Sweet Potato Gnocchi Stuffed With Pesto (vegan, paleo, gf)
Vegan and gluten free sweet potato gnocchi stuffed with pesto! A simple and easy way to make sweet potato gnocchi. Make it stuffed with pesto or just serve it with pesto on the side for a delicious quick meal!
- Prep Time: 45 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
- Yield: 2 servings 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Ingredients
For the gnocchi:
- 1 large sweet potato (around 1lb)
- 1 1/4 cup cassava flour (145g) plus more for dusting
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
For the pesto sauce:
- 1.5 cups basil (around 55g)
- 1 cup spinach (27g)
- 2 garlic cloves
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1/2 cup walnuts (60g)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup olive oil
To sautee the gnocchi:
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
Instructions
- Begin by roasting the sweet potato. Cut the potato in half, place on a baking dish lined with parchment paper, coat with oil (or sprinkle veg broth on top for oil free version) and roast at 425F for 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and once cool to the touch scoop out the soft flesh. You can discard the skins (or snack on them at a later time as they are full of nutrition). Alternatively, you can also steam or boil the sweet potato but that will add more moisture resulting in a wetter dough, which will need more flour.
- Make the pesto sauce: While the potato is roasting in the oven, make your pesto by adding all ingredients listed under “pesto” into a food processor and process until all ingredients are broken down evenly. Set aside.
- Transfer sweet potato flesh to a mixing bowl and add garlic powder, salt, and cassava flour. If the dough feels too wet or sticky, add more cassava flour one tablespoon at a time until you have a workable dough that does not stick or break apart.
- Form a round ball with the dough and cut into eight equal parts by first cutting it in half, then into four, six and finally 8. Look at the picture in the blog post for reference.
- On a firm flat surface dusted with flour to prevent the dough from sticking, use your hands to roll out each triangle into a long rope-like shape (again, see pictures for reference). Roll them out to about 8” long. Then, using a rolling pin (or your hands or a bottle of some sort) flatten the rope to about 1 or 2” wide – enough so that you can add the pesto stuffing in the middle.
- You can pipe the pesto stuffing, or to keep things simple, use a spoon and carefully add the pesto in the middle of the flattened dough. Be careful and try not to “overfill” or you will have a hard time closing the gnocchi.
- Once you’ve added the pesto stuffing in the center, close your gnocchi by folding one side of the dough over the pesto onto the other side of the dough and lightly press with your fingers to create a seal. Cut the stuffed “rope” into 1” squares. These little squares are your gnocchi. If you are having a hard time transfer the gnocchi off of the firm surface, use a spatula to pick up the gnocchi.
- Alternatively, you can skip the stuffing part and just roll out the ropes to about 10” and cut 1” squares. Do not flatten the rope if you are not stuffing the gnocchi.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil, and add the gnocchi. Cook until the gnocchi rises to the top of the water. Drain and toss the cooked gnocchi in a little bit of olive oil to prevent them from sticking. If they do stick, do not panic, once you sautee them in the sauce they will unstick.
- Finally, add olive oil to a large non-stick pan or skillet over medium heat. Add gnocchi and cook until a golden-brown color has been achieved on all sides, and gnocchi is crispy. This part will take around 5 to 6 minutes. I like to do this part in batches to avoid all of the gnocchi from sticking together. NOTE – If you opted not to stuff the gnocchi, then you can add your pesto sauce here and coat the gnocchi in pesto. If you did stuff the gnocchi, you can also opt to coat the gnocchi in the left over pesto as well – it tastes delicious both ways!
- Serve and enjoy!
Keywords: gnocchi, vegan, paleo, sweet potato, gluten free, healthy, dinner,