Zero waste dehydrated pasta
Every so often I crave some proper carbs to bulk up a salad or soup and this easy dehydrated pasta hits the spot.
This pasta owes everything to my laziness in measuring and my overambitious appetite. I think there is rarely a time when I don’t cook too much pasta. Even though I may diligently measure out what is required, it never quite looks enough so I end up tossing a bit extra into the pot.
So when I discovered that you could dehydrate your pasta leftovers – and it had lots of benefits - it was the kind of feeling that you get when you leave your home late for a meeting and all the traffic lights on route are in your favour.
But this isn’t really a recipe but more of an idea. It certainly isn’t raw, but it does use up potential food waste and ticks a lot of other boxes. Plus you can enjoy it with raw dishes such as the Phat Thai recipe.
One of those tick boxes is that cooled pasta has an abundance of resistant starch. Pasta is one of those foods, like cooked potatoes and rice, that magically transforms on cooling. This means that it can be used more readily as fuel by the bacteria in your large intestine making it more of a prebiotic – essential for feeding your gut-friendly bacteria. Resistant starch helps to lower your blood sugar after meals too.
You can read more about the role of resistant starch here.
So that is the health bit. The other big benefit is that it helps to use up food waste.
I realise that this means either denying ourselves, our family, children, or our pets that last extra portion of pasta but often as not, no one really fancies it for lunch the next day and the freezer is full to bursting…
Plus there are even more benefits too - it is useful for when you don’t have cooking facilities, but you can manage some water in a cup or thermos for…
Travelling
Camping trips
Festivals
or…those moments when you realise you have forgotten to prep a packed lunch.
Rehydrating cooked pasta takes less time than cooking it, so why not cook some extra pasta next time you are cooking so you can dehydrate it?
So how do you make it?
Choose thinner and smaller types of pasta such as vermicelli or ditalini. Small pasta takes the least amount of time to dehydrate and consequently, to rehydrate.
Cook the pasta in plenty of boiling water - the length of time is dependent on the type so see what the packet says. Don’t add any oil or sauce (salt is fine) – just cook it plain.
When it is cooked, drain the pasta and rinse it with cold water. This will stop the cooking process and keep the pasta al dente.
Spread the cooked pasta directly on the mesh screen of the dehydrator. Smaller shapes may need the Teflex sheet to stop them getting stuck in the screen when dry as they can shrink. Vermicelli can be formed into loose nests before drying for a professional looking finish.
Dehydrate at 60C for 6-8 hours or until it’s fully dry. Cool and store in a sealed container in a cool dry place.
When you are ready to eat it
Measure out what you want to eat, cover with hot or cold water and leave to stand until rehydrated. The smaller the pasta, the less time this will take.
Or pop it into a half filled thermos flask with hot water (you will need to half fill the thermos to make room to add the pasta).
Or boil the kettle and pour it over for instant noodles (this works best for thin angel hair type pasta).
Or leave chunkier pasta in a bowl covered with water for up to an hour so it rehydrates whilst you do something else.
Or rehydrate it overnight in a bowl of water in the refrigerator - if you have the forethought that you need a portion of pasta for your lunchbox the next day.
