This vegan sheet pan gnocchi is an easy, hands-off dinner that is bursting with color and flavor. Roasting the vegetables and gnocchi separately ensures that the gnocchi stays nice and crispy.

I joke a lot about how often I default to pasta for dinner. But what about gnocchi?

Gnocchi is so good, so fast, and it’s filling and comforting in the same way that pasta is to me. But I just don’t think to buy or cook it as often. This vegan sheet pan gnocchi dinner may change that.

I made this meal a couple weeks ago. I was starting to think about summer cooking.

As the weather gets hot in NYC, I try to avoid high maintenance recipes as much as possible. If I do turn on my oven to roast something, I want the process to be efficient and to result in something practical.

Four nights of stress-free dinner (or leftovers for lunch) is as practical as it gets for me. The sheet pan gnocchi is a light, tasty summer meal. It becomes even more satisfying with a big green salad or your favorite summer vegetable side dish.

The crispiest roasted gnocchi

I’m a big fan of traditional gnocchi, boiled till tender. But one of the nice things about gnocchi is that it can be roasted or baked as well as simmered.

Roasted gnocchi develops a wonderfully crispy texture, which is a nice contrast to how it turns out when cooked traditionally.

In this vegan sheet pan gnocchi recipe, the gnocchi is roasted along with juicy cherry tomatoes, zucchini, and red onion.

The trick to making the dish is to roast the gnocchi and the vegetables separately. It isn’t my trick at all: it’s a tip that I got from reading the comments on this recipe of Sarah Jampel’s, which inspired my own meal.

A few readers commented that roasting gnocchi with the vegetables took away from the gnocchi’s outer crispiness. They said that they’d tried to roast the gnocchi and vegetables on separate parts of the baking sheet, and this worked well.

I tried doing the same thing, except that I have a tiny NYC oven and need to use 2 quarter-sized sheets, rather than a single sheet. Using one sheet for gnocchi and another for veggies was a perfect way to preserve the gnocchi’s texture.

How to make vegan sheet pan gnocchi

The process of making this meal is so wonderfully low-key. Here are the steps.

Prepare your baking sheets

I like to roast on parchment or foil for easier cleanup. For me, this recipe necessitates two quarter-sized baking sheets, since I have a small oven. One is for the gnocchi, one for the veggies.

If you have an oven that holds half-sized baking sheets, you can use a single sheet. Pile the veggies on one side, the gnocchi on the other.

Drizzle each side with the olive oil, then season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Roast for 15 minutes

This will cook the veggies most of the way through, and it’ll start to crisp up the gnocchi.

Add garlic and spinach

15 minutes into cooking the vegan sheet pan gnocchi, you can stir all of the components.

At this point, you’ll add minced garlic and baby spinach in handfuls to the vegetable side or vegetable sheet. Return everything to the oven and roast for 5 minutes more.

Stir and wilt

After those five minutes, the spinach that was piled onto the vegetables should be partially wilted. You’ll stir that sheet (or side) again to wilt it entirely.

Roast for 5 more minutes

This is the last step in cooking the sheet pan gnocchi. It will crisp the gnocchi entirely and ensure that the vegetables are soft, sweet, and tender.

Combine

Finally, you can either stir all of the ingredients—vegetables and gnocchi—together on your half sheet, or transfer the gnocchi on one quarter sheet to the other sheet.

Drizzle the ingredients with a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar, along with a little extra olive oil, if needed. Mix everything well. Taste and add additional salt, pepper, and vinegar, as desired.

Add or garnish

You can top the sheet pan gnocchi however you’d like to! Or, you can serve it with any additions or accompaniments that appeal to you.

For me, the obvious topping choice here would be one of my homemade vegan cheeses. These include:

• Tofu feta (this is what you see in the photo above)
• 10-minute vegan ricotta cheese
• Melty vegan cashew mozzarella
• Cashew cheese
• Cashew parmesan cheese

Of course, cheese isn’t the only thing that you could serve the sheet pan gnocchi with. You could also pair it with:

• Baked balsamic tofu
• Lemon pepper tempeh cubes
• Chickpea Greek salad
• White bean kale Caesar
• Tahini mint kale salad
• Super simple, very green soup

Simple steamed or roasted veggies of choice are always a nice accompaniment, too.

Is gnocchi vegan?

This is a great question.

The answer is sometimes. Most store-bought gnocchi, which is what I use, is made from potato and some sort of flour. These gnocchi varieties are often vegan, though you should check ingredient labels to make sure that they are.

Many recipes for homemade gnocchi call for incorporating egg into the dough. This isn’t to say that vegan gnocchi recipes don’t exist; you might simply have to search for them a little before finding one.

Is gnocchi gluten-free?

Again, it depends. If gnocchi is made with traditional wheat flour, then it isn’t gluten-free. However, some brands of gnocchi are made with either potato flour or some other type of gluten-free flour. These are gluten-free.

This gnocchi is both vegan and gluten-free. It’s also tasty and not too high in sodium, which many commercial gnocchis are. I’m a fan!

Meal prep and storage

This recipe comes to mind most immediately as a simple, weeknight dinner.

However, it can be part of a meal prep routine, too. The gnocchi can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.

Can vegan sheet pan gnocchi be frozen?

Leftover portions of this meal can be frozen for up to four weeks. However, the gnocchi will lose some of its crispy quality after defrosting.

I don’t recommend the vegan sheet pan gnocchi as a freezer meal, but it’s definitely an option if you’re worried about a portion going to waste.

Memorial Day weekend has come and gone, and summer is officially here. With summer comes the desire for fresh, colorful, easy suppers.

Sheet pan gnocchi fits the bill, for sure. I hope you’ll give it a try and enjoy it just as much as I have.

Speaking of summer, I’m publishing this post from the beautiful mountains of Highlands, NC, where I’ve spent a few days with Chloe and her little ones. It’s been a good escape. I’ll check in again on Sunday, at which point I’ll be back home.

xo