If it isn’t quite obvious by now, I am a big fan of finger foods. Pick em up, dip em, pop em in your salivating mouth. There are some finger foods that most of us with food restrictions figure we will never have again. And for good reason. Most finger foods, minus carrot sticks and grapes, are packed with grain, dairy, and often fried in nasty oils. Have you ever had fried ravioli? The angels sing when I eat them. Dipped in warm marinara…mmmmmm, can you taste them now? Well I haven’t had them in years. Until. Tonight. Tonight was like magic. Real beef filled ravioli, fried until crispy with marinara for dippin’. Who says grain free life has to be boring?! Not I said the fly! Ingredients:
- 2 cups mashed yuca root (peeled, coarsely chopped, boiled for 20-25 minutes or until fork tender, and drained)
- 3 tablespoons avocado oil
- 1 pound grass fed ground beef
- 1 small sweet potato, finely diced
- 1 small onion, finely diced
- 1 cup fresh spinach chopped
- 1/4 cup fresh basil chopped
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (omit for AIP)
- 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
- 2 teaspoons garlic sea salt, divided
- 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
- Extra avocado oil for frying
- IF NEEDED, 2 TABLESPOONS COCONUT FLOUR
- Organic marinara (jarred or homemade) for dipping (omit for AIP)
- Take your mashed yuca, avocado oil, and 1 teaspoon garlic sea salt and puree in a sturdy blender like a Vitamix
- Once pureed, empty contents onto a piece of parchment paper to cool
- While dough is cooling, sauté onion and sweet potato over medium/high heat until tender and nicely browned
- Add ground beef and cook until no longer pink
- Drain excess oil
- Add in spinach, basil, garlic sea salt, onion powder, and dried oregano
- Cook until greens are wilted then set aside
- Now that your yuca dough should be cool and no longer sticky to the touch
- If it is still too sticky to roll out, sprinkle 1-2 tablespoons coconut flour and work it into the dough
- Now roll out your dough until it is square or rectangular in shape (roughly) and about 1/4″ thick
- Take about a teaspoon of your meat mixture and on 1/2 of the dough (pick right or left side), place teaspoon of meat mixture on dough
- Repeat, spacing teaspoonfuls about 2 inches apart
- Once the right (or left) side has multiple mounds of meat mixture, take the other side of your dough and fold it over on top of the meat side
- Using a single ravioli cutter (stamp), press out your raviolis and set them aside
- Then repeat step 10 through 14 until dough and meat has been used
- It is possible to have leftover meat, depending on your dough thickness, meat servings, etc. – try not to freak out about this 🙂 – the meat is still yummy on its own!
- Once your dough is used, heat additional avocado oil over high heat (slightly less than the highest setting)
- When oil is heated, drop raviolis in a few at a time
- Fry on each side until nicely browned
- Remove from oil and place on absorbent towel to soak up excess oil
- Serve warm with marinara for dipping
SShared with Allergy Free Wednesdays and Gluten Free Wednesdays 
Do you think Yucca is whole30 compliant. This looks delicious and I will love to make it for dinner. My teen boys and i are doing the WHOLE30 day5. Please advise. Thank you
Monica, I truthfully am not a Whole 30 expert, though I am completing the practice this month. I am also on day 5 like you and I DID eat yuca last night as part of my meal (this recipe in fact). Some may argue that it is creating “mainstream cravings” and paleofying off limit foods. I am a little different in my thinking. So for me, I am eating whole foods only, abstaining from sugars (ie honey and maple syrup) and chocolate, but I AM making the whole foods into yummy recipes. So I might be non-compliant by some standards, but this is what works best for me and also allows me to continue blogging in the process. Good luck!!!
Yucca might be Whole30 compliant, but the ravioli are not Whole30 compliant because you’re trying to recreate a grain food. You could, however, be strict non-Whole30 Paleo with these as long as the starch is not too much for you. I don’t know much about yucca so I couldn’t say one way or the other.
(Yeah, yeah, I know, “safe starch,” yadda yadda, but not everyone can tolerate a lot of it.)
Have you tried boiling these? How did they turn out?
My favourite way to eat ravioli is boiled with a little EVOO to keep them from sticking and seasoned with salt, pepper and chopped fresh parsley. I try to stick with a mostly paleo diet though I do allow myself some freedoms. I started it because I am allergic to wheat (I develops asthma) and cows milk (extreme eczema reaction) so even my 20ish % meals i try to stay away from those to things.
Hi Jody,
I have tried boiling yuca before and it sometimes can fall apart. I recommend baking before boiling, but that is just my experience. Good luck!
Thanks for getting back to me and the advice.
These look great! Do you think I could make the dough ahead of time? Like make the mixture tonight, store in the fridge and make the ravioli tomorrow?
I think if you make the dough in advance you need to keep it wrapped tightly in a bag or parchment paper so it doesn’t dry out. If left open to air it will definitely lose moisture. Hope this helps!
Hi again! I wanted to let you know that it worked. Made the dough Friday night and made the empanadas Sunday morning and they came out great. That dough is genius – you are a genius! Thanks for bringing dough back into my life!
Wonderful news Kathleen!! I really appreciate you letting me know!
Would you be able to just bake these, instead of frying?
Excited to try these, and more of the delicious recipes you have on your blog!
Hi Marcelle, You can bake these but you will need to do so under high heat (425/450) to toast them up!
Can these be frozen, along with the other yuca recipes you have? If so, should they be baked first and then frozen?
Thanks,
Nancy
Nancy, I have not tried freezing any of the yuca recipes. I am usually experimenting during the day and feeding these to my family for dinner! I wish I had a better answer for you!
Where does one buy yuca root?
Kathryn, you can find yuca in mainstream grocers, Asian markets, Latin markets, and also Whole Foods. Best of luck!
I am making these for a party tomorrow night…about how many ravioli does this recipe make?
I’d guess about 20 or so? I didn’t keep count, my family ate them too quickly!
How many pounds of yuca would you suggest buying to produce 2 cups of mashed yuca? Thanks!
I haven’t weighed mine per recipe but I would say one long/big one or two smaller ones should work. If I had to guess I’d say 2-3 pounds?
I tried making theses and the dough was so sticky. I tried coconut flour, parchment paper on top to roll, but as soon as i touched it to pick it up, it stuck to me and broke. I used ghee instead of avacdo oil, since I didn’t have any. Would using ghee make that much of a difference? The flavor is awesome but i just have a mixture if meat and veges with sonme mush thrown in.
Hi Melissa,
The only thing I can think is that the yuca was slightly overcooked or not cool enough. Did you let it cool slightly before blending it? That can help. Ghee shouldn’t make that big of a difference that I can think of though I do not use it myself regularly. You can chill it slightly in the fridge before rolling too. Hope that helps!
About how majy ravioli does this make?
About how many ravioli does this make?
I would say at least 20? I haven’t taken an exact count before however.
Hi Jennifer-
My daughter and I LOVE your recipes!! You have been such a life saver for us on our healing journey for sure!!! We tried making the raviolis last night with our fresh yucca (we live in Costa Rica and have it everywhere!). We wanted to check with you to see what we may have done wrong when it came to the deep frying part! The dough turned out great (we’re used to using it for all kinds of things), and we put them in the oil and they would be cooking and ‘goldening’ nicely, and then all of the sudden, they would crumble and fall apart in the oil! We ended up letting the crumbles cook and just sprinkled them over our sauce and meat for some extra texture, but couldn’t for the life of us figure out what we may have done wrong! They were still yummy, of course, but we’d love to know if in all of your trials in your kitchen you ever experienced that and if so, what you did to fix it?! Thanks again for all of your hard work as we all have to stick together!!!
OH NO!!!! I wonder what happened, I haven’t heard this before. Do you think there is a difference of some sort between yuca on the mainland and your probably much fresher variety? Did you add any coconut flour into the dough? Maybe that would help bind it better.
Anything is possible, for sure!!! We’ll keep trying – the coconut flour is a good idea, so we can try that next time (lots of coconuts here too!). We did set aside some of the un-fried raviolis to bake, so that might tell us something too. We won’t give up, cause they really were yummy and we are determined to add raviolis back into the menu 🙂 Thanks for getting back to me – I’ll be sure to give you an update when we strike gold!
Hope your update is a good one! I have baked them as well, they should work for you!