Sweet potato dumplings with lemony cavolo nero and sage butter
An accidentally autumnal recipe
Making sweet potato dumplings from scratch sounds impressive…. so it can be our little secret that it’s not very difficult at all…
If you can boil some sweet potatoes, mash them up and roll them around in flour, you can absolutely nail this recipe. Added to a bed of lemon-spiked cavolo nero (omg SO much nicer than kale!?) and finished with sage butter, this is the kind of dish you worship at the alter of some hipster Italian small plates restaurant for - you HAVE to try the sweet potato dumplings! They’re to die for! With the crispy bits of sage!? - without the tough-to-get reservation and eye-watering bill. Make it for yourself, make it for your next dinner party, just make it!
Serves 2
4 sweet potatoes
5 heaped tbsp plain flour (+ more in case you need it & for dusting)
Salt
Pepper
Olive oil
12 cavolo nero leaves, stalks removed
3 garlic cloves, chopped
2 tbsp lemon juice
5 large sage leaves
1 tbsp butter
Optional: yoghurt, parmesan, ricotta for drizzling at the end
Peel the sweet potatoes and chop them into 3cm roundels. Bring a pan of salted water to a boil and cook the sweet potatoes until soft (like you’re making mashed potato - because you are!).
Now, season generously and mash the sweet potato via you’re preferred method. I will take this as yet another opportunity to sing the praises of this bad boy. But obviously, a traditional masher will do.
Fold the flour through the potato to make a dough. It should look like a soft-ish, sticky dough but if it’s particularly wet or sticky, add more flour.
Flour your worktop or a plate and tip the potato dough onto it. Sprinkle a little more flour on top of it and then lightly knead it into a blob with your hands. Divide the blob into four and roll each into a ball and then a sausage shape. You can keep flouring your hands and the potato as needed but don’t be too overzealous, it will affect the taste.
Cut each ‘sausage’ into 3-4cm pieces and then give each piece a little smooth with your hands so there aren’t any big folds and the edges are rounded. Now you have dumplings!
Add a good glug of oil to a pan on a low to medium heat. Gently cook the potato dumplings for 5-6 minutes, turning every so often to ensure each side is evenly crisped but not too brown. Set the dumplings aside on a plate.
Roughly chop the cavolo nero and chuck it into the still-hot oily pan with the garlic for a few minutes. Once the garlic has started colouring and the cavolo nero has wilted down, add the lemon juice. You could also add some chilli flakes here if you fancy. Give a good mix and then turn off the heat.
In a separate pan, melt the butter. Once melted, add the sage leaves. It shouldn’t take long for them to crisp.
Now it’s just a case of plating everything!
The cavolo nero serves as the base, then add the sweet potato dumplings (which you can give 30 seconds in the microwave if they’ve gone cold because you’ve been faffing too long), then the sage butter. Top with yoghurt or parmesan or ricotta or nothing - it’s truly great as it is.