Trying Pasta Alternatives!
I’m sure you’ve found yourself walking down the past aisle in your supermarket. There are so many different types of pastas. You may even find a tiny, hidden section for pasta alternatives like pasta made out of chickpeas and lentils. If you have a gluten sensitivity, you may have already known about these types of pastas. However, I’m always interested in trying out new and alternative food staples so I decided to give chickpea pasta a try!
The first step in trying pasta alternatives was finding the darn things. I tend to shop at Aldi which is considered a budget grocery store. My store does have a good selection of Gluten Free products but they didn’t have what I was specifically looking for. This can be a problem in most grocery stores and you may find yourself in a specialty store or shopping in the health aisle. While this isn’t inherently a bad thing, I can see why many people don’t know about these products!
After a successful Target run where I bought more stuff than I needed, I finally had some Banza Shells. Banza makes all their pastas from chickpeas and they have many different varieties. Once great thing about Banza is that it is great for those with gluten sensitivity. Banza pasta is made up of 90% chickpea flour. Another plus is that there is no added sugar. The sugar contained in the pasta is naturally occurring in the chickpeas. If you’re trying to find a healthier alternative to regular pasta, Banza is definitely in the running!
I decided to include Banza shells into my weekly meal plan. My favorite thing to do is make my lunches ahead of time. I combined the shells with chicken sausage, green peppers, onions, and some tomato sauce to create a hearty bowl. The pasta was prepared just as easily as regular pasta which was a big plus! After trying out my creation, I have to say that the chickpea pasta shells tasted just as good as regular pasta would have. There really wasn’t a difference as far as consistency goes.
With Banza pasta I had the peace of mind knowing that I wasn’t eating a meal with a bunch of hidden sugar. Now don’t get me wrong, regular pasta isn’t a bad thing. However if it’s something I make in big batches and have during the week, I want to make sure I am not eating a lot of “filler” food which has little to no benefit to me. Overall, I may swap chickpea pasta in any future pasta dishes. I get the same flavor with less sugar and additives to worry about!
Have you ever tried chickpea or lentil pasta? What was your experience?
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