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
Natasha says
Hi Mellisa,
Is there possibility to give us measurements in metric?
Thank you!
Morgan P says
Oh. My. Yum!
The gnocchi were a huge hit with the hubs and I. Like a previous commenter, my butter and mozzarella did not blend – but I took her advice and put in a bit of the almond flour before adding the rest and the eggs.
I made the keto creamy bacon sauce from this recipe, and this was a rich, delicious keto meal. I will be making again!
https://ketoinpearls.com/parmesan-crusted-chicken-with-bacon-cream-sauce/
Nicole Jewett says
Has anyone tried adding them to soup? I love olive gardens chicken and gnocchi soup and want to try to make a keto version.
Jenn says
I want to do this too!! Did you try it? Any luck?
Jessica says
These look great! I’m looking for a substitution for nokedli, which are Hungarian dumplings. I wanted to try these but wondered if you know if they would hold together in a soup once cooked? I thought I’d ask, thank you!
Lindsay says
I made this and panicked halfway because I realized I was using part skim mozzarella, however it was the brick kind and I grated it myself. They still turned out really good. I did freeze them longer than 10 minutes. Probably at least an hour. I will probably try this again with the full fat cheese. Thanks!
Mellissa Sevigny says
So glad it turned out for you Lindsay!
Krystal says
Mine tasted like plain dough? The sauce was delicious (thank you) but should they taste like raw dough once cooked?
Sandy says
The first few steps were a breeze! I was so happy! When I got to the very end when I should roll it out the recipe reads if it is too wet add almond flour by the tbsp full. So I did. The more I added…the “wetter” it seemed to get! ? I should have just left it as it was without adding the almond flour by the tbsp full. It became undoughlike no matter how much I kneaded it. So rather than chalk it up to a total loss, I added another egg hoping it might help the over abundance of almond flour to blend in. It definitely feels much more blended and solid now. I’m freezing it for a bit before cooking it with fingers crossed. But I wanted to post this to say if you get to the end before rolling it out and it had a greasy feel – just go with it that way rather than adding almond flour. More than likely it is just fine as it is. ? Good luck everyone!
Pan_fry_the_gnocchi says
I made these with a little less microwave time, with non-super-fine almoond flour, and a stand mixer (with the diamond shaped stirring attachment). When boiled, these were NOT GREAT, they were very similar to riccotta cheese, and crumbly. When I pan-fried the rest, they were more robust and EXCELLENT, more gnocchi-like.
RoxNroll says
It was quite easy and purely delicious. I was worried as I used whole mozzarella that I shredded myself but it ended up working PERFECTLY fine. I even seared the gnocchis in butter after boiling them. The texture was amazing and the taste was oh-M-gee-esque!!! I served it with home made bolognese sauce and sincerely, didn’t miss the carbs at all XD To do and re-do as often as possible ahah!! Uncanny resemblance with regular “full-of-carbs” gnocchis!!
Melissa says
I made this and it was delicious! Plus it is easier and more filling than traditional gnocchi! I tried a piece right when it came out of the pot, and it was fluffy and delicious! However, be careful when cooking them in the butter sauce. I left the gnocchi in too long and it totally changed the consistency! Still delicious though!