An experiment that shocked the scientists: Reheating pasta improves its nutritional qualities!

From a report by BBC: 

...what if you could change pasta or potatoes into a food that, to the body, acts much more like fibre? Well, it seems you can. Cooking pasta and then cooling it down changes the structure of the pasta, turning it into something that is called "resistant starch."

According to the report, the advantages of this are:

• Smaller rise in blood sugar
• More pre-biotics to feed the good bacteria in your gut
• Fewer calories absorbed.

But this gets better...

Curious but doubtful as to whether reheating the pasta would retain the benefits of cooling, the BBC asked a couple doctors to conduct a small experiment with nine participants. They tested eating the pasta original hot, after it was chilled, and chilled then reheated, testing the changes in their blood sugar several times. The results?

Just as expected, eating cold pasta led to a smaller spike in blood glucose and insulin than eating freshly boiled pasta had. 

But then we found something that we really didn't expect - cooking, cooling and then reheating the pasta had an even more dramatic effect. Or, to be precise, an even smaller effect on blood glucose.

In fact, it reduced the rise in blood glucose by 50%. 

This certainly suggests that reheating the pasta made it into an even more "resistant starch." It's an extraordinary result and one never measured before.

At least one of the doctors will be continuing the research on a more scientific level, to see whether adding resistant starch to one's diet can improve some of the blood results associated with diabetes.

This doesn't mean you can pig out on big bowls of spaghetti, but it does make that leftover lasagna a little more guilt free!

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Places to eat in Wichita: Le Monde

I've been to Le Monde three or four times -- well, at this location, anyway. Years ago, there was a Le Monde downtown, but I don't know if that was the same owners.

The West Street one looks like it was a fast food joint in a former life, but it's been updated on the inside and out with a homier look.

The menu offers a mix of Americanized Euro-ish favorites: quesadillas, ravioli, chicken moutarde; and the Lebanese offerings which are (happily) commonplace in Wichita: hummus, fattoush, and schawarma. The entrees are dominated by pasta offerings: eight, to be exact.

Homemade biscuits are served free while you peruse the menu. Although delicious, they seem a little out of place with the Euro/Mid-Eastern slant of the menu: they taste just like my grandma's shortbread (American farm food), and the ones we were served this time tasted like they'd just come out of the oven.

I usually get the fattoush salad with chicken, but today I was in the mood for something different, so I ordered a gyro. I've never had one before, so I have nothing to compare it to or to judge how authentic it was. But it was yummy! The seasoned ground beef (and/or lamb?), tasted sort of like breakfast sausage. A good thing, in my book. The tomato and tsaziki sauce was the perfect complement, adding a contrast without overwhelming. The pita bread was soft and puffy.  My daughter was scared off by the tsaziki (yogurt and cucumber sauce), but after she had a taste, she didn't want to give it back to me. It's served with a generous side salad of your choice -- my choice: fattoush, of course!

When she ordered, she stuck to what she knew: chicken schawarma. (Or schwarma.) This dish is pretty common in Wichita. The base of it is hummus -- which I can be fairly picky about, since I have a pretty rockin' homemade version. Then that is topped with chicken schawarma and, usually, some grilled onions, pine nuts, olive oil and/or paprika. Le Monde tops theirs with pickles (housemade, I think), and fresh tomatoes. 

The chicken is tasty, but not remarkable. I give their hummus a thumbs up. And yes, I know I've already said that the pita bread was great, but it bears another mention! I wish they'd serve pita for the free appetizer, with some zahtaar seasoning and good olive oil. But then again, I'd probably just fill up on that! So maybe it's a good thing (for my waistline) they don't.

Recipe review: Zucchini Noodles with Peanut Sauce

One of my go-to recipes when I'm cooking lunch for myself is Pantry Pasta from the ever-so-helpful cookbook, Desperation Dinners, because everything you need to make it is stuff you usually have in the pantry.

But I've loaned my copy out to a friend, so today I tried this very similar dish from Kitchen Confidante. It's pretty similar in ingredients and the quick-and-easy factor. And it's tasty, too! I just finished eating it and my tummy is very happy.

I've used zucchini and summer squash as a low-carb alternative to pasta many times -- most frequently when I'm craving spaghetti, or want something noodle-y in my chicken soup. (And as an alternative to pizza crust.) But today I didn't want to mess with making the squash noodles (which means I'm feeling very lazy; they're not that hard!), so I just used some pasta I had on hand and cooked it al dente.

Like most Americans, I'm accustomed to and usually prefer pasta that's been cooked till it's uniformly soft. But al dente means "to the tooth," and requires pulling the pasta out when the outside is soft but the inside still has a bit of resistance when you bite into it. The reason I cook it this way is because this lowers the glycemic index a bit.

I made the peanut sauce as posted by Kitchen Confidante, with a few minor changes:

• I sauteed about a tablespoon of finely diced onion in a bit of canola oil, and added the rest of the sauce ingredients to that, whisking it all together over low heat and eating the finished dish warm.
• I added a pinch of ground ginger.
• I used chicken stock instead of water. This adds flavor and also a bit of protein to the dish.

This dish could easily be made vegetarian by swapping out tofu or some type of pea or bean for the chicken, and using vegetable stock in place of the chicken stock.

It was quick, easy and delish! And I look forward to trying it again with zucchini noodles.

Recipe review: Pulled-pork pasta w/ ancho-cream sauce

We had plentiful leftovers from a pork roast my husband had smoked, so I was searching for something tasty to do with them. Of course, I could do pork fried rice or a Vietnamese sandwich, but I didn't think the smoky flavor would work with Asian. I found this recipe at Group Recipes, and it sounded delish, but I'd never had pork with pasta before and wasn't too sure how it would turn out.

And I was right, on both counts. The sauce was absolutely yummy, but pork and pasta... eh, a little weird.

I thought salmon would be a better match for the sauce, so we tried that the following week. The flavor combination was good, but stirring the baked salmon into the pasta was a mistake, texture-wise. I think it would work great to serve the salmon filet on top of or beside the pasta, but it just got too shredded and mushy when stirred in.

I haven't tried them yet, but I think shrimp or chicken would be the perfect meat for this dish.

Oh, and if you're a spice wimp like me, you might want to knock the ancho chile down to 2 or 3 teaspoons. My hubs and daughter probably would have liked it just fine at triple that, but when I'm making the dish, I get to make the call!

A great side dish for this would be my Slightly Spicy Slaw.