I’ve spoken about red lentil pasta a lot in my time. However, while I’m being strict with my gluten free diet, I thought I’d try a load of new gluten free pastas and see which is the best. I’m ranking them all for taste, texture and value (a lot of them can be expensive) to give them an overall ranking. Now, of course, taste is personal preference. And there’s a nutritional aspect here too. I like lentil pasta because, depending on the brand, you get 20-25g of protein a serving. As someone on a vegan diet, I find that really helpful. If you’re not vegan and just gluten free, that might not be as important to you.
The Kinds of Pasta
I’m testing a range of pastas from store bought to branded, regular gluten free pastas to legume based pastas. However, they are different shapes. Maybe I’ll test the same shape from each supermarket brand in the future to see if any are better than others…
To keep things fair, I’m making them all with the same sauce, which is this one from my 10 student friendly recipes post. It’s a basic spicy tomato pasta sauce, with added roasted peppers, olives and sundried tomatoes.
Oh, and I tried chickpea pasta for the first time recently and would have bought more to feature in this post. But I thought it was one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever tasted in terms of taste and texture and couldn’t bring myself to eat it again. If anyone is wondering, I place that in last.
The Best Gluten Free Pastas Ranked
Sainsbury’s Red Lentil Penne
Price – £2.95 for 500g
Ingredients – 100% red lentil flour.
I’m starting with one that we all know. Meet bae. I ate this stuff 5-6 days a week for 6 months to try and get my lashes to grow back (it worked). I love this stuff; it’s high protein, it’s quick and it’s a more affordable option, easily sourced etc.
Texture 5/5
Taste 5/5
Value 4/5
Edamame Fettucine
Price – £2.99 for 200g
Ingredients – 100% organic edamame (green soya beans)
The one didn’t look appealing at all. It seemed thin and rubbery while being cooked. Not going to lie, I was dreading eating it. However, the overall product did taste a lot better than it looked in the pan. This one seemed quite filling too, I had a smaller portion than the recommended amount and felt about the same level of full as I usually would after a serving of lentil pasta. Lentil is the benchmark for everything, in case that isn’t clear.
Texture 3/5
Taste 4/5
Value 3/5
Sainsbury’s Free From Macaroni
Price – £1.30 per 500g
Ingredients – Rice Flour (40%), Wholegrain Rice Flour (31%), Maize flour (26%), Quinoa Flour (3%), Emulsifier: Mono- and Diglycerides of Fatty Acids.
This was the one I was looking forward to the least. I’m typically not a fan of regular ‘free from’ pasta. Most of them are made primarily of corn/maize and contain some rice flour. I did notice while making this that the Sainsbury’s Free From pastas also contain some quinoa flour, which is rare for supermarket own brands.
That doesn’t however make up for the fact that I find free from pasta limp in general. It doesn’t taste awful, but it doesn’t really taste of anything. Eating this felt like going through the motions. Definitely nowhere near as filling as the high protein pastas, but a fraction of the cost too.
Texture 3/5
Taste 2/5
Value 4/5
Difatti Gluten Free Spinah Gnocchi
Price – £1.95 per 250g
Ingredients – Rehydrated Potato [Water, Potato, Flakes] (70%), Corn Flour, Potato Starch, Corn Starch, Spinach (3%), Rice Flour (3%), Salt, Acidity Regulator: Lactic Acid, Preservative: Sorbic Acid
Yes, I know that this one technically isn’t a pasta. But when I was browsing Ocado, this came up in the free from pasta section and I thought I may as well try it. Texture wise, it’s hard to compare to the others. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d tried regular gnocchi, but my mum tried this too and insists that the texture is the same. Value wise, this one isn’t great. The photo above is of the whole packet, so it only makes one large or two small servings per packet.
Texture 4/5
Taste 4/5
Value 2/5
Garafola Fusilloni
Price – £2.99 per 400g
Ingredients – Corn Flour (50,4%), Brown Rice Flour (22%), Rice Flour (21.4%), Potato Starch, Quinoa Flour (3%), Stabiliser: E 471 Mono and Diglycerides of Fatty Acids
This completely depends what you’re looking for. Out of them all, this one tastes by far the most like drum wheat pasta, despite having similar ingredients to the store brand GF pasta. Texture wise, this is exactly the same as ‘regular’ pasta. I don’t know whether the difference is because fusilloni is thicker/ bigger, so the texture doesn’t get so soft as easily. Or whether in this case the branded option really is better quality. Taste wise, I personally prefer lentil still, I think it’s slightly nuttier. However, as I said, this tastes the most like regular drum wheat. So, if you want to replace ‘regular’ pasta exactly, this is the one.
Texture 5/5
Taste 4/5
Value 4/5
THE WINNER
Lentil, always. I’m very happy that the one I’ve been eating for months is my preferred option.
Have you tried any of these options? Which is your favourite?
Until next time,
Sophie
Sometimes I do make pastas but have almost stopped as my hubby has also gone for gluten free diet. These sound like a great option to try. I will have to check here if it’s available. 🙂 Thanks for sharing Sophie.
Via | http://glossnglitters.com
I’ve had the free from macaroni before and I really love them x
Kayleigh Zara ❄️✨ http://www.kayleighzaraa.com
Thanks for sharing this. I’m not gluten free but have a couple of family members who are, so this is really interesting. They usually go for free from alternatives but I’ll have to mention here ones to (included lentil pasta).
This is such a helpful post. While I don’t eat a gluten-free diet, my best friend has Coeliac’s so it’s really useful to know what kind of food is best when she’s coming to visit. I’ll definitely be trying some of the lentil pasta myself too, it sounds lovely. I’m in shock at how little comes in the gnocchi packet! That’s daylight robbery there.
The Red lentil and Edamame pastas look amazing!
Jess | http://www.jessrigg.com
Lentil pasta sounds delicious! I’ve tried chickpea pasta and while I enjoy it, it’s still has a funny taste unless it is smothered in sauce. I have never heard of edamame linguini though – that certainly sounds interesting!
There’s a brand here in the US (no idea if it’s over there, and I’m totally blanking on the name) that sells a delish 6-pack of 3 different kinds of pasta at Costco. I love it, but it’s not GF. I got so excited to see them put out a GF version when I went for a shop about a month ago. It’s finally time to go to Costco again because it’s the beginning of the month, so I’m looking forward to picking those up soon. I’m gonna refer back to this post to compare the ingredients as I’ve no idea what they have in them! x
oh I’ll have to try the red lentil pasta. I love red lentils and add them to so many dishes
Red lentil pasta sounds amazing?! I’ve never tried it before. It’s great how many options there are these days. Such a useful post. I’ll definitely be referring back when my sister visits as she is gluten free xx
I bloody love pasta so I also bloody love this post! x
Oh wow I’ve never tried spinach gnocci before, what a fun type of pasta! It’s a shame these aren’t all winners but they do look tasty! 🙂
Hope that you are having a great week 🙂 I’ve just posted a giveaway on my blog!
Ooh all this pasta has made me so hungry! I’d love to branch out and try some different pastas but because I don’t technically need too I’ve never known where to start or if it’s worth the increase in price. Great post lovely xx
Tiffany x http://www.foodandotherloves.co.uk
The red lentil pasta definitely looks the best and I’m glad it’s your favourite – being as you eat it so much! I’ve never read such a detailed post about pasta before if I’m honest. I love pasta but I only buy one really. And I never put anything on it – only Worcester Sauce! I definitely need to get a bit more adventurous with my pasta.
Always love your posts! I’m a big pasta eater so this is helpful as I can make probably slightly healthier choices when it comes to pasta!
I love gnocchi! Nice variation you were able to find. I haven’t tried the red lentil pasta so I am anxious to try it after reading about it.
Pasta is my life so this is deffo a great shout for me for trying something alternative!! I tried pea pasta once and my boyf found it too chewy, we make meals
Together a lot so we didn’t use it again…may sneak it in! X
There are some good options to try here — thank you for sharing!
This was so helpful! I’m actually keto, so I avoid pasta and tend to just eat spaghetti squash as pasta! But I love how you explained all of these, and I might have to try one!
I really want to try the Edamame pasta because I am used to eating Edamame as a pea. And it would be interesting to eat it with sauce.
So many different pasta options… my favorite are the curly ones. So delicious!
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The Sainsbury’s one looks really good. Next time I’m in the UK, I might get that one and try it! I love pasta, but it’s so hard to find gluten-free products where I live!
I haven’t tried any gluten free pasta before, I would happily try them though. Thank you for sharing these options xx
I love that there are more choices for gluten-free pastas now. The lentil pasta doesn’t mess around with its protein! They are also super affordable. Big plus that you can still eat healthy without spending a ton of money. My favorite is the garafola fusilloni. Thanks for sharing!
Nancy ♥ exquisitely.me
I’ve tried a few and it is very hit and miss x
I love sainsburys red lentil penne!!