Savory Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Homemade Pesto

It’s time to reinvent gnocchi and make it fresh, vegan, and with just three ingredients! Egg free—this homemade pasta recipe serves up a delicious dinner full of savory flavors and satisfying textures you’ll be amazed to taste.

What Is Gnocchi?

An Italian pasta recipe, gnocchi (pronounced nyo-kee) is typically made with mashed potatoes, flour, and egg. The word gnocchi is thought to have come from the word nocca, which means knuckles. Other sources suggest a “knot” or “walnut” also play in to the name. It’s easy to see the inspiration in traditional gnocchi shapes—the little dumplings resemble knuckles and are kind of a pillow shaped pasta.

Our remix? This vegan friendly, no egg gnocchi pasta recipe uses sweet potatoes for bright color, amazing texture, lots of vitamin A, and an incredibly delicious taste. (More on sweet potatoes' health benefits.) Top those pillowy pieces off with an easy homemade pesto sauce. Two clean ingredient recipes for a complete and incredible clean food powered meal! Here’s how we make it…

Sweet Potato Gnocchi Recipe Inspiration

Just 3 Ingredients:

Cooked Sweet Potatoes - freshly baked, air fried, or using up leftovers, these orange spuds are the main ingredient.
Organic Flour - unbleached is best and you can combine with whole wheat if desired.
A Few Dashes Of Salt

Directions:

The peeled, already cooked sweet potato goes in a big bowl to be mashed. (Typically 3-4 medium sized sweet potatoes make a hearty portion for 2-3 people.) Shake in some salt and start adding flour. Lots of flour, but about a quarter cup at a time.

While you may choose to stir at first, you’re going to need to use your hands, so get some flour and dive in to start kneading the mixture. The dough will be quite sticky in the beginning. If you have the space, the best option is to knead on a floured countertop until you see a dough consistency start to form.

It’s going to take more flour…

Since we fell in love with this recipe, we discovered after making batch after batch it always seems you have to keep adding more flour than you’d expect. Trust the process—it’ll get there. Knead, flour, knead, flour, and suddenly it will finally be a beautiful dough.

Form a ball, then cut the ball in half, and then in half again. Create four gnocchi snakes out of your dough ball quarters. Chop each dough snake into cute little gnocchi pillows.

Cook them in a pot of salted, boiling water. Usually cooking about one gnocchi snake’s worth at a time, carefully drop them in the pot. When they’re done cooking and ready to remove, they will rise to the surface. Scoop your little orange pillows out of the pot using a slotted spoon or ladle and set them on a plate. (Don’t dump your pasta water yet. It comes in handy in a moment.)

Now it’s pesto time!

Homemade Pesto Recipe Inspiration

Fresh & Fragrant Ingredients:

Organic Parsley - one medium size bunch is good.
Garlic Cloves - peeled, whole cloves, no need to chop.
Organic Almonds - whole, chopped, slivers, whatever you have; walnuts are also good.
Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice - about one juicy lemon’s worth.
A Few Dashes Of Salt & Pepper
Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Directions:

Toss the ingredients in a blender or food processor and spin them all around until a traditional pesto consistency is reached.

Scoop the verdant sauce out into a skillet and add a bit of your reserved pasta water. Let it simmer until the parsley pesto thickens. Drop your cooked sweet potato gnocchi into the pesto and stir well to get them all saucy.

Time to plate those pillowy pastas and enjoy!

Bright Ideas with Sweet, Sweet Gnocchi

The ingredients are simple—from the sweet potato gnocchi to the parsley almond pesto—just clean, real food. While creating dough that you have to knead and shape can feel like a bit of a process, this is rustic style homemade pasta with a sauce that’s completely free of preservatives or thickeners, and the meal is well worth it. If you manage to have leftovers, they reheat very well and are tasty to look forward to.

We’ve discovered this wholesome recipe is easy to make in advance and store it for later. Maybe you prep your meals for the week to have healthy lunches at work or easy dinners at home after a busy day. This sweet potato gnocchi with homemade pesto is perfect! Simply store the cooked gnocchi in the fridge until you're ready to heat it up in a skillet with a bit of olive oil, splash of water, and your vibrant pesto sauce. Make it extra special and pair the gourmet feeling dish with an organic white wine.

It’s a fresh and filling meal that’s super for summer dinners and autumn aesthetics.

Whether you’re whipping it up for yourself or as an impressive dinner date meal, these sweet potato gnocchi topped with vibrant parsley pesto hit the spot.