Please help me with this...dry pasta vs cooked pasta serving

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kngarber
kngarber Posts: 227
in Food and Nutrition
I recently bought - Naturally Preferred - Organic Rotini. The serving size is 2oz (3/4 cup DRY!) I can't find what that equals to in COOKED. Can someone please please tell me what one COOKED serving would be?? I thought a cup, but that seems like a lot of calories (over 200) for a cup of pasta with no salt, butter, or oil. I don't eat pasta often, but love it so I still want to have it from time to time, but if it's over 200 calories for 1 cup forget it.

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  • rjyoung
    rjyoung Posts: 17
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    I would measure out a dry portion, cook it, and see how much it is cooked. That way you'll know for sure.
  • Rilke
    Rilke Posts: 1,201 Member
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    Pasta expands when cooked. The 3/4 cup dry (which should only be 200 or 210 calories) will be about a cup when cooked.

    Edit: You edited your post. Honestly, the "cup" serving is going to be more than you are imagining.
  • amfaery
    amfaery Posts: 267 Member
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    one cup cooked
  • deb_rn
    deb_rn Posts: 144 Member
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    I was trying to figure that out last night when I was making whole wheat pasta but never did find the answer. I will be interested to hear the response that you get!
  • kngarber
    kngarber Posts: 227
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    I would measure out a dry portion, cook it, and see how much it is cooked. That way you'll know for sure.

    Well it's too late for that this time ;)
  • kngarber
    kngarber Posts: 227
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    Pasta expands when cooked. The 3/4 cup dry (which should only be 200 or 210 calories) will be about a cup when cooked.

    Sorry I did mean 200 not 300 as I put originally. Still seems like a lot for some noodles. I think I may just have to cut pasta out and that makes me so sad. :/
  • hemlock2010
    hemlock2010 Posts: 422 Member
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    Agree--cook it and see. BUT my experience is that most pasta almost doubles in bulk, so 1c dry would be 1.5-2c cooked.

    So I would guess 1.3-1.5c for your .75c dry serving.
  • Rilke
    Rilke Posts: 1,201 Member
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    Don't cut pasta out. I never did and I've lost the weight just splendidly. Add a bunch of veggies and some seafood or chicken to your pasta to make it seem like more. Really, a cup cooked is more than it sounds like, and with some broccoli, tomatoes, roasted red peppers, asparagus, etc. in there it is an excellent meal.
  • CassandraD82
    CassandraD82 Posts: 71 Member
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    Yep, best thing to do is just cook one serve and weight it dry and weight it again once it's cooked.

    For example I put in an entry for a brand of pasta that didn't already exist in the database and the serving size was 125g according to the package. However, that 125g once cooked doubled in weight (and then some) to 295g.

    I listed it as (serving size) "125g uncooked / 295g cooked"

    The calorie content remains unchanged for that one serve. I find it more convenient to use the cooked weights because I tend to cook an entire package of pasta and freeze the extra 3 or 4 serves.
  • IndigoVA
    IndigoVA Posts: 164 Member
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    I have this problem with pasta and rice. I cook for a family of 4, so only having the dry quantities is very confusing to me.
  • bbhe
    bbhe Posts: 29 Member
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    Pasta is A LOT of calories and your cup estimate seems pretty accurate to me. Sorry. What I do is I add in a bunch of veggies before I eat pasta, then I eat the pasta and I get that wonderful full pasta feeling but without the bulge! Good luck.
  • joejccva71
    joejccva71 Posts: 2,985 Member
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    58g of pasta is 1/4 cup uncooked which turns into 2/3 cup cooked or so. However the nutrients don't change which really is what matters.

    Just because you cook pasta doesnt mean it all of a sudden doubles in calories, etc.
  • bbhe
    bbhe Posts: 29 Member
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    Oh, and you can cook it and then divide it into the number of servings that the whole container's supposed to have, and then measure that....So if you cook the whole box, (and it's supposed to serve, say, six) then just before you serve it, divide it into roughly equal six portions and then you'll know.

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