Alternatives to the traditional pasta noodle have been growing abundant over the past decade. From zucchini noodles to bean flour noodles, to other vegetables and legumes trying to mimic the pantry staple of pasta, there are so many choices. One of the newer ones is Caulipower pasta, which uses cauliflower to re-create shapes like papardelle and linguine without the gluten and with less carbs than traditional pasta. I was gifted samples of frozen Caulipower linguine and pappardelle pasta to review.
Unlike many other types of pasta, this comes frozen. Each 8.8 ounce package will serve two people if you also served it with a side salad or other complementary addition for dinner. One hungry person could probably eat it themselves, and that's okay!
How is Caulipower pasta different?
Caulipower pasta is made from cauliflower, which means it's full of fiber, and is totally gluten-free. Thanks to not having flour in it, it's much lower in carbs than other types of pasta. This was one of the appeals to me, not because I watch carbs, but because my husband does. He has Type I diabetes, and to lower his insulin usage (because wow, it's expensive in America), he watches his carb intake. This kind of pasta can allow him to enjoy pasta dishes every once in a while! Here's the full nutritional info for the linguine Caulipower pasta.
Caulipower pasta is really easy to make
The prep work is similar to regular pasta in that you boil water and lightly salt it. Once it's boiling, you add the noodles, but these are done way sooner: Three minutes versus the 10 minutes normal noodles take to become al dente. That means any sauce you're going to use needs to be ready much sooner than if you're making regular noodles. You want there to be as little time as possible between draining the noodles and saucing them.
What does Caulipower pasta taste like?
This is the true test of these pasta alternatives that are on the market. What does it feel like when you bite into it? And what does it taste like? The initial feel of the pasta is sort of sticky once you drain the water. This is why I recommend your sauce be ready to go, otherwise the freshly cooked noodles will have too much time to stick to themselves. Properly sauced, you can't really tell that it feels any different from regular pasta.
The taste is pretty good too, but again, I erred on the side of caution and enthusiastically sauced it, but I also love a very saucy pasta. Another thing to note, and this is pure speculation on my end, but I don't think this kind of pasta will do well as leftovers. That is my theory as to why they sell it in such small portions! This is not unique to most non-traditional pasta though, black bean pasta, corn flour pasta, quinoa pasta, and the like have all made for rubbery leftovers. So in a way, Caulipower is just making it a non-issue by making you not have leftovers.
It's good to know this exists and how it is, for anytime gluten-free pasta is desired — like if Patrick just really wants some hot noods. It's wild how the world of gluten-free has evolved since the 90s when it was just weird, bland, hippie food. But here we are, in 2021 with everything from beans to cauliflower putting on the mask of being pasta.
Where can you find Caulipower pasta?
It's in pretty much all major grocery stores and specialty grocery retailers. I have it in my local Food Lion as well as Lowe's Foods, but you can use their product locator to find out what's near you.