3 Healthy Pasta Recipes - Trader Joe's Black Bean Rotini

Hey guys, it's Dani. Now, a couple weeks ago I shared a grocery haul from Trader Joe's, and the one ingredient that you guys seemed to get the most excited about was the black bean rotini pasta. As a matter of fact, several of you, lots of you, asked me if I could use this pasta in a recipe. So today I am going to show you three clean and delicious ways to use the Trader Joe's black bean rotini pasta. I'm going to be making a Greek style black bean pasta salad, then we'll be doing a Thai black bean pasta salad with edamame, and finally a super simple kid-friendly weeknight black bean pasta with peas and parmesan cheese. So for those of you who are not familiar with this pasta, it is a black bean pasta made from black bean flour, unlike traditional pastas which are made from semolina flour. Now, if you don't have a Trader Joe's by you, I know that there are other brands out there that make the black bean pasta, so if you look around you might be able to find one. Now, the big difference here is that the black bean pasta has a lot more fiber and a lot more protein than the wheat pasta. You're going to get 14 grams of protein and 15 grams of fiber in a two ounce serving of the black bean pasta. Now, I do think it's really important to note here that calorically, wheat pasta and the black bean pasta is exactly the same, meaning a two ounce portion of dry pasta before you cook it is going to be 200 calories for both options, right? The big difference with the black bean pasta is that you're getting the protein and the fiber. From a cooking perspective, the one tip I want to give you for the black bean pasta is that bag says to cook it between 8 and 10 minutes, but I find that if you let it go on the latter side, the 10 minutes, it gets very gummy and almost starts to fall apart, so I have found the sweet spot to be somewhere between 6 and 8 minutes tops. And one last thing to note is this pasta cooks the same exact way traditional pasta cooks, so you're going to fill a pot with water, bring it up to a boil, add your pasta, give it a stir, and then let it go for about 6 to 8 minutes. Now, the bag says to cook it for about 10 minutes, but I find that that's way too far and that when you overcook this pasta, it tends to get a little bit gummy, so you want to go until it's just al dente. And for all three recipes I'm about to show you, I'm going to be using 6 ounces of dried pasta, which is half the bag. Okay, so we're going to get started with the first recipe, our Greek black bean pasta salad. Now, I'm going to start off by making my dressing, and as you guys know, I love using these little glass spouted cups when I make my dressing, because there's the measurements right up on the side, and plus when you're ready to pour it, it has this little spout, so it's really easy to work with. All I'm going to do is combine one third of a cup red wine vinegar, two tablespoons of fresh lemon juice, two cloves of crushed garlic, one teaspoon of dried oregano, and should you have fresh, you would use a tablespoon, a third of a cup of extra virgin olive oil, and then some salt and pepper to taste. Whisk that all together and set it aside. Now, in my bowl here, I have 6 ounces of the cooked black bean pasta that I drained and let cool for just a couple minutes, and now I'm going to add my veggies. All we're adding is a third of a cup of thinly sliced red onions, one cup of halved cherry tomatoes, one chopped up yellow pepper, a third of a cup of black kalamata olives that I've sliced in half, and then two ounces of crumbled feta cheese, and I like to buy the feta in the block and then crumble it myself because it always has more flavor and better texture than the pre-crumbled feta cheeses. Now, I'm going to gently drizzle the dressing all over the pasta and the veggies and toss this all together. Now, you could make this and serve it as a side dish if you were outside grilling or if you wanted to treat it as a nice light lunch, and you wouldn't even have to worry about adding extra protein because the protein is already in our pasta. Next up, our Thai black bean pasta salad with edamame. Again, I'm going to start with my salad dressing. Now, a few weeks ago, I showed you guys that Thai kale salad. This dressing is very similar to the dressing I used in that recipe. All I'm going to do is combine a quarter cup of all-natural peanut butter, and remember guys, when you're buying your peanut butters, read the labels. There should be nothing there other than peanuts and maybe some salt. One clove of crushed garlic, a teaspoon of grated ginger, a tablespoon of soy sauce, a tablespoon of honey, two tablespoons of fresh lime juice, and then about three tablespoons of hot water to thin this out, and I just like to whisk it. I like it to be thin enough to pour but still thick enough to coat the back of a spoon just like this. Now, in my bowl, I have six ounces of drained and cooked black bean edamame pasta that I let cool down a little bit just like we did for the Greek salad, and to that I'm adding one cup of shelled and cooked edamame. Now, these are edamame that I buy in the freezer section, and then you can just throw them into some boiling water for about five, six minutes, and they are ready to go. They are also very rich in protein, so they're going to be adding another boost of protein to this protein-packed pasta dish. One chopped yellow pepper, a cup of chopped up carrots, nice and crunchy, and then a quarter cup of thinly sliced scallions. Again, I'm just going to drizzle my dressing right over the pasta and the veggies and gently toss this all together. Now, this pasta salad is the type that gets better with time because the pasta will absorb all the flavors from the dressing, and so it's definitely a recipe that you can add to your weekend meal prep and then enjoy as a head start ingredient once your busy week gets going, and you will know you've got a clean and delicious meal in the fridge waiting for you. And our third and final recipe is the black bean pasta with peas and parmesan. This one is super kid-friendly. Of all of the different recipes I've made with the black bean pasta, this is the one that my children absolutely love the most, and it comes together in no time. So for this dish, I've got one cup of frozen peas at the bottom of a colander, and what I'm going to do is drain my pasta right over those peas, and what that does is the heat and the steam from the pasta steams, defrosts, and warms our peas all the way through, so we don't have to worry about an extra step to cook the peas or dirty an extra dish. Then all of this is going back into my pot. I'm going to drizzle it with a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil, season with some salt, pepper, and then a few tablespoons of parmesan cheese. You could do anywhere between two and four tablespoons depending on how cheesy you like your pasta. And FYI, if this is not for a child and it is for an adult, it's also absolutely delicious with a fat pinch of red pepper flakes. So there you guys have it. Three super simple, clean, and delicious recipes for your black bean rotini pasta from Trader Joe's or from wherever you're buying your black bean pasta. And now I want to hear from you. Have you tried working with this pasta yet? If so, what recipe have you come up with? Share it down in the comments below, and if you're excited to try one of my three recipes, which one do you think you will try first? Come on down below and let me know, and then when you make it, snap a picture and tag me on Instagram, on Facebook, on Snapchat, say hi on Snapchat, using clean and delicious and or Danny Spees. Now if you guys want to print any of these recipes, you can do that at cleananddelicious.com and I thank you so much for watching. If you haven't subscribed already, let's do that, and I will see you back here soon with some more clean and deliciousness. Cheers! Microphone check, microphone, check out, one, two, check up. Kid-friendly weeknight booyakasha. I'm not adding any protein because you got all the protein in your pasta. So for this recipe, I have one cup of frozen peas hanging out in the bottom of my colander, and as my pasta is done cooking, I'm just going to strain them in the colander right over the peas, and the heat and the steam from the pasta is going to defrost and warm our peas through, so we don't have to worry about an extra step cooking or defrosting our peas and dirtying an extra dish. It's because you got all the protein in your pasta.