Vegan Gnocchi From Scratch Recipe | Elephantastic Vegan (2024)

FAQs

What are vegan gnocchi made of? ›

This homemade vegan gnocchi recipe is eggless and so simple. Just potatoes, flour, and some oil come together to make these perfectly fluffy yet dense pillows of pasta that taste just like traditional gnocchi!

You can make gnocchi without eggs. However, if you use egg yolks in your gnocchi you don't need to be so precious with it.

Gnocchi can disintegrate for a few reasons. You might not have added enough flour or egg, or you may have overboiled them.

Therefore, I would recommend using semolina flour, over 00 Italian pizza flour for gnocchi since it too, is a pasta. Semolina flour is easy to knead and usually only needs to dry, like for spaghetti noodles or ravioli pockets rather than rise which is a usual expectation of pizza flour or all-purpose flour.

Gnocchi Alternatives

For recipes that call for the gnocchi to be tossed in sauce or added to broths or soups, you can swap in a thicker-style pasta, like Orecchiette or Shells. The flavor and texture won't be quite the same, though. You will also need to adjust the cook time.

Traditional gnocchi is made with eggs making it not vegan. My vegan gnocchi recipe has two substitution options. Option 1 (my favorite): I've included a recipe to make a simple homemade egg yolk. This yolk recipe will provide all the flavor and color of eggs which really makes this gnocchi so tasty!

Step one: Start with Yukon Gold potatoes. Russets will do, but Yukon Golds have more of the nutty flavor of the yellow-fleshed boiling potatoes used by the Italian and Provençal cooks who have mastered gnocchi.

Nutritional Value

Believe it or not, regular pasta is actually more carb-heavy than gnocchi, coming in at around 2 times the amount of carbs per serving. Gnocchi is also notorious for having a lot more sodium, with over 200 grams of it per serving. Regular pasta doesn't have nearly as high of a sodium content.

Type 00 vs all-purpose vs bread flour

You need to do plenty of that for homemade pizza dough, but you don't want to do much kneading at all when making gnocchi. Italian type 00 flours like Caputo and Anna brands produce a great result. Make sure you're buying 00 labeled for pasta and not labeled for pizza making.

Chewy gnocchi are the result of too much flour and over kneading the dough. It's important to knead the dough just until it comes together into a smooth ball and no more. This is because you don't want to encourage too much gluten development which makes them tough, chewy and rubbery.

Why is my gnocchi not fluffy? ›

The gnocchi dough will still be a bit crumbly when you first mix the potatoes with the flour and eggs. You want the final dough to be soft, smooth, and a little sticky. For gnocchi with a fluffy texture, don't knead the dough past the point where the flour is fully incorporated into the potatoes.

If you can't find 00 flour but you really want to make homemade pizza crust or another recipe that calls for this ingredient, it's absolutely fine to use all-purpose flour. Use the same amount of all-purpose flour as 00 flour in the recipe.

All this said, it's generally fine to substitute all-purpose flour for “00” flour. You'll notice a texture difference if you grew up in Europe or are very familiar with with products made from “00” flour, but all your recipes will still come out just fine.

So, what is 00 flour? 00 flour is the most finely sifted type of Italian flour, made only from the endosperm. A wheat kernel is made up of three key components – the germ, the bran, and the endosperm.

What is gnocchi? Gnocchi, pronounced 'n(y)oh-kee' (singular 'gnocco'), are a type of pasta consisting of soft, fat and chewy dumplings, typically paired with ragú, tomato or butter sauce. Traditionally, gnocchi dough is made of semolina or plain wheat flour, egg, and mashed potato.

A lot of homemade gnocchi recipes will have egg in them, but most store bought gnocchi will be egg free and therefore vegan. Just be sure to check the package!

Gnocchi are basically little dumplings made of mashed potato, flour and egg. They sometimes include other ingredients, such as herbs or seasonings. Italian in origin, they're often eaten in the same way as pasta (however, they're not pasta) – with a sauce or tossed in butter and garlic.