Eat This Instead: 15 Min Homemade Pasta Substitute {Sweet Potato Gnocchi Recipe}
By admin
Yesterday was insane! After meeting with our accountant (yay taxes), Dan and I went for a training run, ran a few errands and hurried our booties home.
I wasn’t sure I would have the opportunity to get this post finished for you today. But boy, I really wanted to!
What’s the old saying, “if there’s a will, there’s a way!” Whoop!
Pasta lover? What about potato gnocchi?
I love food. And I will admit, I am some what of a food snob. I can’t help it. You’ll be hard pressed to every find me at a franchise restaurant and I’ve been known to put my nose up at a menu that doesn’t offer something “different”. I want to see some strange but good options. I don’t want to go out to eat something that I could make at home.
Makes sense.
Anyways, I haven’t been talking food here as often as I would like. Weird, considering I’m a certified nutrition consultant and LOVE talking food and nutrition.
Part of the reason for my food talking hiatus is due to my schedule. During the week I get home so late that I can’t take awesome photographs of our meals. This is as good as it gets…
And on the weekends, when I used to do recipe development, I’ve just been doing other things.
Like this past weekend when we held a 5K Boot Camp!
It was a blast! Along the 3.1 mile course, our clients (grouped into 3) stopped every 1 mile to complete a group boot camp challenge. By the end, they had carried each other, lunged ridiculous amounts, created plank tunnels, and run with sandbags (of course inspired by the Bulldog Challenge). Let’s just say, it was a good workout.
All of that to say, weekends are busy!
But thanks to my genius husband, I’ve been inspired to create a new weekly segment.
One that allows me to talk nutrition AND encourages (forces) me to get into the kitchen.
Here’s the just…
Each week, I’m going to pick a “food favorite” that most of us love. Something that is great tasting but not so great for our bodies. Then, I’m going to create an alternative.
Fun, right?
Today I’m kicking it off with pasta!
Do you love pasta? I certainly do but I find myself avoiding it because it’s so heavy, full of wheat and carbs and often over processed (making it homemade takes SOOO long and is such a mess).
Instead, let’s have something that we can make from scratch that still has that delicious pasta texture but is real food…
Oh and doesn’t take 2 hours to make like the homemade pasta above!
Sweet Potato Gnocchi!
Gnocchi is the best and one of those things on a menu that catches my attention. It’s not something I have often but the pillowy texture blows my mind.
I recently found that making it isn’t so hard. In fact, so easy that I made an entire batch in 15 minutes. That’s the same amount of time it takes to boil boxed pasta!
And this is gluten-free, high in fiber, great for your digestive tract, and oh so good!
I used white sweet potatoes that I found at EarthFare.
They look like normal potatoes but offer all the benefits of the traditional yam. I love the flavor and I really love the lack of orange color as they really go great with any sauce to keep the plate pretty. <— Orange sweet potato can kind of clash with sauce. Ha.
How To Make Sweet Potato Gnocchi
Makes 5-6 Servings
- 2 White (Japanese) Sweet Potatoes
- 2 Egg Whites
- 1 Cup Almond Flour
- 1 Cup White Rice Flour
- 1 Tsp Oil
- 1 Tbsp Hummus
- 1/2 Tsp Dried Thyme
- 1/2 Tsp Garlic Powder
- Start by cooking your sweet potatoes. Feel free to bake them for an hour at 400 or nuke them in the microwave for 10 minutes (flip them over half way). Once cooked, slice and scrape out the “meat” into a bowl.
- Add in all the rest of the ingredients and mix until becomes doughy. On a flat, floured surface, cut the dough ball into 4s and roll each one into a long snake. Cut into 1/2 inch chunks. Use a fork to make little, cute indentions (not necessary though).
- While you’re doing this, bring a pot of water to boil.
- Once all are cut, gently put into water and boil for 3-4 minutes or until the gnocchi begin to “bounce” to the top.
- Gently remove from water.
- Heat a skillet up with olive oil (or coconut) and sautee the gnocchi until lightly browned, Seriously takes 2-3 minutes.
- Dress is up with your favorite pasta sauce and you’re done! Above I drizzled with olive oil, basil and sauteed portabella mushrooms. Yum!
