Simple Stir Fry Inspired Pasta or Noodles

I recently made a Shirataki Stir Fry Sauce and have been exploring different ways to use it. Here I give you two options: a pasta dish and a noodle dish. These are made quite similarly, but one with a low-carb high-protein pasta and one with shirataki noodles. Both use broccolini and mushrooms, which are very low in carbs and contain a fair bit of protein (relative to other produce). Unlike the pasta dish, the noodle dish includes peanuts and sesame seeds as main protein sources. If I were to choose which dish I prefer on taste and texture alone, I would choose the noodles. The sauce lends itself better to the texture of the noodles. If I wanted a higher protein meal, I would opt for the pasta. Other considerations might be allergens and net carbs. The noodle dish is easily made soy-free, while soy-free pastas can be hard to find. In addition, vegan keto pastas tend to be both protein-rich and a bit carb heavy. The noodle dish is lighter on the carbs.

I was aiming for simplicity with this recipe, the sauce is made in the blender and the mushrooms and broccolini are cooked in the pasta/noodle water to minimize cleanup. If you prefer to cook the mushrooms and broccolini separately and add them in later, that's totally up to you. With the noodles, I suggest dry frying the noodle mixture in a large saute pan after draining and before adding the sauce. That's mainly because a large saute pan will have more heated surface area and I find that shirataki noodles have a better texture when both boiled and dry fried. If you enjoy the texture of shirataki noodles without dry frying them, or if you don't want to use an additional pan, you could just return the noodle mixture to the pot you used for boiling.

So which version best suits you? Let me know. Enjoy!

P.S. The Shirataki Stir Fry Sauce ingredients and directions are given on this page. For the macros of the sauce alone, please visit the linked recipe page.

Simple Stir Fry Inspired Pasta

Yield: 4 servings
​Macros (per serving): 340 calories | 32g protein | 15g fat | 11g net carbs
Prep/Cook: 20 minutes
Equipment required: a blender with a soup function (optional ✎)
Storage: refrigerated for up to 3 days. Sauce will last as long as the shelf-life of the ingredients included in it.
Other Ingredients:
  • 4 servings (8oz | 224g) low-carb pasta, e.g. soy or lupin-based ✎
  • 8 ounces (224g) mushrooms, halved or quartered (about 3 cups) (or more ✎)
  • 12 ounces (340g) trimmed broccolini (aka Tenderstem broccoli), cut into large pieces (about 4 cups) ✎
Shirataki Stir Fry Sauce Ingredients:
  • 1 x 7-ounce (200g) package shirataki noodles, drained and well-rinsed ✎
  • ⅓ cup (80ml | 96g) tamari, soy sauce, or aminos (use low-sodium or reduce amount if sensitive to salt) ✎
  • 3 Tbsp (45ml) sesame oil
  • 1 Tbsp (15ml) unseasoned rice vinegar
  • 1½ Tbsp (24g) ginger garlic paste ✎
  • 2 Tbsp (24g) allulose or equivalent in sweetener of choice (optional)
  • ½ tsp crushed red pepper flakes (optional or to taste)​
Directions:
  1. Prepare your pasta as per the package directions. But, when there is about 5 minutes of cooking time remaining, add the mushrooms to the pot, and when there is about 1-2 minute of cooking time remaining, add the broccolini to the pot. When cooked, drain and return to the pot. ✎
  2. Meanwhile, put all sauce ingredients in the blender.
  3. Select the soup function on your blender and start.
  4. When the cycle has finished, pour your sauce over the drained pasta mixture and mix. Cook on medium heat until ​sauce has thickened to a desired consistency. Mix often. ✎
  5. Divide the pasta between 4 dinner bowls, top as desired, and enjoy hot.
​Additional optional toppings: sesame seeds, crushed red pepper flakes, nori flakes, gomasio, and chopped green onions.

Simple Stir Fry Inspired Noodles

Yield: 4 servings | Sauce: 4 serving of about ¼ cup + 2 Tbsp (90g) each, totaling about 1½ cups (360g)
​Macros (per serving): 320 calories | 15g protein | 22g fat | 6.5g net carbs 
Prep/Cook: 20 minutes
Equipment required: a blender with a soup function (optional ✎)
Storage: refrigerated for up to 3 days. Sauce will last as long as the shelf-life of the ingredients included in it.
Other Ingredients:
  • 4 x 7-ounce (200g) packages shirataki noodles, a total of 28oz (800g) (or less ✎)
  • 16 ounces (454g) mushrooms, halved or quartered (about 6 cups)
  • 12 ounces (340g) trimmed broccolini (aka Tenderstem broccoli), cut into large pieces (about 4 cups) ✎
  • ½ cup (72g) oil-roasted peanuts, roughly chopped (or toasted pumpkin seeds)
  • 4 teaspoons (12g) brown or black sesame seeds (or hemp hearts)
Shirataki Stir Fry Sauce Ingredients:
  • 1 x 7-ounce (200g) package shirataki noodles, drained and well-rinsed ✎
  • ⅓ cup (80ml | 96g) tamari, soy sauce, or aminos (use low-sodium or reduce amount if sensitive to salt) ✎
  • 3 Tbsp (45ml) sesame oil
  • 1 Tbsp (15ml) unseasoned rice vinegar
  • 1½ Tbsp (24g) ginger garlic paste ✎
  • 2 Tbsp (24g) allulose or equivalent in sweetener of choice (optional)
  • ½ tsp crushed red pepper flakes (optional or to taste)​
Directions:
  1. Set a large pot of water to boil. Meanwhile, rinse the shirataki noodles well.
  2. When the water has come to a boil, add the shirataki noodles and mushrooms. Bring back to a boil, and cook for about 5 minutes, or until mushrooms are cooked.
  3. Meanwhile, put all sauce ingredients in the blender. Select the soup function on your blender and start.
  4. Add the broccolini to the pot and cook for another 2 minutes.
  5. Drain the noodle mixture.
  6. Heat a large non-stick saute pan on medium-high heat. When hot, add the noodle mixture to the pan. ✎
  7. Dry fry, mixing frequently, until the noodles are squeeky.
  8. When the blender cycle has finished, pour your sauce over the noodle mixture and mix. Cook on medium heat until ​sauce has thickened to a desired consistency. Mix often. ✎
  9. Divide the noddle mixture between 4 dinner bowls, top with the peanuts and sesame seeds, and enjoy hot.
​Additional optional toppings: crushed red pepper flakes, nori flakes, gomasio, and chopped green onions.
✎ Notes:​
  • I have not made this sauce without the soup function on my blender, but I see no reason why you couldn't blend the sauce to smooth and then heat it up separately.
  • I've calculated the macros with the NCCDB entry in Cronometer for edamame pasta. Another low-carb pasta option would be lupin or (black) soybean pasta. If you have a higher carb limit, you could use chickpea or lentil pasta. If this recipe were made with chickpea pasta, the macros would be roughly 325 calories, 20g protein, 11g fat, 30g net carbs. With a lentil pasta, the net carbs would likely be a bit higher still.
  • If you double the mushrooms in the pasta version, this only adds 1g net carbs per servings.
  • ​Broccolini (US) and Tenderstem broccoli (UK) are trademark vegetables with slightly different macros. According to labels, Tenderstem broccolini has slightly more net carbs than broccolini.
  • There is a lot of sodium in this much tamari and that might not appeal to everyone. If you don't like salty food, use low-sodium tamari or reduce the amount of tamari in the recipe. I did make an earlier version of this sauce with less tamari and the flavor of the plain pasta came through too much for my taste.
  • The pasta I use takes about 5 minutes to cook, so I just put the mushrooms in from the start. The time for the broccolini will depend on how you prefer it. I like mine very crisp and so 1 minute is enough for my taste. If you like it more tender, opt for at least 2 minutes. Keep in mind it will be cooked a little more at the end once the sauce is added.
  • I find that the edamame pasta I often use releases some water when a sauce is added and so to avoid a watery sauce that pools at the bottom of my bowl, I need to cook the pasta and sauce together a little bit for the the water to evaporate and the sauce to stick to the noodles. The salt in the sauce here may also be drawing some water from the broccolini. You can skip this step if your pasta doesn't get watery.
  • 4 packages is quite a lot of noodles. If your digestive system isn't used to shirataki noodles, or if these noodles are expensive where you live, you could reduce it to 3 packages.
  • Shirataki noodles are also called konjac noodles and may be found cheaply in an Asian supermarket.
  • Macros for this recipes are calculated with American national nutritional data (i.e. NCCDB & USDA entries in Cronometer) for all ingredients apart from the broccolini (Mann's) and shiritaki noodles (Skinny Pasta). For the ginger garlic paste, I am using 10.8g garlic and 10.8g ginger to calculate the macros because the nutrtrional label on my jar is questionable and the product contains 40% each of ginger and garlic (24g x .4 = 10.8g).
  • Macro numbers are rounded. Numbers equal to or greater than 10g are rounded to the nearest whole number (e.g. 10g, 11g, 12g, etc.) and numbers below 10g are rounded to the nearest 0.5g (0.5g, 1g, 1.5g ... 9g, 9.5g). Any numbers below 0.5g are given as is (e.g. 0.1g, 0.2g, etc.). Calories are rounded to the nearest multiple of 5.