Back to European dishes! A special fusion pumpkin sweet potato gnocchi from the inspiration of our fabulous Italians. Tempting us with their awesome recipes, and now, Simply Sentient will make you an orange pumpkin feta gnocchi. It’s super good stuff, though a little time-consuming challenge to complete.
This version of the Sentient Gnocchi recipe uses orange juice, baked pumpkin, and sweet potato. We added feta or ricotta cheese, chickpea flour, and baking powder to make the gnocchi soft and fluffy. It’s easy once you get the hang of it and practice a little.
Just a few tips to make sure this recipe is a success. Choosing the pumpkin is vital as there are different varieties of squashes and pumpkins. Usually, pumpkins are wet and heavy as a vegetable, making excellent sauces. Some pumpkins are drier than others. The Kabocha and Hokkaido pumpkin or butternut squash varieties are relatively easy to work with when making gnocchi. We will also use buckwheat flour to hold the gnocchi together instead of processed wheat flour to offer you gluten-free gnocchi.
When it’s time to serve, it is necessary to let your butter get hot. If you are vegan, use coconut butter, it works wonders. Keep gnocchi in one flat layer in the pan and let them cook undisturbed for a minute or more. This will help ensure that your dumplings have a crispy, soft, pillowy side. For non-vegans, you can use regular butter instead of coconut butter or olive oil. You can also substitute rosemary or oregano, or thyme for the sage. I’ve tried other combinations. Add brown sugar with coconut butter, pumpkin, and sage for a taste of heavenly delight. Learn the steps below to make this beautiful sweet potato gnocchi!
Pumpkin Sweet Potato Gnocchi
Nutrition Benefits: Filling yet low-glycemic and full of nutrients the sweet potato is very healthy to eat. It contains a good amount of beta-carotene, which helps the eyesight and other functions. In Ayurveda, sweet potatoes are considered to be one of the lightest root vegetables, and are known for their Kapha pacifying effect, and are known to facilitate lymphatic circulation.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup of puréed cooked pumpkin or winter
- 1/2 cup cooked sweet potato (steamed or boiled until soft)
- 3-4 cups buckwheat flour (according to need)The amount of flour you need to make the dough will vary depending on the moisture of the pumpkin or winter squash, as well as the humidity in the air.
- 1/4 cup coconut butter (unsalted butter optional)
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 tbsp thyme
- 2 tsp mineral salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2-3 tsp fresh sage, minced
- 1/2 cup fresh orange juice without pulp
- 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese for garnish
Instructions
To make the gnocchi dough, we'll start by preparing the vegetables. Cut the pumpkin in half and bake for 30 minutes in an oven at 180ºC / 360ºF.
Scoop out the pumpkin, discarding the seeds. Add this to a blender along with the orange juice, cooked sweet potato, sage, thyme, and salt, and puree until smooth. Transfer this mixture to a bowl.
Add 2 cups of buckwheat flour and mix well with your hands. Do not knead the dough like bread.
The dough should not be very sticky, add flour as necessary and mix gently.
While shaping into a thin log, keep adding a little flour at a time until you can get a soft dough that will be rollable. You want the dough to be fluffy and pliable enough to shape into a large log, but not too firm and elastic like pasta or bread dough.
Before you start making the gnocchi, boil water in a large pot and add enough salt to it to taste like seawater and a teaspoon of olive oil. Let this simmer while you make the gnocchi dumplings.
To make the gnocchi, spread some flour on a large work surface and have more flour ready on the side.
Hold the knife's blade horizontally before you cut the dough log, and dab flour on both sides of the knife to prevent it from sticking to the dough.
Roll out the dough into almost 1-inch thick logs and then cut the log of dough into equal pieces.
Use the back of a fork to create indentations in the gnocchi: Dust the gnocchi with a little flour, then use one finger to push the dumpling up onto the tines of a fork. Let the gnocchi drop back to the work surface.
You can also press on the cut pieces with your index finger to make them look like little cozy pillows.
When you do this helps in two ways: It makes the dumpling a little thinner, as it makes little depressions and ridges that can catch the sauce better.
Before you boil the gnocchi, add olive oil to the water to prevent them from sticking together.
Using a metal spatula, carefully pick up a few gnocchi at a time and drop them into the water. You can increase the heat to a rolling boil and cook the gnocchi until they float, then remove them gently with a large slotted skimmer or spoon.
After you finish the rest of the chunks of dough and repeat the process until all is done. Work with small batches to prevent them from sticking to each other.
When all the gnocchi is done, heat the butter over medium-high heat until it stops frothing.
Add enough gnocchi to the pan to cover it in one layer.
If you place too much, they will stack upon each other, it's best to keep them in one layer and fry them undisturbed for a minute and 60 seconds.
Lay the cooked gnocchi in a saucepan and saute on one side with butter when it's slightly crispy remove it from the heat and add your favorite sauce and some parmesan cheese to it. You can, however, just make the coconut butter/regular butter the actual sauce, along with the parmesan cheese and a sprinkle of minced sage.
Notes
If you want to serve it hot, keep warm in the oven: If you have to do this in several batches, keep the finished gnocchi on a baking sheet in the oven set on Warm. Serve as soon as they're all done, dusted with black pepper and the truffle salt, and parmesan there you have it.
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