I love lasagna. Let me qualify that – I love MY lasagna. Over the years, restaurant lasagnas have tended to be either bland or not cheesy enough for me. So, the fact I can’t eat restaurant lasagna anymore is not a big deal. But I really miss eating my own.
Recently one of my kids asked me to make lasagna. I hadn’t made it in a while because, well, I can’t eat it. Not sure how this was going to taste, I made two lasagnas: one with regular noodles and one that was gluten free. That was such a pain making each one separately. Working so hard to avoid cross contamination! What I really need is a gluten-free lasagna noodle that everyone will eat.
The first GF lasagana noodles I found were Explore Cuisine Organic Green Lentil Lasagne. After that I did a taste test with DeLallo Gluten Free Lasagna and Tinkyada Pasta Joy Brown Rice Pasta Lasagne. Here are the results.
Explore Cuisine Organic Green Lentil Lasagne
8 oz package
Purchased at: Whole Foods
Price range: $4.00 to $5.00 per box estimate (Compare to Barilla no boil noodles made with wheat at about $2.75 for same size package.)
Certified Gluten Free
These noodles look a little bit different from the traditional noodles I am used to. They are flat and about 6 in. long and 3 in. wide. Oh, and they are green.
My major concern with these noodles was not that they were made from lentils, it was that they are used straight from the box. I have tried no boil noodles in the past with unsatisfactory results. From this experience, I added extra sauce to each layer assuming the noodles would need more liquid to cook correctly.
I liked the convenience of not having to cook the noodles. Assembling the layers was quick and easy, and I didn’t burn my fingers on hot noodles. Because the noodles are shorter than typical, I overlapped them. I baked it the same as I would normally.
I took a bite and the first thing I noticed was the texture. The noodles were mushy! As I chewed, the noodle “paste” stuck to my teeth. Though the previous no boil wheat noodles I used had a bad texture, this was worse.
The taste did not bother me, but I was so affected by the texture, I don’t remember enough about the taste to describe it. Regardless, I did not invite any of my lasagna-loving family to try this and the leftovers were thrown away.
NOTE: While writing this review, I realized that there are cooking instructions for this product. The box says to bake the lasagna for 40-45 min. in a 400-degree oven. This lasagna was baked at 350 degrees for about 50 min. It is possible that the noodles were under cooked.
DeLallo Gluten Free Lasagna
9 oz package
Purchased at: Giant Eagle
Price: $3.49
Certified Gluten Free
These noodles are also flat and about 6 ¼ in. long and 3 in. wide. They cooked in only 5 min.
In the finished lasagna, the taste and texture were both very good! After being gluten free for so long, I thought these were nearly identical to regular noodles.
Several members of my family tasted this one next to a regular lasagna. The majority said that though it was good, it was slightly different from regular noodles. There was no consensus on what the difference was. One family member could not taste the difference. The next test will be to serve this lasagna by itself and see what they think then.
This is a keeper. Though more expensive than what I used to pay for noodles, they are very close to what I have been craving.
Tinkyada Pasta Joy Brown Rice Pasta Lasagne
10 oz. package
Purchased at: Giant Eagle
Price: $4.99 a box (Compare to Barilla noodles made with wheat, $2.75 for 16 oz.)
Though the box does not say the pasta is certified gluten free, the company makes only rice pastas, so there is no chance of cross-contamination.
These noodles are more of a traditional size and look. They are about 9 ½ in. long, 2 in. wide and have curly edges. The color is more brown than traditional noodles.
I have tried several types of rice noodles over the past few months and have learned they tend to need less cooking time than the package directions indicate. The box said to cook these for 13-14 min., 2 min. less if you plan to bake them, too. I cooked these for about 10-11 min.
While assembling the lasagna, some of the noodles fell apart. The curly edges pulled off and they tended to tear easily. I put a couple intact noodles aside for the top layer. (Ugly noodles in the middle don’t matter.)
The taste did not bother me. The texture of rice noodles is slightly softer than typical wheat pastas, and these were the same way. That said, they were not mushy.
My husband and I tried this lasagna side-by-side with the one made with corn noodles. We both agreed that the corn tasted better and had a better texture, but the differences were minor. If they were not being eaten at the same time, I think the differences would be much more subtle and inconsequential.
CONCLUSIONS
- DeLallo Gluten Free Lasagna – Good taste. Good texture.
- Explore Cuisine Organic Green Lentil Lasagne – Terrible texture. Could not get past the texture to comment on taste.
- Tinkyada Pasta Joy Brown Rice Pasta Lasagne – A little bit soft, but not bad texture. Taste was acceptable.
NOTE: All of the products mentioned in this blog post were purchased by me. The Kroger and Aldi near my house did not carry GF lasagna noodles at the time of this writing.
