Creamy Cauliflower Gnocchi

Ingredients

For the gnocchi

• 600 g potatoes
• 250 g ‘00’ flour
• 2 tablespoons semolina (plus extra for dusting the gnocchi with)
• 1 tablespoon oil
• salt and pepper

For the cauliflower sauce

• 1 large cauliflower (broken into florets)
• 150 ml plant milk
• 1 white onion
• 4-5 garlic cloves
• 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
• fresh herbs to serve

Method

Boil the potatoes for 15-20 minutes or until they are cooked enough that a fork can easily pierce the potato. Drain and leave them to completely cool.

In the meanwhile, break up the cauliflower into florets and boil alongside 1 chopped white onion, and garlic cloves. Cook this for 15 minutes or until the cauliflower is al dente. Remove ¼ of the cauliflower and put to one side. Keep the cauliflower water for later.

Blend the rest of the cauliflower with the onion, garlic, plant milk and nutritional yeast.

To make the gnocchi, peel the cooled potatoes and put through a potato ricer or mash finely. Add the oil, semolina and flour and season well with salt and pepper. Bring together to form a dough. Cut into quarters or eighths, roll out into a long sausage-like shape, sprinkle over some more semolina to avoid sticking and cut into thumb-sized pieces. Put these onto a gnocchi roller or use the back of a fork to create indents into the gnocchi. This helps speed up the cooking as well as giving them the traditional gnocchi look.

In a saucepan, mix the leftover cauliflower water and tap water and bring to the boil. Carefully drop some of the gnocchi into the simmering water. Cook in batches so you don’t overcrowd the pan (this will cause the gnocchi to all stick together). Once the gnocchi pieces rise to the top of the pan, they are cooked. Remove with a slotted spoon.

To assemble the dish, pan fry the cauliflower florets from earlier and remove once done. Add the cooked gnocchi to the pan followed by the creamy cauliflower sauce. Stir in some chopped fresh herbs. Top with the pan-fried cauliflower and another sprinkling of herbs.