Creating gnocci from scratch and then making delicious meals with them has been a labor of love!
Every post I read said making gnocchi would be easy… but I guess something can be easy and still be time consuming! The first time I made these mini potato pillows I used a white sweet potato with a tan outside. And the meat of the potato was very close to a traditional orangey sweet potato.
I consulted multiple blog posts looking for a recipe that used these special potatoes but was also gluten and dairy free. I never found one, but I was happy to experiment and make my own! I concluded that Cassava flour was the most recommended flour and thankfully it’s not expensive! You can even find it at Walmart!
After creating this yummy dish from the white sweet potatoes above, I wanted to try using the Japanese white sweet potatoes with purple skin. I’d had some trouble with the first potatoes being a little too soft and I’d read that the purple version had a texture closer to a russet potato.
Well, I wouldn’t go that far, they are definitely still sweet potatoes! But these gnocchis did turn out better and I was able to perfect my recipe!
Next, I decided I wanted to make a white “cream” sauce to go with the new gnocchi. So I played with some recipes until I came up with something I found to be absolutely delicious! And it worked perfectly with the diced spinach I added. And the shrimp!
After the sauce had simmered long enough and I’d cooked down the diced spinach and added the gnocchi, I set aside 2/3 of it. Then took a chance and added some shrimp that I’d cut into smaller pieces. I wanted everything to mix well. I ended up eating most of this the next day, after the flavors had time to marinate and it was SO delicious! I was nervous that the shrimp wouldn’t quite fit, but they were delicious in this!
White Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Shrimp
There are two parts to this dish because making the gnocchi is very time consuming and it makes a lot! But then you can choose to eat some and save the rest for later. I froze about half of the gnocchi this last time! Once you have the gnocchi made, the rest is easy! You can also leave the shrimp out of this recipe or substitute whatever protein you like! But I thought they went really well with the sauce!
Note: This gnocchi recipe is very hands on! And you can always cut the gnocchi ingredients in half if you want to make less! Just use the whites of the egg.
Preheat your oven to 425°F
Ingredients
- For gnocchi:
- 6 Japanese sweet potatoes (purple skin, white inside)
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp Xanthan gum
- 2 cups cassava flour
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp salt
- useful tool: 6″ mesh strainer with handle for scooping out gnocchi
- 8 oz spinach, diced
- 16 oz gnocchi (2 cups)
- 2 tbsp ghee
- 4 cloves garlic, diced
- 8 oz white wine (1 cup)
- 12 oz cashew milk unsweetened
- 1/4 cup chicken broth
- 2 tbsp GF Flour (I used 1 tbsp almond flour and 1 tbsp coconut flour because that’s what I had in the cabinet)
- 1/4 cup Nutritional Yeast
- salt and pepper to taste
- Optional: Chopped shrimp, precooked
For sauce:
Directions
- Gnocchi:
- Rinse the sweet potatoes well and pierce many times with a fork.
- Place the potatoes on a baking pan and bake for at least 45 minutes at 425°F or until thoroughly cooked inside.
- Set the potatoes aside and let the cool long enough for you to be able to handle them but still be warm inside. You want the potatoes to be warm then making your dough.
- Cut the potatoes in half and use a spoon to dig out the insides. Place the insides in a bowl. Discard skin.
- Add the olive oil and use a masher to break up any chunks in the potatoes. You want them nice and soft.
- Add the Xanthan gum, salt, cassava flour, and egg. Mix very well! I used my hands to get all of the egg and flour mixed evenly.
- Split the dough into balls that fit nicely in your hand then place them in the refrigerator and work with one at a time. This is the time consuming part!
- Roll your smaller dough ball out into a thin rope-like shape about 3/4 of an inch in diameter. I found that the dough behaved better when my pieces were smaller.
- Use a knife to cut little one inch sections of the rope. See pictures above.
- Gently roll the pieces down the back of a fork to get the little indentations. (Also time consuming! But like making art!)
- Using a medium sized pot, fill It up 3/4 of the way with water. Cook on high heat until boiling.
- Gently place the gnocchi in the strainer basket and lower Into the boiling water. Dump into the water and cook for ONLY 45 seconds! They should begin floating to the top.
- Immediately scoop out the cooked gnocchi with your strainer basket. Place in a bowl to cool and then repeat with another batch until they are all cooked.
- Melt ghee in a large nonstick sauté pan over medium heat, add garlic, cook for 30 seconds.
- Pour wine in a pan and allow it to cook down for 5 minutes, stirring the garlic often.
- Add cashew milk, chicken broth, yeast, and flours to the pan. Whisk together until smooth and bubbly. Cook for 5 minutes stirring.
- Add spinach and cook down for another 10 minutes or until thickened and cooked thoroughly.
- Taste and add salt and pepper.
- When sauce looks ready, turn the heat down to low and add gnocchi and chopped shrimp. Stir until mixed well.
Shrimp: If you are adding shrimp to this dish, cook about 12 shrimp in a separate pan with olive oil. Set them aside to cool when finished. Chop them into smaller pieces on a cutting board before adding to the gnocchi later.
White Wine “Creme” Sauce:
Serve up and Enjoy! This dish is excellent the next day when the flavors have had time to meld.
Not. My. Fibro. 