I first found out about Shirataki Noodles on The Hungry Girl website years ago. If you’ve never been to this website, you have to check it out. It’s a website solely devoted to helping people who love to eat lose weight, or at least eat the foods you love without gaining any weight! Her recipes are pretty awesome, but they are also extremely detailed and often include ingredients that are hard to find – like Shirataki Noodles. It wasn’t until almost a year later that I came across these in a natural food store. But once I found them, I was hooked!
What the heck are Shirataki Noodles, anyway? They are basically low-carb, gluten-free noodles, containing just 40 calories for the entire package (2 servings). They are mostly composed of a dietary fiber called glucomannan and made from Konjac flour, which comes from the roots of the yam-like Konjac plant grown in Japan and China. They really don’t taste like anything by themselves, but they absorb flavors well from the ingredients you cook them with.
They come packaged in water, and don’t need much preparation. I usually empty a bag into a colander and rinse them under water for a minute. They have a strange smell, which for the most part goes away after rinsing them. Then you want to pat them dry – sometimes I use up to 5 paper towels trying to get all the liquid out! I like to throw them in the microwave for less than a minute, then add them to whatever dish I’m making. Oh, and whatever you do, don’t freeze these or you’ll have to throw them out.
Shirataki Noodles come in fettuccini and spaghetti form, and rumors are, they are coming out with elbows! You can literally use these noodles in place of pasta in any dish, and you’ll save hundreds of calories. I’ve made so many different types of dishes with these noodles – carbonaras, spaghetti and meatballs, vegetable stir-fries…I’ve even thrown a package in lean frozen dinners to beef them up a bit (I’m always still hungry after eating one of those). Anything you make with regular pasta or noodles can be made with these low calorie noodles. I’ve even heard about people making desserts with them!
It could be that I’ve been eating these for so long now that I have forgotten what regular pasta tastes like, but I seriously think these things are the best substitute EVER! Plus, they are relatively cheap, at less than $2 a bag. It’s more expensive per serving than pasta, but the convenience and all the calories I save are well worth it. Visit the official website for more information and to find a location near you. And don’t forget to check out Hungry Girl for some delicious Shirataki creations!
