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
Erika says
In the recipe it says to use a large egg. How many grams would you constitute a large egg? I plan on making this recipe this week sometime, and look forward to having some with my Osso bucco that I’m going to cook
Cam says
I followed the directions exactly and the dough turned out perfectly. So easy! I just mixed the melted cheese and butter in my Ninja mixer and followed the rest of the steps mixing everything with it. Thank you so much for this easy and wonderful recipe. 👍🏼
Mellissa Sevigny says
Thanks for letting us know it worked for you!!!
Marissa says
I never comment on ANYTHING- like ever. This is actually my first comment. I have to say… I am Italian and LOVE pasta, so starting the keto diet was definitely challenging. I tried these gnocchis a few months ago, but subbed the mozzarella with ricotta….BIG MISTAKE. The water turned cloudy and my gnocchis fell apart. I wanted to try these again AND HOLY COW! I followed the recipe to a T, just like she said, and they turned out amazing! I am saving them for Christmas Eve Dinner tomorrow so I only boiled 2 at a time to test them. They floated to the top and stayed in tack THE WHOLE TIME. I tried them without any sauce- and WOW. They were so good and buttery. I am going to freeze them overnight and boil the rest tomorrow. I hope they keep their form so I can eat them all up! Thank you for this recipe- It is Italian approved! Can’t wait to eat them tomorrow!
Mellissa Sevigny says
Thank you Marissa – it means so much that you took the time to comment on these, and that they are Italian approved! So so happy that this recipe worked out for you!
Mellissa Sevigny says
I’ve made this recipe many times with excellent results, so I’m pretty confident that out of the two of us, I actually do know what I’m doing…
Mellissa Sevigny says
Nobody took your first review down, it just hadn’t been moderated yet. It’s true that the bread or pizza dough will typically use cream cheese, but for the proper texture in the gnocchi I used butter and it works just fine for me and many others as proved in the comments. Not sure what went wrong with your batch but the recipe itself is not the problem.
Karyn says
First…thank you. Pasta subs are awful except this. Made a huge batch and flash froze.. You know it’s great if non-keto hubby likes it. After recent recipes I Have made from you, he’s considering going keto! You are the best! 😮 Had these with your short rib ragu twice so far and with my own bolognese. Being Italian, pasta and bread are hard to give up. Add your zucchini bread to this and I’m never wanting carbs Italian again!!!’
Amy Sollom says
Pretty close. I microwaved frozen leftovers for 30 seconds, and preferred that version better than boiling🤷🏻♀️. Much easier too! Thanks for the recipe.
Mellissa Sevigny says
Sounds like you cooked them too long Shannon! Freezing them first and then throwing them in the boiling water for just a minute or two should never cause them to disintegrate if made correctly.
Rhonda Shechtman says
Please will you go into more detail about combining the cheese and butter. I used whole milk mozzarella and heated very hot, bubbling, I resorted to using a hand mixer to combine, but was still unsuccessful. Your video makes it look easy. What am I missing?
Also, please will you explain the difference that full fat mozzarella makes vs, part skim? Is it just added fat. I tried both and could not tell the difference. However, I am wondering if it is the problems above keeping things less than ideal. I am not getting the soft cheesiness that I like in gnocchi.
I really want this recipie to work. It seems like after 3 tries it is almost right. Any additional instructions would be appreciated. Thanks!
Rhonda Shechtman says
Soft chewiness not cheesiness.
Ginger says
My family loved this recipe even though I’m a fool and read one part of it wrong. Instead of 1/2 pieces, I cut it into 12 pieces LOL. So needless to say they were huge. Regardless, the taste was great and I will be making this again but next time cutting them into the correct size pieces :-)