Did you go paleo, but miss the spaghetti with meat balls? Do you have pasta addict kids?
Whether they've gone grain free or are just looking for a more healthful option, consumers are increasingly embracing vegetable noodle replacements, at first turning to expensive and complicated gadgets to make them at home.
Mason Arnold, founder of Austin, Texas-based Veggie Noodle Co., was one of them.
“I'd been in grocery for about a decade and am always watching the trends,” he says. “I saw these a few years ago, and saw the different movements grow, whether it's paleo or vegan or other allergy free diets — this trend hit a lot of those.”
So Arnold, who also has a background in engineering, got to work. He tried every vegetable noodle cutter on the market, and then dug in to the microbiology of vegetables and how their shelf life is affected by the different cutting methods.
“It turns out size and shape of the noodle and different aspects of production can have a pretty big effect on shelf life and customer acceptance,” he says.
He hit on just the right size, shape and consistency and created his own patent-pending machine to produce Veggie Noodles, now available from four vegetables: zucchini, beet, sweet potato and butternut squash.
“What's really great is the versatility,” he says. “They replace any other noodle and (are) a seamless transition.”