Easy Weeknight Veggie Gnocchi Recipe
A healthy and delicious meal you can have on the table in just 20 minutes, thanks to storebought whole wheat gnocchi! Try this easy weeknight dinner that’s cooked in an easy and veggie-packed tomato sauce.
Gnocchi sometimes flies under the radar as a dinner option. It’s delicious, but not something you often think of to make. Here’s your reminder that it exists! Along with an easy, healthy, and delicious way to prepare it.
If you’ve never had gnocchi before, they’re a sort of Italian pasta-dumpling. They’re made of potatoes with some wheat to hold them together. They have a soft, chewy, gummy texture that kids really like.
What Makes This Gnocchi Fast
Making homemade gnocchi is fun and therapeutic, but also time consuming – not something I want to do on a regular basis. (Do try it if you’re up for it though!).
Luckily you can buy pre-made gnocchi that’s made from high-quality whole food ingredients. We even found whole wheat gnocchi! Here’s a brand we like.
Veggie-Packed Dinner
This gnocchi dish is great because it’s packed with veggies. Mushrooms, spinach, and tomatoes. It makes for a nice summer dinner – either as a vegetarian main or alongside some grilled chicken.
Plus, you need only a handful of ingredients. And most of them are things that are easy to keep stocked for a last minute dinner option. Olive oil, onion, mushrooms, garlic, diced tomatoes, Italian seasoning, salt, spinach, gnocchi, and parmesan. (Hint: frozen spinach works great!).
How to Make Flavorful Veggie Gnocchi
The first step is to prep your veggies. For this recipe, that means chopping half an onion and mincing three cloves of garlic. That’s it!
Heat a large skillet or even a wide pot on the stove at medium high. Spread two tablespoons of olive oil around the skillet, then add the onion and an 8 ounce package of pre-sliced mushrooms. Sauté for 4-5 minutes, until the onions begin to go translucent. Add the minced garlic and stir for 30 seconds.
Now add a 28 ounce can of diced tomatoes, juice and all, as well as a teaspoon of salt and a tablespoon of Italian seasoning. Bring the tomato mixture to a boil.
Add two cups of spinach (or more if you can fit it) and carefully mix it in until it mostly wilts. This takes about 3 minutes. If you have a lid, placing that on top can help the wilting go more quickly.
Once the spinach has wilted enough to make room, add your gnocchi. Stir the gnocchi into the sauce and simmer for 3-4 minutes, until gnocchi has softened.
For a final tasty touch, mix in half a cup of parmesan cheese.
Serve warm as a vegetarian main dish or next to grilled chicken for a more protein-packed meal.
Easy Weeknight Veggie Gnocchi
Ingredients
- 1/2 medium onion
- 2 1/2 cup, pieces or slices mushrooms, white
- 3 clove garlic
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 28 ounce diced tomatoes, canned
- 1 tablespoon Italian Seasoning
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 cup spinach
- 16 ounce Gnocchi
- 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
Instructions
- Dice onion and slice mushrooms (if not pre-sliced). Mince garlic.
- Heat a large skillet with high sides (or stockpot) over medium heat. Add olive oil and saute onions and mushrooms until the onions begin to go translucent (4-5 minutes). Add garlic and saute for another 30 seconds.
- Pour in diced tomatoes (including the juice) and add Italian seasonings and salt. Add 2 cups of spinach and carefully stir.
- Once spinach wilts, add uncooked gnocchi and stir together. Simmer for 3-4 minutes, until the gnocchi is cooked. Stir in Parmesan cheese and serve warm.
Nutrition
We has this last night and it was delicious! I didn’t have any parmesan cheese so I subbed Colby, but I followed the rest of the recipe exactly. Very good!
GREAT and simple dish, all of the flavors work so well together. Glad i stumbled upon this recipe ?
The recipe calls for grated cheese, but in the picture you used shredded.
Made this dish last night and loved it! A few edits to mine-
– Used an entire onion
– Used an entire carton on mushrooms (8.0 oz)
– When I added the garlic, I also added the salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning
*Red wine to deglaze the pan sounded like a good idea*
– Added more spinach
All and all, an awesome dish and really easy to make during the week! For us, this came out to 3 servings, instead of 4.
Thanks for providing!
I made this today, and yes it turned out very good, easy as 1,2,3 and taste delicious, I used gluten free gnocchi and gluten free Hunt’s diced tomatoes. I will use this recipe over and over again. I am Vegan so I left out the Parmesan cheese. Thanks, Juanita
You should try this but sub the parmesan for nutritional yeast, or try with vegan parmesan? (Blend together cashews, nutritional yeast, garlic powder, and salt) 🙂
Very simple, but tasty recipe. I added zucchini & jalapeños, because I had them leftover from another recipe. The house smells great while it is cooking.
So happy to hear, thank you!
I want to add something else instead of the mushrooms. Do you guys know what would make for a good alternate?
Egg plant or zucchini. I think would be good.
Ty we love gnocchi, I make Olive Gardens chicken and gnocchi soup but I want to try it in a tomato base. I am going to try your recipe this week.
Love it .Very easy , quick .
Made it exactly to the recipe and its was delicious, i added a can of mixed beans with it ( drained and washed ) and had with rough cut bread, superb ??
Made this for dinner. Super easy, Super fast and delicious!!!!! Thankyou for sharing.
No kids here in this house but my husband and I enjoyed this recipe very much. Very easy to cook and tasty!
This was great! I am definitely NOT the cook in the house, but I made this and it turned out delicious! I added some baked chicken in that I shredded, but I think it would be just as good without it. I always forget about gnocchi… But now my boyfriend wants this to become a regular dish around here. 🙂
Yay! So glad you loved it – we do too!
Just as a warning, “proper” parmesan is not vegetarian, its traditional ingredients include rennet from calf’s stomach so double check it specifically states it is veggie! This is a bigger issue within the EU where in order to be called parmesan, it must be produced in a specific region of Italy and to the traditional ingredients.
Pecorino can be a good substitute. And many supermarkets now stock “Italian hard cheese” which is often vegetarian.
Interesting!
This is delicious!! I didn’t do cheese but added a little shredded chicken. Definitely yummy and I don’t feel guilty eating it. 🙂
Awesome recipe! Just made it, & it is delicious! Thanks!!
Hi me and my boyfriend are not vegetarians but his daughter is. I was hoping you could suggest a meat I can add into this dish after I set aside some of the original recipe for her.
I’ve used pre=cooked chicken! It’s delicious!
Hey Katrina. Thanks for the recipe, which I am about to attempt for myself and my daughter while my wife recovers from a booze-soaked all-nighter. I have one suggested amendment to your recipe – buy some loose mushrooms and slice them oneself, getting faster each time with practice. Less packaging, less waste eh? 😉
Thank you. Super fast, easy and delicious meal. I didn’t have spinach leaves so I freestyled some broccoli and peas. The little terrors licked their plates clean 🙂
Lovely easy meal and very tasty. Left out the onion and grated lacto free cheese on top instead of using parmesan. Would definitely make again.