I usually have a good sense of whether or not something is going to turn out. I thought for sure that I could make a Paleo gnocchi happen without a sweat. I couldn’t be more wrong. I have tried three times now to make something that comes close to those chewy, fluffy clouds of russets, flour and egg. Not sure that I’m there yet, but I know I’m getting close.
The biggest hurdle has been with flours–arrowroot and tapioca have been my choices for this experiment. Both of these have a gooey, gelatin quality about them, which is certainly translating into the gnocchi. By the time I get these buggers in the boiling water, they are disintegrating into something I barely want to look at let alone eat.
Last night after another failed round of the elusive gnocchi a thought occurred to me. There’s too much moisture… I need to dry these out a bit… I need to bake them.
I’m going to keep tweaking this, but for now I’m happy with where they stand. Since Paleo “pasta” tends to be made most commonly from blanched julienned zucchini, I’m fairly pleased to have something that more closely resembles the real thing. So without further ado, here is my baked gnocchi.
The ingredients are straight forward. You’ll need 2 medium sweet potatoes (not yams!), 1/2 cup tapioca flour, 1 egg yolk and a teaspoon of kosher salt. If you are using a finer grain salt, only toss in about a half teaspoon.
Peel the sweet potatoes and cut them into chunks, boil. When fork tender, drain the water and rice the hot potatoes into a separate mixing bowl. Mix in the salt and tapioca flour. Once the potatoes have cooled a bit, mix in the egg yolk. If you don’t have a potato ricer, go ahead and use a regular masher. Be extra thorough with your mashin’! No lumps allowed!
Transfer the dough to a large ziplock bag and pop in the fridge. I left my dough to sit overnight. I’m not sure what the minimum amount of time would be, but I’m guessing it should chill out for at least two hours.
When it comes time to cook and serve the gnocchi, heat the oven to 325 degrees. Snip off the end of the ziplock bag to the width that you want your gnocchi–no more than a half inch. Line a baking sheet with a Silpat or other silicone baking sheet (Parchment paper would work here too). Pipe the dough about an inch or so in length. Use the back of a fork to press the classic ridges into each little pillow. Pop in the oven.
I bake these for about 30 minutes, which means you’ll want to check on yours at 25 minutes. My oven is quirky.
At this point the gnocchi are done cooking, but need to get sauced before they’re ready to eat. Baked then sauced? These gnocchi have some serious bad habits…
I’m featuring these gnocchi prepared as simply as possible. I think all of us have a bunch of sauces or recipes that are in desperate need of a faux-starch host. From Spinach Pesto to Garlicky Bay Scallops, I know I have a few of my own.
The picture shows a handful of gnocchi sautéed in roasted garlic compound butter from earlier this week. Add the butter and gnocchi to a warm sauté pan, heat through and deglaze with about a quarter cup of chicken stock. Let the stock reduce for a minute, keep it moving. Pull the pan off the heat as soon as the stock looks more like a glaze, less like liquid. It’ll make sense once you see it. Plate it up and enjoy! These would go great with some quick cooked sausage and peppers (like we’re having tonight) or even as a side with an Easy Crock Pot Chicken. Sometimes for my sanity’s sake I like to pair more involved dishes like this one with others that spend most of their time roasting or braising.
I would try baking the sweet potato first instead of boiling. That is how traditional gnocchi is prepared. It may allow you to not bake them after they are formed and help to create the light fluffy texture you are missing.
Good thinking! Thank you! I’ve always gone with the Mario Batali way, which is to boil. My man steered me wrong! I will definitely give baking a try. Round Four, here I come!
i am trying this out for the first time but am not convinced at how successful i will be given the progress so far
i Used 2 Med Sweet potatoes which worked out to be approx 500g. I baked them instead of boiled but found i needed to add an extra 1/2 cup of flour to the mix as it was quite runny. I left it over night & just put them into the oven but the mixture is still quite sticky so the fork just stuck didn’t imprint on it. What would i have done wrong/need to change?
Sticky is OK! That was my issue too! Just checking that you used an egg yolk and not the whole egg? The mixture usually gets gummy versus runny (hence why boiling isn’t a good option). Paleo-approved flours just don’t absorb the way we need for this and yet the potato alone isn’t enough.
The amount of potatoes you have sounds about right. Let’s see how they turn out after they bake. You should get a golden crust on the bottom and a chewy center.
this is my recipe for a sort of gnocchi.
it tastes great abd is very easy to prepare.
it’s in hebrew though, so you’ll need to translate
http://veredleb-nutrition.blogspot.co.il/2013/01/blog-post_1607.html
These look REALLY good, my stomach is rumbling at the sight! Maybe I’ll wait until round 4, but I definitely want to try these out.
Let me know how they turn out! Paleo-friendly flours are tricky and I’ve been wrestling with the texture. Hope they are a success for you!
Gnocchi with crab, cheese, spinach, and cream was my favorite comfort-food before going paleo. I’m definitely trying your version. Thank you!
Same here! I loved mine with butter, gorgonzola and walnuts. I need to try baking my sweet potatoes as suggested above and see if that helps with the textural issues… I have a suspicion though that arrowroot and tapioca flours don’t take well to boiling no matter which way you spin it. We’ll see! I sure hope these turn out well for you!
Ok all cooked i put them in for 30 and didn’t check the outside is a little crispy but center is chewy. They taste ok on their own almost remind me of cheese of all things! Will make a sauce for them next. Did i need the extra 1/2 cup of flour?
Yes! I thought the same thing about it tasting like cheese
And they really do need a sauce. What are you planning to make? The sauce will soften out the crisp bottoms.
I didn’t use a full cup of flour, just the half, but if it seemed to work and tastes fine, then I say no harm done!
Ok great! i also had a thought i cheated with the mashing and actually used a blender which changed the consistency of what it would be like that probably contributed to it being sticky! I am thinking a nice tomato sauce with some beef mince – traditional Italian style
Maybe ricing takes some of the moisture away? Not sure. Did you use a blender to mix in the flour? That may have affected things? Who knows… Guess we gotta keep experimenting.
Hope you enjoy your dinner! That sauce sounds yummy!
Round 2 came out Perfect!
YES! Great!!!
Ricer is a great idea and I would mix by hand.
Do these taste very sweet potato-y. That is probably the hardest time I’m having with Paleo is that I don’t like sweet potatoes. But I love gnocchi and am tempted to try this recipe anyway. I have a great sausage, peppers, and fennel gnocchi recipe of rachel ray’s I’d love to make again since we have been going towards a paleo diet.
Hmmm… I feel like they are mild, definitely not as strong as a yam would be. They do have more flavor than a russet-based gnocchi would, but not overwhelmingly so. I think they would be fantastic with that sausage, pepper, fennel recipe you want to try out! That’s how we ate these when I made them last
HOLY COW!! This is probably one of the best Paleo things I’ve cooked so far. I was starting to loose interest with all the failed coconut recipes I’ve tried but this was UNBELIEVABLE! and my husband raved too! Thanks for the great recipe, it’s a keeper!!
I love waking up to this!! I’m so glad you enjoyed it and that you now have something you can go to that satisfies the pasta craving while keeping you on track! All the best to you and your family! ~Ciarra
Oh another sweet potato recipe….yeh!
i’m definately going to try this. Can you tell me what other flours you used with no success? Looking forward to round 4 and hearing how other people’s recipes trialed. Thanks for sharing from Jo in Australia
I also tried arrowroot flour. I didn’t want to use almond or coconut because of unwanted added texture and flavor. However, I think I should experiment a little more… This is fun to play with! And it’s such a treat to have something that looks and feels like real pasta!
Stupid question but how do you find sweet potatoes to buy? I’m pretty sure all my grocer carries is yams? Or are those really sweet potatoes?
No, it’s an important one! I can find sweet potatoes in my regular grocery store right next to the yams. Of course, this is where the confusion comes from. We casually call yams “sweet potatoes” and then get confused when reference actual sweet potatoes by the same name. Sweet potatoes have light colored skin (lighter than russets, more like a jicama) and are white inside.
I second the “bake the potatoes” comment. That’s how grandma use to make ‘em.
I am going to make this recipe again this week to help answer a few questions and try out some awesome suggestions I’ve received since I originally posted my Round 3. I think this is getting closer! It really takes a village to craft the perfect Paleo Gnocchi!
Why not use potatoes and make real gnocchi?
Potatoes, and other tubers, are undoubtedly primal. Modern hunter-gatherers still eat tubers.
You hit on something that I am looking into more — what’s the real deal with tubers? If you have a resource to direct me to, I’d appreciate it!
But to your point about real gnocchi – the issue has more to do with which flour to substitute and less about which tuber to base it from. No matter where we land on the potato debate, I still won’t toss in some white refined flour…
We tried your recipe this week and my boyfriend loved it! (for him it is the best paleo recipe we ever tried since doing paleo
) I added some chives and coloured pepper (spice) -it was really tasty. I baked the sweet potatoes in the oven and put the dough in the fridge for one hour. We ate them without any sauce -we shortly roasted them in the pan with some butter and sprinkled them with some garlic-olive oil.
Thank you, Nadine!! I’m glad you both liked it! This is still in a work in progress for me, so I appreciate feedback like yours in order to improve it the next time around! I like how you prepped them — I think simple works best with this.
Does the batter will be runny or more like dough? I wonder if I could just shape them with spoon or hands instead using ziplock bag to pipe them out? Thanks!
It’s pretty sticky. I did not have any luck using a spoon or rolling it off a fork, etc.
The first time I tried the Gnocchis, the dough was pretty good and I shaped it with a fork (dough was really fresh, I halved the sweet potatoes and after baking them I scraped the puree out of the peel, mixed everything else in and let it sit in the fridge for 1 hour). I did not use a ziplock bag to shape the gnocchi, just my hands and a fork
The second time it was more sticky and could not be shaped with a fork: I peeled the sweet potatoes, cut in pieces, baked them, mixed everything else in and let it sit overnight. I guess the potatoes soaked water in my fridge when they were too long inside?! I also had to add some coconut flour.
First time: crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside, second time: crunchy only on the lower side, the rest was soft.
This is awesome, Nadine! Thanks! I really need to get at another round of these myself… Did the coconut flour alter the flavor at all?
We like it spicy and in my opinion they came out as tasty as before. My boyfriend does not like the coconut flavour, and he did not even realize that I added some to the gnocchi …
(it was sth. around 3-4 tsp., it depends on the amount of wetness I guess). I added one tbs and let the dough sit for 5 minutes, when it was still too wet I added another tbs and so on…
I ran out of tapioca starch..can I sub with arrowroot flour??? Btw I’ve tried the recipe..turned out great, crispy outside and chewy inside..great taste when they just came out straight from oven!
Absolutely! Not sure if the ratio would change. Eyeball it from how you made it before… Let me know what you find out!
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I’m excited to try this recipe out! What are your thoughts on freezing the gnocchi after they are baked? I’d love to have these on hand to quickly reheat in a sauce for a weeknight meal!
I think it’s an interesting idea! Might work actually… I’ll have to try it out the next time I make these!
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