Healthy Pasta? (Korean Stir Fry)

Healthy Pasta? (Korean Stir Fry)

Is it possible? A gluten free pasta that is packed with protein and fiber? I mean really protein packed. It is! Check out Explore Asian Organic Black Bean Spaghetti.

Each 2 ounce (56 grams) serving has 2 grams of fat (1 of which is saturated), 17 grams of carbs (15 of which is dietary fiber), and 25 grams of protein!

Korean Inspired Stir Fry

I want to thank my sister from another mister and mother for letting me cook this dish at her place.  Thanks NJL!!

 1. First get your ingredients (besides the sauce and the pasta) chopped and prepped. For me, this includes skinless chicken breasts and fresh veggies.

For stir fries, I like to use fresh veggies, not frozen or canned. Fresh veggies = crunchy veggies. Buy some in advance or use what you have. I happened to use a combo. My friend had some broccoli, I had some left over cabbage and spinach. I also bought some chopped stir fry veggies from Trader Joes. It includes: red and green cabbages, carrots, broccoli, jicama, bell peppers, radishes and celery.

If you have a whole broccoli, don't throw away the stem. Trim the rough part of the steam with a knife or a peeler. Chop the rest of the stem into bite size chunks and the resulting pieces will be crunchy, but tender when cooked.

2. Heat the pan, add some high smoking point oil like canola oil, then the chicken. Cook until the chicken is no longer pink in the middle.  This should take 10-15 minutes. The cooking time is shortened if the chicken is thawed ahead of time and  in bite size chunks. Constantly stir around the chicken to make sure it cooks evenly. At this point start boiling the water for the black bean pasta.

3. Place the chicken aside on a plate. Cook the veggies (except the spinach) in the leftover chicken juice. I also added a little bit of sesame oil to give the dish extra Koreaness. Yes that is a word. If the water is boiling, throw your pasta in. It needs 7-8 minutes. The only downside with the pasta is that it is extremely brittle right out of the package. It might get a little messy before you get the pasta into the boiling water, but trust me, it is worth it.

4. While the veggies are cooking, it is time to prepare the sauce. My sauce was 2 parts gochujang paste, 2 parts miso paste, 1 part honey, minced garlic to taste, and a dash of sesame oil. You will want to add a combination of rice vinegar and water to taste to loosen up the ingredients with a whisk. I like to whisk the sauce to a consistency resembling Pepto-Bismol .

Miso is available at some health foods stores, and both ingredients are available at Asian grocery stores. Miso is fermented soybean paste that comes in many varieties. It is salty and umami tasting, and contains many beneficial nutrients. Gochujang is sweet and spicy. Honestly, I would recommend you trying a little bit of both plain because it is hard to describe their taste besides being delicious.

5. Once the pasta is done cooking, empty the pasta into a colander. If the veggies are done, throw the pasta, chicken, sauce, and spinach in with the veggies and combine until the sauce is dispersed and the spinach has wilted.

I was going to write about using the black bean pasta to make spaghetti and meatballs, but the pictures I took were lost forever when my new phone crashed. Oh well. The tips I was going to give you all are:

•  add dark leafy greens like kale or spinach into the spaghetti sauce when you are cooking the meatballs in the sauce. Dark leafy greens add nice flavor and a health factor.
•  add some wine in the sauce if you have an open bottle on hand. This gives the sauce an extra x factor
• if too much liquid evaporates from your sauce, add some chicken or vegetable stock.