Baked Cauliflower Gnocchi with Chicken Bolognese Sauce

To make gnocchi to the specifications of this blog, without using potato or sweet potato, and being limited to only seeds as dry ingredients (grains, pseodo-grains and starches, including tapioca, are excluded from the list of ingredients), is not an easy task. My main goal was to achieve gnocchi texture, soft, but with some bite in it. The dough from the recipe, presented below, is easy to make and work with. It is possible to cook this dough as regular gnocchi by boiling, but I liked the baked version better. Baking option is more practical, too. It also solves a problem of making quite a big batch of gnocchi, baking them all at once, using some and keeping the rest refrigerated or frozen until later use. These gnocchi can be served with anything you like, any sauces, salads, even a simple dressing. They can be used as a snack, I nearly called the dish cauliflower nuggets. If the dough is shaped as a ball and added last minute to a soup or broth, it makes nice dumplings. I can guess that this dough can be deep-fried, even used as an outer case with some filling.

The dough is thick and keeps together very well. You can shape it without any problems. For the sauce I made simple chicken Bolognese, with my own twist. I like adding grated carrots to the sauce. It makes the sauce naturally thick, and provides sweet balance to sometime sour diced tomatoes.

Ingredients: 

baked cauliflower gnocchi

• medium cauliflower head, you will need 500-550g cooked puree from steamed cauliflower
• 40g coconut flour
• 50g pumpkin seeds, ground
• 10g psyllium husks, ground
• 15g golden flax flour
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tea spoon black pepper
• 1 tea spoon cumin powder
• 1 tea spoon smoked sweet paprika
• sea salt to taste, the dough has to be well seasoned

chicken Bolognese sauce

• 350g chicken skinless thigh mince
• 2 onions
• 4 carrots
• 1 can diced tomatoes (I used Aldi organic brand)
• 2 table spoons cold pressed olive oil
• 1 table spoon garlic and chilli paste (can be substituted by 2 cloves of garlic and fresh or dried chilli)
• black pepper and sea salt for seasoning

Preparation:

baked cauliflower gnocchi

• cut cauliflower head into medium pieces and steam
• let steamed cauliflower cool down and become dry naturally

• puree cooked cauliflower with a stick blender

• measure and grind pumpkin seeds and psyllium husks (pumpkin seeds are not shown on ingredients photo)

• whisk coconut flour with psyllium husks
• add the mixture to cauliflower puree
• mix puree with dry ingredients, let it stand for 3-5min
• add an egg, whisk it in
• add golden flax flour, mix everything together
• add ground pumpkin seeds (it might be necessary to sift ground pumpkin seeds)
• add seasoning and spices
• mix the dough well with your hands, make sure all ingredients are well combined
• let the dough rest 10-15min
• taste the dough for seasoning, add salt and extra spices if too bland
• before rolling the dough mix it again
• shape the dough on a piece of baking paper as a thick sausage/log (it might be more practical to roll shorter 2 logs)
• roll it in a paper to have an even thickness
• cut rolled dough in 1.5-2cm pieces
• place them on a tray lined  with baking paper

• place in preheated to 170C fan-forced oven
• bake for 15 min, take the tray out of the oven and turn each piece of the dough bottom side up
• bake until gnocchi become light brown colour

• they can be shaped in smaller size (I tried to use pastry bag at first, it was difficult, the dough was too thick for that and it was impossible to make gnocchi the same size)

chicken Bolognese sauce

• heat olive oil in a deep casserole pan
• add chicken mince
• fry it on medium heat, breaking mince into smaller size pieces
• add onions, cut in semi-circles
• add grated carrots
• stir and fry mince with vegetables for 5-7 min, season with salt and black pepper

• add garlic and chilli paste, diced tomatoes, thyme and boiling water (the volume of the can from diced tomatoes)

• stir, cover casserole pan with a lid and cook for 45-60 min simmering
• if the sauce becomes too dry add some water
• check seasoning and add salt if necessary
• let the sauce rest for 15-20 min before serving
• serve of top of cauliflower gnocchi

Enjoy!

This sauce will go nicely with zucchini noodles or any steamed vegetables.