11/1/10

Step by Step Sweet Potato Gnocchi


Hello and welcome to November, aka Vegan Month of Food and the time when vegan bloggers unite in a fearsome quest to blog everyday for the whole month. This is def the time to bookmark some recipes and ideas from the vegan blog-o-sphere because they will be flying at you faster than you can handle all month long!

So, starting us off on this end is my (simple as humanly possible) recipe for sweet potato gnocchi, in pictures. Its such a good way to use up sweet potatoes if they're abundant in your area, and they freeze perfectly. Best of all, they are vegan, which you can't always say for the gnocchi you find at restaurants or in your grocer's freezer. The only reason people don't eat them everyday is because they're scared, I guess, so now you don't have to be intimidated: if you can make a snowman with play dough you can do this!

Sweet Potato Gnocchi

*Serves 1-2 so def double or triple for bigger groups.

1. Either bake or microwave one large sweet potato until easily piercable with a fork, then peel and either mash it or force it through a potato ricer. (I prefer the latter.) Let it sit and cool for as long as it takes to reach room temp.
2. When its finally cool, put the mound of sweet potato onto a lightly floured surface, and add in approx. 3/4 of a cup of all-purpose flour and a pinch of salt. (I use about this much flour per cooked potato, but it can be much more or less depending on humidity, potato size or juiciness, and your horoscope sign.) Using your hands, knead flour into potato for about ten minutes, or until you have a smooth and basically dry dough. You want it to be just dry enough to roll a piece between your fingers without it sticking to your hands- the goal is to use as little flour as possible to reach this consistency.
4.) Now that you have your dough ball, pinch off a palm full of the dough at a time and, using your fingertips, roll it into a log as fat as your thumb, give or take. Repeat for the rest of the dough until you have a bunch of little logs.

5.) Using a sharp knife, slice each log into small rectangles. (If its really hot/humid where you are live you might want to refrigerate the logs first to make this easier on yourself.)

6.) Finally, roll each little log off the tip of a fork to create tiny indentations to hold sauce and just to be cute. No one ever died from eating gnocchi without these little lines, but I recommend it. :)
7.) You are now ready to either freeze or cook! If freezing, freeze separately on a cutting board or parchment-paper lined cookie sheet, then consolidate into a freezer bag. (So they don't stick together.) If cooking, add gnocchi into boiling salted water and cook about 5 minutes, or until floating. You can also fry them in oil or margarine along with onions, garlic and shallots. Its all tasty.


Enjoy!

song of the day: Arcade Fire- We Used to Wait

29 comments:

jessy said...

T, i want to hug you!! thanks so much for the step by step instructions on gnocchi. i've always been hesitant to make it and i think i'm gonna give it a go. it seems that i can easily deglutenize it - and maybe even make it butternut squash. ooooooh, i can't wait! thanks again, T! hoooooooray for vegan MoFo - and happy MoFo'n to you!

Anonymous said...

I love gnocchi!!! I'm lucky because here in France most ready-made gnocchi is vegan (some do have egg, but most don't - just need to check the labels).

I was going to post a how-to for pumpkin gnocchi, but I think I'm just going to send people over to you!!! Great step-by-step!!!

Anonymous said...

ok now you are TOP blogger in my books. Now this is what I am talking abt.

Anonymous said...

mmmm I love gnocchi! I made it only once, a long time ago and it was a disaster! Yours looks perfect!

Michelle said...

Yum, yum, yum, yum, and yum! Sweet Potato Gnocchi is on my list of recipes to make during MoFo too! I've tried once before (with regular potatoes) and just ended up with a mush-mess in a pan. Love the photo tutorial!

Amey said...

OMG!!! amazing post! great pictures and great recipe. I'm most totally going to do this. I haven't made gnocchi in forevers. I'm so stoked for a whole month of Vegan Soul Power!

Jen Treehugger said...

Oh this looks wonderful and would you believe I've never had gnocchi before!! I love the colours too.
Happy MoFo'ing.
:)

Claryn said...

Great tutorial! I adore gnocchi, and have made it with pumpkin before, but I like the way you think. I'll be doing this soon, probably with some sort of (ginger?) cream sauce :)

Mary Worrell said...

This is completely awesome.

Emily Segal, MA, CHHC said...

Hi from Israel!
These look SO delish! I will definitely try them and link back to you. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Looks fantastic. This is a perfect dish to serve my vegan-wary grandmother.

Sara said...

Yum! These look delicious. I adore savory sweet potatoes! This is getting bookmarked for sure!

Kit said...

Love it! Thanks for posting I definitely want to try it, maybe with some purple sweet potatoes I found at the Asian market.

Laura said...

Awesome step by step instructions and yummy photos! I can't wait to try out this recipe. Happy MoFo!!

Leinana said...

Beautiful photos and great step by step instructions! Looks yummy!

Vee said...

I am making this specifically so I can blog it this month! I'll link to you, naturally, and let you know when it's done. SO EXCITED!

Marge said...

this looks delicious! Great song of
the day, also

Vee said...

I got 'round to these today! They're queued in my tumblr to be posted on Tuesday! Thanks for the great recipe - although I found it easier to mix the sweet potato and flour in a mixing bowl... less messy! :)
(I've linked to your blog, of course!)

Anonymous said...

thank you for the step by step, much easier than just words! When I start my blog, I will do step by step too, for recipes such as this one. KEEP UP THE GOOD COOKING!

Ali said...

this looks absolutely delicious. thank you for this recipe and especially for making it vegan friendly :)

Becky said...

mmm this looks so delicious! I write the blog www.veghotpot.wordpress.com and every month I set myself the challenge to try a new cooking technique or recipe and this month is Gnocchi! Would you mind if I made your recipe as part of my challenge and then linked back to your blog? I will use my own photographs. Thanks, Becky

The Nomad said...

I've been looking for a good gnocchi recipe. You wrote it out so wonderfully. I'll be making these tomorrow. Thank and cheers!

Sophrosyne said...

When frozen, do I cook them still frozen or do I have to wait till defrosted.

Unknown said...

Thank you for the awesome tutorial. I'm making these for an Italian themed holiday dinner with the girls. I hope they'll be blown away!

Deadsoul said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Deadsoul said...

Nice work. I recommend everyone to read this post at least one. Thumbs up!
Clipping Path

Unknown said...

I made these this weekend and froze a bunch! Flour was everywhere... Thanks for the recipe.

Unknown said...

This is one of my favorite pastas. It's heavy but I try make it once every month or so.


thanks,
Avi Strauss
President
Sirabella's www.VeganCheesecake.net

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