Has anyone tried Shirataki noodles?

I was reading in a diet magazine about Shirataki noodles made of tofu. There is supposed to only be 40 calories for the whole package. Has anyone tried these... I am really missing my pasta dishes.. I have not found any in the store either.. I may need to check Trader Joes or Wild oats??

I used to get them at Whole Foods all the time.  My favorite way of preparing them was stir frying with soy sauce (you can substitute any sauce, I suppose) and broccoli.  Yum!

I found this on About.com http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/products/p/s hiratakinoodle.htm

I'll be looking for them the next time I'm in the Asian market or Whole Foods.  The article says they're in the refrigerated section.

OMG these noodles were the worst noodles ever! I couldn't even swallow them! They got half way down my throat and they came right back up. I agree with other reviews that stated the texture was like chewing on rubber bands, worms or overcooked squid. I cannot believe they were as bad as they are and nobody on any forum I have read has said the honest to God truth. I am a awesome cook, I give cooking lessons and come from a diverse background. I tried to make a Thai inspired noodle dish from these noodles and it was absolutely horrible. My sautee' of vegees and coconut curry sauce was wonderful . . . before I put it on top of the noodles. Oh, it looked awesome, but NOT! First of all, I read a review that said to simply swallow them without chewing. Well hello? We are supposed to chew and swallow our food, not eat it whole lie a dog would do to a piece of steak! What's the point of eating if your just going to swallow? If you make a dish that is a stir fry with these noodles in it, then how in the world would you swallow whole or chopped vegees and/or meat? I tried chewing, cutting, swallowing them whole and no matter how I sliced it, they were horrible. There was no taste and they will absolutely not pick up the taste of what you are cooking no matter what you do. You taste what you added to them and rubber bands.  Go ahead, try to sautee' rubber bands or a car tire. I guarantee that when your done . . . their not going to taste like anything other than a rubber band or a car tire! Bottom line, dieting and cutting back isn't fun, but I would rather have a smaller portion of the real thing over a full or double portion of these crappy things any day of the week. I am so miffed about these I could go on for days, but I'll let someone else tell the truth now. So try them at your own risk from Whole Foods, Trader Joes or an Oriental Market, but remember that "I told you so" before you eat them! Misty

I tried these tonight, and I liked them. I made soup with them, but I really don't think they would be good in a stir-fry. The texture is different, but in soup I think they are fine.

Get the ones with tofu and yam, not just yam (I personally don't like those ones). Also par boil for 2 minutes to get rid of the taste of the brine they soak in.

LOL mdickmyer... you know I still have never found them around here.  I did go into a market that had them but the freezer and the market that they were in was so disgusting I could not bring myself to buy them because I was so grossed out.   So I guess I will have to take your word for it!   If I find them in another store sometime maybe I will be brave.

kittykatz,

glad you found some humor in my posting!  LOL!  I was so ticked that day.  Could you tell?  Anyway, I see the other postings about the noodles and how geat they are in soups over other type dishes.  I don't think so, I had a "soupy" type coconut curry base sauce in the stirfry I made and no matter how I sliced it or should I say chewed it, it wasn't going down well at all.  I'm sooooooo not kidding either.  I'm not a picky eater and I love all types of food, but texture is definately a must.  I even went into it by saying "now Misty, these aren't like normal noodles".  What I should have been saying to myself was "Misty, your going to eat rubber bands now, because your trying to loose weight . . . just eat them and it will be worth it in the end".  NOT!!!

I'm laughing about your story of the market you found them in.  I often frequent this oriental market close to my home and I will say to my daughter "come on honey, mom has to run some errands" so she goes and when I put the blinker on to pull in she screams "oh no mommy, not the stinky store!  I'm staying in the car!"  She's right too, the whole time I'm in there I  have to breath through my mouth to keep from inhailing.  Needless to say, I'm very picky about what I will and will not buy there.  Thanks for your reply.  Have a good day.

mdickmyer,

Did you use the ones made of tufu and yam or just yam? I had the texture problem with the just yam ones but not so much the tofu and yam ones.

The texture is really different, but in total honesty I didn't think they were too bad. They don't really have much of a taste, but they were good in my soup which was very strong tasting. I would buy them again. 

Did you rince and parboil them? The brine they are in is terrible tasting, but if you rince and parboil it gets rid of it.

Why don't you try eating Whole-wheat pasta on those days that really feel the need to eat pasta?.

ok..i i really like these. the texture is definitely unlike that of regular noodles..but at the same time, it's also over 80% less calories. i made a fantastic dish today with them, just tossing in whatever i could find in my fridge. also, i buy the fettiucini noodles as opposed to angel hair or spaghetti.

rinse the noodles thoroughly and pat dry, then slice into about 3-4 inch segments. toss into a skillet along with cut up celery, carrots, tomatoes, broccoli, green pepper, etc. add chopped fresh garlic, about a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, and freshly ground pepper. cook that baby up and you have a fantastic (and amazingly healthy!) stirfry. mmmmm.

Just tried them... amazing!  I can have noodles with my chicken again!!!

Just bought some this weekend at the earth fare in Greensboro...

Now feel a bit worried by the negative description above... I bought 5 packs - 3 tofu and 2 yam - but at least they're cheap so if they're disgusting, it didn't cost me a fortune to toss them out....

:|

The asian foods web site listed a little bit ago contained this in the description. "Shirataki noodles have a unique arome. Parboiling is recommended to help eliminate the smell and improve the texture." Should I be worried? Whats in this stuff? It also warns that packeges may burst and leak if exposed to cold weather. I'm curious, but I might stick with my WW pasta and spaghetti squash.

damnnnnnnn !! i have been searchin for that noodles every where... anyone from boston cambridge knows where to get them????????

Try the local asian shops and look for something called konnyaku
I'm in Australia and we never get the good stuff you guys get. But at a chinese dinner party i noted these odd see through noodles!
I looked at the pack 13 cal for 1/4 of a pack. When I went to sydney, they had them $1.25 a pack. They're called konnyaku and these ones were japanese, tho my mum said she had them all the time (from Hong Kong)
They key to them is rinsing REALLY well or they smell like fish. They also work best  in stir fries/asian soups, rather than western recipes, but if you like the taste, go for it
May i also suggest rinse bean sprouts, well and steam/microwave until very limp. Mixed in with a tomato sauce its hard to tell the difference (for a dieter anyway. So worth it)
!!

they have them here for as little as $2.19 a bag s/h is about $8 for up to 48 bags

they have them here for $1.38 a bag and UPS shipping for 10 bags is about $7.28

hope this helps

I haven't seen the tofu ones here in the UK but do buy the 'yam' only ones from an online Japanese store.  I don't eat them on their own, I cook a little bit of wholewheat spag and some of these then mix together and put the sauce on top and mix well.  The texture is different to regular pasta I find that you need to rinse them well first and then just add to boiling water for about 4 mins.  They just taste like the sauce they're in but then regular pasta on it's own doesn't really have a 'flavour' either.

I tried some in a stir fry a few weeks ago.  They were the yam/tofu kind and they smelled kind of like raw fish until i rinsed, parboiled & rinsed them again.  The taste was ok but the texture was hard to get over.  It was kind of like chewing on rubber bands.  I think I'll stick with spaghetti squash from now on.  Hopefully the next one won't blow up in my microwave!

Hi,

I just tried the noodles myself. They are quite rubbery. I rinsed them well in the sink, then added them to my dish and cooked them for about 10 minutes. they did obsorb the flavor of my dish and it had been along time since I had made this dish because it is made with rigatoni and I am on the Atkins plan. So for me, it was a nice treat. Sometimes we have to use mind over matter to achieve ours goals. For me watching the scale down several pounds a week is worth it right now. Maybe when I reach my goal I'll go back to Dreamfields pasta which has only 5 net carbs per serving, but while I'm trying to lose, this will do the trick. I used a lot of garlic and parsley and grated cheese and it worked it just fine.

Good luck and much success on your diet.

 

 

I've tried these and I love them!  If anybody lives near an Ingles grocery store, which I think are predominantly in the Southeast, they have them there in the tofu section in the middle of the produce aisle.

I live in RI and I can't find them anywhere in the stores, I ended up buying them online from the Asian market. Shipping was only $6.00 for 6 bags of 12oz. noodles, not bad. Do you know what the Carb count is on the ones with the Tofu?

 

Thanks