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Knock-Off Gnocchi

Yield:

4 × ½ cup (70g) servings

Nutrition Preview

115 calories |
18g protein |
1g fat |
4.5g net carbs
Knock Off Gnocchi
Protein-rich pumpkin and vital wheat gluten dumplings for a low-carb alternative to traditional gnocchi.

This knock-off gnocchi is a high-protein, low-carb alternative made with pumpkin purée, vital wheat gluten, and plain protein powder. Interestingly, I wasn’t actually trying to make gnocchi when I came up with it. I was playing around with ideas for making pasta and ended up with something that reminded me of gnocchi, so I changed course and started developing a gnocchi recipe instead. To me, traditional gnocchi are basically neutral-flavored little pieces of soft dough, and that’s what I was aiming to approximate here. If that’s not your experience of gnocchi, these may not live up to your expectations, hence the deliberately noncommittal “knock-off” in the name!

Because these are made with protein powder and vital wheat gluten rather than the usual potato and flour, the flavor isn’t quite as neutral as traditional gnocchi. Once they’re covered in sauce, though, I don’t find that particularly noticeable. Nutritional yeast, onion powder, and garlic powder add a little savory flavor of their own, and you can easily add more dried herbs or spices to the dough if you want the gnocchi themselves to be more strongly seasoned. In the photo, I’ve kept things very simple and served them with store-bought pasta sauce mixed with coconut milk for a creamy tomato sauce.

One of the biggest advantages of this recipe is its protein-to-carb ratio. The gnocchi provide plenty of protein themselves without contributing many net carbs, which leaves a lot of flexibility for choosing a sauce and adding a substantial veggie-rich side. They’re definitely an unconventional gnocchi substitute, and I’m curious about how they’ll compare with other people’s idea of gnocchi. If you make them, let me know what you think. Viable gnocchi replacement: yay or nay?

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Servings: 4

Description

Soft, savory gnocchi-style dumplings made with pumpkin purée, vital wheat gluten, and protein powder. Their high protein and low net carb content leaves plenty of room for pairing with your favorite low-carb sauce and vegetables.

 

Yield: 4 servings of about ½ cup (70g) pieces each, totaling roughly 2 cups (280g) pieces ​✎

Equipment required: a good quality stand mixer

Prep Time: 25 minutes | Cook Time: 5-7 minutes

Storage: uncooked gnocchi refrigerated for up to 5 days. Cooked gnocchi refrigerated for up to 3 days. Note that texture will be firmer and less gnocchi-like once cooked, stored, and reheated. These are best freshly cooked and eaten hot.

Ingredients

Cooking Mode Disabled

Instructions

  1. Put all ingredients in the bowl of your stand mixer. Using the flat beater attachment, mix on low speed for 7 minutes until a lumpy dough has formed.

  2. Remove the dough from the mixer and knead briefly and form into a small loaf.
  3. Slice and then cut the loaf into pieces about the size of a finger section. ✎
  4. Using your fingers, form the pieces into little rectangular blocks.

  5. Optionally, roll these on a gnocchi board or with a fork to create striations.

  6. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Once boiling, add the gnocchi and simmer for 5 to 7 minutes. The gnocchi will change texture over time, but will not fall apart. They will actually become firmer and less doughy the longer they cook. You may wish to play around with the cooking time to see at what point they are the texture you like best.
  7. Once cooked, drain and serve fresh and hot with sauce of choice.

Notes

  • Eating multiple servings of these could result in digestive upset. Proceed with caution.
  • At the moment, I am not sure about alternatives to protein powder. I tried making these with coconut flour and it didn't work at all. I made an earlier version with almond flour and it worked out alright. The flavor was nice, but the texture was grainy. However, that version had different measurements and so I don't know if a simple swap to ⅓ cup almond flour would work out. I think the amount of pumpkin would also need to be reduced. A swap for lupin flour might work, but flavor-wise I think the results would not taste very good.
  • At some point during recipe testing, I accidentally made a batch without agar agar powder and it turned out fine, maybe a bit softer than with agar. However, I did not test that recipe for endurance and so am not sure how well the gnocchis would hold up with lengthy boiling or if cooked and stored.
  • You can make the gnocchis whatever size and shape suits you. I assume larger ones will need to be cooked longer.
  • Macros for this recipes are calculated with American national nutritional data (i.e. NCCDB & USDA entries in Cronometer) for all ingredients apart from the plain pea protein powder (Now Foods), agar agar powder (Now Foods), and nutritional yeast flakes (blend of Bob's Redmill and Foods Alive unfortified).
  • Macro numbers are rounded. Numbers equal to or greater than 10g are rounded to the nearest whole number (e.g. 10g, 11g, 12g, etc.) and numbers below 10g are rounded to the nearest 0.5g (0.5g, 1g, 1.5g ... 9g, 9.5g). Any numbers below 0.5g are given as is (e.g. 0.1g, 0.2g, etc.). Calories are rounded to the nearest multiple of 5.
Keywords: keto vegan gnocchi, vegan keto gnocchi, low-carb gnocchi, high-protein gnocchi, vegan gnocchi recipe, pumpkin gnocchi, pumpkin purée gnocchi, vital wheat gluten gnocchi, protein powder gnocchi, high-protein pasta alternative, low-carb pasta alternative, vegan high-protein dinner, vegan keto pasta
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Nutrition

Servings: 4
Serving Size: about ½ cup (70g) pieces
Calories 115
Protein 18g
Fat 1g
Total Carbs 8g
Fiber 3.5g
Net Carbs 4.5g

Total Carbs – (Fiber + Allulose + Sugar Alcohols) = Net Carbs

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Please bear with me while I continue to transfer content from my previous site, redirect links, revise formatting, and add all the data needed for the new site’s fancy features to function at their full capacity.

What happened?

On July 4th, Weebly (my hosting platform) informed me that it was removing its services in my region and that my website would be unpublished as of September 27th. Fortunately, I had already been working on this new site and could have it finished by then. However, on July 15th, Weebly cancelled my subscription and notified me that my website would be unpublished imminently. Thus, here you are, on my unfinished new site. My apologies.