Gluten Free Gnocchi

Gnocchi is an Italian dish which comprises of some thick and soft dumplings. When making gnocchi the primary ingredients tend to be semolina, standard wheat flour, flour, egg, cheese, potato and bread crumbs. It is mainly a first course dish which can be eaten instead of soup. It is normally accompanied with tomato sauces, pesto or melted butter with cheese. It is available at most supermarkets in dried and frozen forms but is best when made fresh. Due to its Italian routes gnocchi has developed many local variations across different regions. For example the Pugliese cavatielli is flour based.

Having a gluten-free diet can be for many reasons, one of which is medical. Suffers of celiac disease who have an abnormal immune reaction to partially digested gliadin are medically advised to lead a gluten-free diet in order to overcome the disease. Other reasons for a gluten-free diet include dermatitis herpetiformis and wheat allergy.

Due to gnocchi containing wheat (in which flour is made from) it is considered to be a non-gluten free recipe. Anyone who has tried gnocchi will know it will be a shame if you could no longer eat it due to it containing flour therefore there has to be a solution. Luckily for every person on a gluten-free diet there is! Instead of using flour we can replace it with chickpea flour along with potatoes, eggs, xanthan gum (if you cannot find this adding some more potato starch is an option) and potato starch. The method now is pretty much similar to any other gnocchi preparation. Start by cooking and peeling the potato. Then place them into a bowl and mash them up until you have the as smooth as possible. Then combine the mashed potato with the remaining ingredients and mix well until you are left with tough dough. Now the rolled out dough can be made into little dumpling shapes ready to be cooked. To cook them first get a non-stick pan; place some butter (optional) and then place the gnocchi onto the pan and cook until golden brown.

There is no reason why you should not enjoy gnocchi just because you are on a gluten-free diet. There are plenty of recipes available that give you the same great taste minus the flour which you cannot have. It is best to try a few out to discover which alternative you like the best so you can carry on enjoying this amazing dumpling.

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