Stove Top Gluten Free Pasta Casserole

A couple days ago I felt the need for some real comfort food. You know what I mean - bland, filling, no fancy ingredients, just a plain stick to your ribs meal. Fortunately you can have this kind of food even when you are on a gluten free diet, if you know where to look!

I started to dig in my pantry cupboard and found a whole bunch of canned foods I recently bought because they were on sale. I found 12 cans of tuna, 6 cans of peas, 6 cans of pea soup! Get the picture? Anyway, I also found a package of a brand of pasta that I bought recently for the first time and have been wanting to try.

The result of this cupboard survey was a new recipe that turned out to be just what my taste buds were wanting. Hope you enjoy it.

Here is my off-the-cuff recipe. Serves one to four depending on how hungry you are!

Sandra's Everything in the Pantry Casserole

Ingredients
1 cup macaroni type gluten free pasta (uncooked)
1 28-ounce can gluten free pea soup
1 can tuna
1 10-ounce can peas
OR whatever vegetables you have on hand. Frozen would work too - a cup to a cup and a half.
salt and pepper to taste
a touch of garlic salt

Method
Prepare macaroni according to package directions using a large pot. Cook a little less time than recommended since it's going to cook further once it's in the casserole. Drain in colander and rinse.

Using the same large pot, empty in the cans of soup, tuna and peas. Heat thoroughly, on low, stirring occasionally. Add drained pasta and spices and continue to heat the casserole for a few minutes more to make sure everything is nicely hot.

Serve with condiments of your choice. Green tomato chow is one of my favorites.

Comments
If your cupboard has different ingredients, this is a very flexible recipe. Mix and match whatever you have on hand that appeals to your tastebuds.

Before I went on a gluten free diet I used to make all kinds of casseroles similar to this, using different types of cream style soups. It makes such a quick and nutritious meal I hated to give it up, but I discovered that most cream soups do have wheat in them so I've had to become a bit creative in finding substitutes.

You might wonder about using pea soup in a casserole. I wondered! This is the first time I tried the pea soup and it worked fine. As usual, read labels carefully. The pea soup brand that I like is Habitant. One version is gluten free (the original) and another of their brand is not gluten free.

I could have used cream style corn. I just happened to have some of that on hand as well! Most brands of cream style corn use cornstarch as thickener, but you always need to check the label.

I've also had some luck making my own creamed soups but it's so nice to just pull something off the shelf ready to use.

I used a rice pasta but other types would work as well. Actually, a corn pasta might be very tasty with this combination.