Protein Packed Pasta Alternative

Alternative pasta is a growing trend in the food industry at the moment. You may have seen some unusual colours making their way into the pasta aisle at the supermarket and wondered if you should give them a try.

As a family who consume a considerable amount of pasta we have also been dabbling in these new varieties!

Clearly consuming products made of vegetables, fiber and protein is going to be good for us but one of the main issues is taste. Normally anything masquerading as one of our favourite comfort foods is never quite the same.

However we think we may have found a grain-free pasta that even my Italian Husband and the fussy children will eat!

Orwell Health

Orwell Health produces a range of soybean pasta which is 100% organic. From start to finish, their farming process is completely free of chemicals, fertilisers, pesticides and any other artificial chemicals.

Made purely from soybean the pasta is packed with 21g protein per 50g portion.

What's on offer

It's currently available as a Fettuccine (A narrow flat ribbon) and a Spaghetti. There are three bean varieties green, yellow and black. They all have a slightly different flavour.

How to use it

My favourite was the green soybean Fettuccine. It was delicious with pesto or other green vegetable sauces. It also worked well anything creamy or with cheese. It actually has quite a rich flavour.

The yellow soybean was lovely with heavier sauces such as tomato or meat based ones like a Ragu'/Bolognese.

The black Spaghetti is made with black soybeans so mimics the look of black squid ink pasta. My husband created a simple but wonderful seafood dish with prawns, chilli, garlic, olive oil and parsley. This was a real hit with my son who loves anything fishy.

Taste

I was very surprised to find that the taste is not too different from regular pasta. You can tell it’s not the same as your usual durum wheat varieties. However we have recently tried red lentil and green pea pasta and none of us enjoyed the taste. My children actually refused to finish their meal!

I thought I may have the same issue here. But surprisingly both of the children ate everything using the Orwell pasta and didn't seem to notice a difference. My son even took it to school for his lunch.

Health

If you're trying to eat grain-free, try something new or just get more veggies into your diet these would definitely be worth a try.

This pasta is:

Gluten free
Suitable for coeliacs
High in protein
High in fibre
Organic

Those of you who know our family at Mammaprada will have seen that my daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes in September last year. Now technically she can eat whatever she would like as long as she takes insulin to cover it.

The reality is that certain products do give her huge spikes in her blood sugar. So for me finding a pasta like Orwell which has approximately 25g of carbohydrate per 100g is a real find. Regular pasta can be as high as 70g carbohydrate per 100g.

We will still eat durum wheat pasta as well but it's great to know we have another option. We then avoid the roller coaster of highs and lows that my daughter has to deal with.

Where to find it

So where can you buy these great products?

They are currently available directly from Orwell Health. If you would like to check them out on social media you can find them on Facebook, their Instagram and Twitter.