What Are Corn noodles and How Can I Use Them?
Wondering what to do with corn noodles? This guide covers how to pick them, cook them, store them, and swap them, plus 1 recipe to put them to work.
Key Points
- Corn noodles are gluten-free pasta from corn flour, sometimes blended with rice for texture.
- Mild corn flavor, slightly grainy bite, sitting between wheat pasta and polenta.
- Boil and taste early; they go from al dente to mush in under a minute.
- Fold sauce in off the heat and skip long simmers that break them down.
- Rice or rice-corn blends are the easiest swaps; refrigerate cooked noodles 2 to 3 days.
What are corn noodles?
Corn noodles are pasta made from corn flour or cornmeal instead of wheat, sometimes blended with rice flour to improve the texture.
They are a staple of the gluten-free aisle: golden-yellow, with the faint sweet smell of corn, and cooked they land somewhere between wheat pasta and polenta, tender with a slightly grainy edge and a mild corn flavor that wheat noodles do not have.
The appeal is simple. They give gluten-avoiders a familiar pasta shape, in spaghetti, penne, elbows, and fusilli, without wheat.
How to Cook Corn Noodles
Boil corn noodles in plenty of well-salted water, and watch them closely. Gluten-free pasta has a narrow window between underdone and falling apart, so start tasting a couple of minutes before the package time.
Stir more often than you would wheat pasta. With no gluten holding the strands together, pieces stick and clump fast, and the water turns cloudy with released starch.
Drain when just tender and use them quickly. They hold up well in a brothy Favourite Hearty Vegetable Stew, where a little extra softness is no problem.
Cooking and Pairing
Corn pairs naturally with tomato, bell pepper, chili, black beans, and cilantro, so corn noodles feel at home in southwestern and Mexican-leaning dishes as much as in a plain marinara.
Treat them gently with the sauce. They are more fragile than wheat pasta, so fold sauce in off the heat rather than tossing hard, and skip the long simmers in sauce that turn them mushy.
The biggest mistake is overcooking. A corn noodle goes from al dente to mush in under a minute, and once it breaks down there is no fixing it.
Substitutes
For gluten-free needs, rice noodles or a rice-corn blend are the easiest swaps, milder and a little less prone to falling apart. Brown rice pasta is the most common alternative on the same shelf.
Legume pastas made from chickpea or red lentil are another gluten-free option, firmer and higher in protein, though they bring their own bean flavor. If gluten is not a concern, ordinary wheat pasta is sturdier and more forgiving.
Buying and Storing
Check the label to see whether it is pure corn or a corn-rice blend. The blends usually cook with a better, less crumbly texture, while pure corn pasta can be more delicate and prone to breaking.
Dried corn noodles keep for months in a sealed package in a cool, dry pantry.
Cooked, they do not keep as gracefully. Refrigerate in a covered container and use within 2 to 3 days, and expect leftovers to soften; they reheat best stirred into soup rather than reboiled.
Quick facts
- In Chinese
- 玉米面条
- British (UK) term
- Corn noodles
- en français
- nouilles de maïs
- en español
- fideos de maíz
Recipes using corn noodles
There are 1 recipe that contain this ingredient.
Favourite Hearty Vegetable Stew
Hearty vegetable stew piles soaked pinto beans, corn noodles, carrots, broccoli, peas, corn, and green beans into a tomato-sauce broth. A vegan, freezer-friendly stew with five-vegetable depth.
