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A cooking project that is much easier than you think, this Gluten-Free Sweet Potato Gnocchi is a dish everyone will be blown away by. Little clouds of sweet potato gnocchi are hand made, cooked, and then pan-seared in a spinach brown butter sauce that will be your new go-to dish when you need a meal to impress.
Gluten-Free Sweet Potato Gnocchi
I’m not going to tell you that making your own gnocchi is a meal that can be made in less than 30 minutes, but I am here to say that it isn’t complicated once you get the hang of it and makes for such a fun hands-on cooking project. My version is of course, gluten-free and made a bit lighter without the use of ricotta cheese that so many sweet potato gnocchi recipes call for. And don’t worry, I’m sharing all my tips for making gnocchi at home and the best way to make this gnocchi shine!
Sweet Potato Gnocchi Ingredients
- Sweet Potatoes
- Almond Flour
- Tapioca Starch
- Egg
- Salt
We don’t recommend making any substitutions for this recipe. There are so few ingredients added that it’s hard to make swaps and have the recipe come out successfully.
Steps to Make Sweet Potato Gnocchi
Let’s walk through all the steps needed to make Sweet Potato Gnocchi.
- Roast and mash sweet potato.
- Make the dough: mix together sweet potato, almond flour, tapioca flour, egg, and salt.
- Roll out dough into logs, and then cut into gnocchi pieces.
- Make classic gnocchi indent with fork. This is optional.
- Boil the gnocchi until they float!
- Pan-sear the gnocchi to give a nice crust on the outside. This step is optional, but really makes a difference in the final outcome of the gnocchi.
- Serve the gnocchi. We give instructions to make a brown butter sauce, but you can also serve it with your own homemade or storebought preferred sauce.
Options for Sauce to Serve with Gnocchi
Our recipe includes a brown butter, sage and spinach sauce that goes wonderfully with the gnocchi. I’ve also served this with homemade marinara or meat sauce. But really, you can get creative here and serve it with a homemade sauce you think will pair wonderfully. And of course, feel free to use a store-bought pasta sauce as well! You can also spice up this homemade Vegan Cheese Sauce and serve it with that!
Watch the video here:
If you like this sweet potato dish, check out these other recipes:
- Sweet Potato Chili
- Kale and Sweet Potato Stuffed Turkey Breast
- Healthy Sweet Potato Casserole
- Buffalo Chicken Stuffed Sweet Potatoes
How to Make Sweet Potato Gnocchi
Ingredients
For Sweet Potato Gnocchi:
- 3 medium-large sweet potatoes
- 2 1/4 cup almond flour
- 1 1/3 cup tapioca starch more for dusting
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 tablespoons oil
For Browned Butter Sauce with Spinach:
- 1/4 cup grass-fed butter
- 2 cups fresh spinach
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- Parmesan cheese optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400ºF. Carefully, pierce holes in sweet potato with a fork. Place sweet potatoes on a sheet pan and bake until sweet potatoes are fork-tender, about 45 minutes. Cut open the sweet potatoes, and remove the flesh. Mash together well until smooth. Measure out 3 cups of sweet potatoes. Set aside any remaining for another use.
- In a medium mixing bowl, mix together the 3 cups mashed sweet potato, almond flour, tapioca flour, egg, and salt. The dough should be slightly sticky but not so sticky that you can't roll it into balls in your floured hands. If it is too sticky, add in a tablespoon more tapioca flour at a time.
- Lay a sheet of parchment paper down to work on and sprinkle it with tapioca, and sprinkle some tapioca on your hands.
- Gather the dough into balls (about 1 1/2 inches or so), and feel free to sprinkle with more tapioca flour as needed.
- Roll it out into long logs, sprinkling with more tapioca as needed to prevent sticking and cut into 1” pieces.
- Roll 1” pieces over a fork lightly to make an indent, or skip this step and leave the gnocchi as is.
- Fill a medium pot with water and a big pinch of salt and bring to a boil.
- Work in batches, place gnocchi into the boiling water. Do not overcrowd the pot.
- Your gnocchi is done cooking when they float to the top and stay there for 20 seconds or more.
- Remove with a slotted spoon and place on a dish. Repeat with remaining gnocchi.
- Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Once hot, add gnocchi in batches, and cook until lightly golden. Flip the gnocchi and continue to brown on the other side. Remove gnocchi to a plate, and repeat with any remaining batches.
- Once all gnocchi is browned. Add butter to the pan. Cook until the butter browns slightly. Add in spinach, sage, sea salt, and pepper and cook until spinach wilts. Add gnocchi back to the pan to heat through. Taste and adjust seasoning and serve gnocchi with a shaved parmesan cheese, if desired.
Pretty good! Definitely make sure to use a non-stick pan for the last couple of steps, I tried with my cast iron pan and had to throw out part of my batch due to the gnocchi sticking. I had to use quite a bit more tapioca flour. Overall it was tasty and I would try again!
I cant tell you how happy I am to discover your recipe. My favorite restaurant in Seattle served this and I never missed an opportunity to order this dish. Between the pandemic and the fact that Seattle has now become an undesirable place to visit – I cant wait to
try this recipe. It contains all the same ingredients that I had tasted in the restaurant’s version.
I’ve been making this for years for my boyfriend and we LOVE it. Such a great, light recipe!
I want to try these out tonight but what can I use instead of tapioca or arrowroot powder. I don’t have any on hand and don’t really want to go buy any. Was thinking of just adding more coconut flour but I’ve had the chalky experience b4 What is the purpose of the tapioca flour? to thicken? I also have flaxseedmeal and chia seeds, can I grind and sub those? they thicken things… Thanks so much for your help I am really looking forward to making these!! Trying to find an alternative since going gluten/grain free
can’t wait to try this. i will use it as one of recipes this week. thank you
Ummm, I just made these and they were amazzzzzzing. I’m making them again tonight because I just can’t get enough of them!!
So so happy you loved!
I followed the recipe word by word and my gnocchi came out very chewy. Is there anyway to fix this for next time?
Add a drop more flour and/or cook longer!
could you use amaranth flour in place of the tapocia?? I’ve heard they can be substituted for one another.
I can’t say for sure since I haven’t subbed that. I want to say no, though – unfortunately.
Mine turned out awful! Soggy and gummy and bland. Completely Unedible! I followed the recipe to the letter. I boiled them until they floated and they came out looking and tasting raw. Second batch I boiled longer didn’t change a thing. It was like eating raw dough. So annoyed at the amount of ingredients I wasted, especially the almond flour. These went straight to the disposal. Yuk!
I tried this tonight and it was amazing! I will definitely be making it again in the future. I will be linking this recipe on my Whole30 Week 3 recap next week – one of my favorite new dishes this time around!
Mine were also very sticky like Marissa’s, and I followed the recipe exactly with all the correct flours. I am wondering if the amount of tapioca flour required for dusting is heavier than I used? Tasted great, but I made in preparation for a meal later in the week and am thinking they will be one big blob…
made these last night, sooooo good!!!!! I will never use store bought pasta again!! So easy to make too!