Noodles
January 29, 2018
There’s a lot of new noodles on the market for different kinds of diets. Some are low carb, some are high protein, some are both. We’re also seeing a lot of companies making noodles out of ingredients other than wheat such as chickpea, egg, quinoa, buckwheat (soba noodles) and more. People are also replacing their pasta with foods such as spaghetti squash, zucchini, and sweet potatoes.
I’ve tasted, tested, and compared a few of these option for you.
Regular Pasta
NOTHING beats regular pasta – nothing! But it’s not super healthy and therefore we’ve decided to look at replacements and substitutes.
Miracle Noodle (aka Shirataki Noodles)
Wow. What a strange noodle. I bought the Miracle Noodle which was relatively expensive, and I probably won’t buy it again. To start, this noodle comes in a little serving size bag with liquid. You must rinse the pasta very well before cooking and may I suggest holding your breath while you do so – they smell! However, once you’ve cooked them, there’s no smell … or taste for that matter. I would describe them as thicker-than-Jello chunks as they’re not really in any shape of a noodle. They’re more like just a filler to accompany your sauce. I made a hearty Bolognese sauce to go with these noodles.
If you’re not into taste/texture and you’re an easy eater, you may want to try these. There virtually calorie, fat, and carb free … but they are also protein free and vitamin free.
2-Ingrediant Noodle
DELICIOUS. I saw this on Tasty originally. Simply by mixing 2 ingredients you can have carb free, high protein pasta! I melted a cup of shredded mozzarella cheese in the microwave for maybe a minute – be careful to not let it burn! Once it cooled for a few minutes I mixed 1 egg yolk into the cheese. I put the mixture (now dough like) onto a piece of parchment paper and sandwiched it with another piece on top. I then used a rolling pin to flatten my future noodles. After refrigerating for at least 4 hours (to overnight) I cut them into “linguine” strips and boiled for about a minute. Super simple and it 100% gets my seal of approval.
Chickpea Noodles
Not too bad! I enjoyed these noodles. I bought Banza brand and they came to be about for a box. I would buy them again. They’re not a super diet food, they’re still high in carbs but they’re also high in fiber and protein and there’s only 4 ingredients. The selling point is that they’re wheat and gluten free.
Zucchini Noodles (Zoodles)
I would take these over the Miracle Noodle any day. I love zucchini – and most any vegetable for that matter. Preparation is a little difficult depending on which tool you must make these noodles. You can toss them in a pan with butter, garlic, lemon, and shrimp for an easy, low carb scampi. I also enjoyed them with chicken parm.
Let us know which noodles you like!