Gnocchi with Spinach and Avocado Goat Cheese Sauce
Updated Jul 14, 2021, Published Jan 31, 2016
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Gnocchi with Spinach and Avocado Goat Cheese Sauce is a quick and easy dinner solution with minimal cooking and maximum flavor!
The inspiration behind this recipe:
Ever get home, look at your kitchen, refrigerator and pantry and think…..”There’s got to be dinner in here somewhere?”
Who hasn’t been there? The same thing happens to people like me who cook for a living. What’s really sad is when you get home from cooking beautiful and healthy meals for other people all day then you sit down to a dinner of reheated brown rice and a fried egg. Not complaining, grateful for it and it does help to keep things in perspective.
This rich, delicious and comforting Gnocchi with Spinach and Avocado Goat Cheese Sauce was born from a dinner desperation moment!
Super-ripe avocados were sitting on my kitchen island and a container of baby spinach in the fridge was on the brink of becoming compost. We always have a variety of cheese including goat cheese on hand. I like to keep a package of gnocchi in the pantry which makes for a quick meal and it’s a nice change from pasta.
Feel free to make your own potato gnocchi. To me, it’s a wonderful weekend project, but on a weeknight….not so much. Both DeLallo and GiaRusso potato gnocchi will give you good results.
How to make Gnocchi with Spinach and Avocado Goat Cheese Sauce:
- Combine the avocado, goat cheese and the juice of half a lemon in a food processor.
- Bring water to a boil, salt it then boil the gnocchi per package directions and drain. Reserve some of the cooking water.
- Cook the spinach with garlic in a small saute pan then transfer the avocado and goat cheese combination to the saucepan with the spinach.
- Add a little of the reserved gnocchi cooking water to the saute pan to thin and heat the sauce, toss in the gnocchi and voila! Dinner’s done!
More easy pasta recipes you’ll love:
- Penne with Creamy Cashew and Spinach Pesto Sauce
- Creamy One Pot Chicken and Orzo “Risotto” with Bacon
- Chicken in Rosa Sauce with Roasted Red Bell Pepper and Spinach
- Baked Orzo with Pesto, Peas, Prosciutto and Mascarpone
- Shrimp, Scallop and Artichoke Lasagna
- Pumpkin Ravioli with Sage Brown Butter
Gnocchi with Spinach and Avocado Goat Cheese Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 medium avocados, pitted and peeled
- 1 log (5-ounce) goat cheese, plus more for crumbling over gnocchi if desired
- 1/2 lemon, juiced
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 package (16-ounce) potato gnocchi
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 container (10-ounce) baby spinach
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
Instructions
- Combine avocados, goat cheese, lemon juice and salt and black pepper in a food processor. Process until smooth. Set aside.
- Bring a small pot of salted water to a boil. Add the gnocchi and cook per package directions. Drain, but reserve some of the cooking water.
- Heat olive oil in a small saute pan over medium-high heat.
- Add the spinach and garlic and cook 3 to 4 minutes or until spinach is wilted.
- Transfer avocado mixture to saucepan with spinach. Add a small amount of the cooking water to the spinach-avocado-goat cheese mixture to thin as desired.
- Add gnocchi to pan and toss.
- Serve with additional crumbled goat cheese if desired with a good dose of freshly cracked black pepper.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this? Leave a comment below!
My husband is the cook in the family, but I wanted to make something special for him. This recipe was perfect! Easy but with an extravagant tasting end result. I’m lactose and gluten intolerant (I know…what are the odds of having both?). All I had to do was use a gluten free gnocchi to make this recipe safe and I did not feel like I was missing out on any flavor!
I think I’m going to try this with some chopped walnuts. Any thoughts?
Hi, Laurie, Thanks so much for your question. I think something a little crunchy like walnuts would be a great addition! Thanks again and hope you enjoy!
This looks delicious! Are the leftovers ok for a couple of days, or does the avocado in the sauce go brown pretty quickly?
Hi, Alia, Thanks for your question. The avocado is going to turn it brown. What you may try is pureeing the sauce so that the green from the spinach “takes over,” but I think there’s still going to be some color change. It’s just the nature of avocados. Thanks again and hope you enjoy!
A very special meal! All the flavor and none of the consequences of a heavy cream sauce? This is genius. I did sub aged parmesan for the goat cheese, because that is what I had in fridge. Looking forward to goat cheese, which I adore, next time.
Hi, Amber, Thanks so much and so happy you enjoyed! Parmesan is a great substitute as some people don’t care for goat cheese. Thanks again!