Vegan pasta

[Wishin986]

Ok so a lot of Italian pastas in Italy apparently have eggs in them. What about in the United States though? When you go out to dinner at a restaurant do you usually trust that theres no eggs in the pasta, just not get pasta, or ask a bunch? I've always kinda just assumed pasta was okay, but now it could very well not be when I go out. That would leave a lot less options though while dining out with people.

[Glen]

A lot of Italian cooking seems to have fresh egg pasta in it. I work in a restaurant and all the pasta is wheat, and very rarely when I go out do I found that egg pasta is used. Still, best to ask. Also, chinese noodles tend to have egg in.

[Mystic]

Not the chinese rice noodles though.


At Italian, the only pastas that I find contain animal ingredients is gnocchi and fettucine. Everything else is usually ok.

[Wishin986]

Thanks guys! Phew, that makes me feel a lot better!

[DianeVegan]

I also spent time working in Italian restaurants and can tell you that "fresh" or "homemade" or made in the restaurant usually means that it contains egg. Almost all dried pasta (Italian) is egg-free. Fresh pasta costs more (it needs to be refrigerated) so it is usually obvious, unless you are in an expensive restaurant which makes all its own pasta. Hope that helped.

[eve]

many chinese noodles contain eggs, so please be careful if you really want to eat out.

[aubergine]

Not the chinese rice noodles though.


At Italian, the only pastas that I find contain animal ingredients is gnocchi and fettucine. Everything else is usually ok.

Gnocci? The Gnocci I buy is made from flour and potato.

[DianeVegan]

Some gnocci (sp?) has egg as a binder.

[Mystic]

Some gnocci (sp?) has egg as a binder.

LOL G-N-O-C-C-H-I - it also can have milk powder/solids. It varies from brand to brand. I can buy non-animal gnocchi at the supermarket, but at restaurants I never have.

[abrennan]

Regarding the pasta you can ask if it's egg pasta. Mostly it doesn't contain it as it's usually more expensive. As has already been said it's usually the fresh kind.

Asian noodles are usually egg noodles, wheat noodles , rice noodles or buckwheat. If you look in the supermarket or an asian grocer you can quickly familiarise yoursewlf with the different types and what is usuallu in them. Egg noodles are always yellowish, but some wheat only ones are too.

Unless its rice noodle i always ask is there egg in it. I like to be real friendly when eating out too and then after you've been a few times they look out for you. Of course having said that some are just rat bags. But 99%, in my experience are happy to help out.

Antony
of Oz

[DianeVegan]

LOL G-N-O-C-C-H-I - it also can have milk powder/solids. It varies from brand to brand. I can buy non-animal gnocchi at the supermarket, but at restaurants I never have.

Thanks, Banana! I couldn't for the life of me think of the spelling.

[peaches22]

According to this site, http://www.vegansociety.com/html/food/criteria.php, riboflavin and ferrous lactate can be non-vegan. So, how do we know when they are or not. All of the average pastas are fortified and contain both riboflavin and ferrous lactate. Is regular pasta vegan?

[mophoto]

great question. i don't have an answer i just wanted to "subscribe" to the thread to get an e-mail when someone with an actual answer can respond. maybe even list some brand names.


sorry, i am just a newbie

[peaches22]

Thanks anyway for replying. Oh, and I live just north of Detroit, too!

[Monkey Wild]

According to this site, http://www.vegansociety.com/html/food/criteria.php, riboflavin and ferrous lactate can be non-vegan. So, how do we know when they are or not. All of the average pastas are fortified and contain both riboflavin and ferrous lactate. Is regular pasta vegan?

Hi Peaches and Mophoto,

I have been wondering the same thing! If no one on the forum has info on this, I think the best thing would be to contact the pasta companies in question.

[mophoto]

peaches,

i bet you live in ferndale or one the west side. am i right?
i live in mt. clemens, not too many vegans around here.

[peaches22]

Actually, I'm a little more north. I live in Lake Orion, and there aren't very many vegans around here either.

[mophoto]

well, at least you have nature.

[Gorilla]

is most of the pasta available in America fortified? in the UK most dried pastas are just made from 100% durum wheat (or spelt, rice or other grains in gluten-free versions).

[Monkey Wild]

is most of the pasta available in America fortified? in the UK most dried pastas are just made from 100% durum wheat (or spelt, rice or other grains in gluten-free versions).

Hi Gorilla,

It seems that if you buy organic pasta over here, there aren't any 'questionable additives'...but if you opt for non-organic, well, those brands seem to always be fortified.

[Artichoke47]

I don't know the answer, either, as I buy organic pasta and/or pasta that has no additives.

[Roxy]

is most of the pasta available in America fortified? in the UK most dried pastas are just made from 100% durum wheat (or spelt, rice or other grains in gluten-free versions).

I buy 100% durum wheat pasta, and I can't always get organic pasta where I shop.

[adam antichrist]

Most lactates are not vegan, coming from pig corpses etc. Lactates are salts produced in animal muscles from lactic acid (nothing to do with lactose btw).

Anyway I guess that means pasta at restaurants is out for you guys, right?

Over here you have to be unlucky for a pasta to contain anything more than wheat (or what gorilla said) and if they do it's an egg. They don't load up with rendered animal products

BTW I've never heard riboflavin may be animal derived, any more info on that? What is it exactly, a vitamin?

[Kim[ba]]

Hi Gorilla,

It seems that if you buy organic pasta over here, there aren't any 'questionable additives'...but if you opt for non-organic, well, those brands seem to always be fortified.

Yes, unforutunatly in the states (not sure about other countries) almost every single wheat product starts the ingredient list with enriched flour. I didn't realize this could mean non-vegan but I try to avoid enriched foods as best I can. I don't understand why the food industry in our country decided to start enriching wheat and grains, and why they choose those specific ingredients to use?? Fortunatley though I am seeing more and more organic, whole wheat, and "natural" products that do not contain enriched ingredients

[Roxy]

Those types are definately the ones that are more healthy for you!

[peaches22]

Okay, I guess I'll buy organic pasta since I've decided that lactates are non-vegan. However, as far as riboflavin goes, I've decided that it is vegan. On the website I previously posted, the list title "Additives: Possibly Animal-Derived" must have only meant that some of the items on the list were possibly animal-derived. I've found another website that clarifies everything. It is http://www.answers.com/topic/e-number. Notice that additives labeled AO have an animal origin. Sorry to have confused anyone about riboflavin, and I've decided to make a list of all of the additives labeled (AO) and (possibly of AO) for your use and mine. Your probably either know them or will never see them, but here it is anyway:

Cochineal

Carminic acid

Carmines

Natural Red 4

Carbon black

Vegetable carbon

Canthaxanthin

Potassium nitrate

Saltpetre

Lactic acid

Lecithin

Any lactates

Glycerol

Any mono- and diglycerides

Any polyoxyethenes or polysorbates

Gelatine

Ammonium phosphatides

Anything of fatty acida

Any lactylates

Stearyl tartrate

Sorbitan monostearate

Sorbitan tristearate

Sorbitan monolaurate

Sorbitan monooleate

Sorbitan monopalmitate

Polyglycerol polyricinoleate

Bone phosphate

Stearic acid

Any stearates

Disodium guanylate

Disodium inosinate

Disodium 5'-ribonucleotides

Glycine and its sodium salt

Beeswax

Shellac

Lanolin

Any cysteines

[DianeVegan]

I don't understand why the food industry in our country decided to start enriching wheat and grains, and why they choose those specific ingredients to use??

When the US first started refining flour and "white" bread, "white" flour became popular there were a few diseases related to malnutrition that started popping up (related to the vitamins and minerals that were now taken out of the diet since prior to that time everyone ate whole wheat). The government decided that of all the 20-something vitamins and minerals stripped out of refined flour, those that they put back artificially (or enrich) were most important to keep people from keeling over in the streets. Don't you feel better about white flour now?

[Mr Flibble]

So, one of the tasks in my current year long quest is to learn how to make fresh organic pasta properly from scratch, something we can't get in UK supermarkets (or at least none I've ever seen, the only time I've seen any fresh non egg pasta was in waitrose this summer, which was overpriced and uninteresting).

Pasta (0 or 00) flour is not something I see very often on my travels around shops, but I found some and bought a bag a couple of years ago. I was going to use it tonight, but found it was a year out of date(!), so in the abscene of being able to find any today in an entire city, I used a combination of 1 part white bread flour, 1 part normal white flour instead.

I hafta say what was meant to be just a basic experiment turned out to be some of the nicest pasta I've ever had. The only critism I have is it was slightly too chewy, but I think this was due to the flour i used (possibly too much gluten), but that should be easy to experiment with.

The basic formula for 1 serving is as follows:

Mix 140g flour with a pinch of salt, then 50ml of warm water. Bring together into a thick virtually unworkable dough using more water as needed. Knead till your hands go numb for 5 minutes, adding more water to make it into a much smoother, more manageable dough. After 15 minutes form a ball and cover in clingfilm for 20 minutes. At this point I made a red pesto from fresh basil, sundried tomatoes, pine nuts, cashews, sweet red pepper (skinned) and extra virgin olive oil. When the dough's sat divide into 2 pieces, roll out as thin as you can get it on a floured surface, cut into tagliatelle strips with a sharp knife and drop immediately into boiling water (I'm quite a fan of retaining my functional taste buds so don't add salt to things unnessecarily, including boiling water). The original recipe I modified suggested only a couple of minutes of cooking, but due to the thickness mine took about 7 to 10 minutes. Drain and serve with pesto. Yummy

I was really amazed at just how simple it was to get good results (I always thought that mixing water and flour made glue!). Given the cost of the raw ingrediants resturants must make an absolute killing! It's definately worth trying out

[snaffler]

This is something I am very interested in Mr Fibble, doing loads of cardio exarcise and sabbing pasta makes a good energy food for this kind of thing so I am a big fan of the food.....to date of course I have only been eating the 100% duram wheat variety.

Today me and my G/friend were in Sainsbury and they had all these foody xmas gift set in their and that included a pasta making kit and machine for around £12 , may go back for one on pay day.

Now if sainsburys and my local health food shop (in Frome/Somersert) they sale Doves Farm pasta flour !!! good stuff bay all accounts as the owners know their products well.

But I am up for another challenge in this area my g/friend is allergic to wheat so I want to suss making wheat free vegan fresh pasta.

So I am going to try soon using the Doves Farm flours which are good, but I figure I might try blending a mixture of

Potato Flour/Rice Flour and wheat free plain flour, the potato and rice flour have a good starch base to enable it to stick together well.

I will let you know what happens of how I get on with this one.

Cheers for now

Jay

[Mr Flibble]

Cool, the bag that got binned this evening was doves farm too. It says on the side that it's good for pizza, so i tried it out soon after i bought it instead of normal bread flour (that i use at least once every 2 weeks for making pizza with) and it sucked! I'm sure it's probably a lot better for pasta thou, and will get some more when i see it again

The pasta making machine things that look like this:



are really more gimick than anything, unless you make a LOT of pasta. You can roll out and cut it by hand enough for 2 people in less time than it would probably take to wash a pasta machine. Of course you won't get as uniform parallel edges by hand, but that's part of the charm . I may consider a pasta machine in the future, although the juicer I'm currently fantasing over will do also squirt out pasta in a variety of shapes. £12 though is a good price if it does the trick.

I'm not gonna be lame and say I could never live without gluten, because I'm sure I'd adapt, but I'm glad in the meantime that I can have it . Good luck with gluten free though and do let us know how it goes. I'm gonna try experimenting with more gluten free recipes soon just to be able to cook for others who can't have it if i ever need to.

The main reason I'm playing with pasta is I want to start making fresh savoury and possibly sweet ravioli. I've heard of people making (non vegan) chocolate filled ravioli and eating it with icecream!

[Artichoke47]

For some reason, it cracks me up when people post pictures in the middle of a post.

[Tigerlily]

I want pasta now.

[abrennan]

I just ate some after reading that

[Tigerlily]

Mmmm. :P

[Peas'nHominy]

cool help here

This is so cool! It's too much to post, but it's really worth the read. I'm going to play around with this next week!!

[Mr Flibble]

cool, ta for the link

That particular book is actually already on my amazon to buy list, although I've put it off for a few months in favour of other things. I've had her chinese book for a few years and the japanese one by the same publishers. Both are excellent, well researched books (which honestly does make a change!).

[mophoto]

i have that pasta machine!! too bad i use it for rolling out polymer clay, that thing cost me forty bucks. can't use it for food now!!

[On the Coast]

I've been making my own Pasta for a couple of years now, always using the recipes, (or personal variations of), in the New Farm Cookbook. My Lasagna is now a fave of everyone who has had it -

[cedarblue]

I've been making my own Pasta for a couple of years now, always using the recipes, (or personal variations of), in the New Farm Cookbook. My Lasagna is now a fave of everyone who has had it -

and this book has a vegan pasta recipe??

[Seaside]

Ok, here's how to make fresh pasta.
First, you take about 2 cups or so of semolina flour. This is official pasta flour. If you can't get it, use bread flour. If you want gluten free pasta, use gluten free bread flour or mix.

Make a pile with the flour on a large cutting board. Make a hollow in the top, volcano-style, and start to pour in some water. Mix with a fork, until mixture becomes too stiff to use a fork any more. Begin to mix by hand, until you have used about a cup of water or so. It's ok to have some dry flour left over. You must knead the dough for at least 10 minutes, until it is dry and no longer sticks to your hands. Kneading is the key to this, not adding more flour. After kneading, allow the dough to rest for at least 1/2 hour. This allows the gluten to relax, after being activated by the kneading. After it has rested, cut into chunks for rolling out.

This is when a pasta machine comes in handy. You can choose from several settings of thickness, and then you can use different attachments for spaghetti, linguine, fettucine, etc. A pasta machine will save time, because you must not wash it. It will rust if you do. The pasta dough should run through cleanly; if it doesn't, it is too sticky. A simple brushing after use will keep your machine clean. Allowing the pasta to air dry before cooking will make it easier to handle and store in the fridge. Allowing it to dry completely will save it if you have made more than you want to eat in a weeks' time.

If you don't have a pasta machine, a pizza wheel is very nice for cutting the pasta into strips. It works better than a knife.

[snaffler]

Ok, here's how to make fresh pasta.
First, you take about 2 cups or so of semolina flour. This is official pasta flour. If you can't get it, use bread flour. If you want gluten free pasta, use gluten free bread flour or mix.

Make a pile with the flour on a large cutting board. Make a hollow in the top, volcano-style, and start to pour in some water. Mix with a fork, until mixture becomes too stiff to use a fork any more. Begin to mix by hand, until you have used about a cup of water or so. It's ok to have some dry flour left over. You must knead the dough for at least 10 minutes, until it is dry and no longer sticks to your hands. Kneading is the key to this, not adding more flour. After kneading, allow the dough to rest for at least 1/2 hour. This allows the gluten to relax, after being activated by the kneading. After it has rested, cut into chunks for rolling out.

This is when a pasta machine comes in handy. You can choose from several settings of thickness, and then you can use different attachments for spaghetti, linguine, fettucine, etc. A pasta machine will save time, because you must not wash it. It will rust if you do. The pasta dough should run through cleanly; if it doesn't, it is too sticky. A simple brushing after use will keep your machine clean. Allowing the pasta to air dry before cooking will make it easier to handle and store in the fridge. Allowing it to dry completely will save it if you have made more than you want to eat in a weeks' time.

If you don't have a pasta machine, a pizza wheel is very nice for cutting the pasta into strips. It works better than a knife.

Nice one seaside thanks I will try that soon

[Mr Flibble]

Ok, here's how to make fresh pasta.

bah, i've been upstaged!

[Seaside]

Snaffler, has your girlfriend ever tried Thai rice noodles? I don't know if you can get them in the UK. They are pretty easy to find where I live. They are delicious, 100% rice, and they come in several different widths. I like them best when they are soaked in cold water until tender, and then just heated through, rather than boiling them as suggested. You could try making your own with pure rice flour and water, if you can't get them ready made.

[moochbabe]

can these recipes be made with whole-wheat flour?

[Mr Flibble]

I don't know if you can get them in the UK. They are pretty easy to find where I live.

you can get crappy ones sometimes in large supermarkets, but more often in large independant health stores. Blue Dragon have several varieties (labelled vegan), including ones made with green tea

[Seaside]

can these recipes be made with whole-wheat flour?

Yes, just use bread flour. You want a flour with lots of gluten in it for proper pasta.

[Seaside]

you can get crappy ones sometimes in large supermarkets, but more often in large independant health stores. Blue Dragon have several varieties (labelled vegan), including ones made with green tea

Wow, green tea! I will have to see if I can find some here.

[moochbabe]

thank u very much!! i have some gluten too, so maybe i can add a little of that to normal wholewheat...

[Mr Flibble]

if only you americans knew how hard it is to get pure gluten in the uk

I was under the impression that traditional italian flour is fairly low in gluten, and when you make italian bread you should use plain flour as opposed to high gluten content bread flour?

[moochbabe]

aww, is it hard to get gluten in the uk? i always take things like that for granted, thanx for showing me not to...