Shira-what?

Due to my lack of free time, money and, therefore, ingredients with which to cook, I've been essentially surviving off of soup.  =p  But I'm not sick of it just yet!  To be honest, I've been doing this for years -- when it comes to food, I have phases.  For example, when I was sixteen, I loooved bagels (this was back when I was still lacto-ovo-vedge).  So I had one every day.  For over a year.  And the crazy thing is, I never officially grew sick of the things.  I discovered at the beginning of the school year that the caf sold Big Apple bagels for fifty cents -- what a deal!  I mean, they were all piled haphazardly into the bagel case, so you would always end up with a bagel that tasted like a combination of garlic, cinnamon and blueberry, but I still enjoyed them.  I was a weird kid. 

Then there was the hummus phase last summer / fall.  Again, I never tired of the stuff.  I just became distracted by a very brief stir-fry phase during the winter (this was probably due to this very nommy, very pricey stir-fry sauce I bought before moving downstate for school), hehe.  Then I got my hands on some vedgie broth concentrate, and the soup phase started.  Look what I made at my parents' house last weekend:

 They were having a spinach / mushroom quiche for dinner, and I got a little jealous.  Always a good combination...I actually stir-fry-ified the spinach along with the mushrooms and onions, and it turned out quite well. 

Aaaand, here is the loveliest blog photo yet:

Pahaha.  ;)  Those white thingies are shirataki noodles. 


I've been hearing about shirataki noodles quite a bit, as of late, so I decided to pick some up when I was at Meijer earlier.  They're a type of gluten-free noodle (is it just me, or is there a sort of gluten-free craze going on right now?) made out of tofu and yam flour (wait...you can make flour from yams?  Mind.  Blown).  Unfortunately, since calcium sulfate is used to shape the noodles, these things stink!  Their odor somewhat resembles that of fish.  So, regardless of what you plan on doing with them (...they have absolutelypositively no flavor to them whatsoever, so you probably wouldn't want to eat them plain -- how boring!), you'll want to drain and rinse them pretty well!  As you can see, I decided to try adding them to soup.  How predictable.

The verdict:  In terms of nutritional value, shirataki noodles are pretty...well, worthless.  They have a bit of fiber in them, but that's it.  So they would probably be better off as a side dish, or added to something healthier.  They definitely scored a 0 in the Taste and Appearance categories as well, pahaha. 

But!  I really do enjoy the texture of these noodles -- they're definitely unlike any noodle I've ever tried.  They're somewhat chewy, and rather...gelatinous?  I tend to purposely under-cook my pasta / rice noodles ("Al dente" is where it's at!), so you can imagine why I enjoyed these.  Also!  They are amazing at absorbing flavor -- even though they were sitting in the soup broth for no more than two minutes before I started eating it, they, ever-so-miraculously, acquired a very savory taste. 

It seems like these should be put in the same category as tofu, cottage cheese, plain yogurt, potatoes, etc -- they can taste amazing, or they can taste atrocious.  It all depends on how you prepare them!