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I recently bought some black bean noodles. The ingredients for the fettuccine from Zeroodle are “Organic black bean, water”. The ingredients for the rotini from Trader Joe’s are: “Black bean flour”.
We had the fettuccini for dinner one night (where “we” is mostly a houseguest and a taste for me). We had the rotini for lunch today (where we is the same houseguest and me, and we split it). She preferred the fettuccini. I preferred the rotini, but with a caveat.
The Trader Joe’s rotini has cooking directions of 8-10 minutes. After 8 minutes, it is mushy. I hit it with cold water, we observed that it had great aroma and flavor and then cooked a second batch for about 6 minutes checking it continuously. As soon as it stopped having hard bits, we pulled it out, I hit it with cold water and we plated both dishes (the balance of the dish for lunch was TJ’S NSA marinara sauce, brussel sprouts, mushrooms, sweet potato noodles, and a little chicken, with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and a few grape tomatoes — notice the complete absence of salt. Corrected at the table for her with some sriracha and I didn’t because I actually like no salt). I ate the mushy rotini; she had the cooked-less-time rotini. I really liked my dish. I didn’t miss the salt. The balance of flavors was pretty interesting — it was like getting a lot of a stew experience, minus the stew part. It did not feel much like a pasta dish. She wound up eating around the rotini. Since I had some spare brussel sprouts and grape tomatoes left from plating the two dishes, I went back for seconds with her leftover rotini, and the balance of the sprouts and tomatoes. I, too, wound up eating around the rotini. It doesn’t have the same flavor at 6 minutes and the texture, while not mushy, and not too hard, is just sort of gluey and weird.
So. If you want a pasta experience, Zeroodle’s fettucine is a better choice. The flavor is fine. It cooks correctly according to package directions. If you are prepared to compromise on your pasta (read “tolerate mushy pasta”, and/or have a dish in mind that mushy is not a bad thing), the TJ’s Rotini has way better black bean flavor.
We had the fettuccini for dinner one night (where “we” is mostly a houseguest and a taste for me). We had the rotini for lunch today (where we is the same houseguest and me, and we split it). She preferred the fettuccini. I preferred the rotini, but with a caveat.
The Trader Joe’s rotini has cooking directions of 8-10 minutes. After 8 minutes, it is mushy. I hit it with cold water, we observed that it had great aroma and flavor and then cooked a second batch for about 6 minutes checking it continuously. As soon as it stopped having hard bits, we pulled it out, I hit it with cold water and we plated both dishes (the balance of the dish for lunch was TJ’S NSA marinara sauce, brussel sprouts, mushrooms, sweet potato noodles, and a little chicken, with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and a few grape tomatoes — notice the complete absence of salt. Corrected at the table for her with some sriracha and I didn’t because I actually like no salt). I ate the mushy rotini; she had the cooked-less-time rotini. I really liked my dish. I didn’t miss the salt. The balance of flavors was pretty interesting — it was like getting a lot of a stew experience, minus the stew part. It did not feel much like a pasta dish. She wound up eating around the rotini. Since I had some spare brussel sprouts and grape tomatoes left from plating the two dishes, I went back for seconds with her leftover rotini, and the balance of the sprouts and tomatoes. I, too, wound up eating around the rotini. It doesn’t have the same flavor at 6 minutes and the texture, while not mushy, and not too hard, is just sort of gluey and weird.
So. If you want a pasta experience, Zeroodle’s fettucine is a better choice. The flavor is fine. It cooks correctly according to package directions. If you are prepared to compromise on your pasta (read “tolerate mushy pasta”, and/or have a dish in mind that mushy is not a bad thing), the TJ’s Rotini has way better black bean flavor.