Shrimp Shirataki Asian Pasta Salad with Peanut Sauce: Low Carb

Contains:  Shellfish, peanuts, nightshades, soy, coconut, probably gluten.  Is: Quick and easy, low carb.

Shirataki Pasta Salad – a deep dive.

This month over at Cookingbites.com, we’re challenging each other to make pasta salads.  I figure I’d make a couple of different ones, and that at least one would be gluten-free.  However, I wasn’t counting on the Thai peanut sauce that contains soy (with gluten), and that it also contains coconut.  Of course, I only checked ingredients when writing this up!  At least, I was just making this dish for myself.

If you have tahini – turned out my jar had gone bad – seriously expired – do use that (un-expired)  if you want to make this dish Paleo or Whole30.  Which had been my original intention here.

Awaiting breakfast outdoors! (Yes, I made this for breakfast.)

A lot of pasta salads, frankly, are just the cooked pasta shapes, dollied up with a little sauce (usually mayo-based), maybe a veggie or two as an afterthought.  I’ve never particularly warmed to that sort… I need food with my starch!

I figured one of the recipes I’d challenge myself this month to make would be Paleo – no grains, no legumes.  That could be a challenge, except for the existence of shirataki noodles.  They’re great, and take on the flavor of what one adds to the dish.  While this dish did NOT meet my personal challenge, it turned out very tasty.

I decided that Asian flavors would go best with shirataki noodles – and I happened to have shirataki noodles  already in my fridge.    Shirataki noodles are made from the konjac, or white, yam, and are Japanese in origin.  They’re low carb, and (depending on source) a good quantity of soluble dietary fiber.  They don’t impart a lot of flavor on their own; it’s going to be how you dress them up.

I buy shirataki pasta or noodles wet (in bags with water) – you can perhaps also buy them dry, or so I understand, but have yet to see them this way.  I’ve seen them shaped into “fettuccini” or “linguini” or “angel-hair” – would love to find spirals or such some day.  Some packages say shirataki, but make sure (assuming this matters to you) that they really are shirataki / white yam – and not soy-based noodles.  Read ingredients… (Ahem.)

In order to make this into a true salad with shorter noodles, you may cut these to about 4 inches of length.  Otherwise they are more or less “slurping” length, which doesn’t really lend itself to the style of salad I’ll be making here.  (Yes, I know, sacrilege.  Don’t do it if you’d prefer not!)

Here we are with some prime ingredients: the pasta and the Oregon wild caught little shrimps. I only used the angel hair in this recipe.

I chose shrimp for this recipe as I’d recently picked up a bag of frozen and small wild-caught “salad shrimp” that had been netted off the coast of Oregon.  I only buy wild-caught shrimp, although on third-thought, I’m not sure about the reach of Fukushima these days.  Dunno… buy it seldom.  This is the first time I’d seen a package of shrimp from Oregon.  Who knew?  For your own uses, either buy some pre-cooked shrimp – and if larger, chop them up for the recipe.  Or cook up your own, de-shell, and chop – chilling until needed.  The small shrimp I used do not need chopping.

Yummers…

As for the veggies – adapt to what you like and have to hand.  I like keeping the influence Eastern, however.  At any rate, I plan to make this again using tahini, and will report back.

Prep Time:  10-15 minutes.
Cook Time:  3 minutes.
Rest Time:  Allow to cool in fridge.
Serves:  1 as a main, 2 as a side.
Cuisine:  Asian-Influenced.
Leftovers:  Yes, refrigerate 2-3 days max.

Shrimp Shirataki Asian Pasta Salad

• 1 package (7 ounces / 200 grams) Shirataki white yam noodles, angel-hair, linguini, or fettucini-style.  I used angel-hair.
• 4 teaspoons Thai peanut sauce (for Paleo/Whole30/gluten-free and etc – use tahini!)
• 4 teaspoons lemon juice.
• 1 teaspoon low sodium tamari (for Paleo/Whole30/gluten-free – use coconut aminos)
• 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil, either spicy or mild.  (you can omit if using tahini.)
• 1 ounces / 30 grams mung bean sprouts.
• 1 ounces / 30 grams julienned bell pepper, preferably yellow, orange or red (for color)  I cut the long juliennes into halves, as well.
• 1.75 ounces / 50 grams pre-cooked shrimp, small.
• 1/2 sliced green onion/scallion.
• garnish:  cilantro / coriander leaf.

Cook the noodles as per package instructions.  Drain in cool water, shake off excess, and set in fridge in a bowl.

Make the sauce in a small bowl (peanut sauce, lemon juice, tamari, sesame oil).

Add this to the noodles and mix until coated.

Add the veggies and the shrimp, gently mix.

You can refrigerate until serving; add the cilantro at that time.

One can certainly experiment with other types of pasta/noodles.  But I do appreciate the low-carb potentialities of shirataki.

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Do visit:

• Fiesta Friday, where the excellent home cook Jhuls, and I co-host this week.
• What’s for Dinner, Sunday Link-Up.