I absolutely adore gnocchi and this version is so easy to make you’ll be eating it every night! While traditional gnocchi is usually made with potato and egg, this sweet potato gnocchi just uses the natural stickiness of the sweet potato to hold together and the results are out of this world.
Another advantage of eating gnocchi this way is that the sweet potato is filled with fiber so you’ll feel fuller for longer while eating less. Toss your sweet potato gnocchi in a simple herbed butter or if you prefer toss it up with some pesto. All in all you’ll end up with a healthy fiber filled meal that is utterly delicious as well.
Serves: 4
Ingredients:
- 4 medium sweet potatoes, washed and whole
- 550g flour + approximately 70g for surface flouring
- 4 tsp of salt
- 2g fresh thyme, picked
- 40g butter
- 40g Parmesan cheese
- A pinch of paprika
- If you prefer pesto; skip the butter and thyme and simply use +/- 100g of your favourite pesto and a garnish of Parmesan cheese instead.
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 220°C.
- Using a fork, poke a few holes in the sweet potatoes, place the sweet potato on a roasting tray and bake them for 40-50 minutes or until tender.
- Set aside to let them cool enough for you to handle them easily.
- In a bowl combine the salt and 550g flour.
- Flour a work chopping board and pile your flour and salt mixture onto the surface.
- Make a well in the middle of the flour.
- Once the sweet potatoes are cool enough to handle, remove the skin and mash.
- Flour your hands and begin working the sweet potato into the flour, work it until the mixture is fully combined. You don’t want the dough to be sticky, so keep adding flour until you get a nice dry dough.
- Once fully combined, roll the dough into a ball and cut it into eight even pieces. Roll each piece into a long log that’s about 2cm thick.
- Cut the sweet potato gnocchi log into 2cm pieces. Gently toss each piece into flour to ensure that it’s dry and not sticky.
- Continue until you’ve cut out pieces from all of the dough.
- In a large pot bring some salted water to a boil.
- Once boiling add in the gnocchi and let cook for 5 – 10 minutes.
- Once cooked remove it from the water using a slotted spoon.
- In a pan melt the butter and add the thyme.
- Toss the sweet potato gnocchi in the herb butter (or pesto if that is your preference) for a few minutes.
- Toss with Parmesan until all the gnocchi is coated, garnish a sprinkle of paprika and serve.
