A Guide to Gluten Free Pasta

We love pasta as much as anyone else. It’s not only a quick and easy dinner, but it’s also a pretty versatile dish. But when you’re looking for a gluten free pasta, it can be a little tough. There are a number of different kinds, and they all cook so differently.

When you’re celiac/coeliac and you have other food sensitivities or food allergies (like a corn allergy or intolerance), then this can be even tougher. When you have non-celiacs in your life who eat regular pasta all the time, finding the right one for you can be an even bigger challenge because you’re always going to be making comparisons between any gluten free pasta and your typical wheat variety.

We’re going to break down the main kinds of gluten free pastas. We’ll break down the pros and cons so you can get a feel for what will suit your dietary needs and preferences. While some of these truly are comparable to regular wheat pasta, gluten free pastas have their own benefits, too.

Corn-Based Gluten Free Pasta

These are the most common variety of gluten-free pastas that appear. They’re usually a blend of corn flour and another gluten free flour, like rice flour. These pastas are the easiest to find, generally the cheapest, and are often featured at many restaurants. From what we’ve learned, many people like this variety of gluten free pasta and find it comparable to regular wheat pasta. Check out Barilla pasta here. However, if you have a corn allergy like Isabelle then you’ll want to check out some other options.

Rice-Based Gluten Free Pasta

Rice based gluten free pastas tend to be made of brown rice, white rice, or a blend of the two. These can be easy enough to find, like the Tikyada pasta we have seen at a number of grocery stores. These can be a little firmer than regular wheat pasta, but they’re a good gluten free alternative if you have a corn allergy. We just recommend cooking it on the longer end of the suggested time and that should help soften it more.

Legume-Based Gluten Free Pasta

We’ve tried different pastas in this category, ranging from quinoa-based to chickpea-based gluten free pastas. We’ve even found that warehouse stores, like Costco, sometimes offer these varieties in bulk. Unlike rice pasta, these tend to be a little softer than regular wheat pasta. We’ve also noticed that while quinoa pasta is fairly neutral in taste, chickpea pasta definitely tastes a little like chickpeas and it can be a little “soupier” when you cook it. However, these kinds of pastas make for great gluten free mac ‘n’ cheese because the cheese tends to combat that legume taste. As a bonus, these pastas are actually quite healthy and protein-packed!

Blended Flour Gluten Free Pasta

We recently came across this discovery at Trader Joe’s and it was game changing. They have a blended quinoa and brown rice pasta that really is the best of both worlds (buy it here on Amazon). The combination of a legume and rice blend made it so that this gluten free pasta really nailed the texture and taste of a regular wheat pasta. We had it with simple olive oil and pecorino and it was easily the best one we’ve tried so far. We’d highly recommend this option if you’re looking for something that still has some of the protein of legume pasta, but with the taste of a rice pasta.

Final Thoughts

The best way to go about picking a gluten free pasta really comes down to personal preference, dietary restrictions, and the kind of recipe that you’re making. While we certainly have our preferences and needs, we continue to try different varieties to see what suits our needs. Sometimes it comes down to seeing what’s on sale, what we haven’t tried before, or even what shape of pasta is available.

For more tips and tricks, recipes, or other advice, check out more posts on the Celiac Press!