Gluten Free Pasta that Tastes Good
ByI decided early on in Malachi’s Gluten Free Experiment that I wasn’t going to buy lots of “specialty gluten free” foods. They are crazy expensive and many of them are void of any kind of nutrition.
However, I’ve made a couple of exceptions, in the name of sanity and so that I can present something “normal” for Malachi. For instance, if we’re eating pasta, I’d like him to be able to have pasta. I found and purchased one small bag of Tinkyada Brown Rice Pasta at Walmart, thinking that if he liked it and if it actually cooks up nicely, maybe I’d look into purchasing more to have on hand. The ingredient list didn’t even make me squeamish!
I am VERY happy to report that Tinkyada Brown Rice Pasta DOES cook up nicely and that Malachi DOES like it!!! Keep in mind, Malachi is six years old…he’s not just eating it to be polite. That means he really does like it! :)
The Tinkyada Brown Rice Pasta worked great for our Lasagna Casserole.
AND…you know my unique method for making Healthy Creamy Mac and Cheese?
This Tinkyada Brown Rice Pasta even worked in THAT recipe!!! SO good!!!
I couldn’t be more excited!!! (Okay, c’mon. Sure I could. Gluten free pasta that tastes good isn’t that amazing. There are more exciting things in the world.)
Still…I’m pretty excited. Now, when some of you leave comments on my various pasta recipes, asking if rice pasta will work…I’ll be able to say “yes!”.
And for the record, the Tinkyada Brown Rice Pasta is, unfortunately, a significant amount more expensive than the Whole Wheat Pasta I normally buy. But since I’m just using it for one person in our household, that one bag of Tinkyada Brown Rice Pasta is lasting us a long time.
Have you tried Gluten Free Pasta before? What has been your GF Pasta experience? Don’t you wish I would pass out forks so you could take a bite of Malachi’s Creamy Mac and Cheese up in that picture?
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Thanks for the recommendation!
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They do have good pasta! It’s a bit pricey for me at almost $5 a bag, but if it lasts, then it’s worth it. :-)
I’ve made my own pasta and that was tasty, but if you prefer the “storebought” texture, I love this brand.
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LoL. That does look great and I really want some! Thanks!
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We use Tinkyada for our gluten free boy. I also found a corn spaghetti by Mrs. Leeper’s that he likes.
You are doing great on your gluten free journey! :)
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That’s good to know! My parents are gluten free…maybe I should get a bag to have on hand for them when they come to visit. :)
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Gonna have to try your “healthy mac and cheese”. *giggle* those words don’t belong in the same sentence, but I’ll try :)
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We also like brown rice pasta. Tinkyada is our 2nd favorite brand. Our favorite is Hodgson Mills Brown Rice Pasta with Golden Milled Flax Seed. If you’re flexible with brands, watch Amazon for good deals on bulk gluten free products like pasta. The Saving Naturally blog occasionally highlights GF deals. My target price for brown rice pasta is around $2/bag. I often have to buy in bulk on Amazon, but it’s worth it and usually doesn’t expire for a year or so. I bought 12 bags of Mrs. Leeper’s animal shaped brown rice pasta a few weeks ago. I paid less than $2/bag and it tastes great!
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Colleen Reply:
April 5th, 2011 at 11:14 am
I agree! Hodgson Mills is my favorite brand also!
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For Pasta i buy “Le Veneziane” in bulk (12 packages, rationed to 1 package per month to keep costs down)from Amazon or Olive Nation sells it as well. It is imported from Italy and is a corn pasta, but unlike most American corn pastas, this is not gritty , does not fall apart and my family likes it better than our pre-gf days pastas (kids: 9 & 7 years old). In a pinch I will buy “Quinoa” pasta that is also very good, but the “Le Veneziane” is more rich, almost buttery, in my opinion. I could eat it with only a few drops of olive oil on it, it’s just that good!
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I have discovered that sprouting only decreases the gluten it does not do away with it…. I love brown rice pasta and have always used it. For those that have trader joes in their area, they have brown rice pasta that is extremely affordable.
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rice pasta is good & both recipes look yummy, I’ll have to try them! :)
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So glad you’re finding things that work! What a great way to keep him included! :)
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that mac& cheese looks yummy!
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I’m so happy you found something that Malachi likes! :o)
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We use Tinkyada pasta too. I buy it in 10 pound boxes from Azure Standard. The price has gone up some from what it used to be (everything is up right now). I am trying to make the 2 partial boxes I have last for a while.
I am so glad you found something Malachi likes! Our wheat allergic girl likes it too.
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Not head of that brand of pasta, will have to check it out. My favorite is the heartland brand. It is sold at walmart too, and really not that expensive. They don’t necessarily put it in the gluten free section. It is located on the bottom shelf by the regular pastas at ours. Thanks for the recipes.
Shelly
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Glad you found some yummy GF pasta, and I’m sure Malachi is happy too. :) Quinoa pasta is another good GF pasta…Ancient Harvest is a great brand to try. (Quinoa flour is also great for baking!)
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I too was going to mention Quinoa as a GF option. It comes in pasta, flour, and I believe rice.
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Glad to hear that there is a pasta that doesn’t turn into paste.
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Trader Joe’s has a great brown rice pasta!
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I thought YOU were the one who showed me that you could get HUGE bags of rice penne pasta noodles from Azure for pretty decent prices. It lasts for a LONG time in our family (two huge bags). It’s yummy whether you are gluten intollerant or not. I’ve tried it in most of your recipes too!
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Thanks for the info on the pasta – good to have on hand when you’ve got to cook quick for gf-ers.
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Nice to know.
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We have used that brown rice pasta for a while now and quite like it. We had to figure out the best way to cook it though. We found that if we bring the water to a boil then turn off the heat leaving the pan on the unit I place the pasta in and put a lid on for about 8 minutes then I check and if it isn’t done a let it sit for 2 more minutes I continue in this way until the pasta is done. Depending on the size and shape of the pasta will depend on how long. This cooks it perfect every time al dente you might say. ;)
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That is totally the way I have cooked for the last 5 years. Sometimes, I will cook a gluten meal for the entire family, but more often than not, I make something similar (like your GF lasagna) for my one and only GF boy. Sometimes it can be a pain, and I start to feel like a short-order cook. But, it’s just too expensive to cook GF for everyone when I don’t have to do it.
We LOVE LOVE LOVE Tinkyada here too.
Don’t ever try the corn based pasta. Cook it a minute too long and you have mush on your hands!
:-)
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I’ve never tried gluten free pasta, but if I ever need to, I’ll try this. I think that if our family had to go gluten free, pasta would be the one GF thing I’d HAVE to buy because we eat so many pasta dishes in our family.
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I tried gluten free for a little while, but no specialty products and didn’t seem to improve my digestive system, so I quit (but I probably should try for longer sometime).
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I love Tinkyada and buy it in bulk from Azure! I have a wheat allergy but can tolerate other gluten grains so I do a lot of baking with barley and spelt and rice flours. All of my muffins, cookies, etc I make with barley & rice flour with xantham gum added to reduce crumbling. It works great! Barley is very affordable if you can grind your own flour and it tastes great too. All my family eats this way.
My bread I make from spelt but this does have gluten in it. I seem to be able to tolerate it better though. Just some ideas for those who don’t have to be gluten-free but have a hard time with wheat!
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Cindy Reply:
November 26th, 2011 at 8:36 am
I bought some Tinkyada rice pasta and it was not good. Must be the way
I prepared it. How did you cook it so it comes out eatable? Mine was
still somewhat hard like it was not cooked all the way like chewing on
gummy bear. My family will not eat it this way. Thank You
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Rosalind Watkins Reply:
November 27th, 2011 at 4:01 pm
Cindy,
Tinkyada takes about 15-20 minutes to cook (most styles). I bring the water to a boil, add the noodles and tured it down to a simmer for 15-20 minutes. I have just followed the instructions on the package. I always taste test a couple noodles before draining them. They can get very soft,if wanted. The last 10# bulk package I bought from Azure had some “flaws” in the fusilli noodles. There were hard,gummy section because the noodle was formed properly with a hole in the middle. Maybe yours were flawed too? I have bought it often enough that I recognized it was not normal. Hope this helps.
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Rosalind Watkins Reply:
November 27th, 2011 at 4:03 pm
Sorry, I meant to say the noodles were formed impropery in my flawed package.
I have never tried gluten free pasta. Sounds like you found a good alternative.
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A little cream of tartar is another trick for the sauce. Go figure!
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I got to thinking about this today… I wonder if it would work to grind brown rice and then make noodles with the flour? I bet someone somewhere has tried, i’ll have to google it.
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Brown Rice pasta always turns out sticky for me and the pan is coated with rice goo. Am I the only one?
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Jennifer Reply:
April 6th, 2011 at 1:39 pm
Try cooking it for a shorter time. Until its al dente(?) and is still a little firm. Mine gets that way if I let it go too long.
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Haven’t tried rice pasta but I have tried Mrs Leeper’s Organic Corn Vegetable Radiatore. It is made with corn flour, spinach powder, beet powder and dehydrated red bell pepper. Very colorful. If I remember right, it tasted okay. Guess I should try the rest in a cold lunch salad with tuna or something! I’m sure the price was higher on this also.
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I’m so glad this worked for you guys. We’ve never tried other types of pasta, but I’m grateful I’ve gotten my husband onto 100% organic whole wheat. Now if I could find that in bow tie shape for a decent price he’d be in heaven!
Heather
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We get Trader Joe’s brown rice pasta. Its great and the best part is its pretty cheap for g-free pasta.
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I have tried brown rice pasta and my family didn’t even know the difference!
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We too have discovered this too. You will be happy to know that Azure Standard carries this. :)
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So excited to hear about these noodles. Our youngest daughter has severe food allergies and we must avoid egg and products manufactured in ways that could contaminate them with eggs. Needless to say, this severely limits our choice in noodles! I checked this company out, and yay!, they are safe for her to try. I pray they are as good as you say :) Blessings to you and your family.
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Tinkyada is SO much better than all the other GF pastas out there! This week, I’ve been bad and had regular old semolina pasta twice…and you should see the rash on my face. Great. For us the extra $ is worth it. Just not going to have spaghetti night all the time!
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Oh goodness, if you’d tried to do this gluten free thing 15 years ago, you’d realize how very amazing it is that there is rice pasta that is anything but mush! 15 yrs ago when we tried this I just gave up because we would have had to eat nothing but fruits veggies and meat, and a child just isn’t going to go for that. Now, there are so many products it just isn’t that hard to make a decent meal that is enjoyable.
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Looks really good!
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We are not a big fan of the rice noodles (or the price), but I buy them to have them on hand for a quick meal. I had never thought of buying them in bulk. Good idea! Our favorite noodles are homemade. I make them differently each time depending on what type of flour I have on hand. I usually use at least 2 different flours.
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We love the quinoa pasta :) Also, to someone who posted; we were told to go at least 3 weeks 4 weeks if possible without whatever food you are checking a reaction for – then reintroduce. We can’t have eggs which makes it so much more difficult! Good luck! :)
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I think I might pick some up to have on hand for our GF guests.
Did you mention to cook the GF first if u
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I wouldn’t mind trying out new pastas… do you think you’ll find out how to make them on your own?
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We have five celiacs at our house and use the Tinkyada brand often. It pays to shop around. I haven’t tried ordering online in bulk, but I live near quite a few Wal-marts as well as other stores. One of the closest Wal-marts has the Tinkyada for $2.82 a pound. That’s great compared to around $4 a pound I’ve seen it elsewhere, even at other Wal-marts!
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Laura,
I didn’t read all the posts so someone may have shared this already, but we love this pasta (we actually prefer it over the wheat): http://www.amazon.com/Le-Veneziane-Italian-Gluten-Spaghetti/dp/B00281RM46/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&qid=1335900336&sr=8-16
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