One of the problems with keeping a (relatively) balanced diet is getting protein.
I'm primarily vegetarian, nowadays (I promise, I like my steak! Once in a very long while) so finding alternative ways of getting protein has turned into a fun experiment of sorts for me. There's quinoa, soy products, lentils, fake meat, etc. But while I was browsing the pasta shelves of my local organic food store, I found...
Quinoa Pasta!
Why HELLO there. Somebody just combined two of my favorite things. Obviously you can't get all of your protein from quinoa pasta, but it's certainly a nice addition. I honestly had no idea this combination existed, but am very excited it does.
Curiosity got the better of me, so I bought a box of the "Garden Pagodas" variety - among other types of pasta, they offered shells, veggie curls, rotelle, linguine, and more. Quinoa pasta is cooked exactly like regular pasta: boil water, add salt/olive oil, throw your pasta in!
I added a little bit of pre-made vodka sauce (I know, I know. I was feeling lazy!) and went to town. Honestly, I couldn't taste the difference between this and regular pasta, which suits me just fine. It was delicious!
Find out more about quinoa pasta
here.
Have you ever tried quinoa pasta? What other creative quinoa combos have you heard of?
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Comments (5)
I have not tried quinoa pasta, or quinoa in general but I am very interested in trying.
I LOVE quinoa pasta! That is definitely the best brand, too. I buy mine in bulk packages on Amazon because I go through so much of it (and it's cheaper). It even holds up in baked pasta dishes. Sometimes my boyfriend gets mad when I serve him 'healthy' food when he wants the real thing, but he eats this without a problem. I think it has an even better taste than regular pasta.
I've also heard of quinoa baked into cookies (!!??) and granola. They're often labeled as 'power' or 'health' cookies, but I think there might be some good recipes out there...I'm pretty sure some people cook it into casseroles, bread, soup, etc. You can even use it in place of oatmeal. It's a very versatile 'not-grain'-grain. Cooking straight quinoa is sometimes annoying though, unless you get the pre-rinsed kind.
I just tried Quinoa pasta for the first time a couple of weeks ago and I love it!
I've actually been wanting to try quinoa pasta. I will one of these days. Pre-made sauce is great when you are tired. I always add stuff to it to give it a fresher taste.
i can't find quioa pasta here where i live. sigh...