Sweet potato gnocchi

Yesterday I was reading a list of "The Ten Healthiest Foods on the Planet". I don't really pay much attention to lists like this, since I like to figure out what foods make me feel good and healthy & also help the planet to be healthy, and try base my diet off of that... but we needed ideas for what to cook. I sent the list to Dan, and said to pick anything but garlic, avocados, and obviously, salmon. From this, we came up with a plan to make sweet potato gnocchi--maybe not the most healthy way to prepare a healthy food, but certainly enjoyable!

Sweet potato gnocchi with herb white sauce

Since we decided on homemade gnocchi, it took a lottt of effort... and picking out two fairly large potatoes didn't make things any easier. It's not so much a tricky recipe as a laborious one. But, it's very much worth the labor.

Ingredients (for the gnocchi)
2 medium-large orange sweet potatoes
egg replacer equal to 1 egg (we used Beyond Egg from Hampton Creek Foods, Ener-G or Vegg would work well too, maybe flax as well.)

1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon

1.5+ cups all-purpose flour (you will need more)
1/2+ cups whole wheat flour


Preparation
Bake the sweet potatoes in the oven at 375°F for about an hour. Make sure they are soft and give way easily to a fork when you take them out, and let them cool for 10 minutes or more. Once cool, peel away the skins, and put the sweet potatoes into a bowl. Mix in the egg substitute, salt, and cinnamon. Add about a cup of the all-purpose flour, stir to incorporate, and add the rest of the flour. Stir well. If the dough is still sticky, add more of each flour (try to use the same 3:1 ratio) until the dough is still soft but won't stick to your hands.

Gnocchi dough

Turn the dough onto a floured surface. If you need to use more flour on the top in order to handle it, that's fine. Knead the dough once or twice, and divide into 4-5 equal pieces. Place the pieces aside, and roll one segment out into a long roll about 3/4in in diameter. Cut the roll into .5 to 1 inch pieces, and mash each piece with a fork (you'll want to keep the surface floured, and make sure flour gets onto each piece so they don't stick to the fork). Roll the piece into a cylinder-esque shape so that the fork marks are lateral (see below...) Repeat with all of the segments. During the last few batches, start a large pot of water to boil, about 5 quarts.

Gnocchi pieces, pre-cooking

You might want to drop a dash of olive oil into the water to keep pieces from sticking. Place the gnocchi pieces into the pot once the water boils, allowing for enough room (we did two batches). Let them cook for about 5 minutes until the pieces rise to the top, and remove them from the water into a strainer. Spray the gnocchi with cold water to stop them from cooking. When you transfer them to a bowl, you may need to add some margarine or olive oil to keep the pieces separated.

We made a quick white sauce by mixing 2 tbs margarine with 2 tbs flour over heat and stirring in 1 cup unsweetened almond milk, with some salt and sage. A cheese sauce or even a pesto or tomato sauce might also go well. We added some black pepper on top, and with a side of kale chips, it was great and filling!