Vegan Gnocchi – Homemade, with Tomato Confit

This homemade vegan gnocchi with easy one-pan roasted cherry tomato confit will turn you into a gnocchi snob, I promise! You’ll never buy gnocchi again, you may not even order it in a restaurant when you can make such delicious soft gnocchi at home.

This is an easy recipe, but not a super-fast one, although absolutely worth it.

If you’re a gnocchi fiend like me and are willing to put just a touch more effort in, my stuffed gnocchi with caramelized onion and truffled mushroom might be up your alley as well.

For the Italian recipe lover in you, I’ve also got a delicious potato pizza with rosemary and garlic, and a white bean sauce pizza, because who doesn’t like pizza? Monsters, that’s who!

And if you are a coeliac or coeliac vegan and came here looking for gluten-free gnocchi, don’t worry, my friends over at My Pure Plants have got you covered with their beautiful gluten-free vegan sweet potato gnocchi.

Perfectly fluffy vegan gnocchi

For years I failed to understand why people were so obsessed with gnocchi and talked about “little fluffy melt-in-your-mouth pillows of goodness”.

Every time I had tried to make them at home or had them in a restaurant (needless to say packaged gnocchi were never an improvement either) ended in disappointment.

I had been baffled by the obsession with these little doughy potato bombs. But no more! I’ve finally cracked it and can confidently say these little babies really ARE fluffy and pillow-like!

I baked the potatoes to make sure they were as dry as possible and threw my confit/sauce ingredients into a roasting tin at the same time.

Is gnocchi vegan?

Well, yes and no. If you look up any recipe for gnocchi on the internet, you’ll find a host of recipes that include egg. Gnocchi-making wisdom, however, contends that the addition of egg is just to make the dough easier to deal with, and actually makes the gnocchi denser.

Which is exactly what you don’t want. So whether you’re vegan or not, I highly recommend making your gnocchi egg-free, as in this recipe for homemade vegan gnocchi.

How to make gnocchi

To make enough gnocchi for 4 people as a light main with a side salad, or three main dishes, I used about 500g of potatoes. Use potatoes with as little water content as possible, such as russet potatoes, or any potato ideal for baking.

Bake the potatoes to reduce the amount of water they hold. More water equals more flour needed, equals little doughy lead-bombs. To get 500g peeled and baked potatoes, you’ll need to start out with around 750g of the largest potatoes you can find.

Simply toss in the oven for 45 minutes at 220C or 200C fan. While they’re baking, you can get on with making the confit. Well, this is more of a confit-sauce, tomatoes cooked whole in olive oil and wine, but with extra ingredients to make it a true sauce.

When the potatoes are done, take them out, cut them in half, and leave to cool. I put mine outside on the windowsill so they cool faster.

The potatoes should be cool enough to handle around 15-20 minutes later. You can then peel them and finely grate them (or use a potato ricer or food mill if you have them). You could also mash them but you will inevitably end up with unmashed hard bits marring your perfect gnocchi.

Add 1 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp garlic granules/powder (optional), and mix well. Then add in a scant cup of plain flour (around 100-120g), a 1/4 cup at a time, until the dough comes together. You may need to add a little more depending on the water content of the potatoes you used.

However definitely do not use less than 100 grams. I did this while I was testing the recipe, and my gnocchi disintegrated while cooking. I was very sad. And then I was mad. And finally, I went back to the drawing board and got the amount of flour right.

Take a handful of the dough (about the size of a lemon) and roll out into a rope about half an inch thick, on a floured worktop.

Cut segments of about 3/4 – 1 inch with a dull knife (I used a plastic kids knife from Ikea because I’m FANCY). Unless you have a dough scraper, then obviously use that.

You can leave the little gnocchi pillows as is, or roll them down the back of a fork to get those perfect ridges and the thumb groove. I prefer them with grooves, as the sauce adheres better. Try and make sure the gnocchi are uniform in size so they cook evenly.

Cook in two-three batches in your largest pot filled with well-salted water. When the water is boiling, add in the gnocchi.

Once the gnocchi float to the top cook for two minutes. Lift out with a slotted spoon, shake off the extra water, and carefully set to dry a little on a piece of baking paper.

Cook the next batch and do the same. The gnocchi will seem a little gummy and overly soft but don’t worry they will firm up while cooling.

Roasted Cherry Tomato Confit

As I mentioned above, the best time to make the roasted cherry tomato confit is when the potatoes are baking in the oven.

It’s SUPER simple to make. Just add the cherry tomatoes, garlic, pine nuts, lemon juice, white wine, and olive oil to a non-stick baking pan and place in the oven with the potatoes.

If you don’t have pine nuts you can substitute with roughly chopped walnuts. The nuts will settle to the bottom of the pan, don’t worry about that.

Do set the baking pan in the bottom third of the oven. This will ensure the cherry tomatoes blister nicely and blacken a little, but don’t burn.

I take out the baking pan at 15 minutes and stir well, and then again at 30 minutes. At 30 minutes I like to squish most of the cherry tomatoes so they release their juices, turning this quick confit into a sauce.

When you take out the cherry tomato sauce, put it aside while you assemble and boil the gnocchi. Then, decant some of the juice and olive oil into a non-stick frying pan, about two tablespoons.

Heat on medium-high and fry the boiled gnocchi until lightly browned and crispy on both sides, then add in the cherry tomato sauce to heat it up.

When everything is piping hot, add in 2 tablespoons of the basil and mix through, divide the gnocchi between four plates with a light green side salad, and sprinkle a little lemon zest and the remaining basil over.

Divine! Some beautifully soft focaccia with bruschetta dip, a light spinach salad, this gnocchi, and voilá, an impressive meal for entertaining (or romancing…).

If you make this recipe, let me know how it turned out for you by leaving a rating in the comments below. Or upload a picture and tag me on Instagram (@the_fiery_vegetarian)! I love seeing your photos and comments!