One pan Tuscan Vegan Gnocchi features pillowy soft gnocchi, a flavorful creamy sauce, garlic, vegan sausage, fresh spinach and sun dried tomatoes. A fancy dinner ready in 20 minutes!
If you love gnocchi as much as I do, make sure to try this Creamy Pesto Gnocchi as well.
Gnocchi is the ultimate comfort food that couldn’t be easier to make! For years, I assumed those little pillowy delights contained dairy, eggs or both. But I was wrong! I picked up a box of dried gnocchi (right next to all the other dried pasta) and was thrilled to see the only ingredients were basically potato and wheat.
Now, this recipe is super quick and easy, so we aren’t making our gnocchi from scratch. If you want to though, try this recipe for Easy Homemade Vegan Gnocchi or this gluten free version.
How to make vegan gnocchi
Find the complete recipe with measurements below.
It will go very quickly, so before you begin have everything ready near the stovetop. There isn’t much prep work involved, simply slicing a few vegan sausages and chopping garlic and fresh basil.
Sauté vegan sausages in a large skillet until browned. Add the garlic.
Pour in vegetable broth, coconut milk, lemon juice, Italian seasoning, sun dried tomatoes and uncooked gnocchi. Stir. Simmer for 5 minutes.
Add salt + pepper, to taste. Stir in the spinach.
Add the vegan parmesan and stir in, if using. I like Violife and Follow Your Heart brands.
Serve immediately, garnished with more vegan parmesan and fresh basil.
Tips & substitutions
- Serve immediately for best results. The sauce will thicken as it cools, so if you do make it ahead of time, thin it out with a little more coconut milk, broth or even water.
- Gluten free? Use gluten free gnocchi, either store bought or homemade. And leave out the vegan sausages, unless you can find a gluten free version.
- Coconut milk substitutions – I used full fat coconut milk, but you could use light if desired. Homemade almond milk or cashew milk would also work quite well for the creamy sauce.
More fancy vegan dinners
- Vegan Risotto with Roasted Butternut Squash
- Mushroom Bourguignon
- Favorite Vegan Bolognese
- Creamy Vegan Carbonara
- Vegan Stuffed Jumbo Shells
Tuscan Vegan Gnocchi
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 vegan Italian sausages (7-8 ounces), sliced I used Field Roast
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 cup vegetable broth
- 13.5 ounce can full fat coconut milk
- 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
- 1/3 cup sun dried tomatoes, sliced if whole
- 1 pound uncooked gnocchi the dry packaged kind
- salt + pepper, to taste
- 2 cups loosely packed baby spinach
- 1/2 cup Vegan Parmesan, + more for garnish, optional I used Violife
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
Instructions
- In a large skillet, sauté the vegan sausage in the olive oil over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes, until browned.
- Add the garlic and cook, stirring constantly, for 30 seconds until fragrant.
- Pour in the vegetable broth, coconut milk, lemon juice, Italian seasoning, sun-dried tomatoes and gnocchi. Give everything a good stir.
- Bring to a boil, then lower heat to medium and cook, uncovered for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add salt + pepper to taste, and stir in the spinach. Cook for another 2 minutes, until the spinach has wilted.
- If using, stir in the vegan parmesan. At this point, the gnocchi should be cooked through but not mushy, and the sauce thickened somewhat. Cook an additional minute or two if necessary.
- Serve immediately garnished with vegan parmesan and fresh basil. Enjoy immediately for best results. Leftovers will keep in the refrigerator for 3-4 days. Add a little extra broth or water when re-heating, as the sauce will thicken as it cools. It can be frozen if needed.
Video
Notes
- May leave out the vegan sausage, if needed. I used Field Roast Italian sausages.
- If desired, you can substitute light coconut milk for full fat. You could likely also use homemade almond milk or cashew milk instead.
- I used sun dried tomatoes in oil, but you can also use the kind that come dry in a package. Slice them if they are whole.
- Gluten free? Try this gluten free homemade gnocchi from ElaVegan. And omit the vegan sausage.
If this recipe is like the pumpkin gnocchi and I’m sure it is I’m going to need new cloths. Thanks for excellent vegan recipes you’ve sent Nora!
Haha! You’re so welcome, Jimmy! Happy cooking 🙂
Ed’s mum screwed up by buying the wrong gnocchi. The culprit? milk powder. There was only one thing to do- make our own homemade gnocchi in true shuk and Ed fashion.
We started off by scanning furiously for a vegan gnocchi recipe and shuk found one that looked perfect. On the other hand, Ed was looking at your recipe for your personal suggestion nora and found the one you suggested. 😉 Low and behold! they’re the same recipe !! nora you bad girl. Making the homemade gnocchi took most of the effort, as Ed had to battle Shuk’s grandma to cook the potatoes, as she seemed to have a vendetta against potatoes. Eventually though they were cooked in a pressure cooker which makes the most annoying noise known to man- I’m sure you can imagine Nory! Once the potatoes were cooked we could get to making the dough with some flour (that we remembered to check btw!) A lovely most moist dough came together in no time (Ed made shuk do the dough since they can’t afford to get their hands dirty) After the dough was formed Ed and shuk got to work shaping the gnocchi using a fork (LIFEHACK!!!😨) shuk then boiled the first batch while Ed continued shaping in a harmonious system to ensure efficiency. Once all the gnocchi had been cooked, we started constructing the sauce 😋 However, an obstacle (not of your fault) arrived when shuk’s father demanded to not have any sausage in his meal. This resulted in us having to construct two separate sauces in order to accommodate. Also, while all this was going on, shuk’s grandma kept trying to force feed us Lindor chocolate (which is NOT vegan) so we had to work around this please be understanding 😀 The sauce constructing went pretty smoothly apart from one small hiccup where shuk put way too much coconut milk in one sauce. At this point, the gnocchi was nearly done. We enlisted a willing volunteer to try some of both the vegan and non-vegan gnocchi and it’s safe to say the vegan gnocchi was the bigger success. we are once again in your debt Nory for another recipe that SLAPPED.
Before we go, some questions we would like answered please nory:
• Do you prefer Oat milk or Soy milk? (this is to settle a debate that may turn violent)
• Do you like subway?
• Have you ever eaten so much that you turn into a burger? it happened to one of our family friends ❤️ 💙 💕
we will love you forever Nory,
yours truly
shuk and Ed
Hi Shuk and Ed! Wow, it sounds like this was a quite a cooking adventure! Homemade gnocchi is yummy but a bit time consuming and fussy. Glad it worked out in the end, and that the plant based version was a success! Okay, your questions. Oat milk all the way, except I do prefer soy when baking. Absolutely despise Subway haha. I haven’t turned into a burger yet, but it could happen any time. 🙂 Thanks for sharing your cooking reviews and adventures!
This is my favorite go-to dish when I’m having a busy day/week. Takes me ~20 min to make and is packed with flavor! The key is generous amounts of parmesan, basil, and lemon. I do usually use a little bit more liquid sometimes and let the flavors simmer before adding the gnocchi, but the dish is perfect as is honestly.
I am thrilled you are enjoying the gnocchi recipe! Thank you so much or your fabulous review and feedback! Yours sounds delicious!
So good! Super easy and my husband says it’s one of the best dishes I’ve made. I added some bacon bits because he’s obsessed. Thank you, Nora!
That’s wonderful to hear! Thank you so much for your feedback and review!
The best Gnocchi ever!! ✨
My family and I are always making this meal! It’s also my go to meal when guest are over for dinner
Thanks for your fabulous review and feedback! This is definitely one of my favorites! I’m glad you are loving it!
Had this tonight. Didn’t have spinach so added small broccoli added when the gnocchi was added and nutrional yeast instead of parm. Soooo delicious. Will definitely be making again
I’m so glad you loved the recipe! I bet it IS great with broccoli! Thank you for your wonderful review and feedback!
This was super simple and SO YUMMY! I used Silk Cashew Milk instead of the coconut milk, and it still came out amazing! ✨
Absolutely amazing! This is so good, thank you from my heart
You are welcome, Mira! My heart is happy you love the recipe! Thank you for sharing your fabulous feedback and review!
I made this using cashew milk (Nora’s recipe) instead of coconut milk. It was incredible. My most favorite savory vegan meal yet! Thank you!
Hi Liz. I’m thrilled you loved the gnocchi! This is one of my FAVORITES! Great to know it turned out great with the cashew milk! Thanks for your fantastic feedback and review!
Sounds delicious. Making it tonight. I might try it another time subbing gnocci with (Barilla) protein pasta and cannellini beans or garbanzos, maybe even curry. I’m so excited about this recipe.
Can you use nutritional yeast instead of vegan parm? Or should I just omit it altogether?
Hi Lexi. You can use nutritional yeast instead of the vegan parmesan. You can also omit the parmesan. Depends on your cheesiness preference. I hope this helps!
Made this for supper tonight and it’s become my new favourite recipe. Everyone liked it (including our youngest), it was affordable and it came together quickly in ONE PAN! 🙌 putting this one on rotation!
Hi Brittany. I totally LOVE this recipe. Glad you guys did too! Thanks for your wonderful feedback and review! Happy cooking!
This recipe was delicious and super easy to make! Thank you
Currently eating this, it is so awesome. I used 1kg of gnocci and it fed 6 people perfectly. Soooo yum
Hi Brooke. This is definitely one of my favorites, and I’m thrilled you love it! Thanks for your great feedback and review!
Made this last night and the family loved it! I had everything on hand except for the sundried tomatoes and fresh basil. I roasted some red pepper to sub for the tomatoes but next time I’ll try it as written.
That is so great that your family loved the gnocchi! I think you’ll love it with the tomatoes! Thanks for your great feedback and review!
This was so good! My meat-eating husband and I made it for dinner. He kept saying how skeptical he was about it the whole time it was cooking, but then he ate it and said how good it was and that we need to remember this recipe for the future!
That is amazing, Lucy! I’m so happy to hear this recipe was a hit, even for a meat eater 😉 Thank you for the wonderful review!
This was delicious and your tip to have everything prepped and ready to go was a good one because it cooks very quickly. I used the low-fat coconut milk and it still got very thick. I think the only tweak I would make next time is a bit less lemon (or maybe leave it out). I used a Meyer lemon and they are usually sweeter than regular lemons and it still was a bit too ‘sharp’ for my taste. But honestly, this was an excellent recipe. Thank you!
Hi Lori. You are welcome! I’m thrilled that you loved the gnocchi recipe! Thanks so much for sharing your fabulous feedback and review!
I’ve made this recipe several times and absolutely love it. It also impressed my very skeptical father!
That’s fantastic! Thanks so much for your wonderful review!
Thank you for sharing this recipe!! This was so deliciously thick and creamy. Hard to believe the sauce is mostly just coconut milk and veggie broth (didn’t taste the coconut at all, and the amount of lemon was just right) The recipe was so easy and everything came together exactly as described. We used mild Beyond Meat sausage which was great — might brown for longer than 5 mins if using that one again, and might try their spicy Italian to mix it up 🙂
Deeeelish!
Hi Lauren. I’m so glad you loved gnocchi. I love this delicious and easy meal as well! Thanks for your awesome feedback and ideas!
I made this for my daughter on Christmas and she absolutely loved it! I was nervous at first by the soft texture of the vegan sausage (I used Beyond hot Italian sausage) but it fried up nicely.
I was also skeptical when adding a full can of coconut milk (the coconut smell was overpowering) but once it simmered through and the remaining ingredients were added, the coconut smell dissipated. It was so easy to make while cooking for the rest of my non-vegan family. My daughter & her boyfriend actually said it tasted like vodka sauce. I’d definitely recommend making this based on its ease of cooking and positive feedback I received.
Hi Mia. I’m really glad that this was loved by your daughter for Christmas! I’ve never heard anyone say it tasted like vodka sauce, but that sounds delicious! Thank you for sharing your wonderful feedback!
Love this recipe with gnocchi! Do you think it would work the same if I used a regular pasta like bow tie?
Hi Blair. I’m so glad you are loving the recipe! I think it would work with pasta. The consistency might not be exactly the same, however, I think it would be delicious! Happy cooking!
What’s the best way to reheat? I’d like to make this a day or two in advance of a potluck
My favorite way to reheat is on the stove on low heat.
Hi Nora – when do you incorporate the 2 tablespoons olive oil that is mentioned in the ingredients? I don’t see it mentioned in the recipe card instructions or in the recipe video. Thanks!
Sorry about that, you use it to saute the vegan sausage at the beginning. I’ll update the instructions now. Enjoy!
This was an amazing recipe!! I modified just a smidge but this is a, “make when we have company” type of meal! Olive Garden potential!!
Delicious! We made it with Yves Mediterranean Sausage which shifted the colour a bit, but it was still amazing. I would probably make a double batch next time seeing as it doesn’t make very much, and I would like to include this recipe in my meal prepping.
Thanks so much for your feedback! 🙂
Very good. Fast and easy to boot. Might try it with penne or linguini next time.
Mmmm…sounds good with penne! Thanks or your great feedback and ideas! I’m glad you loved the recipe!