Sweet potato gnocchi – Better than any pasta
I really struggle with wheat pasta. It’s not a digestion issue, my belly is just fine. Rather, I don’t make room in my diet for dead calories.
Food should be both flavorful and nutrient dense. That’s why I stopped eating wheat years ago, replacing it instead with veggie substitutes. Instead of spaghetti or linguine, I slice beets, zucchini and sweet potatoes into thin ribbons. Cooking up a spaghetti squash is easy and delicious, especially with a bit of butter. You can also slice up butternut squash or egg plant and use that for lasagna in place of pasta sheets.
But my very favorite pasta is gnocchi. Fortunately, this is a dish that’s particularly delicious in veggie form. Trust me, you’ll never miss the wheat.
Instead of wheat flour, I typically use arrowroot, almond, hazelnut or coconut flour in my pasta, it just depends on what’s in the cupboard. Also, I should note that you might need to add a little extra flour or potato for this recipe. It all depends on the moisture content of your ingredients.
You can check out other versions of the gnocchi on my blog if you’re interested.
Making the gnocchi
Here’s what you’re going to need…
Ingredients
- 2 large sweet potatoes, mashed.
- 2 cups of arrowroot flour/starch. Keep a bit extra handy.
- 1 1/2 cups of almond flour.
- 1 teaspoon of baking soda
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- Pinch of nutmeg, freshly ground if possible.
- 1 egg white.
Method
Peel, chop and steam the sweet potatoes until soft. Mash and add to a large bowl. I find that a potato ricer makes for a very nice, consistent gnocchi texture.
Add half of the arrowroot flour, half of the almond flour, the salt, the nutmeg, and all the baking soda to the bowl and mix until combined. Whisk the egg white until frothy and add to the mixture. The recipe will still work of you only beat the egg with a fork lightly, but your dough will be “gloopy” and difficult to mix.
Get it frothy.
Add the remainder of the almond flour and then just keep adding arrowroot flour until you get a fairly stiff, pliable dough – It shouldn’t be crumbly!
If your mixture feels too moist add a bit of the extra arrowroot flour. Also, sprinkle some of the flour and spread it out on your counter-top. Roll out your dough until it stretches into a log that’s about 3cm in diameter. Cut the dough into little squares of about an inch. Slightly flatten each square with your thumb or a fork.
Here’s the idea...
Bring a large pot of water. Cook your gnocchi in small batches, about 8-10 pieces at a time. They will sink to the bottom, then puff and rise to the top when done.
This only takes a few minutes.
Remove the gnocchi and transfer onto parchment paper or a line tray, they are a little sticky. Toss some butter into a hot pan and then quickly fry the gnocchi until they are golden brown on each side. I must say, it’s very hard to stop yourself from eating them on the spot.
A few more notes…
If the gnocchi breaks up in the water that means that the dough isn’t dry enough. Test one of the squares before adding them all to the boiling water, then adjust your dough if need be.
I love to serve mine with some arrabbiata sauce and grilled garlic shrimp. That makes for an absolutely delicious, nutritious meal. My kind of food.
Eat well,
Virginia
For more
- Want more recipe ideas? Don’t miss Virginia’s excellent blog, Moozlers. You can also follow her on Instagram.
- Want more diet info? Don’t miss the Faction Foods Nutrition Course.
15 Responses to “Sweet potato gnocchi – Better than any pasta”
How many servings does this yield?
Brit. One serving if you’re greedy like me. No seriously, it’ll easily serve 4. It’s also great warmed up the next day or eaten cold to snack on. Sometimes I take it out of the fridge when it’s cold, flatten it into pancakes and refry it and have it with eggs. It’s like eating chips! Enjoy!
Hey Chris. I posted up my easy arrabbiata sauce on the blog at http://www.moozlers.com
Couldn’t find it. Post link here and I’ll update post.
http://www.moozlers.com/awesome-sweet-potato-gnocchi-and-arrabbiata-sauce/
Can you substitute arrowroot by tapioca powder?
My wife does that. Tapioca is amazing.
I made these last night for Valentine’s Day and they turned out amazing. Thank you so much for this recipe. I’ve tried gnocchi once before and they were a disaster so I am so excited to a found a good recipe!
Virginia,
This is great I hope you don’t mind but I’d love to use these at my restaurant, lucky for me I’ve got a great farm Sweet Georgia P’s in Pittsfield VT that supplies us with amazing products like sweet potatoes.
Spags
You guys do know that the original gnocchi are made from potatoes rather than wheat?
This wasn’t an article on the history of gnocchi, it was a recipe for something that people assume has loads of flour. And they are tasty.
[…] Wanna see more deliciousness? Join us on Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/ricekrackergirl. Here is the link to the original recipe: http://daily.barbellshrugged.com/sweet-potato-gnocchi-better-pasta/ […]
Klingt toll, werde ich auch einmal ausprobieren. Bin sehr gespannt, wie das ganze schmecken wird.
I love this recipe!
One additional tip – I figured out how to freeze these! You have to freeze them individually (I lined them up on a plate/tray, then once frozen moved them into a baggie). Once frozen, you can go from freezer to boiling water, no extra steps needed! They’ll puff up just like usual and float when done, then you can fry them up. I’m seriously obsessed with these, make them in huge batches to keep around.