Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Nooooodles

Since Christmas I've been slowly transitioning to a vegan/vegetarian diet 90% of the time. I have a problem with the animal industry but mmm...I love steak. Anywho, I figured a good compromise would be to eat vegan 9 days out of 10. Then when I eat meat, I make sure to know its providence.

One of the things that has been hardest to get past has been my overwhelming love of noodles.

I loooove noodles. I should be sponsored by:
Call me pasta girl.

So I'm sure you've heard about Shirataki tofu noodles on Hungry Girl. The noodles are a translucent, gelatinous noodle that's made from the starch of a yam-like tuber called Kansas. To all of you who love pasta, it's a decent substitute: a cup and a half serving has something like 20 calories, 0 g fat, and 4 g fiber.

Puttin' on the GRITS had an absolutely hilarious review of Shirataki that almost put me off of trying them. Then I remembered that I made it through some pretty grody sushi in my day (octopus tentacle, anyone?). I had to get through it.

Word to the wise: the noodles come in a bag full of water and they smell TERRIBLE. Like, totally gag worthy fishiness. I rinsed them twice, par boiled for three minutes, rinsed again, and then microwaved for a minute. I tossed them with one of my favorite recipes: zucchini in a brown faux-butter sauce. And you know what? They're awesome. Slightly different texture and mouthfeel, but totally edible.

If only I didn't gag when I open a package.

2 comments:

Barefoot in the Park said...

they just opened a noodles within walking distance from my house...TROUBLE!

adozeneggs said...

We went vegan for a year, then I started culinary school and fell off the wagon. It's not easy.
We now only eat meat that we get direct from the farmer at the Farmer's Market. You should check out the link on my blog for Farm Forward. Great organization.
http://www.farmforward.com/
now you don't have to go to my blog.
But you might want to cause i'm doing a giveaway.