Bean Pasta is Here!

This is a major new development in the world of food and nutrition: Bean pastas. Pastas that are made entirely of beans. Perhaps its not completely new but I’ve only noticed it beginning about a month ago when representatives from one maker of bean-based pastas were at a local store giving away samples. I bought a box and was amazed at it.

So after that I went and looked to see if there were more types of bean pastas and yes, there are. So far I’ve had pastas made from black beans, chickpeas, lentils, and edamame. All of them were excellent except the one made from edamame which was really not good.

I think my favorite one right now is the black bean one. I’m having black bean penne for dinner again tonight and I love it. Its so easy to make. One top of the beans I’m just using a really nice tomato-basil marinara sauce, some salad sprinkle stuff that is made from ground sprouted seeds, and a few chopped walnuts. (I would have added some Atlantic dulse flakes but am out at the moment.) I also had a nice amount of organic mixed greens – lately my thing has been to eat it with no dressing or oil, just to scrunch up handfuls with my fingers and eat them. (There is a type of sugar that is in raw leafy veggies which is extremely beneficial for intestinal flora so its important to try to eat some every day.) Also had a very small piece of local-artisan-German-bakery organic sourdough bread. Really excellent, nutritious and easy-to-make meal.

I mention this here because this is only the latest of what has been a wave of non-traditional ingredients in foods. For example you can now find tortilla chips in stores which are made from both rice and from beans. The ones from rice I love – in fact they are the only ones I eat since I can’t stand corn. The bean ones – I was excited to try them initially but – oh are they difficult to digest. Unfortunately beans don’t work as an ingredient for tortilla chips.

But for pasta – they not only work, they excel! If you’re a picky and kind of light eater as I am, you may really love bean pasta as your primary meal.

Bean pasta. Love it!