Ah gnocchi. I’ve made it a few times before with my awesome sister-in-law Jenn. I’m linking to her blog and maybe one day she’ll start blogging again. Hint, hint Jenn!
So back to gnocchi. The basis of traditional gnocchi is potato. We have made some with sweet potato before and it was awesome too.
This recipe is using organic buckwheat flour from Cuisine Soleil. I have to confess I’d never worked with buckwheat flour before and I didn’t know what to expect. Of course, the three flours I received from Cuisine Soleil I purposely requested because they were outside of my comfort zone.
This recipe also includes a lovely whole head of garlic that has been roasted to sweet delicious perfection.
Roasting Garlic: If you’ve never roasted garlic before it’s super simple. Keep the head intact (just dust off any loose skin) and slice off just the top of the entire head. Place on a small piece of foil, big enough to wrap it up, and drizzle with a bit of olive oil – maybe 2 teaspoons tops – wrap up the foil and place the packet into a 400 F oven for about 30 minutes or so. Let the garlic cool, then squeeze out the soft cloves of roasted garlic out. Mmmmm.
I’m pretty happy with the results of the gnocchi.
You’ll notice that buckwheat flour – especially if it is a darker variety – will add a bit of darkness to your dough. It turned my dough rather grey. I didn’t mind that though. The flavor is a bit grassy and nutty. It adds a nice dimension to the gnocchi.
Here are some good visuals to help you get what I’m describing in the instructions. (Some of the photos aren’t the greatest … it’s really hard to take a good picture when your hands are covered with gnocchi dough.)
- 1 head garlic, roasted
- 2 tablespoons ground flax
- 6 tablespoons water
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup buckwheat flour
- ½ cup tapioca starch
- ¾ cup brown rice flour, plus more for rolling
- 4 yellow-fleshed potatoes, peeled and boiled until tender
- In a small bowl mix ground flax and water. Let sit for 5 minutes to let gel up.
- In another bowl mash potatoes until nice and smooth – or use a potato ricer.
- Mash the roasted garlic cloves into a paste. Add to the potatoes.
- Add salt and flours. Work into a smooth dough. If the dough seems too sticky to work with add a bit more brown rice flour – about ⅛ cup at a time.
- Flour your work surface.
- Pinch off a bit of dough and roll it into a nice little snake about 1 inch in diameter.
- Cut into little pillows about 1 inch wide.
- Take your fork, dusted with a bit of brown rice flour, and roll the back end of the fork over the little gnocchi pillows. (This will give you the look, though it’s not mandatory. You can leave that part out and still get nice tasty gnocchi.)
- Place on a baking sheet floured with gluten-free flour.
- Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add bit of salt to the water.
- Gently place some of the gnocchi into the boiling water. Do not overcrowd the pot. Cook about 8 minutes, or until all the gnocchi begin to float. Remove gnocchi from water and drain well before placing in a serving dish.
- Continue cooking the rest of the gnocchi in the same manner.
- Toss gnocchi gently with sauce of your choice. Serve hot.
The arugula pesto was less than a win in these pictures. I decided to share the recipe anyway because the next time I made it better and it’s those instructions I’ve included.
The Arugula Pesto pictured below was a bit more pureed than I’d have liked but the flavor was good. Next time I would process this in the food processor rather than using my Vitamix. The color is fantastical though. And kind of alien-ish.
Arugula & Macadamia Nut Pesto
Ingredients:
- 5 cups tightly packed arugula
- 1 cup tightly packed mint leaves
- 1/2 cup macadamia nuts
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 5 cloves garlic
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- salt and pepper
Instructions:
- In a food processor, pulse the arugula, mint, nuts and garlic until finely chopped but not pureed like I did by mistake.
- Add lemon juice, olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Pulse a few more times.
- Store in fridge until ready to use.
- Toss with hot gnocchi or other pasta to warm it through.
So there you have it.
And now it’s your turn!
The great folks at Cuisine Soleil want you to give these three flours a try for yourself. So I’ve got two gift packs of organic gluten free flours to give away to two lucky readers. Each pack will include one millet flour, one lentil flour and one buckwheat flour – all in 1 kg packages. You can use them to make the recipes I’ve created here or you can use them in your own awesome creations!
Use the Rafflecopter widget below to comment and share what you would use lentil flour, millet flour and buckwheat flour for to be entered to win. Please, just one entry per person. This contest is open to Canadian residents only.
Not sure how the rafflecopter thing works, but if I had the flours, I’d try out this recipe as it sounds divine and I can’t seem to find Buckwheat flour around here
I like very much gnocchis: I go this version there
Here’s a general question but I thought of it reading through this gnocchi recipe.
I am allergic to flax. I notice a lot of your recipes use this and I am wondering if, generally speaking, you would be OK substituting EnerG egg replacer instead of flax gel.
Thanks.
You can certainly try the Ener-G egg replacer. The reason I prefer flax or chia “eggs” is mainly because of the texture and gumminess that it adds to certain recipes. If you’re able to tolerate chia I would suggest replacing it (same ratios as with flax: 1 Tbsp ground chia seed + 3 Tbsp water) and give that a go.
Is the flax and water a substitute for an egg?
Yes it’s one of the staple ‘egg replacers’ that we use in our house. The general rule of thumb is 1 tablespoon ground flax + 3 tablespoons water = 1 egg.
If you’re interested in other egg replacers you can check out this little list I compiled a while back: http://www.theglutenfreevegan.com/2011/03/the-basics-egg-replacers/
Actually, just the opposite. I’m happy to use eggs. I just wanted to confirm because I think I had seen it in one of your other recipes.
I hope I’m doing this Rafflecoptor thing right…
I’d use the flours to build my pantry’s stock of GF ingredients. My two year old daughter is having some gut health symptoms and we are going GF and DF for the foreseeable future.
Wow! I would love to win this because I have Celiac disease and am allergic to corn, rice and potato, so I am always looking for new flours to try! I also want to try to make my own pasta. Do you think this would turn out ok without the potato? Would it be more like dumplings? Thanks!
Oh my bad! I just read the fine print and am not Canadian, so please disregard my entry. However, I will still make something inspired by this!
Thanks for sharing anyway Emily!
This contest looks great! I’m new to g/f cooking. My boyfriend has a gluten intolerance so I’d use these flours to experiment with some new recipes. Starting with the gnocci you posted
muffins!