Frozen food makers keep getting better and better at making gluten-free variations on classically gluten-loaded dishes. Lean Cuisine has been running all sorts of experiments in this regard, from using cauliflower to make crust to replacing classic-style pasta with an alternative made from chickpeas.
The latter example is the result of a collaboration with the Banza brand. We did review one of these chickpea pasta dishes in the past, but today we’re delving deeper into the line with the Life Cuisine Pasta Bolognese Bowl (Made with Banza Chickpea Pasta).
This is as easy to cook as pretty much any other Lean Cuisine meal. Simply pop the thing in the microwave for three minutes, give it a quick stir, then pop it back in for another minute and a half. There’s nothing to it! (If you want to read the full cooking instructions straight off the box, check out our package scans at the bottom of this review.)
We have to say right away that this pasta has a weird texture to it. It feels mushy and gravelly at the same time, and it’s denser than we were expecting. Sure, that should be expected, because this is not a real pasta, but it’s a little disappointing nonetheless.
On top of that, the sauce doesn’t have a ton of flavor. We think that a delicious sauce would have really won us over, but it tastes kind of weak and bland. It’s so weak and bland, in fact, that it gets overpowered by the chickpea flavor. That wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing, but a watery tomato-based sauce with chickpeas isn’t exactly a winning flavor combination.
There are chunks of ground pork and beef in here too, and they’re actually pretty good. The texture is great, and they might be the most flavorful part of this whole meal. The portion size is surprisingly generous as well.
And this whole thing is topped with mozzarella cheese, though there’s not quite enough of it to really elevate this meal.
Now, this may be a gluten-free one, but that doesn’t mean it’s low in calories. One bowl of this stuff contains 550 calories, which is definitely on the high side for a Lean Cuisine meal. The sodium is reasonably low, though, with just 580 mg, so this meal does have that going for it.
The Life Cuisine Pasta Bolognese Bowl (Made with Banza Chickpea Pasta) has potential, but it really does need a richer sauce to hide the chickpea content better. With a tastier sauce, this could be a real winner, but with the current bland offering, the whole dish ends up tasting a little bit weird.
To learn more about the nutrition content, ingredients, or cooking instructions for this gluten-free pasta, check out our package scans below.
