What to eat instead of pasta

[Cloud44]

I don’t know if it’s becoming older but I seem to feel rubbish after eating pasta. It’s so easy though just to whip up some pasta, add some veg / sauce after a long day but I don’t want to eat it if it’s making me feel rubbish… what could I swap it for instead?

Cous cous is pasta.

Try bulgur wheat, roasted buckwheat, quinoa; smaller portions with the veggie content upped, our stomach unfortunately age with us.

Couscous is pasta.

These sound good!

Thank you, didn’t expect so many replies! Is it worth me trying a gluten free pasta as a starting point do you think?

I just have sauce most of the time. We always have high veg content sauces.

A lot of gluten free pastas are made from rice or maize. They are nutrient poor, just eat the rice or polenta.
Try some of the pea/lentil pastas.

Orzo and couscous is still pasta!

We've just discovered polenta. Lidl do a truffle polenta. We had it tonight with sauce of bacon, onions, mushrooms and herbs with a carbonara style sauce made with greek yoghurt. It was so comforting. Definitely going to make it more

@fandjango I do love a good polenta. Either soft and creamy or make it thicker, let it cool and then chop and fry into chips. You can taste the corn.

We've also just discovered polenta and so far are making chips with it

The very first portion I made was perfect, 150g to 400ml of water, Jame Oliver recipe

The next time I did it, exactly the same proportions and out of the same packet, it was all lumpy and I couldnt get the lumps out

Next portion, I used less polenta and more liquid, still lumps

What am I doing wrong?

We're not eating it 'wet', I solidify it and we cut it up for chips but you still see some of the lumps in it, really annoying

Have just googled and so it is! I always thought it was a grain. Xx

@soupfiend you need to beat the fuck out of polenta. It is why Sicilian Grannys have never been to the gym.

You can also make polenta style stuff from gram flour / chickpea flour
https://cuisinicity.com/chickpea-calentica/

or you can do a weird mix of the two, which is very yummy

I eat veg in pasta sauce, spinach, peas anything.

Bulghar wheat and any super food type grains are really nice.

Second this!

Also bulgar wheat made into a tabbouleh goes with any sort of meat and most fish. One big bowl stays fresh in the fridge for most of the week. You can just ring the changes with a different protein each evening.

I tend not to eat a lot of beige in the evening so anything ‘in a parcel’ with lots of vegetables and a couple of new potatoes chopped into quarters so they cook quickly.

I replace pasta with a can of canellini beans or gnocchi

GF pasta is the best substitute I’ve found. Just supermarket own. I tried pea pasta, quinoa pasta etc and it doesn’t behave the same as regular pasta (too sloppy etc) and also just tastes quite gross. Of course I’m assuming it’s the gluten that’s the problem! What else could it be I wonder, if you’re still fine with bread??

I suspected as much, it nearly took my arm off as it was, banging the saucepan around with the energy involved, I thought I was going to take off

Clearly just not strong enough

With a spoon? The balloon whisk was too bendy so I didnt use that

What about an electric egg beater?

@soupfiend my balloon whisk has seen better days so I use a Danish whisk.

Teenagers are very good for additional labour.

Polenta, delicious alternative when having a Bolognese sauce for example.

Seconding using courgette. Spiraliser is great I use mine a lot. Lovely pan fried with avocado garlic and lemon on.

High protein pasta made with mung bean, think it's mung bean linguine is alright. Slightly rubbery but much much better than the chickpea pasta which literally tastes like eating boiled Amazon boxes.

I'm a big advocate of soups and stews. You don't need bread with it. They are filling and go a long way.

If you find you are hungry when you cut down carbs you need to up fibre intake. Honestly it helps a ton.

Quinoa, buckwheat, lentils and other grains can be really useful just be mindful of portions and weigh them out as they are very calorie dense.

@Cloud44
Have a look at the low carb section of mn.

In particular, look up @BIWI
She's an absolutely amazing person

I used to eat pasta 4-6 times per week + potatoes + bread.

No more! I would have said it wasn't possible for me.
It is, and I feel soooooo much better.
And I reversed pre-diabetes

Well Im down a youtube rabbit hole about calentica now. This looks fantastic.

I've ended up giving up gluten, since menopause. I tend to use the waitrose brown rice penne from their free from range. No bloating and sluggish feeling after that.

Courgette gives me the shits.