I really like gnocchi, but the traditional recipe with white potatoes, flour and eggs always felt a bit too heavy for me. That’s why I was thrilled when I discovered sweet potato gnocchi made with three ingredients: sweet potato, gluten-free flour and salt!
Sweet potatoes have more fibre, calcium and vitamin A than white potatoes, and I like their slightly sweet and earthy taste. If you’re worried about gluten, you can replace all-purpose flour with any gluten-free flour. Personally, I find that sweet potato and gluten-free flour together always leave my stomach feeling happy, which is not something I can say about the original recipe.
Making sweet potato gnocchi is a fun soul-healing experience, so I highly recommend you invite your kids into the process. We always make gnocchi together as a family, and it has become my son’s favourite cooking activity.
Nothing beats eating freshly made gnocchi with your family that you just made together from scratch!
If you’re new to making pasta, your first try might not be perfect. This happened to us when we made gnocchi for the first time. We added too much flour, and they turned out very chewy. To avoid this, add small amounts of flour as you go. The dough should not stick to your hands or counter and should be smooth when formed into a ball. Cut your gnocchi into similar sizes to ensure even cooking. You can use a gnocchi-making set or a knife and a fork.
After cooking, you can experiment with different sauces. In this recipe, we used premade vegan pesto, which we blended with air-fried cherry tomatoes for a smoother texture. We also added a bit of vegan cream cheese, which paired perfectly.
Homemade Sweet Potato Pasta (Gnocchi)
Ingredients
- 2 sweet potatoes baked
- 2 cups gluten-free flour
- 2 tsp salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Make a few holes in the sweet potatoes with a fork, then bake them for 40-50 minutes or until tender. They are done when a fork can be pressed into the centre easily. Set aside to cool them down.
- Combine the salt and 2 cups of the flour. Flour a work surface and pour your flour mixture onto the surface. Make a well in the middle of the flour.
- Once the sweet potatoes are cool, remove the skin and mash the flesh with the fork. You want to achieve a doughy consistency.
- Begin working the sweet potato into the flour. Continue to work the mixture until it's thoroughly combined. Keep adding flour until you get a nice dry dough.
- Once thoroughly combined, roll the dough into a ball and cut it into even pieces. Next, roll each piece into a long, thick log. Next, cut it into 3 cm pieces. Gently toss each piece into flour to ensure it's dry and not sticky at any edges. Continue until you've cut out pieces from all of the dough.
- Shape gnocchis by pressing fork grooves into each piece.
- Heat a pot of salted water to a boil. Add in the gnocchi and let cook for a couple of minutes. Once the gnocchi floats to the water's surface, let it boil for 30 more seconds and then remove it using a slotted spoon.
- You can keep gnocchi in the fridge, or freeze for a few weeks. To serve, toss them in your favourite sauce and enjoy!
