Konjac Noodles (Shirataki)

I had never heard of these things before. Until recently I wasn’t into Asian style cuisine. But I have been a raging type 2 diabetic for a while and I was tired of eating bland vegetarian dishes. So I did some research online and hit upon the idea of eating things that are really low on the glycemic index. Meaning it won’t blow my blood sugars through the roof.

Apparently these konjac noodles are made from the roots of a plant that grows in the East. These things have almost no calories to them, but the ones I bought are mixed with oat fiber. So instead of adding them to a soup, I decided to make them as a plate of loose noodles. They only have 25 calories per serving and I put two packets in the pan. I’m not on a diet, but I’m averse to eating myself to death with the junk food we have in this country.

This evening’s dinner started off with some konjac noodles I had ordered. I didn’t get but one carton of 12 packs because I wanted to see if I’d like them or not. I’m a good old boy from western NC and I grew up on bacon and eggs with cheese, and a bit of livermush. Potatoes and gravy and all that deliciousness. I still have that stuff, but I’m trying new things. Let's just say that after this evening, I'll be ordering a few cases of these. They're cheap enough, and taste pretty danged good.

The entire recipe only takes me about 30 minutes to make and I can wolf down the entire plateful in less time than it takes to make it.

At first, I wasn’t overly excited or impressed. I dropped two packs of konjac noodles into a colander, and rinsed them off really good. They don’t look that great in the beginning.

As per the cooking instructions I put them in a frying pan with a touch of extra virgin olive oil. I don’t have any of the prerequisite sesame oils that are called for in Asian cooking — yet. I fried the noodles on medium heat for about 2 minutes to dry them out a bit and slightly sauté them.

Here’s the interesting part. I have plenty of turkey left over from Thanksgiving, and I want to use it up. I wasn’t about to stand at the kitchen counter trying to chunk this stuff up, so I put it in a small food processor and bumped the button once or twice. The idea was to shred the meat without pulverizing it into a meat powder.

The meat goes into the pan with just enough olive oil to start browning it a little. Again — I don’t have sesame oil yet. I added my usual mix of red, green, and yellow bell peppers chopped into small chunks. I added some onions and garlic. Then I put in a couple tablespoons of water so everything would kind of steam without being greasy or burning in the bottom of the pan.

I added spices when everything was cooked a bit, but not over cooked and mushy. My usual group of spices goes in the wet pan. Turmeric, black pepper, smoked paprika, crushed red pepper flakes, oregano….. and I sprinkled in some ancho chili powder too. Now that stuff ain’t Asian but I really like it.

Once the water had reduced in the pan and caused the spices to swirl and concentrate, I added a big wad of alfalfa sprouts and stirred that in. Now I’m told that you don’t want to heat sprouts too much, or you lose some of the nutritional value. But I like heating mine on low heat for two reasons. One — to kill any bacteria that might be growing on them, and Two — eating raw alfalfa tastes like I’m eating grass. I ain’t a horse, so I tend to cook mine lightly. My bean sprouts are not quite ready yet or they’d have went in the pan too.

Matchstick carrots are up next. I love me some carrots ! Well, maybe I am sort of like a horse after all. I run these for 3 minutes under high pressure in an Instant Pot and just pop the pressure right off the bat. I throw these in a frying pan and brown them with a touch of hot oil.

Of course I have a one track mind, so I also made up some more of my sauce that I like on my noodles. One of these days I’ll try something different, but for now I’m addicted to this stuff. Rice vinegar, low sodium soy sauce, and hot chili oil.

Here it is all plated up and ready for me to chow down. It tastes a lot better than it looks let me tell you. The entire recipe only takes me about 30 minutes to make and I can wolf down the entire plateful in less time than it takes to make it.

I’m no chef by any stretch of the imagination. I’m just a guy who’s tired of eating “food” with chemicals in it that I can’t pronounce, I have diabetes and I’m almost as old as dirt. Maybe it’s too little too late to make changes now but I reckon it won’t kill me any deader. But I actually feel pretty good lately health wise, and I don’t feel like a bloated hog shortly after I eat anymore. So maybe I’m on to something here.

Just my opinion for what it’s worth, a man should be able to cook and fend for himself and not have to live out of a tin can and a microwave. That ain’t living, bub.