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Reprinted with permission from John McDougall.
You can find more recipes by John and Mary McDougall in their cookbooks, which are listed on the Vegan Cookbook Reviews pages.
Newsletter March 2003 Vol. 2 No. 3
Great Barrier Reef Gnocchi
Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Cooking Time: 60 minutes
Servings: 6-8
John & Mary just returned from 3 weeks “down under”. One of those weeks was spent on a dive boat on the Great Barrier Reef. The cook prepared wonderful vegan meals during that week—this is Mary’s version of one evening’s meal. This is prepared in several steps and then tossed together at the end. It is delicious hot, warm or cold!
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted
- 1 onion, chopped
- 4 large cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 butternut squash, baked, peeled and chopped
- 2 cups fresh spinach
- 1/2 cup slivered fresh basil
- 1 1/2 cups asparagus pieces (1 1/2 inches)
- 2 packages potato gnocchi
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut squash into 4 large pieces, clean out seeds and stringy portion, place into a baking dish, add 1 cup water to the bottom of the baking dish, and bake for about 1 hour, until easily pierced with a fork. Cool, remove skin, and chop into chunks. Set aside.
Meanwhile, place the raw pine nuts in a dry non-stick frying pan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Remove from pan and set aside.
Place the onion and garlic in a pan with a small amount of water, cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. (Or use caramelized onions for this step.) Set aside.
Place the asparagus in a small amount of boiling water and cook for 2-3 minutes, until just slightly tender. Set aside.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Drop the gnocchi into the water, stir well, and cook until gnocchi rises to the top, about 3-4 minutes. Drop the spinach into this water, stir several times, then remove gnocchi and spinach with a strainer. Place in a large heated bowl. Add squash, pine nuts, onions and garlic, asparagus and basil. Mix well. Season with a small amount of salt and pepper. Serve hot, warm or cold.
Hint:
This may seem like a lot of effort, but the results are worth it! If you start the squash first and then do the remaining steps, the squash should still be warm when you put the finished dish together. Everything can be prepared ahead of time, except for the gnocchi & spinach. Put the water on to boil just before the squash is done, remove the squash, let cool slightly, peel & chop, drop gnocchi into water, mix the squash with the onions, garlic, asparagus & pine nuts in a heated bowl. Then add cooked gnocchi and spinach, toss with the fresh basil and serve.
I have also made this using acorn squash instead of the butternut squash. We found that the acorn squash doesn’t infuse the dish with as much squash flavor as the butternut squash does.