Raw Vegan Gnocchi with Pesto & Tomato Sauces
Homemade raw vegan gnocchi made without eggs or potatoes for an easy-to-follow recipe. Toss it with a pesto sauce, or tomato sauce, OR BOTH for a rich and decadent meal.
I grew up in a home where my Italian mother was always cooking our family different types of pastas for dinner time, and gnocchi was definitely a favourite of mine. So last weekend I tried something new. I made homemade RAW & VEGAN gnocchi, friends! This was seriously one of the most delicious meals I've ever created, whilst being super nutritious, light, and satisfying. This little experiment resulted in perfectly pillowy pasta dumplings, that turned slightly golden in the dehydrator. I was tossing up between making a few different sauces to go with the gnocchi that I used to have with pasta growing up, and couldn't resist the thought of creating either a basil pesto or tomato sauce... so I did both! Lets just say the combination of the two was STELLAR.
Ingredients
(try to always use certified organic ingredients and farm fresh ingredients)
GNOCCHI PASTA
○ 2 peeled zucchinis
○ 4 tbs psyllium husk
○ 4 tbs buckwheat powder
○ 1 fresh garlic bulb
○ 1 tsp onion powder
○ crack of pepper
○ dash of salt (optional)
PESTO SAUCE
○ half a bunch of basil
○ 3-4 kale leaves (de-stalked)
○ handful of coriander
○ 1/4 avocado
○ 1 fresh garlic bulb or 1tsp garlic/onion powder
○ crack of pepper
○ juice of 1 lemon
○ water (if needed to make mixture blend more easily)
○ 1 date
○ dash of salt (optional)
TOMATO SAUCE
○ 1 cup cherry tomatoes
○ 1/4 red capsicum
○ crack of pepper
○ juice of 1 lemon
○ 1 date
○ handful of parsley
○ dash of salt (optional)
Method
GNOCCHI
Make buckwheat flour by blending raw buckwheat, or soaked, spouted & dried buckwheat groats in a food processor or blender. Pulse until the mixture resembles a fine powder/flour.
Chop up the washed and peeled zucchinis, and throw them in to a food processor with the buckwheat flour, psyllium husk, garlic, onion powder, pepper, and salt (this entire recipe can be salt free if you choose)
Blend this mixture until all ingredients are combined well. Add more buckwheat flour and psyllium husk if the mixture is too wet. (this will depend on how watery your zucchinis are)
Roll small parts of the gnocchi mixture in your hands and form them into small pasta pillows, in a rounded rectangle shape. Spread out each gnocchi pasta piece on a teflex sheet upon a dehydrator tray.
Grab a fork, and press the prongs of the fork gently onto the top of each pasta piece, leaving the lines pressed into the dough.
Dehydrate at 35 degrees celsius for 3-4 hours, and serve warm.
SAUCES
For the basil pesto sauce, throw all the ingredients into a blender OR a stainless steel cup and use a bamix stick blender, to mix the ingredients together. You can choose to blend the pesto sauce until creamy and smooth, or you can leave it slightly chunky like I did.
For the tomato sauce, also throw all the ingredients into a blender OR a stainless steel cup and use a bamix stick blender, to mix the ingredients together until smooth.
ASSEMBLY
In your favourite serving bowl, place the dehydrated gnocchi pasta pillows in the bowl, and slightly part them in half. If you made both sauces, pour the pesto basil sauce over one half of the gnocchi pieces, and the tomato sauce over the other half, and stir each sauce into the pasta well.
For decoration, I peeled thin zucchini strips and rolled them into little spirals, and placed them on top of the pesto gnocchi, along with some fresh spinach. For the tomato gnocchi, I decorated with some chopped sweet cherry tomatoes, basil, cracked pepper and dried garlic sprinkles.