Where I come from we just don’t have pizza, we have pizza and garlic knots. We throw in a salad too, but garlic knots are EVERYTHING. These paleo garlic knots changed my gluten free life.

This post was originally published on Food and Sunshine on 11/15/2015.

I stopped living under a rock and tried Predominately Paleo’s yuca dough pizza crust recipe. LIFE CHANGED. This was a pretty legit moment, right up there with the first time I had Otto’s Cassava Flour and devoured Fork and Beans grain free tortillas. You know I measure everything by food, so this dough is seriously amazing. Pizza had pretty much fallen off my radar since I developed a pretty strong yeast allergy and removed nightshades during an elimination diet. But I made up for lost time, making Predominately Paleo’s pizza crust three times!

For a few years now my husband has been crying to me for paleo garlic knots, but without yeast, gluten, and all my other food issues my options were looking pretty grim. I promised him one day I would come up with a recipe, but to be honest I wasn’t very hopeful. When I pulled my first yuca pizza crust out of the oven and saw how it had puffed up I instantly knew I had to try it for garlic knots. Garlic knots should be light, airy, and chewy and these hit all three notes. They won’t hold the perfect knot form after baking as a traditional knot, but the flavor and mouth feel is so close to what I remember it’s insane.

Yuca Paleo Garlic Knots

prep 20 mins
cook 20 mins
total 40 mins
yield 24 knots

Ingredients

1 batch of Predominately Paleo's yuca pizza dough
1/4 cup ghee, grassfed butter, or olive oil* (I use ghee)
5 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
potato, sweet potato*, or coconut flour* for dusting
grated parmesan cheese (if tolerated) or nutritional yeast*
himalayan pink sea salt, to taste
*AIP options

Instructions

Prepare yuca dough per Predominately Paleo's recipe. Let cool. Add additional flour as needed until the dough is no longer sticky. You do not want it to stick to your hands at all or the knots will be difficult to tie.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Between two sheets of parchment paper roll dough into a thin rectangle, approximately 11x14 inches.
Using a pizza slicer cut dough into long strips about 1 to 1 1/4 inches wide. Cut dough into thirds so you have pieces that are approximately 4.5 inches long.
Lightly coat hands with flour. One strip at a time, pinch short ends together to form a rope. Tie each rope loosely into a knot. Place on baking sheets about 2 inches apart. Bake until puffy and golden brown, about 17-20 minutes. For a visual on how to tie knots watch this video.
While knots are baking melt ghee in a small saucepan. Saute garlic until fragrant, about 1-2 minutes. Add parsley, mix, and set aside.
Remove knots from oven. Using a brush or spoon top knots with the garlic butter mixture. Sprinkle with salt and parmesan cheese (or nutritional yeast), to taste.
Serve warm.

Notes

If you’ve never made Predominately Paleo’s yuca dough go watch this video. It’s not hard to make at all, but this video has some great tips to make it easier. She also has a Yuca Dough FAQ.

Use a vegetable peeler to take the skin off the yuca. Cut into large pieces. Alternatively use pre-peeled frozen yuca.
After boiling let the yuca cool and pick out the stringy fibrous root that runs through the center. It’s gross.
If you have a coconut intolerance sub potato or sweet potato flour for the coconut flour.
For AIP use olive oil or ghee (if tolerated/reintroduced) instead of butter. Ghee will have the best flavor. You can even do a combination of ghee and olive oil.
You may need to use more flour than the dough recipe calls for, just add a little bit at a time until it works for you. You need to be able to tie the knots without it sticking to your hands at all. Try coating your hands in flour or oil or refrigerating your dough if you are having difficulty.
Make twice as many knots as you think you will eat, trust me on this one.