Well, a week into this whole vegan thing, I've noted that I have a tendency to eat too much starch, trying to "fill up" with familiar foods. This means I'm eating way more carbs than I need, and not exactly meeting my calorie goals. So when I read the nutritional info on the package of shiratake noodles - 40 calories for the whole package? - I was curious enough to give it a try.
Here's a littleinfo about them from about.com: "Shirataki comes from the root of a plant (Amorphophallus Konjac, or a few other closely-related species) grown in various parts of Asia, and given many names in different places, including Konnyaku potato (or just konnyaku), konjac, konjaku, elephant yam (although as far as I can tell, they are not related to any other plant commonly called “yam”), and others. The fiber is also known as glucomannan." They type I bought are blended with tofu, which About.com says is to give the noodles a less rubbery texture.
The prep instructions are a little unusual. You're instructed to first thoroughly rinse and then par-boil the noodles for several minutes to, um, "Reduce the authentic aroma." Now, I'm a marketing girl, so I can easily translate this as "These things smell like the insides of your sneakers on the last weekend of August," so I was prepared for the worst when I opened the package. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the "authentic aroma" consisted of a mild fishiness, which washed away easily.
The Angel Hair version I bought was very stringy but quite noodle-like. I sauteed some squash, tomatoes, spinach and misc veggies in olive oil and garlic, and threw the odor-reduced, par-boiled noodles in for a minute.
I ended up with an ultra-low calorie pseudo-pasta primavera that was actually very tasty. The noodles definitely have some spring in the texture but were really quite palatable. I think these would do quite well (unsurprisingly) in Asian dishes, a noodle stir-fry maybe. I expect I will buy these again.
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