Zucchini noodles may be a popular carb alternative, but one veganinfluencer’s idea to use lettuce or “lettucetti” as an alternative to spaghetti has not gone down well.
Ullenka Kash regularly shares recipes for raw, vegan food on Instagram for her more than 120,000 followers.
However, in a recent recipe for “Bolognezze”, Kash shared a photo of a bowl of shredded lettuce, which she called “lettucetti”, topped with bolognese sauce, chopped onions and tomatoes.
Kash has previously used the leafy alternative in recipes that call for pasta, with one video posted to Instagram showing her creating the base for the “lettucetti or Raw Vegan Spaghetti a’la Bolognese” dish by simply chopping up a head of lettuce.
While the influencer promises the recipe is “VERY satisfying,” it has been met with backlash from Kash’s followers, who have taken offence with the term “lettucetti” to refer to a salad.
“What’s wrong with just calling it a salad?” one person asked on Instagram, while another commented: “It’s okay to call a salad a salad.”
Another said: “That’s shredded lettuce…”
Others imagined the response from guests if they said they were cooking bolognese only to offer a salad topped with sauce.
“Imagine I said I’m cooking pasta and gave you this,” someone else commented.
Despite the backlash, Kash says that she is not “trying to replace pasta with lettuce” and instead wants to help people become comfortable with the idea of replacing high-calorie foods with healthier options.
Speaking to Metro, the influencer said: “‘I am making a lot of raw vegan versions of popular foods, to make familiar what’s unfamiliar. To follow high raw vegan lifestyle successfully, you’ve got to get a bit creative, with your dinners especially,” adding that eating just chopped lettuce with tomatoes everyday seemed “not satisfying enough”.
As for why she replaced pasta, Kash said that although she “used to love it,” she “remembers how heavy in the stomach spaghetti feels”.
The mum-of-two has previously faced criticism over her claims that her raw recipes have “healed” her daughter’s eczema and her son’s autism, claims which are not backed up by science.
The Independent has contacted Kash for comment.
