Friday Find - House Foods Tofu Shirataki Noodles

House Foods Tofu Shirataki Noodles 4 ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

I've heard about these noodles for years but since no one carried them locally I never had the chance to try them. You may have heard of them from Hungry Girl. These noodles are supposedly a good replacement for pasta and at only 40 calories for the whole bag (which makes a big plateful of pasta) I figured it couldn't hurt to try them. I finally found these noodles at my local Meijer store for just around $2.00 a bag the other day and I was excited to try them. They are made of Tofu (soybeans) and Yam flour. Since they do not contain any added oils, sugar or white flour this makes them acceptable for my current diet right now. They come in three varieties (shapes): Fettuccine, Angel Hair, and Spaghetti. So far I have only tried the spaghetti and fettuccine. I did not try the angel hair because they looked a little too thin and squiggly for my taste. I may try them later.

At first glance these bags of noodles are a little scary and funky looking. They do not look appetizing because they are long, white, stringy noodles squirming inside a bag of murky looking water. When you read the nutrition label though it might inspire you to give them a try in spite of their appearance. They only have 20 calories per serving (40 for the whole bag) only 3 grams carbs, and 2 grams of fiber. A plateful of pasta of similar size could easily have over 400 calories and too many carbs and sugar to count!

When you open the bag you may notice a very strong odor (they call it an "authentic aroma" on the bag). This isn't all that bad unless you get very close - aka don't stick your nose down in them to smell them lol. It took me making these things twice to realize what the smell reminded me of - it is very similar to ammonia, but maybe not as strong. The trick to removing this odor is to rinse them several times, probably no less than 3 times. Once they are rinsed and drained lay them on a plate and then blot them with a paper towel 4 or 5 times. You will need to blot and toss the noodles several times to get them thoroughly dry. After you have rinsed and dried them, the instructions on the bag suggests microwaving them for a minute or two and the smell practically disappears.

I found the texture to be quite good - not rubbery as some people suggest. They were also not slimey like others have said. But I think this would be because I really blotted them well to remove as much water as possible. I think that step is very key in getting these noodles to work for your dish. The noodles themselves with just a little salt had a nice flavor and tasted a lot like regular pasta noodles to me and I did not find the taste strange or odd even with the strong odor. I made these with the peanut sauce and some veggies and they really soaked up the sauce well. They seem to absorb the flavor of whatever you are cooking with.

From the way that these look in the bag I expected them to be very fragile and mushy so I was quite surprised at how firm these were and how they held up well. I preferred the spaghetti over the fettuccine only because the fettucine was maybe a tad bit more squishy and seemed to have a lot more water on them. These were also very filling and my mind really seemed convinced I was eating real pasta lol.

I have heard that there is a clear line on who likes these noodles. Usually you either like them or you don't. If you can get past the smell - which I did - then I think that most people would actually really like these as a pasta replacement.
Overall I gave these 4 out of 5 because of the strong smell. I would give them a 5 but I feel like some people just would not be able to get past the smell in order to even try them. If you can ignore the smell, and be willing to do the little bit of extra work to make them right, then I think you would have a perfect pasta replacement in these noodles.