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Spaghetti With Tomatoes And Mixed Greens

Spaghetti is best known for Italian pasta dishes, including the classic spaghetti and meatballs. It is interesting, however, that spaghetti doesn’t appear to have originated in Italy, though that’s where Italian pasta is most known.

Spaghetti, traditionally produced from semolina durum wheat, is a thin pasta used in a variety of Italian meals and salads. This recipe, however, begins with gluten-free spaghetti. There are numerous brands of gluten-free spaghetti available today, with varying quality and cooking times.

Cook times, however, are shorter than their gluten counterparts, and even shorter if you're looking for a similar al-dente pasta texture that is popular with wheat pastas. I personally never cared for al dente pasta when I was eating wheat pasta. I like my pasta more soft, so I cook it for an average of 6-7 minutes.

Gluten-free pastas are made from rice, chickpeas, corn, lentils, cassava, and quinoa. There are many brands on the market today, with the most known being Barilla, Banza, Jovial, and Ronzoni. My top two favorites are Barilla Chickpea and Banza. Trader Joes is also another favorite, being made with brown rice. For this recipe, I used Barilla Chickpea Spaghetti.

This healthy meal is made with spaghetti, black beans, diced tomatoes and salad greens. You can use any kind of salad greens you like, but I prefer the spring mix. This is a quick and easy meal, but it will require you to cook the beans ahead of time. I don’t use canned beans because they contain a lot more sodium, and there is BPA in the can linings, which I don’t like. Skip the canned beans in favor of dried beans so you can control the sodium and you won't have any undesirable additives in your beans.

Once your beans are cooked, you can move on to the pasta. The Barilla Chickpea spaghetti I buy only needs to be cooked for about 6-7 minutes. Be sure that once you’ve added the pasta, you watch it, stirring it occasionally. While the pasta is cooking, you’ll grab your bowl and fill it with your spring mix veggies (or whatever salad greens you prefer) and add them to your bowl. I like to sprinkle a little bit of salt over my spring mix.

Once the pasta is done, drain the water and add it to your bowl. Next, add your beans to the bowl. Take your tomatoes and give them a good rinse, and then chop them. I steam my tomatoes for just a minute or so (you can leave them raw if you like), and then I add them to my bowl.

This is the point at which you can add any sauces or seasonings you like.

Enjoy

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FAQ

Do you put salt in the water or do you leave it out?

Honestly, most times I leave the salt out of my water because I always end up putting salt on my pasta anyway. In the past, I have forgotten that I put salt in the water and have oversalted my food. If you look at any website, you'll see that it's a must to salt the water, but I personally haven't noticed a difference in the end result. If I salt my water, it’s because it makes the water boil faster than it would otherwise, and then I need to remember to decrease the salt in the rest of my recipe. It’s purely a matter of preference; as the salt does flavor the pasta, you’ll just need to be sure to adjust your salt elsewhere in your recipe.

How closely do I follow the package instructions?

I think that the package instructions are a pretty good guide for how long to cook it, but that doesn't mean you walk away and leave the pasta unattended. I advise first testing out the cooking of your pasta to see how long it takes to cook to your preference. Your preference for the texture of the pasta may differ from what the package instructions say on the package, which would result in a different cooking time.

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