Aside from having the all-time best ingredient list, Tolerant pasta is a surprisingly awesome protein source with 21 grams of protein and 15 grams of fiber per serving. A veritable meal in itself.
If you’re an athlete, a traveler who needs an easy solution for simple meals on the go, or you suffer from Celiac, Diabetes, or one of the top eight food allergens, this is legitimately good stuff. Other pasta wanna-be’s can stay on the shelf. Tolerant may be for the beans, but if cooked properly it could fool anyone into thinking it’s actually pasta (even Martin).
We have tried nearly every variety of gluten-free pasta and they range from unedible mush to somewhat passable if drowned and covered in something. Up until our discovery of Tolerant on our last trip to Costco**, when we stumbled on what may be the holy grail of non-traditional pasta, we had been consuming copious amounts of Tinkyada Gluten Free Pasta. But no more.
Initially, we purchased just a few boxes of the Tolerant Red Lentil Rotini. After experimenting with various cooking techniques and flavors (see below), we were hooked and, when we saw that Costco may no longer be carrying it….. we invariably stocked up.
A high-protein, organic, gluten-free non-perishable item like this is great for #VANlife because, due to our limited fridge & freezer capacity, it’s hard to stock up on our favorite proteins, namely eggs, salmon, shrimp, scallops, and what we affectionately refer to as “meat” (Beyond Meat’s pea-based beef & chicken alternative that’s free of chemicals, soy, gluten, and dairy. This, too, ranks high on the VANdal Vittles taste-test We love the “Feisty” flavor of beefy crumbles!)
In VANdal, we can pack bunches of the pasta, store them in airtight containers, and stash them in the nooks and corners so we never have to worry about getting insignificant protein sources.
Cooking Tolerant Pasta
The only caveat we’d recommend: Don’t follow the cooking instructions on the label. Instead, we have learned that the best way to cook it is to put it in boiling water, bring it back to a boil, then cover it and shut off the burner, letting it sit in the hot water until al dente. (It gets a little mushy if overcooked, so check back with it frequently…)
You can do any meal you would with regular pasta with noodles made from lentils….We have found that the bolder the flavors, the better. Some ideas:
- We love shrimp, garlic, onions, grated hard cheese, and mushrooms.
- You can’t go wrong mixing it up with halved fresh cherry tomatoes, arugula, chunks of mozzarella, and a little fresh pesto for a “caprese” style pasta.
- Of course, it’s good with regular primavera or other pasta sauces (to which we occasionally add our Beyond Meat as our protein source).
- It makes a great summer pasta salad mixed in with kale and tons of fresh veggies. We like to grill up zucchini, onions, eggplant, & asparagus, then mix them into the pasta with a little hard cheese & garlic. Voila!
- A nice accompaniment to grilled salmon. Just add herbs and some olive oil as a simple side dish.
- It’s a decadent and soul-nourishing alternative to comfort food classic mac & cheese.
Contact us for more recipe ideas or share your own below! Bon appetit!
Read here how Tolerant earned Best in Show at the Fancy Food Show:
**Our Costo disclaimer:
If you follow us, you may be surprised to learn that we are big fans of Costco. Why would we buy in bulk if our goal is to minimize our environmental footprint? After consideration, we decided that we wanted to support brands creating a positive externality for the environment, even if doing so in a bulk-shopping setting. Do we buy conventional peppers grown in Mexico there? No. But organic salads, Tolerant pasta, wild-caught Salmon, organic olive oil, organic wine, and other areas where we feel an economic benefit can be cast by voting with our dollar. Every time we go there, it’s clear that Costco is listening to the demands of the informed public by minimizing packaging materials, offering more organic products, and choosing products (like their Kirklands organic olive oil — read this article on the Most and Least Fake EVOO Brands) that have a higher-than-average industry standard for quality.