful, made with fat free ricotta and spinach and clocking in at around 105 calories for 5 of them that I paired with a homemade alfredo sauce that I got down to 167 calories. Paired it with some steamed broccoli for a pretty satisfying meal.

The dough recipe I found calls for 2 egg yolks per egg and 1 cup flour and come out to about 190 calories per serving, so I'm going to play around with it and see if I can get it down a little more than that by knocking out an extra egg yolk and see what happens (I've been told pasta dough is pretty forgiving lol) I made spaghetti on Friday night and loved the texture and flavor of the homemade stuff versus store bought and thought that it was more filling for me, too.

What roller did you get?

For years the task of rolling dough defeating me and I avoiding recipes that called for rolling. But now I have this, and rolling circles is so much easier:

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B000HK2DNA/

deannalfisher

kshama2001 wrote: »

Also in that dutch oven cookbook is Couscous Risotto with Chicken and Spinach, which will be next Saturday's project.



I MIGHT USE BABY KALE INSTEAD

kshama2001 wrote: »

Also in that dutch oven cookbook is Couscous Risotto with Chicken and Spinach, which will be next Saturday's project.



I MIGHT USE BABY KALE INSTEAD

Omg I want!!!

fdlewenstein

I like pasta, but I can live without it. I stopped eating pasta because of the carbs. I can't say that I really miss it, but finding a low carb alternative for pasta every now and then would be great. Any suggestions?

AnnPT77

fdlewenstein wrote: »

I like pasta, but I can live without it. I stopped eating pasta because of the carbs. I can't say that I really miss it, but finding a low carb alternative for pasta every now and then would be great. Any suggestions?

Does the "pasta" in the OP still have too many carbs for your needs? Or the chickpea/lentil/whatever ones?

rheddmobile

fdlewenstein wrote: »

I like pasta, but I can live without it. I stopped eating pasta because of the carbs. I can't say that I really miss it, but finding a low carb alternative for pasta every now and then would be great. Any suggestions?

This won’t work for full fledged keto, but what I do as a diabetic with limited carb tolerance is eat a smaller portion of ordinary pasta, plus a portion of zoodles. Zoodles (spiralized zucchini noodles) are quicker than pasta to make, have hardly any calories, and lower carbs than pasta. By themselves I find them too sweet and not satisfying as a pasta substitute, particularly when added to tomato based sauce, but added to real pasta they bulk up a small portion nicely without being distracting in flavor or texture.

So far I haven’t found any of the weird alternative pastas (bean, chickpea, etc) to be worth eating regularly. They tend to have strange flavors and textures, many of them aren’t much lower in carbs, and most have as many or more calories. Some are not bad when considered as their own new type of food but not as a reasonable substitute for wheat based pasta.

They have about the same carb content, but I do find that soba noodles, which are made of buckwheat, seem to spike my blood sugar less than the equivalent amount of spaghetti. And soba noodles are also delicious.

Spiralized cucumber is a great option for chilled Asian noodle dishes.

snickerscharlie

A green smoothie looks (and maybe even tastes) exactly like swamp water.

As for pasta? Semolina or go home.

Oh, and kale? Yup, this:

windra06

I've tried the black bean, soya and edamame noodles from Aldi and personally didn't like the texture but my bf loves it.
I've seen edamame pasta in both ASDA and Costco.
Id eat it more if the texture was better because ratio of fibre and protein to carbs is much much higher Than regular pasta so It fits better in my calorie allowance.
Personally red lentil pasta is my favourite it's really cheap from morrisons and although not massively high in protein and fiber like soy it tastes great and still has more than double the protein and fiber than wholewheat pasta for the same calories. Morrisons also does pea pasta too.

I really don't know why the OP got so much abuse, the composition of basic pasta is far different than these alternatives and for those like myself who are on low calorie diets it's nice to have an alternative. I usually eat legumes and veggies and choose my grains carefully as for me the calories are too high in things like basic pasta for the serving size and amount of fiber and protein you get.

paperpudding

as promised, paper pudding easy 20 minute spaghetti bolognaise..
Ingredients
500g lean beef mince ( I think you call this ground beef in US)
1 medium onion, diced
1/2 cup tomato paste
1 400g tin crushed tomatoes, preferably the spicy one
1 beef stock cube
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp sugar.
water to make consistency right

Serves 3


Brown mince and onion (you do not need oil, meat juice is enough)
then add all other ingredients, stir through and heat till bubbling gently, then simmer for about 10 minutes.
Meanwhile have pasta cooking as usual in separate saucepan.
I just use ordinary white wheat spaghetti - but you could use black bean pasta if you want

paperpudding

windra06 wrote: »

I've tried the black bean, soya and edamame noodles from Aldi and personally didn't like the texture but my bf loves it.
I've seen edamame pasta in both ASDA and Costco.
Id eat it more if the texture was better because ratio of fibre and protein to carbs is much much higher Than regular pasta so It fits better in my calorie allowance.
Personally red lentil pasta is my favourite it's really cheap from morrisons and although not massively high in protein and fiber like soy it tastes great and still has more than double the protein and fiber than wholewheat pasta for the same calories. Morrisons also does pea pasta too.

I really don't know why the OP got so much abuse, the composition of basic pasta is far different than these alternatives and for those like myself who are on low calorie diets it's nice to have an alternative. I usually eat legumes and veggies and choose my grains carefully as for me the calories are too high in things like basic pasta for the serving size and amount of fiber and protein you get.

OP did not get abuse
There was pushback about this exagerated claim that black bean pasta is the Gasp!! healthy thing!!

Probably would of been better to word it - "interesting alternative I enjoyed" or something like that.

So people can discuss traditional pasta and alternatives with various pros and cons and no need for hyperbole.

DarkSong555

Thanks for suggesting this healthy
new product. I'll look for it next time I go to Aldi.

bmeadows380

kshama2001 wrote: »

What roller did you get?

For years the task of rolling dough defeating me and I avoiding recipes that called for rolling. But now I have this, and rolling circles is so much easier:

I think Mom got this one:


https://www.amazon.com/Attachments-Authentic-Spaghetti-Fettucini-Lasagnette/dp/B00006ADVC/ref=pd_sbs_79_3/139-8932615-4871022?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B00006ADVC&pd_rd_r=40b6f21d-d05f-4ad3-af89-3db91f94b242&pd_rd_w=syjFm&pd_rd_wg=YovWg&pf_rd_p=7c0dad87-8a25-4c4f-9349-026039ea6cb3&pf_rd_r=2ZAHKXSZ4C9XF1Y5BN2E&psc=1&refRID=2ZAHKXSZ4C9XF1Y5BN2E


I didn't care for the ravioli make part - it didn't work well at all, but everything was fine. Mom wants me to try lasagna noodles next, but I need to wait to the end of the month so they'll be fresh for the pan she's making for my sister's birthday.

earlnabby

bmeadows380 wrote: »

I didn't care for the ravioli make part - it didn't work well at all, but everything was fine. Mom wants me to try lasagna noodles next, but I need to wait to the end of the month so they'll be fresh for the pan she's making for my sister's birthday.

This is what I use for my ravioli. Works great with a little spray of Pam and a rolling pin. I have the ravioli maker for the pasta machine too and didn't like it.