Last updated on April 8th, 2019
Back in August, I fortuitously met Phi of Princess Tofu at a Bay Area food blogger’s picnic on the very same day I’d decided to make a pot of silken oboro tofu at home without a recipe (more on that to come). I selfishly prodded with questions of tofu-making, while scarfing down the gluten-free corn cakes Phi brought to the potluck. She told me about the eternity she spent grinding the recipe’s split pea flour by hand, and the unfortunate fate of her broken hand grinder to boot. This somehow meant the cakes were made with extra love and were decidedly more delicious.
With the promise of recipes, I followed her to her loft where she pulled out one cookbook after another, raving about the merits of each, but resting on Naturally Ella‘s The Homemade Flour Cookbook, where the aforementioned corn cakes recipe came from. With a flood of inspiration, we made plans to spend an entire Sunday grinding flour with my KitchenAid grain mill attachment – a more efficient (yet disturbingly louder) method than the hand-grinder.
With a week’s worth of e-mail chains looping Alanna of The Bojon Gourmet in on the flour fest, we settled on making homemade chickpea flour ravioli with mushrooms and thyme. But first, a trip to the Berkeley Bowl to load up on anything we could possibly imagine sending through the grain mill – chickpeas, red lentils, black wild rice, mung beans, brown sweet rice, buckwheat, and pumpkin seeds. That last one actually went through the blender for fear it’d turn to butter in the mill.
My weekly grocery haul always includes at least 2 stores, but usually 3 to 5. So we stopped off at the Monterey Market, Country Cheese Coffee Market for ‘shrooms, cheese, and more than a week’s worth of other produce we somehow planned to eat over the course of the day. One cooking task is not enough. Then a last-minute visit to 99 Ranch for red bean paste, where despite intentionally leaving her wallet in the car to show restraint, Phi still managed to grab a few more ingredients to spice up the lunchtime pad see ew feast she threw together.
The three of us spent the next 11 hours in the kitchen with the hum of the grain mill in the background, bonding over a common interest in food, rare ingredients, photography, light, and our ginger cat band debut, while we covered every surface in my kitchen with a thin film of homemade flour. Watching the two of them fully absorbed in culinary experimentation motivates me to be bolder in my cooking, to constantly push to try new things, and to not be afraid if it doesn’t work the first time.
Our research on chickpea pasta – combined with my earlier failed attempt at silky smooth strands of gluten-free quinoa flour pasta – told us the dough might turn out too delicate to easily send through the pasta roller. So we added a wee bit of tapioca starch, sweet rice flour, and xanthan gum to infuse that doughy elasticity into our gluten-less pasta, and decided to stay on the safe side by making fussless ravioli.
The curiosity of three food bloggers in a kitchen can’t be quelled though, so we fed the last sheet through the pappardelle cutter attachment to see what would happen.
And it worked magnificently. This dough is not the delicate lifeless quinoa pasta I’d tried my hand at before. It’s malleable and holds together beautifully as it stretches into smooth sheets of fresh pasta.
After an unexpected return to the market to exchange the first batch of not-so-hot mushrooms for these aromatic chanterelles, we lost our prime photography light. With this too good not to share recipe, Alanna returned Tuesday evening for take two of Sunday’s pasta dish, but this time with long strands of homemade chickpea pappardelle.
With our leisurely cooking and chatting, we chased the early setting autumn daylight. Until – according to my camera’s clock – Lucas walked in to the pitch black dining room at 6:46pm to find me standing on a chair with a tripod over the finished dish while Alanna held a forkful of pasta, “are you guys taking pictures in the dark?” Heck ya – that’s dedication. These photos use natural light, baby.
Natural moon light. (As shown in the second to last set of photos in this post).
Fortunately Alanna took the last bit of fresh pasta home to recreate the dish for dinner again the next day, capturing the final bowl of pappardelle studded with golden chanterelles with her stunning photography.
The thing that sets traditional homemade pasta apart from rehydrated store-bought pasta is the flavor. The store-bought stuff is bland and works only as a blank canvas, while homemade pasta brings much more to the table. Before switching to a gluten-free diet, we ate homemade pasta at least once a week in our house, but without a suitable substitute after my frustrating crumbly quinoa pasta attempt, the pasta maker attachments have sadly been packed up in a box for over a year.
This gluten-free chickpea pasta holds the same quality as traditional homemade pasta with a strong hearty flour as its base. Unlike many gluten-free pastas that rely heavily on starches, the chickpea pasta offers a notable but not overpowering element worthy of mention in its own. Eat it tossed with browned butter and parmesan cheese if you like, but I urge you to head over to The Bojon Gourmet to get the recipe for this simple and elegant fresh chickpea pappardelle with buttered chanterelles, thyme, and wine.
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Homemade Gluten-Free Chickpea Pasta {a collaboration}
Ingredients
- 2-¾ cups (300g) sifted chickpea flour*
- 1/4 cup (35g) tapioca starch
- 1/4 cup (33g) sweet rice flour (also called mochiko - different from "white rice flour" or "brown rice flour")
- 1 teaspoon xanthan gum
- 4 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- Water, as needed
- Millet flour, for rolling out (or more chickpea flour)
Instructions
- Whisk the chickpea flour, tapioca starch, sweet rice flour, and xanthan gum into a large bowl.
- Create a well in the middle of the flour and crack the eggs into the middle. Add the olive oil and salt.
- Use a fork to lightly whisk the eggs together in the middle of the well, then begin mixing it all together with the flour.
- Once it's well mixed, use your hands to knead until it forms a dough. If the the mixture feels too dry, add ½ teaspoon of water at a time while kneading. Knead until dough is smooth and elastic, but not very sticky. If you find it too sticky, add another teaspoon of chickpea flour until it reaches the desired texture.
- Roll the dough into a ball and lightly flatten into a disk. Wrap the dough in plastic and let rest for 30 minutes.
- Bring 3-quarts of water to boil in a large pot with a teaspoon of salt and a splash of olive oil.
- After letting the dough rest, cut dough into 6 equal pieces.
- Use your hands to press one piece at a time on a millet-floured surface until it is about 1/4-inch thick, reserving the other pieces in plastic wrap under a towel.
- With a pasta roller or rolling pin, roll out each piece into a thin sheet, lightly dusting both sides with millet flour as you go. If using the KitchenAid pasta roller attachment, send the dough through setting 1, fold it in half, then send it again. Repeat until it feeds through smooth, then reduce the thickness one stop at a time until you get to a 4, which is the setting before the pasta begins to get paper thin.
- Either by hand or using the thick noodle cutter attachment, cut each sheet into wide noodles and toss them with a sprinkle of millet flour to keep them from sticking together while you roll out the rest of the noodles.
- Drop the noodles into the boiling water and cook for 4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Drain the pasta in a colander and gently toss it with a bit of olive oil to keep it from sticking together.
- Click to get the recipe for Fresh Chickpea Pappardelle with Buttered Chanterelles, Thyme, and Wine shown in the pictures above.
Notes
*Approximately 1¾ cups dried chickpeas will grind into 300g of sifted chickpea flour. After grinding the chickpeas in a grain mill or coffee grinder, sift the flour through a fine mesh sieve to remove any larger particles.
Crystal | Apples & Sparkle -
Lol! I JUST read Alanna’s post. This is so delicious looking. How fun these couple of days must have been. I’m envious! And the results are awesome – great collaboration! : D
Sarah Menanix -
Ha – great timing! Thank you so much. I look forward to our next cooking date!
Ashley @ A Lady Goes West -
From the ingredients, writing, idea, presentation to layout, this is top-of-the-line food blogging right here. I’m not worthy to even post a comment. You are so talented!
Sarah Menanix -
Oh gosh – you’re too funny (and sweet), Ashley! You are MORE than worthy – I could take a cue from you on exercising after decadent meals:)
M suresh -
Hi, I JUST discovered this recipe. I have a doubt- we don’t get sweet rice flour easily where I live. Could you suggest a replacement for that? Can I mill black rice instead? Much thanks for this recipe!
Sarah Menanix -
While I’ve not tested it this way, if I were to try to make a batch without sweet rice flour, I would replace it with more tapioca starch (sweet rice flour acts as a binder, which black rice would not do), and perhaps increase the xanthan gum and/or add 2-3 tablespoons finely ground chia seeds (ground in a coffee grinder). Hope this helps!
Olivia @ Olivia's Cuisine -
Oh my… I just visited your blog for the first time and I’m in love. With the blog, the recipes, the pictures! :) I’ll be following!
Sarah Menanix -
Welcome Olivia! Thank you so much!
Isadora @ she likes food -
I’ve been hearing such good things about The Homemade Flour Cookbook! I’ve never made my own pasta before, but this looks so good!! That is awesome that the three of you collaborated and I have no doubt that this pasta tastes amazing!
Sarah Menanix -
I don’t have a copy yet myself, but I’m adding it to my Christmas list! Homemade pasta is SO worth the little extra effort.
ellie | fit for the soul -
Ok…wow. Now I am infinitely impressed, Sarah!!!! The photos are obviously one of the best yet I think!!! And I love the chewy, pliable texture of these noodles. I’m not giving up after my ravioli fail so I’m def. inspired. Looks so delishhhh!!
Sarah Menanix -
That’s such a sweet thing for you to say! Especially since some of the photos were taken by moonlight;)
Kelly - Life Made Sweeter -
What a fantastic collaboration, this pasta looks so worth all those hours – it’s gorgeous and perfect! I love that you made your own chickpea flour too! I can only imagine how incredible this tastes – amazing job!:)
Sarah Menanix -
Totally worth it! Though, the pasta part of the day of cooking was the easiest part and only took about an hour start to finish!
Anna @ Crunchy Creamy Sweet -
This is amazing, Sarah! I am truly inspired to try homemade pasta! Gorgeous photos!
Jen @ Baked by an Introvert -
Very Impressive, Sarah. I’ve never made my own pasta before but all the time and effort looks so worth it. Well done!
Min -
So amazing you are, Sarah!! Oh how I wish I was one of the 3 curious food bloggers in the kitchen on this day..wait scratch that. 4 sounds like a better number ;). This is exactly how I want to spend my day once I graduate in December! Creativity and passion just exudes in this gorgeous pasta!
Sarah Menanix -
I would LOVE for you to visit and spend a day in the kitchen together! (Eeeee – the final stretch until the end! This is me rooting you on;)
Becky | The Cookie Rookie -
um, WOW. These photos are RIDICULOUS. Great post! Love Love love it!
Tina @ Just Putzing Around the Kitchen -
These photos are insanely gorgeous, girl!!!! And I wish I could have been in the kitchen with you ladies :)
Sarah Menanix -
Just come visit already – SHEESH
Kristi @ Inspiration Kitchen -
Wow! What a great post Sarah! This pasta looks amazing, and I love all the step-by-step photos. Pinned!
mira -
What a fun collaboration and of course a lot of hard work! Awesome recipe Sarah! I love the step by step photos. I bet it was delicious!
heather @french press -
that sounds like the most wonderful way to spend a day, and this pasta looks to die for! such gorgeous photogrqphy
Kelly - A Side of Sweet -
Wow! All of my favorite food bloggers in one post! This pasta looks just like the real thing and the whole post is on point. Love the story, the photography and imagining you guys shooting pasta by moonlight. AMAZING.
Christine // my natural kitchen -
This pasta sounds incredible Sarah! I love the idea of a get-together with other food bloggers, it sounds like a wonderful way to spend a day. I can’t wait to attempt this at home!
Sarah Menanix -
I would love to hear how it turns out for you! I feel like I want to put it on a weekly rotation in our house now!
Jenni -
I know this is 4 years later, but I just made this and it was amazing to work with. Highly recommend!
Erica -
This is so cool. Those photos are amaaaaazing. Loved the post. Pinned!
Meagan @ A Zesty Bite -
This pasta looks absolutely delicious! Great photos.
Ashlyn @ Belle of the Kitchen -
Oh my word, these pictures are incredible! And that pasta just looks delicious. How amazing that you made it with chickpeas. Love love love.
Emily Bites -
This looks amazing! I’m not gluten-free, but I LOVE chickpeas and I will totally try this. Thanks for sharing!
Sarah Menanix -
The chickpea taste is subtle, but so so delicious when paired with a bit of butter. I’d love to hear if you end up making it!
Thalia @ butter and brioche -
Never made my own pasta let alone a chickpea pasta before! Sarah your pasta looks perfect and you definitely have inspired me to try my hand at the recipe. Thanks for sharing & great pics!
Marly -
Wow – those photos look gorgeous. I love the idea of making your own chickpea pasta!
Lisa @ Healthy Nibbles & Bits -
Oh my gosh, I NEED to go visit you some day so that I could get a bite of this lovely pasta!
Sarah Menanix -
Yes please! Let’s make a date in January when I have a solid draft of my dissertation??
Lisa @ Healthy Nibbles & Bits -
Yea! That totally works for me!
Ginny McMeans -
Wow! I am majorly impressed! I bet that pasta is just perfectly with coconut flour. I can just taste it!
Alex @ DelishKnowledge -
You are the greatest! This is such an amazing post, I felt like I was right there with you making homemade pasta! Which, you know- can be arranged ;) You know my love for pasta is endless- this version looks amazing! Pinning now! Also -gorgeous photos. Now that it’s forever dark- how do you shoot by moonlight?
Sarah Menanix -
Let’s do it! I think we should have a huge kitchen fest sometime after the holidays when things slow down around here! Haha – to shoot by moonlight, you need: a tripod, a timer shutter, and shutter speed 1/5. Hahaha
Jennifer -
I really love the first photo and how you captured the steam rising from the pasta! All your photos are seriously gorgeous!
Sarah Menanix -
That was TOTALLY an accident and I made Lucas stand holding the dark backdrop for much longer because the steam looked like it was dancing! Thanks, lady:)
Julie -
The Homemade Flour cookbook is on my wish list — especially after seeing recipes like this one!
Claudia @Breakfast Drama Queen -
Oh my gosh, this is ingenious! And it looks PERFECT!
Nancy P.@thebittersideofsweet -
First of all I seriously need to get me one of those grinders! Second of all, you were able to capture the essence and beauty of pasta making so incredibly good! This looks amazing!
Sarah Menanix -
Thank you Nancy! I have a new-found love of my food mill – I totally support your decision to buy one;)
Laura @ Petite Allergy Treats -
Such beauty and pride with homemade gluten free pasta. This makes me think I really need to try making my own rice noodles or mung bean noodles. Pinned. :-)
Sarah Menanix -
Yes! And then share the recipes with meeeee:)
Sly Smith | Lemon Tree Letters -
OMG– trying this weekend! Your pappardelle looks amazing. So excited.
Sarah Menanix -
Yay! Please come back to let me know how it turns out for you! And don’t be afraid to add a dash of water or a pinch of flour to get just the right pliable, but not sticky consistency!
Andi @ The Weary Chef -
This post is beyond gorgeous. Your photos are amazing! This pasta is pretty amazing too. I’m so impressed you made GF pasta from scratch.
Liz @ Floating Kitchen -
Carbohydrates + blogging friends sounds like the best day ever. Love it!
Amy | Club Narwhal -
Oh my goodness, what a beautiful and successful collaboration! It’s amazing what can happen when three masterminds in the kitchen unite :) I’m forwarding this on to my gluten free family members since I know they miss pasta like crazy. What a fun experiment!
Sarah Menanix -
Thank you so much Amy! I missed pasta like crazy too (particularly HOMEMADE pasta), so I’m super excited to have found an alternative. Now I just need to figure out how to make waffle pies gluten-free and I’ll be in business:)
Steph Kirkos -
WOW! Simply gorgeous! I’m in awe of these photos, and I love the idea of using chickpeas in the pasta dough. What a fun day you guys had…
Vanessa -
very good and quick recipe. I prepared so and chicken noodle soup and came out very good. Ivers dough is obtained for several dishes.
Kathi @ Deliciously Yum! -
This project looks like it was totally worth it. The pasta turned out beautifully! Every single picture is a stunner – I so wish I could dive into a bowl of freshly made ‘n steamy noodles right now. I am seriously in love with this post, Sarah!
Sarah Menanix -
Thank you so so much, Kathi! I wish I could mail you a steamy bowl of fresh noodles;)
valencia bennett -
This is one of the best home made noodles i have had the plesure to make. I am cooking for diabetics at the moment that have to watch there starch intake. I was not sure how this would taste so i had done a test run of this receipe…..Wow…I do not think i made enough noodles for my dish. Thank you for sharing , this turned out perfectly
erin {yummy supper} -
So fun Sarah! I loved hearing about (and seeing the gorgeous shots from) your tasty pasta adventure. So so beautiful and mouth-wateringly delish!
Well done ladies:)
xoxo
E
Sarah Menanix -
Thank you so much Erin. Would love to have you join us on our next gluten-free pasta making adventure!
Jasmin -
Hi Sarah, I’m first time on your blog and I am really impressed… the chickpea recipe is very imaginative and the photos are great – of the pasta and the ginger cat too :)
Sarah Menanix -
Hi Jasmin! Thanks for stopping by and for your sweet words! That ginger kitty (named Artichoke) is snuggling up next to my keyboard right now with his sister kitty:)
Connie | URBAN BAKES -
Wow! I would’ve never imagined transforming dried chickpeas to a flour then later to a pasta dish. This looks amazing and I’m dying to try it out!
gretchen | kumquat -
wow… you making homemade pasta look like a breeze. and with such lovely photos. i love this… and that pasta paired with those buttery chanterelles is just plain heavenly!!
Sarah Menanix -
Thank you! After the first couple of times making homemade pasta, it really only takes a short bit longer than the store-bought stuff (that is, with a pasta roller of course).
Lisa / Good on Paper -
Sarah, this is incredible! You seriously make homemade pasta look like a cinch to make. I remember you telling me about this entire day and it looks like it was super fun and delicious!
Sarah Menanix -
I promise it’s not too complicated! Once things calm down with writing, we can have a pasta-making date:)
Natalie @ Tastes Lovely -
Sarah! This is the most inspiring and beautiful food blog post I have read…possibly ever. Such beautiful words, and beautiful photography, and the dedication to cooking the perfect gluten free pasta. Love! I’m have a major food blogger girl crush on this right now : ) Thanks for the inspiration!
Sarah Menanix -
Oh my goodness! You are way too sweet – what a huge compliment! Haha – you flatter me – blush:)
Carla (@charliesue) -
I LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS. I’M SO DISTRACTED I CAN’T EVEN MAKE A LIST. MM. PASTA. FOOD. MOONLIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY. I JUST KEEP SCROLLING.
Sarah Menanix -
I love everything about you and your excitement! Let’s have a moonlight photoshoot??
Brigid -
Hi! What’s the nutritional info for this recipe? Looks good, but I need to know the carb count in particular.Thanks!
Sarah Menanix -
Thanks for your question Brigid! Since the specific ingredients of recipes can vary from one person to the next, I don’t calculate the nutritional info. You can find the nutritional info this recipe (or any other) by plugging in the exact ingredients you use into any of the free online calorie counters, like this one. Hope you enjoy!
Linda -
As a habit, I do not review recipes, but I do rely on the reviews of others. I would normally pass on a recipe that does not have a ton of reviews from people who have actually made the recipe, I’m not interested in how good the pics look or how mouth watering the description. I chose to break my habit due to the attention I saw given to creating a gluten-like structure in the dough. I was quite happy with this recipe. I did have to make some adjustments for the lack of humidity in Feb during a bitter cold snap (19% in my kitchen) by adding a little more water & olive oil. The dough worked perfectly in my pasta roller & cutter. The texture was what I would expect from pasta, so it was perfect. Chickpea pasta sure brings much more to the table nutritionally than conventional pasta and with a much better flavor.
Do you know if this recipe can be safely dehydrated? Regular pasta has eggs & that is safe, I simply don’t have any experience in working with these other ingredients. While it has elasticity, I found a test strand broke in hang drying; I did not see it to be the result of elasticity. Maybe in nests in a dehydrator?
Thank you for doing the work to develop this recipe!!
Sarah Menanix -
This is the sweetest comment! I’m SO glad it worked out for you – every time I make pasta, I always have to add a tiny bit more/less water depending on the humidity in the air, so that adjustment you made was spot on! Thank you so much for coming back here to tell me how much you loved the pasta! While I’ve never tried to dry this pasta before (and I don’t have a dehydrator), what I do with my homemade pasta is roll it into nests and freeze it in a freezer ziploc bag. When I want to cook it, I just drop the frozen pasta into the boiling water (don’t let it defrost). I have another gluten-free pasta recipe coming up with chestnut flour at the end of the month, so stay tuned:)
Christine -
I had to comment on this recipe because it turned out fantastic!!! I’ve had several failed attempts with making gluten free pasta in the past. I love chickpea flour and use it all the time for everything and you have just allowed me to add delicious chickpea pasta to my repertoire! Thank you so much for developing and sharing this great recipe!
Sarah Menanix -
Aw yay! Thank you so much for the sweet comment! I’m so glad it turned out for you and that you loved it. Since it sounds like you’re into gf pasta – we also made a gluten-free chestnut flour pasta that’s similar to this one but a little sweeter & nuttier and super smooth. I’ve been so happy to finally use my pasta maker again with gluten-free recipes!
Belinda Heathcote -
Boy, talk about long winded verbiage, the world doesn’t need to hear every tedious minute detail of your life, that’s what twitter is for, is this a cookery blog or an autobiography blog. ?
“When I’m not writing my dissertation”. !
Irrelevant pretentious bullshit, who cares. ?
Alanna -
Hi Belinda, Is this your first time visiting a recipe blog? Most blogs are much more than a recipe website, they’re more like journals that happen to include recipes. Unlike most blogs, Sarah discloses this very fact in her tagline. Sarah has created this space to document her life through food, and her life included writing a dissertation before she got her PhD in Math Education this past month. She spends many hours and dollars every week creating these recipes and posts, all of which she makes available for free on the internet. You have no obligation to read any more of her writing than you like. But others of us enjoy getting a peak into Sarah’s life. She is one of the kindest, most generous human beings I know, and I’m sorry for you that you’ll never be able to cultivate the cozy rapport that Sarah has with many of her readers. It’s truly your loss.
Tina -
Like Alanna said so eloquently above, food/recipe blogs are more than just the recipes they happen to contain. The charm of Sarah’s blog, aside from her gorgeous photography and fabulous recipes, is her narrative. The backstory behind each recipe, the glimpses into her day to day life, and the clear passion she has for cooking and writing (and living!) are what bring other readers back to her blog again and again. If you’re not into that sort of thing, and you’d rather just see a recipe, you’re free to scroll past the pictures and paragraphs that Sarah spends so much time perfecting and go straight to the printable recipe box. Alternatively there are plenty of other food/recipe blogs out there (also, cookbooks) that are more your style. You’d be missing out, though!
Karen -
This comment is just plain NASTY. If you don’t like it, don’t read it.
Karen -
The “Nasty” comment was meant for Belinda.
Sarah Menanix -
<3 <3 <3
Karen -
Thanks – looks fabulous and I am going to give it a go for my son who can’t eat wheat pasta!
Gina -
I can’t wait to try this chick pea flour version of pasta, actually made in centuries past. My question is, did you experiment with different quantities of eggs? With the high protein content of the bean flour, I would expect fewer eggs, or maybe just the whites? Thank you.
Sarah Menanix -
I keep making this recipe over and over again and it’s one of my favorite pastas! The quantity of eggs in this recipe is required to get the moisture to add the elasticity to the dough. When we started with 3 eggs, it wasn’t enough to bind the dough together. Hope this helps!
Ed Burger -
Looks like a great recipe. In addition to gluten free it is high in very important nutrients. One ingredient question. Did you mean 35 grams of Tapioca flour or Tapioca starch? Tapioca starch has a whopping 3791 calories for 35 grams. Tapioca flour has only 117 calories for 35 grams. Hope you meant flour.
Sarah Menanix -
Thanks for your comment – this is one of my favorite pastas! I think the information you found on the calories in tapioca starch is incorrect – tapioca flour and tapioca starch are the same thing here in the states (see Bob’s Redmill brand for example), and 35g only has 117 calories, so don’t fret! :)
manjee -
Hello Sarah, can you please help me out? In India we get something called “Besan” which is essentially chickpea flour. Is it okay if I use that? I will add the other ingredients to it too.
Also, for all those who are looking for gluten free recipes we also make dosas out of besan/chickpea flour called Chilas. Then there’s something called “Pesarattu” a dosa made from green mung peas soaked for 4 hours and then ground to a paste with water to make a sort of dosa. It’s not as tasty as a regular dosa, but teamed up with ginger chutney, it’s a very popular breakfast in some parts of India.
Sarah, I have to commend you on your creativity. Chestnut Pasta! Chickpea Pasta! Who would have thought of that? Thanks so much!! I need to go low-carb for health problems.
Sarah Menanix -
Hi Manjee! Sorry for the delay! I’ve never heard of besan before, but I did some research and it looks like it’s just made from ground chickpeas – same as the one I used in this pasta, so it should work just great!
I do love dosas – I’ll have to try to make some of my own soon! Thanks for your sweet comment! xo!
Millie -
Sarah, these look so good. How flexible is the 30 minute rest – could it be longer, up to 1 hour? Thanks!
Sarah Menanix -
An hour would be totally fine for the rest time!
Jeeves -
what do you mean “knead until it forms a dough”? kneading is done to get hydrogen bonds to form between gluten molecules, there’s no purpose to doing it with a gluten free flour. What change in the consistency of the thing are you looking for?
Sarah Menanix -
When you first mix the flour and eggs together with a fork, it’s dry and crumbly. You need to knead it with your hands to form a dough that you’ll then be able to roll out. Unlike a wheat flour dough, you don’t have to continue kneading the chickpea pasta dough once you’ve formed it into a moist dough. Hope this helps!
Jeeves -
I wish it did but that confuses me more honestly. So, I have been baking gluten free since I was about 9, so I know the ins and outs of this stuff, but the mechanisms for this recipe completely escape me. I made several modifications, such as replacing the tapioca and sweet rice flour with potato starch, but they resulted in the recipe completely failing, but if it was functioning the way I thought it was they should have worked.
Regardless, if I can figure out why this works then I should be able to make proper cutout cookies too–all the GF ones I’ve ever seen aren’t quite workable. I’m just going to write some of my thoughts on it, I would appreciate it if you could tell me if any modifications you made are relevant to them.
Now, what it all comes back to is that we want to form a 3D molecular lattice in the dough that will mimic gluten.
The first thing that comes to mind is that, as far as I can tell, the monomer of the xanthin gum polymer is basically a weak emulsifier, with the carbon chains on the functional groups interacting with each other–hydrophobia pushing them together to reduce free energy–and this causes it to gum together and form a lattice. Meaning that the emulsifiers and fats in the egg yolk should interact with these instead of the other xanthin molecules, resulting in the yolk taking away more structure than the white adds, but this doesn’t seem to be the case.
The next thing is that I can’t figure out why the sweat rice flour is there. Essentially sweet rice flour is entirely comprised of amylopectin, a molecule with lots of fractaly-branches that like to hydrogen bond with each other, this is why you can knead sweet rice into mochi, turning it from rice into a uniformly gummy sticky blob. But the thing is: this is also true of tapioca starch.
Although tapioca flour is only 75% amylose, the primary difference between the two is that tapioca starch–along with arrow root and potato starch–has phosphate groups, while rice, corn, etc, have phospholipids. The phosphate acts as a complexing agent, meaning it encourages the branches of the amylopectin to stop sticking to each other as a crystal and branch out and hydrogen bond with other molecules rather than itself.
This is basically the reason a gel made from sweet rice flour will be more opaque and less viscous than a gel made from tapioca or potato starch, the crystals haven’t broken up. Similarly, heat also does this, uncooked dough has the crystals so it tastes granulated, but they break up in the heat and bond with other things, adding structure and making it smooth.
Now that’s a complexing agent bound to the molecules, if there is a free one, such as the free phosphates found in potato starch, it has an additional effect, changing the shape of the amylose molecules–a linear starch–from random coils to helixes, increasing their interaction with each other and with the amylopectin. Meaning potato starch should produce a lattice more effectively than sweet rice and tapioca starch–although salt does mask the effect of the phosphates.
This lattice can then be made stronger by replacing the hydrogen bonds with covalent bonds, such as through the application of heat or catalyzed through an acid.
That’s basically as far as my thought process got. But what occurs to me now is that maybe a better lattice could be made my making a starch gel then folding the other ingredients into it. But that would require quite a lot of moisture, so i’m not sure what it would be applicable to just yet.
Alanna -
Hiya Jeeves! You seem to have quite the grasp on food science – kudos! Sarah and I developed this recipe together. We’ve been baking with alternative flours for many years and Sarah especially tends to nail the textures of pasta and baked goods due to her vast experience. Our chickpea pasta formula works beautifully as you can see from the pictures. The sweet rice flour and tapioca starch give the dough a smooth, chewy texture making it pliable and easy to work. I recommend giving it a try as written – it’s a winner. Happy cooking!
Nina -
Gosh darn, I was so intrigued by Jeeves’s question that I really wanted a legitimate answer. I think those of us drawn to science will always be asking questions without a satisfying answer. To add to this-I made the pasta and I made sure to measure and follow the recipe down to weighted measurements, but I found the pasta to be much TOO grainy. I was wondering what could be the reason for this or if anyone else had this problem. Thanks for the help!
Janet -
These look delicious. I’m wondering if you’ve used these noodles raw in lasagna? I bet they would be delicious if they would hold together and cook.
Sarah Menanix -
I’m so sorry that I missed this question! I’ve not used this particular pasta in lasagna, but I have used a similar almond flour homemade pasta that I’ve made and I did just that – I left them uncooked and the moisture from the lasagna cooked the noodles! I’m sure these would do the same!
Sarah -
Hi there. My partner is allergic to rice – is there a substitute that would work as well?
Sarah Menanix -
The sweet rice flour is the sticky flour that binds it together and keeps it chewy. Though I’ve never tried it, I’m guessing replacing it with more tapioca starch *might* do the trick. If you try it, please let me know!
Rachel -
Hello! What a lovely recipe this is! I wonder if it would be possible to replace the chickpea flour with lentil flour? I am trying to recreate a lentil pasta for a friend of mine who tried tolerant’s wonderfully delicious (and expensive – yikes!) green lentil penne. Thus far I have been unsuccessful! Here’s hoping!
Sarah Menanix -
Oh man – that sounds AWESOME. If I were to try to make a lentil flour pasta, I would do just that – I’d replace the chickpea flour with lentil flour (by weight not volume). It’s on my to-do list! Maybe I’ll make that next!
Robert -
Hi, I’ve just posted a comment here with my experience using lentil flour ;)
Jules -
Thank you for this recipe! We make this weekly in our house and it’s consistently delicious. The dough freezes really well. This pasta makes great lasagne too. Wonderful! 😊
Sarah Menanix -
Thank you so much Jules! It makes my day that you took the time to come back and share this! <3
Erin -
This actually works! I didn’t think I could make homemade pasta. I was surprised how mild the taste was. It was really good, and I will make it again. To anyone considering grinding their own flour, be very careful. I tried, and the chickpeas turned into goo in the flour mill, and would have burned up my kitchenaid if I hadn’t stopped. I just buy gram flour at the ethnic grocery store.
Sarah Menanix -
Woah! Weird about the flour! I make my chickpea flour in my KitchenAid mill all the time with no problems. I’m wondering, did you use uncooked dry chickpeas (like from the bulk section) or canned chickpeas?
I’m so glad you liked the pasta though! I’m planning to make another variation on it soon!
Laurie Wegemann -
Hi there,
I wanted to make the pasta as a gift for a friend who is on a low-carb diet and wondered how you could preserve it.
Would it be possible to deyhdrate the pasta?
Has anybody ever tried something similar or preserved the pasta in a “presentable” way?
Thank you very much!
All the best from Germany!
Sarah Menanix -
I’ve never tried drying the pasta before, but I know people do it! Usually when I store my fresh pasta, I lay it in between parchment paper in plastic storage bags in the freezer. King Arthur Flour seems to have a method for drying it though – best of luck!
Laurie Wegemann -
Hi, thanks for your reply!
I gave it a try and dried the pasta overnight in my dehydrator and it worked!
I put the freshly cut pasta on a layer of parchment paper into the dehydrator and after a short time, it had dried enough to remove the paper. I continued to dry it and in the morning they felt like storebought pasta.
I stored them in an airtight container on the countertop for a couple of days before I gave them to my friend and they did not spoil – brilliant!
All the best from Germany,
Laurie
Joetta -
Hello and thank you so much for the work you’ve put into this incredible recipe! I’m wondering if anyone has figured out the nutrition info per serving.
Robert -
Hi,
thank you for sharing this recipe, it works incredibly well. I had been looking into making pasta that’s higher in protein than conventional grain based pasta, and chickpea flour works incredibly well for this, and it’s probably the best choice for homemade pasta as it’s also the most easily digestible legume flour. I also tried your recipe by replacing chickpea flour with red lentil flour (flour I made by grinding up dried red lentils) and while it tasted great it caused havoc with my digestive system, lol.
While there is also pasta made from black beans and also adzuki beans, (commercially available in health stores), it appears this type of pasta uses a process which first removes a lot of the hard to digest carbohydrates from the beans, probably through cooking and washing, and then dries them again to use them as a flour for pasta making, a process that would be incredibly tedious to recreate at home. This also creates a higher protein / carb ratio which is great for those on a low carb diet. I only found this out when comparing the nutritional information of that pasta with that of dry black beans and saw that the pasta contained more protein than carbohydrates, whereas dry black beans naturally contain more carbohydrates than protein. So this commercially available pasta pushes the idea of low carb / high protein pasta even further, but I think for the home kitchen chickpea flour is king.
I also modified your recipe so it can be easily used with the Philips Pasta maker machine, saving a lot of laborious time in the kitchen, and it still tastes amazing :) Here is the modified recipe for the Philips Pasta maker (1 scoop setting):
200g chickpea flour
25g tapioca starch
25g sweet rice flour (glutinous rice flour)
3/4 spoon xantham gum
1/4 teasponn salt
———
mix all those ingredients and then put into pasta maker
Mix 2 whole eggs (Large size) or 3 small eggs to make total liquid of 105ml. For me, 2 large eggs were exactly 100ml, so I added 5ml of water. Add this liquid to the dry ingredients as per normal Philips pasta machine process.
Note: You may have to finetune the liquid mixture by +/- 5ml water. There is a fine line between adding too much and too little liquid to the flour mix, and depending on the dryness of the flour and ingredients you are using and the climate you live in (air humidity etc.), the total amount may change. The aim is to add just enough liquid to have the flour mix form into large crumbs in the Philips machine, too little liquid keeps the crumbs very small and the pasta comes out a bit dry, too much liquid makes the dough come together into one mass which then can’t be pushed out anymore.
By the way, for nutritional information you can simply get your recipe analyzed for free at this website https://happyforks.com/analyzer
I hope my research helps those who have been searching for similar things. Thank you again for sharing your recipe and all the best :)
Rob
Sandy -
Hi an d thank you for developing this recipe. I’ve been GF for 3 years now and its been quite the adjustment to say the least. Recipes like this make me feel good about what I’m eating and can share with my friends and family!
One question, does this pasta freeze well? Would be wonderful if I can make in large batches and use as needed.
Thanks!!
Sarah Menanix -
Hi Sandy! Yes! I make and freeze homemade pasta regularly – just dust it with flour and put it into “nests” between sheets of parchment paper in a ziploc bag and freeze it. When you want to cook it, just put it directly from the freezer into the pot of boiling water! I’ve also hear from a reader comment above that it also can be dried in a dehydrator if you’ve got one (I don’t, so I haven’t tested that…)
tmsky -
many thanks
Nina -
Gosh darn, I was so intrigued by Jeeves’s question that I really wanted a legitimate answer. I think those of us drawn to science will always be asking questions without a satisfying answer. To add to this-I made the pasta and I made sure to measure and follow the recipe down to weighted measurements, but I found the pasta to be much TOO grainy. I was wondering what could be the reason for this or if anyone else had this problem. Thanks for the help!
Sarah Menanix -
Hi Nina! I’m so sorry you found the pasta too grainy. While the pasta definitely has a more whole wheat feel than all-purpose flour pasta, I’ve made it several times and have never had problems with it being too grainy (to be clear you mean texture and not flavor, correct?). I’d love to help brainstorm why it might have turned out that way for you! First, were you grinding your own chickpea flour or did you purchase pre-ground flour? What brand of sweet rice flour did you use? What I’m thinking is that possibly the flour that you used was not ground as finely as the flour that we use here – I have noticed more and more as I bake and cook with alternative flours that some brands are more finely ground than others, which can significantly alter the outcome, especially of a pasta where the texture is everything! For example, while I love Bob’s Red Mill for almost every flour, I find that their sweet rice flour is very gritty and does not bake up as tender as Mochiko brand. Thanks for your comment!
Donna -
I’m trying to follow the Wheat Belly diet, which eliminates all grains (including rice), and starches such as tapioca, potato, and corn, due to their higher carbohydrate content/genetic modification/excessive processing and resulting effect on insulin resistance. Do you have any alternatives for the tapioca starch and sweet rice flour used here? Any information about Kuzu Root Starch or Arrowroot, and how the pasta might turn out using those alternatives? My understanding is that the tapioca starch and sweet rice flour are used to improve the binding of the dough and as a result increase the pliability of the dough. My husband and I have previously attempted to make gluten-free pasta using a pre-fab baking mix (which didn’t adhere to Wheat Belly principals) and the result was a grainy texture mouth-feel noodle which didn’t add any enjoyment to the much-loved chicken soup recipe we have made for years (having always used Reames frozen noodles prior to the WB switch). I am very intrigued at the prospect of still being able to enjoy pasta! Hope you can lend some wisdom!
Sarah Menanix -
Unfortunately I haven’t had much luck trying to make pasta without the sweet rice flour or tapioca starch as it adds the necessary sticky/stretchy component. I have a friend who has made a version with arrowroot starch, but she also uses tapioca and sweet rice flour in hers as well. Sorry I’m not much more help!
Becky -
Hi Sarah,
I have a ton of food allergies and wondered if there was a compatible substitution for the rice flour? I can’t have any grains. This looks delicious and I would love to try it.
Sarah Menanix -
Unfortunately I haven’t had much luck trying to make pasta without the sweet rice flour as it adds the necessary sticky/stretchy component. I wish I could be of more help – sorry!
Brooke -
This recipe is amazing!! I’ve actually never made pasta before and I’ve been gluten free for awhile. I was intrigued by some chickpea pasta I found at the store and wondered if I could make my own. (I was worried about messing something up since I’m a newbie, but it’s totally foolproof!) I have to say, I tasted the dough before I cooked it and wasn’t impressed, but after, oh my goodness!! Maybe the best pasta I’ve ever had. It’s absolutely best straight out of the pot of water immediately after cooking, but still fantastic after sitting in a colander for awhile. My husband loved it and ate a HUGE second helping (he eats gluten and is a big fan of pasta) so definitely a winner! I might have to just buy chickpea flour though, I live in an apartment and grinding the chickpeas with my food processor is just terrifyingly loud. Lol my poor dog hated it! Anyway, thank you so much for this recipe, it made my day!!
Becky -
Is it possible to replace the rice flour with something else? We are absolutely-no-grain eating right now and I am soooo missing my homemade pasta! Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Becky -
I just realized someone already asked this! Just ignore… thank you!
Jenni -
I just had to come here and comment after finally trying this recipe. I think I secretly thought it was too good to be true, but this afternoon, working with besan flour from the Indian store, I made a batch and was truly amazed at how well it worked in the pasta machine and in the water. Thank you so much for developing this recipe!
DrDave -
Just made this. The end result is incredibly good; nutty, flavorful, delicious! Try this: make a black trumpet mushroom sauce with dried mushrooms, marinated in mushroom broth, then sauteed in cream sherry and butter, with the pasta tossed in and mixed with gorgonzola cheese crumbles.
I found that I had to liberally adjust the eggs (another whole egg, a couple more yolks), plus a little more olive oil, plus some water while using the kitchenaid. Even so, the dough had to be run more than a few times through the initial pasta roller to smooth it out. After that, it worked well. I may try a little more xanthan next time.
Alana -
I just made this with lentil flour (Urad) and it was AMAZING! This is the bean pasta recipe I have been looking for. THANK YOU for sharing it. Have you tried it with the Kitchen Aid pasta extruder? Do you think it would work with that?
Sarah Menanix -
Ohhh – I haven’t tried it with lentil flour. What a great idea. I have not yet tried this one with the extruder, but I’m planning to turn it into dumpling wrappers soon:) I’ll try putting some through the extruder while testing the dumplings and let you know!
Rasheeda -
Hi there
Your recipe using chickpea flour sounds amazing .
I do have a problem .
Here in South Africa , we do not get sweet rice flour ( glutinous) .
What can i substitute for the sweet rice flour.
Thank You
Sarah Menanix -
I’ve never tried the pasta without sweet rice flour – I find it’s necessary for getting the right texture. However I think you could try substituting in equal amounts of tapioca starch by weight! While I’ve not tried it, I think it might work, though possibly be more brittle? If you try it, please let me know!
M suresh -
I made this today and it came out great! I just replaced tapioca starch with corn starch, that’s the only change I made. It tasted just like regular wheat pasta when combined with our homemade sauce. Thank you so much!
Lois -
Since the stated purpose of adding the sweet rice flour and tapioca starch is to add the structure usually obtained from gluten, if you’re not trying to be GF, just higher protein/lower carb, could you use wheat gluten instead? I ask mostly because I have wheat gluten around, and don’t have sweet rice flour or tapioca starch – and am not sure how hard they’d be to find.
I have various dried beans I’d like to try: red lentils, “regular’ lentils, black beans, as well as chick peas. I wonder how a mixture of some of those would work.
Misty -
Could psyllium husks be used in the place of xanthan gum? Would the pasta still hold together?
Sarah Menanix -
I have not tested it with this specific pasta recipe, but I did test it with my gluten-free almond flour pasta and what I learned is: “Yes. And no. I’ve made many different kinds of gluten-free pasta (see a list below), often experimenting with leaving out the xanthan gum per request from many readers. Time and time again, I’ve found that, without xanthan gum, the dough is just too crumbly. It falls apart going through the pasta maker, or, if you do roll it out, it breaks while it cooks.
I’ve made a version of this gluten-free almond flour pasta that substitutes the xanthan gum for 1 tablespoon psyllium seed husks (Bob’s Red Mill Psyllium Fiber Powder). The dough is more delicate to work with and to eat than the version with xanthan gum – it will break a part a bit when cooked if rolled too thin.
For that substitution, you’ll need to let the dough rest 10-15 minutes after you roll it together to let the psyllium seed husks soak up some of the moisture and help with the elasticity. Additionally, don’t roll the dough out quite as thin. You can roll it through the pasta maker only on a size 1. However, I recommend hand-rolling this more delicate version with a rolling pin using the alternative method shown here. ”
This chickpea flour pasta is a bit less delicate than the almond flour pasta to begin with, so I think you could apply the same advice! I also tested my gluten-free dumpling wrappers which use chickpea flour with ground chia seeds in place of xanthan gum, which worked for those, so that may also be an option for this pasta! Hope this helps!
Misty -
I followed your tips and used 1 tablespoon of psyllium husks (not powdered) and let the dough stand for 10-15 minutes. I then rolled it out and used it unboiled in lasagna. Hands down the best gluten free pasta I’ve made :)!
Chris Davis -
It looks great, but I have to say that once you start thinking of Xanthan Gum (the digestive enzymes of a bacteria) as a food ingredient, then you might as well just buy commercially boxed noodles from the store.
Renée -
I can’t wait to try this!!!! Do you think it would also work with other legume flours, like lentil?
Sarah Menanix -
I’ve not tried it with lentil flour, but if I were to try to make a lentil flour pasta, I would do just that – I’d replace the chickpea flour with lentil flour (by weight not volume). If you try it, please let me know how it works out!