During Week 5 of the Love Food Hate Waste Lent Challenge we’re looking at food portions, and in this blog, pasta portions in particular. Pasta is one of my fail safe quick meals to fill the family. Dried pasta keeps really well which reduces food waste over buying fresh pasta. The frequent problem that I find is I always cook way too much meaning lots of leftovers and potential food waste. Therefore, one of my aims during this challenge was to perfect my portion sizes of pasta for our family.
The guidance on the packaging suggests 75g per person. I measured this out so i could see what 75g of dried pasta looks like. A faster way for me to measure it each time |’m cooking will be to use my full cup measuring cup shown above.
75g of dried pasta, shown above in the kitchen scales and in the measuring cup really doesn’t look like a lot. I decided to cook one portion to check if this would really be enough for one adult.
Here is the amount of cooked pasta (show in the blue bowl) that 75g of dried pasta makes- no wonder I’ve been cooking too much. I know it expands and there is more of it when cooked but I’m still surprised that the small portion makes such a decent sized meal of cooked pasta.
This is what it looks like on a plate, confirming that 75g (1 cup) of pasta is definitely enough pasta for me, especially once you add the sauce and vegetables. A bowl of salad and garlic bread can be accompanying sides too (not forgetting a sprinkle of grated vegan cheese) making this a decent meal.
The suggested portion size for children is 40g of dried pasta. Since this experiment, I now cook 4 cups of pasta for a family meal (there are 6 of us- 2 adults and 4 children). If cooking for 1 child I just use a filled half cup.
Next, I need to perfect my family portions of rice!
How do you portion your servings of pasta for your family?
*In collaboration with Love Food Hate Waste
Thinking of switching to smart? Find out how to turn your home into a Smart Home with Hive here: Switching to Smart with Hive
I'm rubbish with my pasta portion sizes. Sometimes I weigh it but usually I just guess and hope for the best! I end up doing too much so use the rest for lunches
I do just guess but of there's too much I save it for a pasta salad etc, so it doesn't hurt to make extra
With pasta I put in a handful per person, then an extra one for the pan! Not very scientific!
Very useful- the picture comparison with the dried pasta in the little cup and what it looked like cooked were very informative- it definitely makes sense why we all cook too much pasta despite knowing it expands because! Thanks for the interesting article and very helpful pictures 🙂