Kelp Noodles substitute

Best substitute

Spiralized Jicama

Use the same amount by volume as the kelp noodles you are replacing

Best for cold sesame noodle salads

Different taste

For the crunch, spiralized jicama is the closest thing and stays crisp even after cooking, with spiralized daikon a peppery second. For the zero-carb noodle role, rinsed and dry-fried shirataki noodles are the practical swap, though they are springy rather than crunchy. In a cold salad, cucumber noodles do the job. Be aware that nothing else is both genuinely crunchy and carb-free, so pick based on whether crunch or carbs matters more to you.

Other kelp noodles substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Shirataki Noodles
Different texture
Use the same amount one 7 ounce bag per person
Konjac noodles, the other translucent zero-carb noodle, and the easiest to find.
What changes
Best for
brothy noodle soups, stir-fries, very low-carb meals, Asian noodle bowls
Same job, same nutrition, different bite. Shirataki are springy, slippery and slightly rubbery, and they yield when you chew, whereas kelp noodles resist and crunch. Both come packed in liquid that needs a thorough rinse. The step that transforms shirataki is dry-frying: two to three minutes in a hot dry pan until they squeak drives off water and firms them up considerably, getting them closer to kelp noodles than you would expect from the bag.
3Spiralized Daikon Radish
Different taste
Use the same amount by volume
Long white radish, crunchy and juicy, and the cheapest crunch substitute.
What changes
Best for
Asian noodle salads, kimchi-style dishes, cold dressed noodles, soups
The strands are crisp and watery, close to kelp noodles in look and reasonably close in snap. The difference is a clear peppery, faintly sulfurous radish bite that kelp noodles do not have at all, so a delicate sesame dressing gets pushed around by it. Salting the strands for ten minutes and rinsing them tames most of that. Cooked briefly it softens and sweetens; cooked long it turns limp and smells strongly of radish.
4Spiralized Cucumber
Different taste
Use the same amount cold dishes only
Crisp, watery raw strands for chilled bowls.
What changes
Best for
cold peanut noodles, summer salads, poke bowls, no-cook meals
For a cold dressed dish this is a genuinely good swap, crisp and refreshing with a clean grassy flavor instead of kelp's mineral note. It is much wetter, so it dilutes a dressing within about twenty minutes, which means dressing at the table rather than in advance. It cannot go anywhere near heat, since it collapses into liquid almost instantly. Use Persian or English cucumbers and scrape out the seeds first.
5Glass Noodles
Different texture
Use the same amount by cooked volume
Mung bean or sweet potato starch noodles, the traditional clear noodle kelp noodles are imitating.
What changes
Best for
japchae, noodle soups, spring rolls, Thai and Vietnamese salads
Visually the closest of all, since both are transparent and slippery. Glass noodles are chewy and bouncy rather than crunchy, and they soak up dressing and broth greedily, so a dish made with them tastes more strongly seasoned than the same dish with kelp noodles, which absorb almost nothing. The trade-off is real carbohydrate, since these are pure starch, so they are not a low-carb option at all.
6Zucchini Noodles
Different texture
Use the same amount by volume
The most widely available vegetable noodle, softer and much more neutral.
What changes
Best for
warm noodle dishes, pesto, tomato sauces, quick weeknight meals
Easy to make and nearly flavorless, which matches kelp noodles, but the texture is the opposite: soft and tender within a couple of minutes of heat, with no crunch at all. Zucchini also releases a lot of water, so unlike kelp noodles it will thin your sauce. Salt and drain the strands for fifteen minutes first and cook them for no more than two minutes.
7Thinly Shredded Raw Cabbage
Different taste
Use the same amount by volume
The pantry answer when you have no gadget and no specialty noodle.
What changes
Best for
slaw-style noodle bowls, stir-fries, budget meals, meal prep
Cabbage sliced very fine gives real crunch and holds dressing well for days without going soggy, which kelp noodles also do. It looks nothing like a noodle and tastes clearly of cabbage, sweet and sulfurous, so this works in a peanut or gochujang dressing and less well in a clear broth. Napa cabbage is milder and more tender than green cabbage if the flavor bothers you.

What is Kelp Noodles?

Kelp Noodles is Kelp noodles, sometimes sold as seaweed noodles or kelp pasta, are clear, wiry, crunchy noodles made from kelp, water and sodium alginate, and they come packed wet in a bag with almost no calories or carbohydrate.

Cooking tips

Straight from the bag, kelp noodles are stiff and squeaky, and many people assume they are supposed to be that way. Massage them for a minute with about a tablespoon of lemon juice and a quarter teaspoon of baking soda, then rinse well, and they soften into something far more noodle-like.
They absorb essentially nothing, which is the single most important thing to know. Whatever sauce you use has to be bold and clingy, so lean on peanut, sesame, gochujang or a thick vinaigrette rather than a thin broth-based dressing.
Drain them properly and pat them dry, because the packing liquid is alkaline and tastes faintly metallic, and any that stays behind dulls the whole dish.
Their mineral, faintly oceanic note is an asset with soy, sesame, ginger and lime, and a distraction in a creamy Italian sauce. If you want them to disappear, marinate them for ten minutes in the dressing before serving.
Because they never soften properly, cut them a few times with scissors in the bowl. Full-length kelp noodles are surprisingly hard to eat with chopsticks or a fork.

Frequently asked questions

Can I just leave the kelp noodles out?

Yes. They provide bulk and crunch, not flavor or structure, so a dish without them is still a complete dish, just smaller. If you want to keep the volume, a bed of shredded cabbage, bean sprouts or cucumber does the same work for pennies. Bean sprouts in particular give you the crunch and the neutral flavor at once.

Are kelp noodles the same as shirataki noodles?

No. Kelp noodles are made from seaweed with sodium alginate and are crunchy and wiry. Shirataki noodles are made from konjac root and are springy and slippery. Both are clear, both come packed in liquid, and both are effectively zero carb, so they are interchangeable in a recipe as long as you accept the texture change.

Do kelp noodles need to be cooked?

No, they are ready to eat after rinsing. Cooking barely changes them, which is unusual and sometimes handy. If you add them to a hot soup or stir-fry they will warm through and soften slightly at the edges but keep most of their crunch, so add them in the last minute rather than early.

What can I use for a crunchy zero-carb noodle?

This is the honest gap. Nothing else on a normal shopping list is both genuinely crunchy and carb-free. Jicama has the crunch with a few grams of carbohydrate per cup, shirataki has the zero carbs without the crunch, and daikon splits the difference at a small carb cost and with a peppery flavor. If crunch is the whole point, jicama is the pick.

Why do my kelp noodles smell fishy?

It is the alkaline packing liquid rather than the noodles themselves, and a proper rinse under cold running water for a full minute removes most of it. The lemon juice and baking soda massage removes the rest and softens them at the same time. If a bag smells strongly off rather than faintly marine, discard it.

Related substitutes

More pasta & noodles substitutes

Kelp Noodles substitute

Other kelp noodles substitutes

2Shirataki Noodles

3Spiralized Daikon Radish

4Spiralized Cucumber

5Glass Noodles

6Zucchini Noodles

7Thinly Shredded Raw Cabbage