This delicious Keto Gnocchi gives you the pillowy yet chewy texture you’ve been missing from pasta on a low carb diet! It is the perfect low carb vehicle for all of your favorite pasta sauces and flavors! Can you really eat gnocchi on a low carb or keto diet? You better believe it!!!
To get straight to the keto gnocchi recipe you can use the jump to recipe button – but if you decide to make it please take a minute to read the extra tips in the post to ensure the best results!
I’ve been seeing keto fathead dough around for a long time but hadn’t taken the time to play around with it until a few months ago. Most of the keto fathead dough recipes I’ve seen have baked the dough to make pizza, calzones, breads, and even desserts like danish.
I wanted to come at the keto fathead dough from a different angle though, and see if it could be treated like a low carb pasta dough. If it worked, I had lots of cool ideas to turn keto fathead dough into all kinds of chewy pasta goodness – starting with keto gnocchi!
(Side note, if you are allergic to nuts or just don’t want to mess with a “dough” you should try my keto fettuccini alfredo recipe STAT!)
After a few tries, I finally hit on the right consistency for this Keto Gnocchi dough, and after a couple of rough starts I also finally nailed the right way to cook them to get a pleasant texture that truly mimicked a good gnocchi – in my opinion at least.
Too much egg and the keto gnocchi dough was eggy and crumbly, too little and it was overly chewy and prone to falling apart. Cook the gnocchi too long and it fell apart and got waterlogged, skip the boil and go straight to the pan and they were like hard, chewy pucks!
Once I got this keto gnocchi dough right and the cooking method down though – they were SO good! Now for an easy and delicious sauce!
While you can serve these keto gnocchi with pretty much any low carb pasta sauce, I wanted a delicate flavor for these that wouldn’t overpower the subtle flavor and texture of the gnocchi.
In the end I went with a simple butter sauce flavored with lemon and fresh thyme, and it was perfect if I do say so.
Keto Gnocchi Notes:
I know a lot of you skip right to the recipe but I need you to pay attention here!
You MUST follow the instructions to the letter on this one! Winging it will not suffice! The method isn’t complicated at all in this fathead keto gnocchi recipe – but if you don’t follow the steps the right way you’ll end up with mush and will have wasted money on ingredients.
Then I’ll be flooded with comments about how this recipe doesn’t work, I’m a horrible person, etc. etc. and that really ruins my day OK? So please, I beg of you, do it my way at least the first time to ensure good results!!!
Keto Gnocchi – Low Carb
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 5 servings 1x
- Diet: Gluten Free
Description
This Keto Gnocchi gives you the pillowy yet chewy texture you’ve been missing from pasta on a low carb diet! Gluten free too!
Ingredients
- 2 cups super fine blanched almond flour
- 2 cups shredded full fat mozzarella cheese
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1/4 cup salted butter
- 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
- 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
Instructions
For the Keto Gnocchi:
- Combine the mozzarella cheese and butter in a medium bowl and microwave for 2 minutes.
- Stir, then microwave another minute.
- Stir vigorously with a rubber spatula until fully combined, and then cool for 2 minutes.
- Stir in the egg, egg yolk and almond flour.
- Continue to mix until a rough dough is formed, this could take several minutes.
- Turn out the dough onto a smooth surface (or parchment paper) and knead until a semi-stretchy dough is formed. (if the dough is too wet, add a tablespoon or more of almond flour until workable)
- Form the dough into a long roll about 1 inch in diameter and then cut pieces about 1/2″ wide. You can then form them into almost any bite sized shape you want, but sticking with a simple disk as shown in the photos yielded the best results for me.
- Freeze the gnocchi for 15 minutes to firm them up. before cooking, or freeze them until ready to eat.
- Bring a pot of salted water to a gentle boil – too vigorous and the gnocchi will fall apart.
- Add the gnocchi to the water in small batches and boil for 1 – 2 minutes or until floating.
- Remove the gnocchi with a slotted spoon onto a paper towel lined plate, and cool for 5 minutes before adding to sauce.
For the sauce:
- Melt the butter in a large saute pan.
- Add lemon zest and thyme and cook for about 2 minutes or until fragrant.
- Add the boiled and cooled keto gnocchi to the pan and cook for about 2 minutes, stirring gently to coat with the sauce.
- Season with salt and pepper as desired.
Notes
You MUST follow the instructions to the letter on this one! Winging it will not suffice! The method isn’t complicated at all in this fathead keto gnocchi recipe – but if you don’t follow the steps the right way you’ll end up with mush and will have wasted money on ingredients.
Nutrition info is for gnocchi only in case you want to serve it with a different sauce. With the butter sauce listed here the approximate nutrition info is: 577 calories, 55g fat, 6g net carbs, 22g protein.
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Cook Time: 5 minutes
- Category: Keto dinners
- Method: stovetop
- Cuisine: italian
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1.5 cups
- Calories: 497
- Fat: 44g
- Carbohydrates: 6g net
- Protein: 22g
CTYONIT says
I just made these–they came out great. It sure was a lot of stirring though, next time I will try them in my stand mixer. These would make great meatless meatball appetizers with dipping sauce–marinara sauce, pesto, alfredo. I think I’ll mixed them in my Italian wedding soup. Lauren’s idea of baking sounds great–I may roll some in crushed pork rinds first them bake.
Thank you for this great keeper recipe!
Lauren says
Mine fell apart a little when I boiled them but they were still delicious.
For the rest of the batches, I just froze them and now I pop them into the oven at 450 on parchment for about ten minutes and I eat them as a snack or as a savory little “bed” to go with other meals with sauces–like a keto scampi, etc.
These are great!
Mary says
Will this reheat well or is it best to eat it as soon as itś cooked? I would like to pack it for my work lunch, but want to check if it will taste as well warmed in a microwave the next day.
pedro says
can use cheddar instead of mozarella?
Madeleine Miles says
No, only mozzarella will work.
Karyn says
How do you think these would hold up in a soup? The soup I’m looking at calls for the traditional gnocchi to be pre-cooked and then added to the soup when it’s finished – any insight on if this might work, or do you think the gnocchi would disintegrate?
Thanks!
Mellissa Sevigny says
I think if you added them right before serving you might be ok, but if they sit in the soup they will disintegrate within minutes I’m guessing.
Becky says
What did I do wrong? My butter & cheese never blended together. I did the microwave, stir, microwave, stir, but they were still separate. The final result was clumps of cheese mixed into the dough.
Mellissa Sevigny says
Maybe your microwave isn’t as strong as mine, another 30 seconds until it is melted enough to fully blend would have probably worked. When it’s hot enough the cheese and butter will eventually incorporate – you just have to keep stirring until it does.
Mellissa Sevigny says
Regular mozzarella but it does take some vigorous stirring to get it to come together. The cheese breaks down and suddenly you have a creamy thick substance – not sure how else to describe it then that.
Jenuinearticle says
Bless you Melissa for giving me another use for my favorite pizza dough! I won’t whine to you about substitutions because I can READ and FOLLOW DIRECTIONS. Regarding the move, thanks so much for the update and new pics, I wish you good fortune in finding a place. Finally, your pics on the page are still beautiful but the loading time was much better. The only issue I ever have is some kind of lagging hesitation typing comments from my phone. IDK if that is website related or not, but thought I would let you know.
Janet says
I reread the recipe and see it says “full fat mozzarella” . Has anyone tried it with part skim that we use in traditional fat head recipes? Just wondering as that is what I have on hand….and didn’t want to have to make a trip to the store if it isn’t necessary. Thanks
Mellissa Sevigny says
You can use part skim Janet!
Janet says
Thanks for the Prompt response Melissa….I will give it a try today.
Janet says
Well, well, well a very delicious rendition of gnocchi!!!! I know you said to follow your instructions to the letter….but I am very used to working with fathead dough…so my only change was to mix the egg into the almond flour, which I always do when making fathead. I find it distributes the egg more uniformly and lessens the chance of the egg cooking before you get it all mixed in. Makes kneading that much easier and one less step. :-) I want to also take this chance to thank you for all you do for the low carb/keto community….your recipes are delicious!
Mellissa Sevigny says
Thanks Janet, I’ll try your way next!!!
Cathy says
Made these tonight, was not expecting much. HUGE hit with my entire family. Made a homeade alfredo sauce and paired it with tuscan seasoned chicken breasts & asparagus. Amazing and will def make again. Thanks so much for this recipe!
Jen says
What flour can I use instead of almond?
Mellissa Sevigny says
I don’t have a sub for this recipe.
Beth says
The first time I made these they did not have almond meal at the store so I used flaxseed meal. It does change the taste and texture a little, but I thought toasted up a little in some butter and when out in a sauce or soup they tasted great!