I’m just restarting the BSD after a major lapse over Christmas & had been using courgetti instead of pasta. It’s now got like gold dust in the UK, & probably will be for some time until UK crops come on-line, so I was wondering if anyone has any ideas for something similar. I know there is something called a spaghetti squash but that is out of season at the moment – has anyone tried something like butternut squash or cucumber?

Kelp noodles! Some people hate them — they come out of the bag crunchy and smelling like plastic — but I’m their greatest evangelist. You just have to put in a little effort in prep to get the texture and taste right. Once you’ve done that, they are incredibly versatile replacements for spaghetti or long noodles of any kind. Most importantly, a 12 oz bag of them has a grand total of 24 calories, 4 grams of fiber, zero net carbs. You could literally eat the whole bag and it wouldn’t even register on the calorie/carb log. That gives you all kinds of leeway to make delicious creamy cheese sauces and other calorie-rich toppings like a real Bolognese.

The trick is to thoroughly rinse the noodles in a colander, threading your fingers through the strands to unwind them from the block they’re in when you open the bag. Then soak them for an hour in a bowl of hot water (I use a kettle-full) with the juice of a half a lemon or lime. Drain and rinse again and set aside until they’re ready to be mixed with the dressing/veg/sauce/whatever. The acid in the citrus and the heat of the water soften the noodles so they lose that plasticy-crunchy texture and can be twirled on your fork like proper spags. They also clear away any weird flavors from the brine and bag.

I posted my recipe for shrimp lo mein using kelp noodles in this thread: https://thebloodsugardiet.com/forums/topic/fab-food-for-february/#post-55215 .

One of my two go-to brands of kelp noodles is available on Amazon.uk: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sea-Tangle-Noodle-Company-Noodles/dp/B00CPQ1C54/ref=sr_1_1_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1486998875&sr=8-1&keywords=kelp+noodles

Butternut squash is pretty high in carbs are 11.3g per 100g and not sure how cucumber would fair. Rather than spaghetti style substitute, how about cauliflower rice/couscous or mash?

There are courgettes around in some supermarkets. Morrisons have them but they are really pricey. Not sure about the other stores.

This can’t be true, a shortage of courgettes and other veg. I heard it was because of flooding in Spain but I can still get as much as I like here in France and there have been no problems in Spain. Do you think the EU is trying to tell you something, although starving Brits of salad like vegetables would hardly bring them to their knees. Present company accepted as we all love our veg.

Yes we have a courgette and Cauli shortage! We have tried green beans instead of courgette and we find you have to go to the supermarket for deliveries it is just not available!

I’m not sure there’s a cauli shortage. They’re about 80p each in Morrisons atm and they’ve got loads.

Seen lots of caulis today. Not many courgettes – and the ones Ii saw are huge.

Many thanks Esnecca, I’ve not encountered kelp noodles before but they sound really interesting so I will see if I can get some. Otherwise I think it will have to be cauli for a while – we live in the rural south-west so the choice of supermarkets is minimal! I do still occasionally get a courgette in my Riverford box (they were grown in France at the Riverford farm over there, where the season is earlier and has not been affected like Spain). Thanks also for the info on squash, I hadn’t realised they were so carb heavy. I’ll be starting the 12 week Aussie program next week so I will just have to hope courgettes don’t appear too often!