Keto Noodles
I ordered a box of my favorite shirataki angel hair and konjac flat noodles from a Thai company that’s been around for twenty years, Moki (short for Monkey King).
The angel hair isn’t a great substitute for real pasta, but it’s the most acceptable out of all the konjac pasta varieties. It’s a bit too rubbery, and pasta is all about mouthfeel and texture.
The flat noodles, however, are even better than rice noodles in many dishes. Again, the texture is firmer than that of normal noodles, but it just somehow works. So last night, I actually tried these flat noodles with leftover meat sauce and it turned out to be an acceptable substitute for fettuccine. I also usually use them in Asian soups, stir fries, etc. So I think I’ll go with them exclusively from now on.
2 Comments
Kevin Kim
I flirt with keto, and I’ve tried regular konjac noodles, which are kind of bleh, but I’m intrigued by the opaque-looking angel hair. If I can find it, I might order it.
Mostly, I eat salads (with sliced chicken breast) and poached, 250-gram salmon steaks with little more than salt, pepper, and lemon juice. These don’t fill me up, but they’re better than nothing.
Good luck with your keto experimentation. I generally like keto and the philosophy behind it, but it occupies a weird space in the dieting world. On the one hand, keto agrees with paleo that the best foods are the least-processed ones (hence the need to avoid seed oils). On the other hand, keto has this whole other side that’s about weird chemical substitutes that don’t mess (much) with your blood sugar, but which take you down a rabbit hole of (initially) arcane products like erythritol, xanthan gum, vital wheat gluten, psyllium fiber, almond flour, various extracts, allulose, bamboo fiber, egg-white powder, flaxseed meal, MCT oil, coconut flour, and Jesus only knows what else. My apartment is now littered with an apothecary’s list of weird and vaguely unnatural products that I pair up in different ways with perfectly innocent, natural products like meats, fish, eggs, cheese, heavy cream, leafy greens, etc.—all in an effort to avoid those dreaded carbs. I do fall off the wagon—more than I care to admit—but after a stroke and a heart attack, I behave myself and self-monitor a lot better now. Still, keto is bizarrely Jekyll-and-Hyde about what foods and comestible products are considered keto. It really is a strange world to be in. I’m still not sure I understand everything, and the idea of a diet that’s supposed to be 70% fat, 25% protein, and 5% carbs still kinda feels insane even after a few years of trying.
I do have some recipes that I enjoy making more than others: there’s a keto “baguette” recipe I found online that produces decent-if-heavy bread; I’ve got a “bagel” recipe that uses fathead dough, and I’m proud to say that I developed my own recipe for a dough/batter that can be made into keto “gnocchi” or keto “Spätzle.” Not the real thing by far, but desperation makes people creative, and this substitute works fine for my needs.
Lately, I’ve been using Bocha Sweet (from the kabocha squash) as my go-to sweetener, so that’s been awesome, too. I bought a load while I was in the States last year; it’s going to be very sad when I run out.
Gonna make myself some keto waffles soon and use them as buns for beef burgers, chicken burgers, and salmon-steak burgers. Just gotta avoid regular ketchup and BBQ sauce. I’ll figure something out: there are a gazillion keto-friendly things you can add to mayonnaise, and my cabinet has everything from Old Bay to harissa powder. (Though probably not much in the Thai flavor profile.)
Justin
I, also, have several boxes of keto stuff. Every kind of sweetener I could find as well as keto flours and emulsifiers, etc. What’s working for me just now is not doing fake carbs/sweets so much, but taking a break every month or two and having a cheat week.