A healthy veggie-packed, grain-free rotini pasta alfredo that you won’t know is gluten-free or vegan! The ultimate comfort food dinner recipe you can make to nourish the whole family (and get them to eat brussels sprouts)!

You read that right! A hearty delicious pasta alfredo that’s not only gluten-free, but vegan and grain-free!  Sometimes the craving for a nice pasta dish is just too strong to ignore. And I can’t even tell you the last time I ate any alfredo pasta. Years and years and years! 10 maybe? Even longer than the 7+ years I’ve been gluten-free! So a healthy allergy-approved remake had to happen, and fast!

Thinking back though, I always felt so sick after eating a dish like pasta alfredo. Mostly, one of those pre-celiac gluten things that I never noticed as a child. But I also had a terrifying experience at an Italian restaurant once. It was one of those family things, and being in an Italian family, we always go to big Italian restaurants. I was super young, and a pasta loving little girl. Of course I order the decadent fettuccine alfredo.

Now, if you haven’t been living under a foodie rock your entire life, you know that fettuccine is long noddle, like spaghetti, but a tad wider and flatter. The perfect shape for choking. That’s right; living on the edge even when I was a kiddo! Now, my mom is a fanatic about choking. She says it’s her worst fear (for good reason). So I learned at a young age to NEVER talk while eating, chew completely, and take small bites. I mean, this was the woman who peeled the skin off grapes and cut them into tiny pieces for us.

Now, I’ve never choked before, up to that point, and this wasn’t full on choking. But a slimy slithering noodle rope can be a death trap for anyone, even the most careful eater. From what I can remember, I was minding my own business, probably taking a break from playing my game boy or fooling around with my brother at the table in the noisy crowded reserved room we had at the restaurant. It was on of those long tables too, and I think my mom was sitting across from me, but not paying attention to my brother and I, since everyone was having side conversations with so many people being there.

I don’t know how it happened, but one second I was eating my noodles (obviously not cut up, which I should have had my mom do to those long noodles of death), and I swallow my bite, and then heart-stopping fear. You know when you think you’ve fully chewed and swallowed, but it only goes half way down your throat? Like, noodle half down my throat, half not. O that horrifying feeling!

Getting gross here, but I’m pretty sure I had to end up pulling the noodle out of my throat/mouth. Needless to say, I’m alive…but the memory haunts me! I always associate fettuccine alfredo with choking now. I don’t even know if my mom actually remembers the incident, but I so, and I’m forever scared. My brother actually “legit” choked on a carrot once when we were younger. This time my mom, I and him where at the dinner table at home and bam, he starts shocking on a COOKED carrot. I’m pretty sure that event scared me more than it did him to! (Of course my mom freaked). So, lessons here, always chew, chew, chew and swallow mindfully, no distractions! At least now I know safety and first aid (CPR and the Heimlich) so I can save anyone…hopefully. Also, you are only “actually” choking if you can not make a sound, breath, or cough. If that happens and if that happens when you’re alone, you’re supposed to run into a high counter or table to try and create a force to dislodge the obstruction. (Don’t worry about breaking ribs…your life if more important!)

So now, to appease this craving for pasta, specifically alfredo, I had to keep this dish “safe”. I chose to use pretty and “short” rotini pasta instead of the long flat noodles of death! This way it’s a bit safer for everyone at any age, eating style, choking-prone, etc. And the beautiful rotini I chose to use? Banza, of course! Meaning this pasta is not only gluten-free, but grain-free as well with the power of the king bean!

 

And I didn’t stop there either! I used purred cauliflower this time (not celeriac root) for the sauce in all its creamy veggie glory! But to take this yet another step further and make it ultra-healthy and satisfying, the humble brussels sprout makes a little green spotlight appearance! Yummy, beans, veggies, in a non-choking form! A winning weeknight Italian dinner? Yes! Rotini pasta alfredo for the whole family to enjoy!

Rotini Pasta Alfredo with Shaved Brussels Sprouts

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Alfredo!!!! It can be had! Non-choking, allergy-free, satisfying, healthy glory! Good thing, now I can associate this comfort classic with deliciousness again! So can you! I declare this week, alfredo week! No go get that safe-shape pasta boiling and that cauliflower blending and prepare yourself for some rotini pasta alfredo with shaved brussels sprouts!

So tell me:

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