Homemade Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Garlic and Spinach

This sweet potato gnocchi is so easy to make at home with just 4 ingredients. These gnocchi are pan fried to crispy, pillowy perfection and served simply with spinach and garlic oil for the ultimate in fancy comfort food.

I love gnocchi. It is easily one of my favourite foods. It was also one of the very first savoury dishes I taught myself how to make when I was 16. I wanted to get back to making it again but had always claimed the lack of time excuse.

Well, all we have is time right now right? So if you’re feeling the same, like making gnocchi at home is something you would like to do but haven’t, I have a super easy recipe to get you started today.

Today we are talking all about sweet potato gnocchi. Because like sweet potato fries, they are the little bit fancier brother to the regular potato version and I feel like sweet potato just has a bit more natural flavour to it, meaning you can get away with not adding anything extra to the dough.

Less ingredients equals easier and quicker to make which you know I am all about here.

What you’ll need

It simply comes down to 4 ingredients;

Sweet potatoes
Plain flour
Egg yolk
Salt

To make the dough you need to start with a sweet potato puree. The best way to achieve this is to roast the sweet potato, peel it then mash it. Roasting is recommended over steaming or boiling as while either of these methods will work, it will add a lot of moisture which will mean you have to use more flour which will alter the texture of your gnocchi making it more chewy and less pillowy soft.

To roast them will depend on the size of your sweet potato. I don’t know what is going on with sweet potatoes at the moment but all the ones I seem to be getting are well over a kilo each – they are huge!

What I do is cut a piece of sweet potato that is around 450-500 grams and then slice that down the middle so I have two even halves, about an inch thick. With the skin still on (but the dirt washed off) rub the sweet potato with olive oil and a pinch of salt and bake in the oven for 45 minutes. If your sweet potato is thicker than you will need to roast it for longer. It will be done when you can easily stick a fork all the way through.

Once you pull your sweet potato out of the oven the skin will peel easily off – just be careful not to burn yourself! While it’s still hot mash the potato with a masher or a fork – it doesn’t have to be perfectly smooth as you don’t want to over work it as this will also impact the texture of your finished gnocchi.

How to make sweet potato gnocchi

To your bowl of mashed sweet potato, your egg yolk and 1 cup of flour mixing together with a wooden spoon to form a shaggy dough. As the dough gets sticky, add in a little more flour up to another ½ cup. You don’t want to add too much flour at this point.

Turn the dough out onto a well floured surface and cover your hands with flour. You want to make sure to add a little extra flour to the dough and/or your hands and surface anytime it gets too sticky to handle.

Don’t knead the dough but rather push it together with your hands to form a ball. Cut the ball into 8 pieces then roll each piece into a 30 cm log. Cut each log into pieces and either leave as is or use a fork to shape (I can’t be bothered to do this). Sprinkle with a little more flour and set aside on a plate until all the dough has been cut.

How to cook sweet potato gnocchi

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and slowly add in the gnocchi, cooking in batches as to not overcrowd the pan. The gnocchi will float to the top of the water once cooked – it only takes a minute or two.

From here, to serve, heat a frying pan on the stove with a generous amount of olive oil with the garlic and chilli and once hot add the cooked gnocchi to the pan and fry for a few minutes until you get these yummy golden bits. Add in the spinach and stir through until wilted and serve straight away.

The frying bit isn’t really necessary but it is a game changer to the texture of the gnocchi as you get the soft pillowy inside with the little bit chewy, crispy exterior. It is gnocchi perfection and you don’t want to skip the extra step.

Can I freeze gnocchi?

You can, but only before it’s cooked. If you are freezing it, after you cut up your pieces then you can lay them out on a tray and freeze before putting them into a zip lock bag in the freezer for up to 3 months.

I wouldn’t recommend freezing cooked gnocchi as this will impact the texture.

Keep any leftovers in the fridge and eat within 3-4 days.

This sweet potato gnocchi is one of my favourite things to have come out of my kitchen this year and I can’t wait for some of these social restrictions to ease off so I can serve this at my first out of quarantine celebration dinner party. I am thinking a big bowl of this gnocchi, a side salad, some homemade focaccia and a chilled rosé would be perfect as we sit around the dinner table with friends and family understanding that we will never take the ability to get together for granted again.

If you are looking for something to make this weekend that feels a little different to the usual, then this is the perfect recipe. Take it slowly and work through each step before moving onto the next and you’ll find yourself with a big bowl of homemade comforting carbs in no time.

More vegetarian dinner recipes:

Turmeric Fried Rice
Vegan Mac and Cheese (without cashews)
Golden Turmeric Sweet Potato Soup
Vegan Spiced Chickpea + Veggie Bowls
20 Minute Bow Tie Pasta

Homemade Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Garlic and Spinach

This sweet potato gnocchi is so easy to make at home with just 4 ingredients. These gnocchi are pan fried to crispy, pillowy perfection and served simply with spinach and garlic oil for the ultimate in fancy comfort food.

5 from 8 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Italian

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Servings: 4 people

Author: Sally

Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

Ingredients

For the gnocchi

• 450-500 gram sweet potato
• 1 egg yolk room temperature
• 2 cups plain flour
• 1 teaspoon salt

For serving

• 2-3 tablespoons olive oil
• 3-4 cloves garlic crushed
• 1 teaspoon chili flakes
• 2 cups baby spinach

Instructions

• Cook the sweet potato. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Depending on the size of your sweet potatoes (mine are usually huge) you may need to slice them in half as you don’t want them to be any thicker than 1 inch. Leaving the skin on, rub the sweet potato with a little olive oil and a pinch of coarse salt. Bake for 45 minutes on a baking tray, until you can easily stick a fork in them. Remove from the oven and carefully remove the skin of the sweet potato (it should come off pretty easily).
• Make the gnocchi dough. Add the sweet potato to a large bowl and mash with a potato masher or a fork while still warm. Mix through egg yolk and 1 cup of the flour using a wooden spoon to form a dough. Add an additional ½ cup of flour until the dough starts to form a ball. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and shape into a ball – you do not want to knead it as this will make it too tough.
• Shape the gnocchi. With the additional ½ cup of flour on hand, slice the dough into 8 pieces. Using well floured hands roll each piece of dough into 30 cm logs using additional flour when the dough gets sticky. Slice the logs of dough into 1cm pieces with a sharp knife. Toss in a little extra flour again to prevent sticking and set aside on a plate.
• Cook the gnocchi. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and in three batches add the gnocchi pieces. When they float to the top, remove from the water with a slotted spoon.
• In a large frying pan, heat the olive oil, garlic and chilli flakes until the garlic starts to brown and add in the cooked gnocchi. Toss the gnocchi in the oil and fry for 2-3 minutes, or until the gnocchi starts to get golden. Add in the spinach and toss through until wilted. Season with salt and pepper and serve straight away.

Notes

Roasting the sweet potato as written here is recommended as steaming or boiling adds too much water to the mixture meaning you will need more flour to make the dough which will change the texture of your gnocchi.

Nutrition

Calories: 413kcal | Carbohydrates: 73g | Protein: 10g | Fat: 9g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 6g | Cholesterol: 49mg | Sodium: 646mg | Potassium: 709mg | Fiber: 6g | Sugar: 8g | Vitamin A: 23240IU | Vitamin C: 27mg | Calcium: 79mg | Iron: 4mg

Nutritional information is provided as a guide only and is calculated using automated online tools, therefore we cannot guarantee the accuracy. We encourage you to make your own calculations based on the actual ingredients used in your recipe.

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