Low Carb Pasta

Since I've eschewed most refined carbohydrates, I've realized that one of my most missed 'carbtastic' items is pasta. As a child, I used to delighted just eating buttered noodles with a little bit of Parmesan cheese. I've since grown out of my love for relatively plain pasta, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss the creamy, starchy texture and the delicious sauces and preparations that often accompany the now-empty space on my dinner plate.

I've tried Dreamfields. It tastes pretty good and is locally available at a decent price. Unfortunately, the company can't back up their claims with peer-reviewed studies on their pasta's glycemic impact. I've also tried tofu shiritaki noodles. Three times. While I can get past the slight 'aroma' that rinses away fairly easily, I can't get over that slippery, chewy, rubbery texture. And I don't typically have issues with food texture! No thanks!

That said, once I approached my goal weight, I began perusing the internet's offering of low carb pasta doughs. Some include almond flour, whole grain flours, protein powders, and the like. I have nothing against these ingredients, but for whatever reason, an almond flour-whey protein powder pasta dough didn't sound particularly appealing. What did entice me were a few variations on doughs consisting of soy flour and whole grain/wheat gluten flours.

Many people in the low carb world are anti-soy. Perhaps this relates to the paleo/primal faction of the low carb world, or a characteristic of the low carb community to be, in some ways, anti-vegetarian. I must say, though, that as much as the health benefits of soy were likely overemphasized, so too have the potential dietary 'warnings' been over-hyped. Having completed my master's thesis on a project with significant soy emphasis, I can say that I fall into neither camp. Soy has its uses, and probably shouldn't be consumed as someone's sole source of protein or fat--but then, what should? I think it is an extreme situation for anyone's diet to come to that.

In the past, I had issues with full-fat soy flour. When I attempted to make a low carb loaf of bread with it, the loaf had a distinct paint- or varnish-like flavor and smell. This is a common issue having to do with the soybean's natural lipoxygenase enzyme, which oxidizes the soybean oil in the full-fat flour, producing these off flavors. Since then, I have had success with defatted flour, which I actually think is healthier. Soybean oil is particularly high in omega-6 polyunsaturated fat, so I think it never hurts to avoid that while maximizing the benefits of the soy protein and fiber from the defatted flour.

But I digress. To the pasta recipe, already! From a variety of websites, I encountered a pasta dough with the following rough proportions:

1 cup soy flour (defatted or full-fat, you already know my choice)
1/2 cup whole wheat flour/whole oat flour/vital wheat gluten
1/2 cup whole oat flour/vital wheat gluten/resistant starch
1/4 to 1/2 cup liquid (water or broth)
2 whole eggs
1-3 t oil
Salt to taste

Prepare as you would conventional pasta dough. Due to the high protein content, extrusion is not recommended.

The dough before thinning and cutting

To date, I have prepared this pasta with 1 cup vital wheat gluten and a 50/50 mixture of vital wheat gluten and resistant wheat starch. The gluten dough was very tough and difficult to kneed, but made decent noodles. Perhaps a bit too toothy for my tastes, but good nonetheless. I have only tried the gluten/resistant starch combination in hand-rolled, thick noodles, so I will have to report back on a more refined, thin fettuccine. In any case, the dough rolled out in a comparable manner, and looked and smelled the same. Hopefully the resistant starch yields a softer texture, and I would assume that a whole grain flour would, too. This is at the price of higher carb counts, of course.

After forming into fettuccine and nesting

Overall, I think that this general recipe is so good that you will feel like you are cheating. Given the ingredients, though, you're not. My handmade noodles were tasty enough that I promptly went out and bought the pasta attachments for my Kitchenaid mixer. I will update with my impressions of the 50/50 gluten/resistant starch fettuccine, and will likely be tweaking this recipe as time goes on. In any case, try it out and see what works for you. And don't be so anti-soy. It's a great low carb tool to have in your cooking arsenal.