Papardelle noodles! Made of yuba, wow

noodles
yuba
tofu-skin

#1

For real! This “pasta” is made of yuba, also known as tofu skin. Some people like to eat these noodles just heated or pan-fried, which isn’t bad, but still kind of tofu-y.

But!!!

I found a little-known hack in a Chinese chef video that makes it feel and taste much more like real pasta.

You boil it with baking soda! To me, straight out of the pot it tasted a lot like plain ol’ spaghetti. I am truly blown away by how much this resembles wheat pasta. It is slightly al dente, sturdy but also soft.

My test baches of various cooking times and styles.

I bought mine frozen at an Asian market, but you can also buy it dried from Amazon and other places.

I ran some tests, and found that boiling the ribbons with 1/2 t of baking soda in about 2 quarts water worked great. Boiled the noodles for 30-60 seconds. If they are overcooked (more than a minute and a half, roughly), they fall apart, so I suggest trying one noodle at first to see how long it takes.

I just slice this stuff into ribbons, parboil for 35-45 seconds and then stir them into a sauce. You can tell they are transformed by the baking soda when they drop onto a plate softly like noodles and not stiff.

The package says 5 carbs for 90 grams. which is a LOT! I could only eat about half that much. I had mine just with butter, garlic and parmesan but I’m looking forward to making real, Italian-style pasta dishes now!!!

Below is a video of a popular chef cooking these things (he didn’t use the baking soda hack).

You can also wrap shrimp and other things in the skin and pan fry till crispy to make dim sum.

Or make a noodle salad:

I’m ready to experiment with lasagne and other ideas! Also want to try different amounts of baking soda to see what that does.


(Full Metal KETO AF) #2

I used to cook Sichuan food in restaurants most of my life. We used these for cold salad appetizer dishes with edamame beans and soy sauce and chili sesame oil.

We also got these fresh skins in San Jose that were folded in 4” squares like filo dough, with many layers. Maybe the same as yours.We cut them into quarters of smaller squares and deep fried them for a couple of minutes and braised it in a soy/sugar/sesame oil mix and they suck it up. Add a bunch of cilantro before putting on the plate. I really loved that stuff! I don’t eat soy anymore because of the estrogen mostly since I’m a guy. But I know how great those are. We used soda too but the noodles were already made and looked like thin linguine. We also used the dried stick variety for braised sandy pot dishes.

:cowboy_hat_face:


#3

Oh cool! That’s funny, I get mine at Lion Market in San Jose. I’ll have to try your way (with monk fruit instead of sugar) — sounds delish.

ps. As a post-menopausal woman, I figure I can use the estrogen boost but I can see why you wouldn’t want it!


#4

Huh! That’s a fascinating hack, baking soda! I wonder if it would likewise enhance my organic soybean noodles…

Good to know about the dim sum hack - will keep these in mind for someday when I have a party!


(Bunny) #5

Those noodles look awesome! I can’t believe how many different names there are for food that’s what I love about the forum!


(Full Metal KETO AF) #6

@atomicspacebunny When you boil soy milk before you add the coagulant it forms a skin on top as it cools just like regular milk does. They slide a dowel under the skin and lift it off before adding nigari or calcium sulphate to make curds. That skin is called yu-ba in Chinese. It has a wonderful chewy toothy texture compared to tofu. My son’s mom made tofu at home for many years in rural Kentucky where she could not buy it. Most of the work is cleaning and scrubbing the pot afterwards. :cowboy_hat_face:


#7

I’m going to try making it at home. Just for fun.


#8

So I made this dim sum with the tofu skins… Let me just say, my housemate who is a dim sum snob (and not keto) loved them!


#9

AND I made a fast Yuba Alfredo with the scraps left over from the dim sum. So good!! Would have added some parsley and red pepper for color, but I was hungry…


#10

Wow they both look great.