Some pantry staples are easy and tasty real food swaps: Pure maple syrup for maple-flavored syrup, two ingredient natural peanut butter for sugar-added peanut butter, olive or coconut oil for canola and vegetable oil.
Other pantry must-haves are more challenging to swap. Like rice. And pasta.
Spaghetti with Prego is cheap and super quick to pull together, but I stopped eating it when I started avoiding highly processed foods.
White Flour Pasta vs Whole Wheat Pasta
We’re so used to the mild taste and tender texture of white flour pasta that whole wheat pasta is often eyed with suspicion. (Ditto for whole wheat bread.) But I now believe that whole wheat pasta has gotten a bad rap. Taste them side by side. Whole wheat pasta has more flavor. Yeah, it’s a different flavor. Or, it seems to me, whole wheat pasta actually HAS flavor.
Whole wheat pasta is made using the entire grain of the wheat. White flour pasta is made from wheat grains that have been stripped of their outer layers (bran, germ, endosperm). Removing those layers produces a more tender wheat flour, but removing those layers also removes a substantial amount of the grain’s protein, minerals and fiber. (Plus, highly processed white flour has been linked to obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and other health issues.)
When we were first married, we had one of those hand-crank pasta makers. Homemade pasta is amazing. It’s so tender and flavorful. Much better than store bought. But we always made it with white flour. I wondered if homemade whole wheat pasta would have a gentler texture and taste than boxed from the store. It did. I served it with a thick tomato-based meat sauce. The whole wheat pasta added taste and texture dimensions to the sauce, rather than just being a vehicle for the sauce.
But who has time for making any kind of homemade pasta?? I didn’t make it again for a long time. Then my husband bought me an electric pasta maker for Mother’s Day a couple years ago. I know, I know, but seriously, it was okay; I had hinted that I’d like one. It’s a great time-saver, but in the end I only make pasta from scratch for special occasions. Store brands vary a little, so try a couple different ones until you find your favorite.
A suggestion for transitioning to whole wheat pasta would be to start with spaghetti noodles. Since they’re a thin pasta, they’re not so threatening to your taste expectations. Work your way up to the wider, thicker pastas such as linguine or fettuccini, if you like those. Experiment with cooking time too. (Notice the strands lighten up quite a bit after cooking.)
When you’ve eaten processed foods for decades, whole wheat pasta may take a little getting used to. But it’s worth it and I think you’ll get there pretty quickly. The taste is heartier, and sort of rustic, in a very good way!
I made these two meals with boxed whole wheat pasta from the grocery and we inhaled them!
Top whole wheat spaghetti with organic, store bought all-natural sauce (no added sugar!) and some freshly grated parmesan cheese, or try this ridiculously easy homemade marinara sauce from Skinnytaste. Here I also added some ground beef.
My son created an asparagus topping with white wine, shallots and lemon.
You might be asking, “What if I serve regular, white flour pasta with nourishing sauces and toppings, do I still need to swap for whole wheat pasta?”
If it’s a way to get yourself and maybe your people to eat some good veggies, then do whatcha gotta do. Maybe you’ll skip the garlic bread instead! 😉
