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
Sonya says
Two things: One I feel like crying. I miss gnocchi so much and this just might do the trick for my cravings. Does it work well with sage butter? Two, I’m glad that this is not made with coconut flour, so thank you! I am geeked about this recipe!!
Marcelle says
Wondering if i should use the pre-shredded full fat mozz or should i shred it myself? CANNOT wait to try this!
Stephanie says
These took a lot of time to make but it made several meals for us. They frozen well and tasted even better after they were frozen. This time we ate them plan with Italian seasoning and butter over them but next time I want to try them in a soup.
Naomi says
Now having done a bit of research, I’d suggest that low-moisture mozzarella is probably crucial for this recipe – and it would be worth mentioning this in the ingredients. I don’t know if you can get that here in the UK except grated and coated in potato starch, but I’ll have a search!
Joel Gunz says
Yeah, it would have been GREAT to mention (A) that there are different kinds of mozzarella and (B) which kind to use (low moisture.) would have saved us some time for sure.
Naomi says
Ah, I wanted this to work so badly but there’s NO WAY this mozzarella is mixing in with this butter :-( What kind of mozzarella is ‘standard mozzarella’ in the US? Is it a ball in a bag of water?
Angel says
The kind that’s a ball in a bag has way too much moisture to make dough. Would need to use brick cheese.
Holly says
That happened with me too… but I dig in and used my hands and it mixed great!
NetM says
I made this and baked it as a pizza lol. Best LC pizza I’ve ever had. Can’t wait to try it as gnocchis.
NetM says
PS: I made 1/2 the recipe. Used the same # of eggs and yolk but cut everything in half…just so I could test it w/o spending a ton on ingredients.
Jackie says
I made this dough and I had similar stringy and clumpy behavior. I was nervous, but once I got my hands in there and kneaded a bunch I could see everything incorporating and smoothing out! The final dough was a bit slick from the fat content. I made little pellets and smashed one side with a fork to make “sauce ridges”. I think I saw it on TV before…lol. I haven’t cooked it yet but I hope it will still boil well from.a completely frozen state!
Gina says
I was very intimidated by this recipe and worried that I was going to waste 2 cups of almond flour with my own incompetence, but the steps were surprisingly easy to follow and everything turned out awesome! For simplicity’s sake, my wife and I rolled the gnocchi into little balls instead of the classic pillow shape, but they tasted just as good mixed in with meatballs and a rich vodka sauce. This is my new go-to keto pasta recipe!
Christen says
Hi there –
My mouth is absolutely watering! Do you think I could make these ahead and freeze them (without the sauce)? I was thinking this might be a weekend meal prep idea, if they would be okay frozen and boiled later in the week…Any suggestions on things I should do differently if that’s the plan?
Thanks in advance!!
Mellissa Sevigny says
You can freeze them and boil them no problem Christen!
Mary Ann says
This was a very yummy recipe on a very driven journey. If I have one word about it, it is PERSISTENCE! As many others experienced, my mozzarella and butter initially looked good but then separated. I kept tear through the cheese with a flat wooden spoon and turned it over as I did that. After 10 minutes or more (I wasn’t giving up!), it was mostly combined but some butter remained. I poured this in with the almond flour and egg that I had previously mixed together. Initially I was stirring and big strings of mozzarella were throughout the dough (aka not well incorporated). I put down the spoon and then began squeezing the dough between my hands and fingers over and over. This again took some time but I wasn’t quitting. After a while it began to hold together. I moved it to a big area to roll it. It was not sticky and rolled well. I made the little pockets as recommended and in the end they were delicious. I put 1/2 in the freezer and will have them in a tomato sauce in the future. Many thanks for this recipe.
Natalie Kurth says
Is full fat mozzarella necessary? I can only find part-skim at my grocery store.