Beetroot Gnocchi with Brown Butter Sage
Beetroot Gnocchi
I’m excited, are you excited? I’ve been playing with gnocchi for a while. But it never seemed completely there yet. Because I substitute wheat flour with tapioca it just kept turning out too dense and heavy. But then Andrea posted about her totu and I had a lightbulb moment. I could incorporate totu to try and keep it lighter and it worked. And we finally have a beetroot gnocchi with a beautiful red color. Paired with browned butter and sage. I purposely kept the sauce very simply to fully enjoy the flavors of the beetroot. With the flour being all tapioca, the texture will be a little chewy and not exactly the texture you might be used to in a potato gnocchi. But if you can move past that it tastes delicious. It makes it feel extra cheesy while still airy because of the totu.
Butter and Parmesan
I love the combination of parmesan in the dough together with the beetroot. I personally didn’t have to add any salt to the dish, because the parmesan had enough to flavor. But it might be something that you would need to consider based on how salty your cheese is. The sauce it basically all butter and it’s amazing. So not entirely paleo, but this is how we eat. At this point I know what my body can handle and where I can broaden my playing field. This is something you have to discover for yourself to better understand which elements you can have a little bit of fun with. And which items you should steer clear of.
The Way I Eat
With the information I have I try to pay attention to what is good for us while not stressing the body out. I think that is an important element that doesn’t get as much attention. There is a lot of focus on food, but there are other elements that also contribute to a healthy life. Are you getting enough sleep, are you being active enough and not stressing your body out too much? That is also the main reason why we don’t count calories on the blog. I believe that this level of focus on food causes the body more harm than it does any good. And can result in negative mental mindsets in regards to food.
My advice to anyone just starting on their health journey is to take the time to figure out what works and what doesn’t work. When I started I fully committed to say paleo or whole 30 and after 30 days slowly integrated food items to see how my body reacts to it. This is how I know what I can handle or not. And maybe once a year I still do a little reset going completely back to basics.
Tip
Use the leftover yolks to make:
Beetroot Gnocchi with Brown Butter Sage
Ingredients
- 2 beetroots about 400 grams total
- 1 cup tapioca flour plus extra for coating
- 2 cups parmesan grated plus extra for serving
- 6 large eggs
- 1 tsp salt
- 3 tbsp lemon juice
- 10 gram coconut oil melted
- 75 gram butter
- 16 sage leaves
Instructions
Prep Beetroot
- Preheat the oven to 200°C.
- Wash the beetroots and wrap them in foil and place on a baking sheet.
- Cook beetroots in the oven for 45 minutes. They will be soft.
- Allow to cool down a bit and press the peel off with your hands. You can wear gloves if you don’t want your hands to turn red. Cut off the remaining ends and grate them.
Filling
- While the beetroot is in the oven you can make the totu. In a large pot set water to boil.
- Split 5 egg whites from the yolk. You won’t need the yolks for this recipe, but you can use it for something else.
- Mix egg whites with salt lemon juice and coconut oil. You are not whisking it together simply mixing the ingredients.
- Pour egg white mixture into boiling water and stir for 2-3 minutes till water reaches a boiling point again.
- Pass the water and egg white trough a sieve and gently press to remove all the water. And you have totu.
- Mix totu with the now cooled down grated beetroot, parmesan, one egg and tapioca.
- Preheat oven to 230°C.
- Use a sheet to cover with some tapioca to roll the gnocchi in once it has been shaped.
- Grab a tablespoon of the mixture and shape in the palm of your hands. Again use gloves if you don’t want your hands to turn red. It’s not exactly a ball shape but slightly longer.
- Cover in tapioca and place on the sheet and continue rolling till you’re done. I got about 28 pieces out of it. The tapioca helps to remove any excess moisture.
- Transfer gnocchi to a lined baking tray and place in the oven for 20 minutes.
- For the last 7 minutes you can melt the butter in a pan and add the sage leaves. Leave the heat on medium high while flipping the sage leaves mid-way. The sage leaves will crisp up and the butter will turn a brown color.
- Remove the gnocchi from the oven and serve immediately. Pour the browned butter with sage leaves over the top and add some extra parmesan.