This simple 3 ingredient gnocchi couldn’t be easier to make. Ready in less than 30 minutes and also freezable, this standard recipe is an ideal way to use up any starchy vegetables you have lying around in the kitchen and is the perfect carrier for your favourite pasta sauce!
Trust me, making gnocchi is way easier than it looks!
Ingredients needed to make this gnocchi
Sweet potatoes: although, if you aren’t a fan of sweet potatoes you can swap them for another starchy vegetable like parsnip or squash. Just consider that the water content on these veg will vary so you might need more / less flour to bring the dough together
Plain white flour: if you are looking to make the gnocchi gluten – free you could also try a gluten free flour (although I haven’t tried this myself but it should work).
Nutritional yeast: this is an optional ingredient but does add a lovely flaovur
Sea salt
Handy tips for making the gnocchi
Mashing the sweet potato: using a potato ricer will give you the ultimate smooth texture when you are trying to mash down your cooked sweet potatoes. But if you don’t own one of these, you can get a similar effect from using a regular potato masher or just a simple fork.
Shaping the gnocchi: use a standard dinner fork that is overturned to get the little lines on each piece of gnocchi. Roll the gnocchi up the fork to get those lines, which will help to trap the sauce once it is cooked and added to the finished dish. You might see the pro’s using a fancy gnocchi board, but this isn’t necessarily needed and you can get a similar effect with a fork or just skip this step altogether, the taste will be exactly the same.
Avoid overcooking: it is easy to overcook gnocchi by leaving it in the boiling water too long. As soon as it pops up to the surface, it is a sign it is cooked. Remove with a slotted spoon to avoid loosing the chewiness of the dough and just ending up with potato mush.
If you are looking for inspiration for sauces to go with your sweet potato gnocchi why not try:
Popular questions
This will work with any starchy vegetable, so you can try swapping it out for carrots, squash, regular white potatoes or parsnip. But please consider you may require a little less /more flour to bring the dough together.
Yes, you can oven bake the sweet potato. Preheat an oven to 180oc and roast for 60 minutes. The potatoes will be done when a small knife easily goes through the middle of them.
Gnocchi is the perfect carrier for your favourite pasta sauce. Why not try pesto or bolognese.
Yes, you can substitute with gluten free flour, although I haven’t tested it myself.
Nutritionally, they are much the same. They are both high in carboydrates and pretty low in protein. Comparing them like for like isn’t quite fair as typically pasta has more protein than gnocchi, but gnocchi less carbs by weight. But don’t worry about any of this and just enjoy both as part of a balanced diet
Yes this gnocchi can be frozen. Once the gnocchi has been cooked in the boiling water, allow it to cool and dry before adding it to an airtight container and placing it in the freezer. To cook at a later date, fully defrost and pan fry before adding it to your favourite sauce.
Sweet Potato Gnocchi Recipe
Course: PastaCuisine: ItalianDifficulty: Easy2
servings5
minutes20
minutesThis simple 3 ingredient gnocchi couldn’t be easier to make. Ready in less than 30 minutes and also freezable, this standard recipe is an ideal way to use up any starchy vegetables you have lying around in the kitchen and is the perfect carrier for your favourite pasta sauce.
Ingredients
600g Sweet potatoes
150g Plain white flour
1/2 tsp Sea salt
2 tbsp Nutritional yeast (optional)
Directions
- Prick the skins of your sweet potatoes with a fork, piercing several times and place on a microwavable plate. Cook on a high power for 10 – 15 minutes turning halfway through. (The cooking time will vary on the strength of your microwave and the size of your potatoes).
The potatoes will be done when the insides are soft. You can test this by piercing the middle with a small knife, if the knife goes through the middle easily, they are done. - Remove the sweet potatoes from the microwave. Allow to cool for 5 minutes (so you can handle the potatoes without burning yourself) before carefully removing the soft flesh into a bowl, scooping it out with a spoon so only the skin remains and mash it with either a potato ricer or a fork (you can save the potato skin and roast in the oven with some olive oil, salt and pepper for homemade chips).
- Slowly add the flour and nutritional yeast to the bowl and gently mix together the ingredients using your hands to form a smooth dough.
- Transfer the dough to a floured work surface, shaping the dough into a ball. Cut into 4 and then take each quarter and roll it out into a sausage shape about 3cm in diameter.
- Take each sausage shaped dough piece and cut it into rounds about 2cm thick and repeat until you’ve worked your way through each of the sausage shaped dough pieces.
- Shape the gnocchi rounds into gnocchi shaped pieces by rolling them up the back of a dinner fork that has been over turned. This way you get the nice line pattern on each piece
- Boil a large pan of salted water. Once boiling add your gnocchi in batches (don’t add them all at once as you want to allow them space in the pan). They will take 2 – 3 minutes to cook and will float to the surface when they are done.
- Once the gnocchi pieces are cooked, remove them with a slotted spoon onto a cooling rack with an empty baking tray underneath to catch any drips.
- You can now add them directly to your favourite pasta sauce or pan fry them with a little olive oil to make them crispy
Notes
- It is possible to freeze the gnocchi – please see instructions for this in the blog post above.
- You can apply the same recipe to other starchy vegetables like carrots, parsnips, squash or the standard white potatoes.
- If you don’t have a microwave or don’t want to use one, it is possible to over roast your sweet potatoes to get the same result. See instructions in the blog post above.
I canβt wait to hear what you think of these Sweet Potato Gnocchi recipe so please leave a comment below and tag me in your wonderful creations! Iβm @fortheutterloveoffoodΒ onΒ Instagram and use the hashtag #fortheutterloveoffood. Iβm also onΒ FacebookΒ β please say hello!
