I was excited to hear about Slendier, not because of the low calories but because it is not only a gluten free but a grain free pasta replacement – from recent reading about links between diet and health, I believe we should eat less grains, not just the ones commonly touted as gluten rich.
What is it? Here is the edited down official spiel:
“Slendier is Australia’s leading brand of ‘konjac pasta’. Konjac is an unusual vegetable that can grow up to 25cm in diameter and is a dietary staple throughout many Asian countries.
100g of Slendier pasta contains just 8 calories, as opposed to around 300 calories for the real thing. Slendier acts as an appetite suppressant as it is particularly high in fibre which helps delay digestion and keeps you feeling full and satisfied despite a lack of calories.
This pasta is organic, gluten and fat free [IMHO fat free is not a selling point unless you are preaching to out-dated weight loss education], it takes one minute to prepare and when added to sauce tastes just as good as the ‘real thing’ [Marta: Oh no, it doesn’t!].
Slendier pasta launched in January 2014 on Ocado.com and some health stores around the UK. It costs £2.49 per pack and comes in five different formats – angel hair, fettuccine, rice style, spaghetti and noodles.“
Verdict
I cannot comprehend why you would replace rice with it but then weight loss is not an issue for me. I did try the spaghetti version. I was surprised at how very easy it was to prepare.
The consistency was a little plastic like and it did feel like I was having a frankenfood. It didn’t feel like I was eating pasta but packaging materials. Wasn’t sure if I was eating melted sieve. I used some left over home made pasta sauce to give it the best opportunity to win me over.
I would not eat it for pleasure and I do like my food to be a pleasure but I can see that for someone wanting to lose weight such a pasta replacement with hardly any calories could be a good option. It didn’t look like that much so I ate the whole lot and felt satiated as if I had eaten a big rock. I then read it was a two person portion – oops! It didn’t result in any other physical problems for me so that was good.
Personally I would not use it as gluten free option as gluten free pastas are far superior to this taste and texture wise, but then they are often made including corn and some people have bodies that treat corn like gluten so it could be useful for them but they could also make zoodles. These are zucchini/courgette noodles made by spiralising a courgette – beautiful lightly cooked in butter and very healthy.
However Slendier is much quicker and easier to prepare so a better convenience option. On balance it is going to be healthier than most gluten free pastas on the market but it would fall into the early days of gluten free bread for me i.e. if it doesn’t taste great and is a poor second I just don’t go there and focus on eating food that makes me happy all round. I just wish the experience on the palate was better.
See the Slendier UK website for further information.
