Vegan Gnocchi a' la Parisienne: French Fridays with Dorie, Y'all!

I counted down the days to last night's French Fridays with Dorie cooking selection: vegan gnocchi. I'll be honest, this was a nail biter. Did I have the chops to pull it off? I needed to substitute butter, eggs, cheese AND whole milk. Each ingredient a French cooking mainstay. Each ingredient, a vegan cook's worst nightmare--especially when the ingredients ARE the recipe! However, chefs around the world have combined these simple (dare I say "peasant-like") ingredients to make the seemingly mundane into something to behold. Now the question was: Could I? See for yourself. I was so darn proud when this came out of the oven, I nearly cried. I spent the whole day speaking with a French accent and channeling Julia--I had even considered donning a French maid's outfit, feather duster and all--but didn't. My ego got such a boost from this reecipe, I think I'm ready to conquer vegan puff pastry. . . from scratch!

My biggest challenge in making this dish was Mr. Egg and Mr. Cheese. The ultimate fear factor in vegandom for me has always been eggs. I had a few options for my vegan spin in the egg department. I finally landed on whipped silken tofu as my egg substitute. I felt that was my safest bet--turns out I was right. There was more hand wringing, however: whole milk. The milk substitute decision was the one that was forced upon me when I reached into the deep recesses of the fridge for my unsweetened soy milk only to find there was maybe. . . a half cup left! Oh no the Gremlins strike again! Fear not. I always have pantry staples (in case the end of the world happens) and happened to have unsweetened almond milk--the kind that comes in the box, and better yet, it hadn't expired. After tasting the bechamel sauce made with the almond milk, I realized I had never made it better--even in my non-vegan days.

This is the gnocchi dough being given a final stir before adding the Mr. Non-Egg. Creating this dish I realize now, in my very short tenure as a French cook, the importance of flour: when to add, how to add, when to stir, whisk or not.

Then Vita-mixed silken tofu whipped up good as the substitute for Mr. Egg.

The incorporation of said egg into said dough. Everything looks okay so far. No tears yet.

I then placed the dough in a glass bowl and covered it with a towel to let it rest for about three hours. Dorie said this was what the woman who gave her this recipe did (Tante Leo), so I did it, too.

Then, I reached waaay back into the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink-drawer to find something I bought last year with every intention of making homemade gnocchi to find my $10 gnocchi board! Dorie does not call for the use of this in her recipe for shaping the gnocchi, but since I'd spent the money. . . see, I was meant to make AND love gnocchi!

The gnocchi after the board step. Cute, cute, cute!

The end. I found myself back in the kitchen to lick, I mean, clean the dish up of its last bits of baked yum! The gnocchi has earned a spot in my vegan cooking rotation! We loved it!

My vegan substitutions were:

-Silken tofu in place of eggs

-unsalted vegetable margerine in place of butter

-unsweetened almond milk in place of whole milk

-vegan cheddar cheese in place of other cheese mentioned in Dorie's recipe, plus I added a sprinkle of the vegan's best friend: nutritional yeast or as we vegans affectionately call it, "nutch" and some vegan parmesan