Pasta and low-carb diets like keto don’t usually go hand-in-hand – but only if you’re talking about regular pasta made from wheat flour and other high-carb sources.
Several keto-friendly pasta alternatives exist and include:
- Edamame pasta
- Hearts of Palm pasta
- Kelp noodles
- Shirataki noodles
- Spaghetti squash
- Spiralized veggies
We’ll break down the nutrition stats for these keto-friendly pastas and compare them all (and more) next!
Keto diet basics
A ketogenic diet (keto for short) is a very low-carbohydrate diet. The premise behind a keto diet is to restrict carbohydrates (carbs – a nutrient found in grains, fruits, vegetables, and sweeteners) so much that your body enters a metabolic state called ketosis. Being in ketosis allows your body to burn more fat for fuel instead of carbs, which is its typical and preferred primary source of energy.
Keto diets are high in fat – around 70-80% of the total calories you eat will come from fat. (For a 2,000-calorie diet you’d eat a minimum of around 155 grams of fat per day!) Keto diets are high in fat because the metabolic breakdown of fats produces ketones, an alternative source of fuel instead of eating carbs.
How many carbs do you eat on keto? It’s typically below 50 grams per day, but it can be as low as 20 grams or fewer per day for some.
Is pasta keto-friendly?
Most types of pasta aren’t keto-friendly because they’re made from wheat, a type of grain that is a significant source of carbohydrates. Some types of grain-free pasta are high in carbs as well, such as lentil pasta, chickpea pasta, and cassava pasta.
(Gluten-free pasta isn’t keto-friendly either – it’s made from rice and corn flour and is very high in carbs!)
What makes pasta keto-friendly?
What makes a food keto-friendly? It’s all about the context and your overall diet. As long as you don’t eat more than 50 grams of net carbs (total carbs minus dietary fiber) per day, you can eat some carbs in moderation.
In general, we’re considering keto-friendly foods to be those with 10 grams or fewer of net carbs per serving. However, eating more than one serving of these foods will change the carb content, and you need to keep an eye on your total daily carb intake from other foods as well!
6 keto-friendly pastas
(10 grams or fewer of net carbs per serving)
Edamame pasta – 7 grams net carbs per serving
Edamame pasta is made from soybeans, and it’s incredibly rich in fiber. High-fiber foods are good for keto because your body doesn’t digest fiber, meaning it doesn’t have an impact on your blood sugar levels (and therefore ketosis) like starch and sugars (the other types of carbs) do.
Edamame pasta has 20 grams of total carbs, but 13 of them are from fiber, which brings the net carbs down to 7 grams per serving. You’ll need to be careful with your portion size of edamame pasta on keto, but in moderation, it can be keto-friendly!
Hearts of Palm pasta – 2 grams net carbs per serving
This pasta alternative is made from hearts of Palm, a type of vegetable from the core of certain types of palm trees like coconut trees. It has a noodle-like shape and is a keto- and Paleo-friendly pasta alternative.
Kelp noodles – 2 grams net carbs per serving
Kelp noodles are a far cry from the pasta you’re probably used to, but they are noodle-like and keto-friendly! Kelp noodles are semi-transparent and crunchy in texture – but what the heck are they? They’re made from a jelly-like extract that remains after steaming edible kelp and are incredibly low in calories and carbs.
Shirataki noodles – 2 grams net carbs per serving
This keto-friendly pasta is a favorite among low-carb dieters and is made from the konjac plant, a type of root vegetable. Tofu shirataki, which contains soybeans, is also keto-friendly!
Spaghetti squash – 5.5 grams net carbs per serving
Spaghetti squash is a super neat vegetable that has noodle-like strands when cooked. Like edamame pasta, you’ll have to be careful with your portion size with this one, but for one serving it’s considered keto-friendly.
Spiralized veggies – 2.7 grams net carbs per serving (for zucchini)
Like spaghetti squash, spiralized veggies are a nutritious low-carb pasta alternative. To make spiralized veggie pasta, all you need are vegetables (zucchini is a popular keto-friendly one) and a spiralizer, a tool that turns vegetables and other foods into spirals.
Nutrition comparison of keto-friendly pastas
| Pasta (2 oz. portion size unless specified) | Calories | Total fat (saturated) | Total carbs (fiber) | Net carbs | Protein |
| Edamame pasta | 180 | 3.5 g (0 g) | 20 g (13 g) | 7 g | 24 g |
| Hearts of Palm pasta – ½ cup | 20 | 0 g | 5 g (3 g) | 2 g | 1 g |
| Kelp noodles – 1.2 cups | 6 | 0 g | 3 g (1 g) | 2 g | 0 g |
| Shirataki noodles – 100 grams | 5 | 0 g | 4 g (2 g) | 2 g | 0 g |
| Spaghetti squash – 1 cup | 31 | 0.6 g (0.1 g) | 7 g (1.5 g) | 5.5 g | 0.6 g |
| Spiralized veggies (zucchini) – 1 cup | 21 | 0.4 g (0 g) | 3.9 g (1.2 g) | 2.7 g | 1.5 g |
FAQs:
Some of the best keto-friendly pastas include shirataki noodles, hearts of Palm pasta, and kelp noodles, which are all very low in net carbs.
Egg noodles contain wheat flour in addition to eggs, so they are too high in carbs to be keto-friendly.
Chickpeas are a type of legume and are high in carbs, so chickpea pasta isn’t keto-friendly.
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