Are Garlic Noodles Healthy? (Healthy Garlic Udon Noodles)

Garlic noodles are a classic favorite that originated in a popular Vietnamese restaurant in San Francisco and has spread to restaurants all over -- the umami garlic flavor coated with chewy noodles are so satisfying and delicious. Best of all, they're super easy to make. Garlic noodles are definitely delicious, but are garlic noodles healthy?

Garlic noodles can be a very unhealthy dish given that it predominantly consists of carbs from the noodles and fats from the butter and cheese that are in the sauce, with minimal protein content -- an average restaurant-sized serving of garlic noodles can be up to 600 calories, with 70 grams of carbs, 29 grams of fat, and only 18 grams of protein.

However, it's very easy to make a healthy version of garlic noodles -- by mindfully portioning ingredients and adding protein to the dish, I was able to make a garlic udon noodle recipe with only 322 calories and 34 grams of protein.

🍎 Calories and Nutrition – Are Garlic Noodles Healthy?

To understand the calorie and nutrition content of garlic noodles, it’s useful to look at the core ingredients that make up a garlic noodle recipe. Garlic noodles are made of three main components: noodles, garlic sauce, and the protein.

• Protein: While garlic noodles can often be served with a side of protein such as beef or chicken, they are not often served with noodles by default. However, given the low protein content of other components of the dish, it's best to eat it with some lean protein, such as shrimp or chicken.
• Garlic sauce: The sauce usually consists of minced garlic sautéed in butter and mixed with fish sauce, oyster sauce, and parmesan cheese. Given that butter is a calorie dense ingredient, with 1 tablespoon racking up more than a 100 calories. For purposes of keeping the dish lower in calories, it's best to limit the usage of butter.
• Noodles: Noodles are a vital part of this dish and carbs are definitely a necessary part of our diet. However, it's important to portion them mindfully as carbs can easily add up calorie-wise if not portioned correctly, hindering progress towards your fitness goals.

Looking at each component, it’s easy to see that garlic noodles can easily be made to be a high calorie and high fat dish if the sauce and noodles are not portioned correctly, making it less than ideal for dieting purposes. Thankfully, it’s not hard to make this dish low calorie and macro friendly — this recipe will show you some tweaks that will make garlic noodles easy to fit into your everyday diet.

🍏 How to Make It Healthy – The Fitsian Method

Garlic noodles ordered at a restaurant can easily be on the heavier side and is the last dish most people would think of eating when trying to stay fit given these recipes often have an outsized amount of butter, oil, and cheese that make the dish delicious but very high in calories. To make this recipe low calorie but still delicious, I made a few tweaks to the traditional recipe by mindfully portioning the higher calorie ingredients. Here are some key tweaks I made:

• Used only half a pack of Udon at only 150 calories
• Portioned out ¼ tablespoon of Butter and 1 tablespoon of parmesan cheese, adding only 25 calories
• Used 6 ounces of shrimp to add a healthy amount of lean protein to the dish
• Optional: Sliced and pounded some lemongrass and chilis for some extra flavor with barely any additional calories. This is not typical of a garlic noodle recipe but it adds an amazing flavor

For a detailed breakdown of each ingredients, their portioning, and how they make up the nutrition profile of this low garlic noodle recipe, you may refer to the table below:

💡Tips and Tricks

What kind of noodles can I use?

Garlic noodles are traditionally made with egg noodles, which are the yellow-colored noodles you can find in your local Asian grocery store. For this recipe, I opted to use Udon noodles instead. You can also use wheat noodles, or even spaghetti.

How do I know how many shrimps to use?

Even though shrimp is a low calorie lean protein, portion control is still important. You can determine how many shrimps to use in yours by first determining what size shrimps you have available, then using the appropriate amount based on size using this guide on shrimp sizing.

How do I prepare the lemongrass?

Lemongrass are long, stalky herbs with a wood-like texture. When using, you will need to peel it back a few layers to reach the white fleshy part. Then, cut the lemongrass in thin slices starting from the white, fleshy bottom until you reach the green woody part (these are usually saved for steeping in soups or curries). For optimal flavor, pound the sliced lemongrass slices in a mortar and pestle — this will release all the flavor and juices. For more information about how to cook with lemongrass, check out this article from The Spruce Eats on How to Prepare Lemongrass.

If you liked this recipe, check out the following:

• Air Fryer Lemongrass Chicken Recipe for another delicious dish that goes amazingly with these garlic noodles
• Five Spice chicken is another delicious protein option to eat with this dish
• Healthy Udon Recipes for more low calorie and protein packed udon recipes
• Healthy Vietnamese Recipes for more of my favorite Vietnamese inspired recipes
• Fast and Fit Recipe Collection for more quick and healthy recipes

📋 Ingredient Notes

Shrimp & Marinade

• 6oz Shrimp
• 2 teaspoon Fish sauce
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• 1 clove Garlic
• 1 stalk Lemongrass
• 1-2 Thai chilis (Optional: adjust based on spice preference)

Garlic Noodles

• ½ pack of Udon: I opted to use udon here, but you can also use egg noodles or spaghetti.
• 3 cloves Garlic
• ¼ tablespoon Butter
• ⅓ Onion
• 1-2 Mushrooms (Sliced)
• 1 tablespoon Fish sauce
• 1 tablespoon Oyster sauce
• 1 tablespoon Parmesan Cheese
• Cilantro (For garnish)

🔪 Step by Step Instructions

1. Start by preparing the lemongrass by peeling off the outer few layers and cutting off the leafy top half of the stalk. Thinly slice the white stalky portion of the remaining stalk.
2. Combine the lemongrass slices with the garlic cloves and chili in a mortar pestle and grind until you get a rough paste. If you don't have a mortal and pestle, you can mince all the ingredients and combine them, but I would highly recommend getting one as the flavor you can create from it is unreal. Also it's just fun to use!
3. Gather the shrimp & marinade ingredients, including the lemongrass chili paste. Combine them in a bowl and let marinade for 10-15 minutes.
4. While the shrimp is marinading, start putting together the rest of the dish. Cook the udon noodles and set aside. Mince the remaining garlic cloves, then melt the butter in a skillet.
5. Add in the onions and sliced mushrooms and sauté in the butter, with cooking spray if needed, until the garlic is slightly golden. Make sure to constantly stir so the garlic doesn't get burnt.
6. Begin to add in the shrimp into the skillet in a single layer and sauté for about 1-2 minutes on each side, or until the shrimp begins to curl.
7. Mix in the cooked udon noodles, fish sauce, and oyster sauce, and stir thoroughly until well mixed. Then begin to mix in the parmesan cheese.
8. Garnish with cilantro and enjoy your delicious garlic shrimp noodles!