Apparently Corn Pasta Tastes Almost Exactly Like Regular Noodles

Fact: Gluten-free pastas have a bad reputation, and a lot of that has to do with their history. Way back when they first landed on plates, many gluten-free pastas had a definite cardboard vibe going on. Luckily, especially for people with Celiac's disease or a gluten intolerance, things have changed.

“Gluten-free pastas have gotten much better over the past 10 years, which is to be expected,” says Scott Keatley, RD, of Keatley Medical Nutrition Therapy. There’s a reason why gluten-free pastas have been so tricky to get right, though. “Products like pasta have been perfected over tens of thousands of years and eliminating gluten removes the key structural protein from the product,” Keatley says. “Finding and testing replacements that give the same texture, flavor, and mouth-feel is very much trial and error.”

Now, many GF pastas don’t ~just~ remove the gluten—some even ramp up the fiber and protein content of the noodles, too. There are also “so many more options, including quinoa, buckwheat, and amaranth, plus a variety of legume pasta choices,” says Keri Gans, RD, author of The Small Change Diet.

Many gluten-free pastas are now legitimately tasty, and that’s crucial—especially if you’re slowly making your way into GF life. “If you are eliminating gluten out of your diet for health reasons, it is important to still be able to enjoy the type of foods you love, such as pasta and bread, simply for your own sanity,” Gans says.

These days, if you’re gluten-free, you have a ton of options to choose from. But given how many different types of gluten-free pastas are out there, it’s kinda hard to know where to start. After all, you weren’t born knowing how to pick out the perfect gluten-free pasta.

With that in mind, these are some of the best gluten-free pastas out there.