Homemade Sweet Potato Gnocchi Recipe - Grain Free + Paleo Option! (2024)

FAQs

Are sweet potatoes allowed on the paleo diet? ›

Yes — sweet potatoes are generally considered a paleo-approved food, however, some paleo dieters prefer to limit their consumption to avoid consuming too many carbohydrates that spike their blood sugar levels.

Gnocchi Alternatives

For recipes that call for the gnocchi to be tossed in sauce or added to broths or soups, you can swap in a thicker-style pasta, like Orecchiette or Shells. The flavor and texture won't be quite the same, though. You will also need to adjust the cook time.

Puree sweet potatoes using either a masher or potato ricer. Transfer to a large bowl and stir in the egg. Dough: Stir salt into 1 ½ cups of flour. Sprinkle flour mixture over the sweet potato and fold to combine (do not over stir – this will lead to gluey gnocchi).

Potato flour, sweet rice or white rice flour, arrowroot powder, or cornstarch (1/2 the amount) are suitable substitutes. These are also suitable for use as thickeners.

Fruits and Vegetables

Pasta can be replaced with veggie noodles, traditional rice can be swapped out for cauliflower rice and any starchy vegetable like the sweet potato is an excellent source of complex carbohydrates.

Sweet potatoes are NOT grain. They are root veggies. Grains include cereal grains in the grass family and a few non-cereal grains not in the grass family. Buckwheat, quinoa, amaranth.

Nutritional Value

Believe it or not, regular pasta is actually more carb-heavy than gnocchi, coming in at around 2 times the amount of carbs per serving. Gnocchi is also notorious for having a lot more sodium, with over 200 grams of it per serving. Regular pasta doesn't have nearly as high of a sodium content.

A simple mix of white rice flour and sweet rice flour does the trick. And the sweet rice flour is important. Made with only white rice flour, the gnocchi were too soft. A half cup of sweet rice flour, which is ground from glutinous, short-grain rice, added a nice bite without making the gnocchi gritty.

Gnocchi alla zucca: Pumpkin gnocchi served with butter and cheese. Ndunderi: The Amalfi Coast specialty originally made with farro and curdled milk. Gnocchi alla Romana: Made with semolina and milk, this variety is shaped into squares and baked rather than boiled.

If dough is too sticky, add more flour and knead it in. I like to knead my gnocchi dough until it is fairly stiff — this part is up to you. I prefer a somewhat toothsome gnocchi, but if you want yours to be lighter in texture, knead just until your dough resembles pizza dough.

What is the best flour for gnocchi? ›

Some gnocchi recipes recommend floury potatoes instead, such as Idaho potatoes or Russet potatoes, but I don't always agree. They're too mealy. Tipo 00 Flour is a soft, fine milled flour from Italy. It's a must-have for light and tender gnocchi and homemade pasta.

Best Sweet Potato Gnocchi: Cappello's Sweet Potato Gnocchi

Both Trader Joe's and Capello's sweet potato gnocchi were delicious in flavor and texture, but we like that Cappello's product offers the ability to pair with any sauce or topping. (Trader Joe's version comes with an already mixed-in butter and sage sauce.)

Butternut Squash: Similar to sweet potatoes in flavor and texture, butternut squash is a good low-carb alternative. It contains less than 12 grams of carbs and is high in nutrients such as vitamins A and C, magnesium, and potassium.

Baking can also cause an 80% drop in vitamin A levels, twice as much as boiling. Therefore, from a nutritional standpoint, boiling rather than baking should be recommended for cooking sweet potato.

Just like the root vegetable it's made from, sweet potato flour lends a little natural sweetness to any recipe you add it to. As a result, "you may be able to use less sugar in recipes when using sweet potato flour, which can support your overall health and help keep your blood sugar in check," according to Ehsani.

Unprocessed potatoes are paleo

Generally, unprocessed potatoes of all types can be part of a paleo diet. Similarly to grains, which are off-limits on paleo, potatoes are starchy and rich in carbohydrates. However, potatoes are actually a type of starchy vegetable that grows underground, known as a tuber ( 2 , 3 ).

However, others say these potato varieties are paleo. That's because, like white potatoes, red and purple potatoes are unprocessed whole foods—which, by definition, makes them paleo. These potatoes are also nutritious.

Purple-fleshed sweet potatoes are thought to contain super-high levels of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agents. As these substances pass through your system, they balance out free radicals -- chemicals that harm your cells.