I ran across a site for an intriguing food product called “Miracle Noodles.” I’m not going to link to it because I am not shilling for them (although their ad may turn up at the bottom of this page – it did when I searched the Board for any prior mention of them), but they claim to be calorie free, gluten free and net-carb free, being made made from “soluble plant fiber.”
It sounds too good to be true. Is it? Has anybody tried them, and how were they? Can I REALLY add them to my low-carb diet without totally screwing myself? (Even if they are all that they are cracked up to be, I would actually be afraid to use them for fear that their “carb-like-qualities” would rev up my carb cravings, even if the Miracle Noodles themselves are innocent of net carbs.)
Looking at the Google results it looks to me that the product is the same thing as konnyaku, a traditional translucent Japanese noodle used in stuff like sukiyaki and shabu shabu.
I initially got it confused with noodles made from mung beans, because that’s what my mom used to call it. It looks like it actually does not have hardly any calories at all. In any case, it appears that they actually do use it in sukiyaki. It was never used as the primary source of carbs in sukiyaki as that would come in the form of rice. I suspect that it can be made into some sort of tasty dish. You just have to be careful about the flavorings you add to it to make sure it remains lo-cal.
I’ve got a package sitting in front of me that is what I called konnyaku when I was a kid. It’s made from mung beans and has 45 calories in 2 ounces, which is still pretty low I think. It’s real cheap in Chinatown. I actually might have some tonight as I use it making katsu donburi, a pork cutlet on top of rice.
Sorry about the completely uninformative post, but I had written all this crap and was loathe to toss it out.
Sorry for posting again, but I just realized that the “generic” name for Miracle Noodles is shirataki noodles. I found some references to them under that name on Google. Still looking for your experiences, though!
We had them last week in stir fry. They’re pretty much tasteless, and the texture was somewhat offputting (to me, I think my husband liked them okay). My mother in law uses them in spaghetti, which I really didn’t like. She and my sister in law liked it, though. They tried them in a sort of alfredo sauce, though, and they both just about gagged and had to throw it all out.
We still have a couple packages of the fettuccini shaped noodles that I’ll probably end up giving to my mother in law.
I had these often in Japan and now I buy the House Shirataki Noodles when I want a low calorie noodle meal. Konyakku is made from agar agar, algae.
They’re…interesting. It takes getting used to, and you have to ask yourself if the flavor/smell is worth the low calories. If you can get used to it, then go for it. But to people who aren’t used to it, they can be put off by the tasteless, chewiness, and fishy smell. I make sure to rinse them in hot water to get rid of as much of the fishy smell as possible.
That said, they’re really good in soups, I think. I even mix some with tuna, mayo, and cucumber pickles to have sort of a tuna salad. The problem with the noodles is that they seem to be very water heavy (I guess with little to no carbs in comparison to normal noodles since they are made of algae) and you can’t completely get all of the water out of them…Cooking them just makes the water escape and they shrink more, which is why I prefer them in a soup or something that I don’t mind having damp, cool noodles with.
You can get konnyaku (shirataki) noodles at any Japanese store, they also sell konnyakku in bricks if you really come to love it. I really like House Shirataki Noodles (it’s an American brand) because you can actually get those decently dry. Whenever I’m craving something noodley I grab a bag, rinse and dry well, and pop it in the microwave with a wedge of Laughing Cow cheese and some broccoli. The bags can get a little pricey, ranging from $1.30-$2.00 a serving.
For what it’s worth, I eat these all the time when I’m dieting; same for konyakku when I was in Japan. I didn’t notice any increase in carb cravings.