Corn Vs. Rice Pasta

[rvagirl]

Hey, y'all, I've acquired a recipe for baked macaroni and cheese that I have modified to make gluten free and very, VERY low fat, but am unsure about whether or not to use corn or rice pasta. I love the Trader Joe's brand of gluten-free mac and cheese, and their noodles are rice based elbow macaroni, although pretty much every other brand of rice pasta I've had (ie. Tinkyada) has been pretty crappy. Does anyone know of a rice pasta (elbow macaroni or shells) that has the same consistency and taste that Trader Joe's boxed mac and cheese has? I would like to know, for those of you that have made homemade mac and cheese, especially the baked variety, which type of pasta you used and the brand of the pasta. Also, where you found it would probably be helpful, too. Thanks in advance!

[ranger]

I've made Mac N Cheese with Tinkyada brown rice elbows with good results. My gluten OK husband likes the as well as any glutteny Pasta. Don't care for the corn pasta I've tried but I don't know if that's because it's corn, or the brand. Don't eat a ton of any pasta.

[Shess0816]

Hey, y'all, I've acquired a recipe for baked macaroni and cheese that I have modified to make gluten free and very, VERY low fat, but am unsure about whether or not to use corn or rice pasta. I love the Trader Joe's brand of gluten-free mac and cheese, and their noodles are rice based elbow macaroni, although pretty much every other brand of rice pasta I've had (ie. Tinkyada) has been pretty crappy. Does anyone know of a rice pasta (elbow macaroni or shells) that has the same consistency and taste that Trader Joe's boxed mac and cheese has? I would like to know, for those of you that have made homemade mac and cheese, especially the baked variety, which type of pasta you used and the brand of the pasta. Also, where you found it would probably be helpful, too. Thanks in advance!

I've made mac and cheese very successfully with DeBoles Gluten Free elbow style corn pasta. I personally tend to like the corn pasta better. From the spaghetti and mac and cheese I've made, I think for my tastebuds, the corn pasta has a better taste and consistency. The rice pasta I've made just seems to be a little less substantive and seems to just fall apart in my mouth (maybe I cooked it too long though....). I also have noticed that the corn pasta seems to do better as leftovers than the rice pasta. The rice pasta has seemed really kind of pasty the next day, but the corn pasta held its taste, shape, texture, etc... until I had it for dinner the next night.

[loco-ladi]

I ironically enough made homemade mac n cheese last night for supper....

its one of my favorites before and after going gluten-free

I tried many different kind, brans and etc of pasta's while I find almost always I prefer the tinkyada brand of rice pasta for texture and flavor closest to "before" I started using the "brown rice elbows" I now use the brown rice "fusilli" (I prolly spelled that way wrong, lol)

The gluten-free pasta tends to "break up" when mixing the cheese into the pasta and it left the elbows amaller than I like, the fusilli is basically a longer curlier version of elbows and after it does the break up thing when mixing its still a nice size piece of pasta... it "reheats" well in the microwave as well

[GottaSki]

We use Ancient Harvest Quinoa Pasta for baked macaroni and cheese along with all their pastas...we've had better luck with these as they are a bit firmer - more regular pasta-like than all the rice pastas we've used.

We purchase in packs of 12 boxes on Amazon with free shipping as it is a bit cheaper than our local markets.

[StephanieSD]

I also like the Ancient Harvest quinoa pastas. I've found them at Whole Foods and I buy them in bulk from (Company Name Removed - They Spammed This Forum and are Banned).

The DeBoles rice pasta shells aren't bad, either.

[Rothane]

I just made my favorite mac n' cheese recipe (from Real Simple - replaces some of the pasta with cauliflower - Open Original Shared Link It's very easy to adapt to gluten free; I just used some leftover gluten-free bread for the breadcrumb topping and used Tinky elbows.

The only thing I would say is that next time, I will probably use the Tinky fusilli instead. The Tinky elbows did this weird thing where they got very, very soft on the inside curve (almost mushy) while staying al dente on the outside edge. It's probably just that the pasta is thinner there. But I think this recipe would rock the house with the fusilli -- lots of nooks for the cheesy goodness.

Try this recipe if you haven't -- it's definitely one of the best mac n' cheese recipes out there, and not a nutritional disaster.

[naturallyboredthriller]

Thanks for all of y'all's great tips and recipes. I will definitely try the baked macaroni with cauliflower; that sounds delicious and I can easily modify that into being completely fat free (with the exception of the pasta, which has very little fat) as well. My fiance went out for me last night and bought a box of DeBoles corn elbow and a box of Quinoa elbows, and from the looks of the noodles, I think I'll be using the DeBoles elbows in the baked macaroni that I'll be fixing for dinner tonight. Thanks again, I really appreciate the help!

[minniejack]

I like Schars brand of pastas. I made both DeBole's and Schars the other night and the Schars looked like regular pasta and tasted like it, too.

[summerteeth]

I like Tinkyada brown rice pasta and Ancient Harvest Quinoa pasta. Tinkyada was a lot easier for me to find. Corn pasta (DeBoles) was too mushy for my liking.

[Chattyaholic]

I like Tinkyada's brown-rice penne pasta, that's the only one I've tried and since I like it I've stuck with it instead of trying others. I basically just cook up one serving, so don't have any leftovers to know how well it holds up to reheating.

I did try a box mix of macaroni and cheese, but can't remember the brand name. It was okay, a bit mushy though but I may have overcooked it.

[LisaaaNoel]

I definitely prefer corn pasta to rice pasta.