My Gluten Free Week Challenge Recipes

As you’ve seen here on the blog last week, I took the Gluten Free Challenge, and went gluten free for an entire week. To be honest, I don’t eat a lot of gluten in my day to day, but I have to say that my biggest weakness when it come to food is pasta. Pasta is my first love, so when I thought about going gluten free, and without my gluten-filled pasta, I was a little worried!

That’s a big reason why I wanted to take on this challenge. So many people (including some of my friends) are affected by Celiac disease, and planning and preparing meals can sometimes be a strain,  so I wanted to put myself in their shoes as best I can and share some recipes that I loved this week.

To focus on Celiac Awareness Month and test out Barilla’s delicious Gluten Free pasta, I put together a few of my favourite pasta recipes that I had to share with you guys!

My Gluten Free Week actually turned out to be easier than I had planned. Generally, I don’t eat much gluten throughout the day, but dinner is where I usually indulge in things like pasta. In order to successfully plan out my week, I started my day with the typical eggs or smoothie bowl and then something green based for my lunches, but for my dinners, I enjoyed my pasta on a few evenings where I created a few dishes that I typically have with gluten-filled pasta.

When I immediately started this challenge, I was convinced that Barilla’s gluten free pasta would taste different. I’ve even dined out and ordered gluten free and sadly, it tastes so different that I felt I was missing out. However, I was so happy to finally taste the Barilla Gluten Free Pasta and found that the taste was so similar to regular pasta.

I created three basic but delicious recipes that got me through my Gluten Free Week and I just had to share them so you can create your own Gluten Free dish!

Mediterranean Pasta Salad 

I love my meditteranean pasta salads, and I usually have them for lunch if I’m working from home, so this was the perfect ecipe to try with Barilla’s Gluten Free Rotini pasta as I worked away. I loved it so much, I had it two days in a row!

Ingredients:

• Barilla Gluten Free Rotini Pasta
• 1 English cucumber, diced
• 1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
• 2/3 cup sliced kalamata olives
• 4 ounces crumbled feta cheese
• half of a medium red onion, diced
• vinaigrette dressing

Directions:

1. Cook the gluten free pasta al dente in a stockpot of salted water according to package instructions. Drain pasta, then rinse under cold water for about 20-30 seconds until no longer hot.  Transfer the pasta to a large mixing bowl.
2. Add cucumber, cherry tomatoes, kalamata olives, feta cheese, and red onion to the mixing bowl, then drizzle all of the vinaigrette evenly on top.  Toss as desired and garnish with black pepper and dried oregano.

Pesto Alfredo Pasta 

This pasta was delicious! I have been staying away from creamy dishes, but the boyfriend requested something with an Alfredo sauce, so here we are! I have also been obsessed with pesto lately, so I had to mix the two along with some of my favourite ingredients and Barilla’s Gluten Free Penne Pasta to create this fave dish of mine! It was boyfriend approved as well!

Ingredients:

• Barilla Gluten Free Penne pasta
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 2 chicken breasts, sliced into ½-inch strips
• 2 tablespoons garlic, chopped
• ½ tablespoon kosher salt
• ½ tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
• ¾ cup heavy cream
• ½ grated parmesan cheese
• ¼ cup pesto
• ¾ cup cherry tomatoes, halved
• Parmesan cheese to garnish
• Chopped basil to garnish

Directions:

1. Heat the oil in a pan over high heat. Combine the chicken, garlic, salt, and pepper, cooking until chicken is browned.
2. Mix in the heavy cream, parmesan, and pesto, stirring until evenly combined.
3. Next, bring to a boil and cook until the sauce has reduced, about five to seven minutes.
4. Toss in the al-dente pasta along with cherry tomatoes, stirring until evenly coated. Remove from heat. Sprinkle parmesan cheese and basil as desired.

Cherry Tomato + Basil Spaghetti 

This pasta is simple but really does the trick! I only light tossed my cherry tomatoes for this recipe, but typically, I like to cook the tomatoes until they burst. however on this particular day, I didn’t have much time. While this recipe is super easy, it tastes delicious and really tastes light especially with the Gluten Free Spaghetti!

Ingredients:

• Barilla Gluten Free Spaghetti pasta
• 3 cups of cherry tomato
• 1 bunch (about 10 to 12 leaves) basil, roughly chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, very thinly sliced
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt or to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper or to taste
• grated Parmesan cheese for garnish

Directions:

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook pasta according to package directions until al dente. Drain and reserve 3/4 cups of pasta water.
2. While the pasta is cooking, heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat.
3. Add the garlic, and gently saute for about a minute or two, until the garlic is just beginning to color. Add the tomatoes, oregano, salt and black pepper. Cook tomatoes for about 3-4 minutes until juices start to burst.
4. Add pasta to the mixture and then finish off with fresh basil and grated parmesan.

That’s it – 3 pastas, 3 ways!

You can get Barilla’s Gluten Free selection in stores now! Would love to see what kind of recipes you make with it, so be sure to Instagram or Tweet me with your favourite recipes.

Thank you Barilla for sponsoring this post. All opinions are my own!

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