How to Cook Trader Joe's Cauliflower Gnocchi by Completely Ignoring the Instructions on the Package
I’d like to talk about the frozen Trader Joe’s Cauliflower Gnocchi for a sec. Yes, THE cauliflower gnocchi.
I slept on this product for far too long… and I don’t mean as a pillow (because it is gnocchi after all).
I tried it when it first came out (prepared as directed) and it was terrible. And then I started seeing it pop up all over and it looked way better and I revisited the gnocchi in the freezer section. Turns out everyone is obsessed with it for a reason.
The obsession starts with the fact that they are a very clean packaged food. They are made of cauliflower with cassava flour, potato starch, olive oil and sea salt. So simple—and that means they comply with basically any dietary restriction you or your people might have. They are egg-free, gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan, etc. Beyond that though, they taste great and provide a blank canvas for a lot of different dishes.
When you ignore the absolutely horrible instructions on the Trader Joe’s bag, things get good. And also ignore all the instructions from other internet people about defrosting them first, because that’s unnecessary/annoying and you know you’ll never remember to do it anyway.
By baking them on high heat, the cauliflower gnocchi comes out crispy on the outside and pillowy on the inside. From there, they are all set to throw into any dish (I mean, people are doing some very creative things with these!), or just eat them right off the pan.
How to Cook Trader Joe’s Cauliflower Gnocchi in the Oven
makes one package (2 servings)
Ingredients
1 package Trader Joe’s Cauliflower Gnocchi
drizzle of olive oil
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 425 F.
Spread one (only one—read the note below!) bag of frozen gnocchi onto a non-stick baking sheet. Lined or unlined—choose your own adventure. (My favorite small baking sheet is this jelly roll pan and I don’t usually line it.)
Toss with a drizzle of olive oil.
Roast for 20 minutes, then flip all the little gnocchi babies over.
Roast for another 15 minutes.
EAT.
Notes
Huge note! For the recipe to work as written, you can really only do one bag of gnocchi with nothing else in the oven or the oven temperature and moisture levels are impacted. Two bags of gnocchi on separate pans will take about twice the baking time total and the texture may come out a little differently. One pan of gnocchi and one pan of frozen veg will will be able the same result. I still haven’t figured out how to adjust so it works as nicely with larger batches or extra things in the oven, but I’m working on it for you and will update when I land on a plan!
These go great as a substitute for or addition to the butter beans in the One-Pot Italian Sausage, Spinach & Butter Beans.
You could use these instead of tots on top of your Samosa Chaatdish.
