Gluten-Free Bean Pastas!

Way back in January, Explore Asian sent me a nice little package of noodles to review. Two packages of noodles were gluten-free and made from beans, and the other packages were several varieties of their organic wheat noodles.

I'll review those wheat noodles separately, after I've had a chance to sample them all. I couldn't try those in January because I was on a gluten-free cleanse. I did try the Explore Asian Gluten-Free Mung Bean Fettucine Noodles in January though.

You might remember that I posted this picture of the mung bean noodles covered in Nana's Marinara and Truffled Parm from Crazy Sexy Kitchen.

I really loved these noodles! I'd had the mung bean ones before, so I knew they'd stand up well to the marinara sauce. They have that soft, gluten-free bite — you know, slightly chewy but melt-in-your-mouth smooth. It's a hard texture to explain. Sadly, the parm on that pasta gave me the dreaded pine mouth for days, and now I'm scared to eat pine nuts. But that's another story.

This week, I finally tried the other package of gluten-free noodles they sent — Explore Asian Gluten-Free Black Bean Spaghetti.

I wasn't sure what to do with these. I knew I didn't want a traditional marinara since I'd used that for the mung bean noodles. Thankfully, there's a recipe on the back of the spaghetti's package for Black Bean Spaghetti with Red Curry Sauce.

It has all my favorite flavors — coconut milk, red curry paste, ginger, and sauteed red bell pepper — so I knew it'd be a hit. Loved this dish!

As for the texture of the noodles, they have slightly more bite to them than the mung bean ones since they're round and not flat. But they're still soft and chewy. There's not much of a bean flavor, which is good because that helps the sauce shine.

But you know what's awesome about bean pasta? Protein! Each serving of both of these noodles contains 25 grams of protein! Tell that to the next non-vegan who asks you where you get your protein.