Vegan pumpkin gnocchi with creamy spinach sauce
All of autumn feels like "Pumpkin Everything!" to us. We could literally put pumpkin in every dish, whether savory or sweet. Today it's gnocchi, those little Italian potato dumplings, joined by pumpkin. We used Hokkaido pumpkin, but butternut or muscat pumpkin would work just as well.
- For the gnocchi:
- 300g Hokkaido pumpkin
- 250 g floury potatoes
- 200 g flour
- 3 tablespoons potato starch
- Salt
- Pfeffer
- Nutmeg
- For the vegan spinach and cream cheese sauce:
- 350g frozen spinach
- 150 g vegan cream cheese (e.g. LUVE Streichglück Natur)
- 1 onion
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1 tbsp yeast flakes
- 50 g Cashewnüsse
- Salt
- Pfeffer
- Nutmeg
- Olive oil for frying
- Cut a sufficiently large piece off the pumpkin, remove the seeds, peel it, and cut it into large chunks. Peel floury potatoes and cut them into large chunks as well. Place both in a pot, cover with water, and add salt. Bring the water to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer the pumpkin and potatoes for about 20 minutes, or until they are tender enough to be easily pierced with a fork.
- Meanwhile, for the sauce, peel and finely dice the onion and garlic. Chop the cashews and set them aside. Heat a little olive oil in a pan and sauté the onion and garlic over low heat until the onions are translucent. Season with salt and pepper. Add the frozen spinach, cover the pan, and heat until the spinach has thawed.
- Then remove the lid from the pan and stir in the vegan cream cheese. Season the sauce again with salt, pepper, and nutmeg, and keep it warm over low heat.
- The potatoes and pumpkin should now be soft. Drain the water and mash the pumpkin and potatoes into a purée. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Add the potato starch and half the flour and mix them in. Then, transfer the dough to a floured work surface and gradually add the remaining flour until the dough is no longer sticky. You may need more or less flour than specified, so it's best to go by feel.
- Divide the dough into four portions and shape each into a thin roll. Cut each roll into pieces about 1-2 cm wide. Now you already have gnocchi – if you want to create the typical pattern, simply roll the gnocchi over the tines of a fork. Remember: if the dough is a little sticky, dust it with flour!
- Bring salted water to a boil in a large pot. Add the gnocchi to the boiling water in batches and cook until they float to the surface. Then, remove them from the water and add them directly to the pan with the creamy spinach sauce – it's fine if some of the cooking water gets into the pan, as this will help thicken the sauce (if your sauce is too thick, you can add more cooking water as needed). Once all the gnocchi are in the sauce, simply stir in the chopped cashews.
- If you like, serve the gnocchi with a few extra dollops of vegan cream cheese – for pure creaminess!
The consistency of gnocchi dough is always a matter of personal preference. The important thing is that it doesn't stick – this happens more easily with pumpkin gnocchi than with those made solely from potatoes. Therefore, we're adding some potato starch (or potato flour) to the regular flour. It's best to start with half the flour and then work in as much as needed until your dough is no longer sticky. You can also add more potato starch if necessary. Since pumpkin gnocchi dough is generally a bit softer than pure potato dough, we've kept the gnocchi very simple today, just cutting them so they look like small, fluffy pillows. Of course, if you like, you can still roll them over a fork to create the typical gnocchi pattern.
As with some of our previous recipes, we were also supported by LUVE for this one, whose products have now become a staple in our refrigerator and freezer. Their vegan spread "Streichglück" (Spreading Bliss) is truly all you need to give the spinach sauce a creamy texture. Streichglück is also available with herbs or as a bruschetta variety, but for this recipe, we opted for the classic plain version. And because we wanted this dish to be extra creamy, we added a few dollops of Streichglück to the gnocchi before serving – absolutely delicious! Like all LUVE products, the Streichglück varieties are made from locally grown lupins from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. They are also lactose-free, soy-free, and GMO-free, and contain no artificial flavors, colors, or flavor enhancers. You can find LUVE products at retailers such as EDEKA, real, Kaufland, Aldi Nord, Veganz, or online delivery services.
