Squash & Sage Crunchy Gnocchi
This is a perfect family autumn recipe for chilly evenings to use up a glut of squash or pumpkin. The taste of sage and squash marry so perfectly together and make such a homely and yummy combination with the crunchy gnocchi. Roast the squash the night before or earlier in the day, and you can whip this up in around 15 minutes.
The butterbeans and cashew nut butter add some important protein, fibre and healthy fat to make it a balanced meal. This recipe is also a brilliant way to get your kids to eat some sneaky greens. Suitable for babies from 6 months. Can easily be made 100% plant based.
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Squash & Sage Crunchy Gnocchi
Ingredients
Roasted Squash
- 1 Squash (small, deseeded, winter, acorn, butternut or pumpkin)
- 3 tbsp Olive Oil
- 1 tbsp Fennel Seeds
- 1 tbsp Paprika
- Salt & Pepper (to season)
Gnocchi Mix
- 1 tbsp Butter
- 1 Red Onion (small)
- 1 clove Garlic
- 2 leaves Cavolo Nero (or equivalent of kale)
- 400 g Tinned Butterbeans
- 2 tbsp Cashew Nut Butter
- 6 leaves Sage (roughly chopped)
- 500 ml Chicken Stock (or veg stock)
- Salt & Pepper (to season)
- 60 g Parmesan (or any other hard cheese, plus extra for grating on top)
- 700 g Gnocchi
Instructions
- Slice up the squash into 3-4 inch chunks, sprinkle on some fennel seeds and paprika, as well as salt, pepper a then drizzle on the olive oil. Pop in a 200 centigrade oven to roast for 45 minutes, shaking half way through. Leave to cool and peel off the skin.
- Whilst the squash is cooking, finely slice up the onion, crush the garlic and roughly chop the cavolo nero.
- Heat the butter in a medium saucepan and add the onion and then a minute later add the garlic and cook gently for about 5 minutes until soft. Then add the cavolo nero, butter beans, cashew nut butter, sage leaves and stock. Add in the squash and cook for about 7 minutes or until the cavolo nero is soft.
- With a slotted spoon, remove about half of the squash, cavolo nero and butterbeans and set aside in a bowl and keep warm.
- Grate the cheese into the remaining liquid and vegetables, season with salt and pepper and then blend up with a stick blender to make a lovely thick sauce.
- Then it’s time to cook the gnocchi. Pop the gnocchi in a saucepan of boiling water for 1 minute and then drain the water.
- Whist the gnocchi is cooking in the boiling water, heat a large frying pan with the olive oil to a high heat.
- Then add the drained gnocchi to the frying pan and cook for 4-5 minutes until crispy and slightly brown.
- Pop the crispy gnocchi on a plate and pour over the sauce and then sprinkle over the chunks of squash, butterbeans and kale.
- Grate more cheese on top and serve.
Notes
- This is a good recipe for using up left over roasted squash from the day before, if you are in a rush.
- Since squashes vary in size, there will probably be some squash and sage sauce left over, so freeze it and use as a pasta sauce or use instead of bechamel sauce in lasagne. You can also stir the sauce into a risotto.
- You might want to whizz up all the mixture into the sauce for kids who are a bit fussy about texture or for babies under 12 months.
- Nut-free: swap cashew butter to tahini sesame paste or sunflower butter or leave out.
- Gluten free: buy gluten-free gnocchi such as Mr Organic or Little Pasta Organics
- Dairy-free/vegan: use olive oil instead of butter, and use 1 heaped tablespoon nutritional yeast flakes instead of the cheese
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