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Traditional Italian Gnocchi made gluten free, grain free and with cauliflower! You read it right! You can make a light and fluffy gnocchi with cauliflower!
If you’re new around here, you may not know I am full blooded, 100% Italian. My dad came to the USA when he was just 15, from Rome.
I come from a childhood of pasta, bread, and sauce.
Carbs, and more carbs, that’s what I loved and craved growing up.
When I decided to start living a sugar-free, white flour free lifestyle about 13 years ago, I mourned the loss of my beloved Italian Classic pasta dishes.
It’s took me a long time to get over the fact I may never enjoy them again. But deciding to go low carb just a few years ago has caused me to think outside of the box.
Thinking outside the box has made me fall in love with Cauliflower. It has become one of my favorite ingredients to sneakily include in many recipes without my kids having any idea. Bacon Cheeseburger Cauliflower Casserole, Chicken Enchilada Cauliflower Casserole, Cauliflower Tots and now these little gnocchi!
I worked on this recipe about 4 times. Each time changing up the ingredients just slightly to try and get that familiar texture I wanted. I can’t say they are perfectly identical to a traditional white flour gnocchi, but they do have a light and fluffy texture that melts in your mouth.
The first two times I made them I actually baked them, instead of boing. While I liked that they held up well once in sauce on the stove, I felt they didn’t have that soft exterior I wanted.
When they are frozen after making them and not baked, you can then just pop them into boiling water for just 2 minutes.
I repeat, just 2 minutes is all these need or you will end up with mush. They are pretty much cooked anyway since the cauliflower is cooked prior to rolling them.
I think they may be slightly larger than your typical sized gnocchi, but you can make them as little or large as you prefer. I was able to make 48 large ones and prefer them this way.
Topped here with some fresh parmesan and basil and this is comfort all the way.
Brenda’s Notes:
- I will caution that if you don’t own a food scale, you should, otherwise you may not get the right texture for these gnocchi. Coconut flour is tricky to work with and measuring in cup amounts just really isn’t accurate. You’ve been warned.
My daughter and youngest loved these! My oldest, who is a teen, said he could still taste the cauliflower, but he didn’t care because they were so good! My life is complete.
Hope you love these like we do!
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Low Carb Cauliflower Gnocchi
Ingredients
- 3 cups Cauliflower florets
- 1 cup parmesan grated
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 1 tsp xanthan gum
- 3/4 cup coconut flour
- 12 oz mozzarella cheese
Instructions
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Place your cauliflower in asteamerand steam until tender. Add it to a food processor and process until mashed.
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Add in remaining ingredients except mozzarella cheese.
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Pulse until combined well.
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Place the mozzarella cheese into a small microwavable bowl or sauce pan on stove and cook on low heat until melted or microwave 1-2 minutes until melted.
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Once melted stir in the cauliflower mixture until all combined.
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Wet fingers and form 48 gnocchi, about 1-2 tbsp of batter depending on how big you want them.
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Once formed, sit them on a fork and roll them over the fork. Place them on a parchment lined baking sheet. Freeze for 1 hour or until ready to use.
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From freezer, bring a pot of water to boiling, add salt.
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Place no more than 10-12 gnocchi in boiling water for 2 minutes. Drain and add to sauce pan with tomato sauce or olive oil, butter and garlic.
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Saute just a few minutes until heated through with sauce and any other ingredients. I used some kalamata olives and fresh basil.
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Keep gnocchi frozen in an airtight container or ziploc bag until ready to use.
Recipe Notes
Net Carbs: 4.8g
I’m really excited to try this as gnocchi is one pasta I do really miss. The recipe seems like a good candidate for my dried cauliflower – I cook it and then dehydrate it and pulse it into almost a flour. I’ve used it successfully to make a cauliflower flat bread and I suspect this would work too. Cauliflower is one of those vegetables that goes up and down in price – $2.99 this week $4.99 last week so when it’s on sale I cook it up and use my dehydrator. It’s so versatile I can never keep enough on hand.
What a great idea, I’m going to try dehydrating it as well!
That is an amazing idea! You cut off all the stems right and just use the florets?
Yes
BTW I love that you include the nutrition in your recipes. I copy the ones I really want to make to Plan To Eat (recipe and meal plan repository) and it picks up the nutrition if its on the recipe. Otherwise I have to go to Fitness Pal and link the recipe so that it will tell me the nutrition and then copy it back. Thanks a bunch.
BTW Plan to eat always includes the URL and source of each recipe so if anyone else on the site sees it they can link right back to you.
Hey!! I just made this, following the recipe exactly and although it was absolutely delicious (cauliflower and cheese nom nom nom) it didn’t hold together at all? ? I ended up with little mash blobs hahahaha! I think I’m going to try the ricing method and rolling them in coconut flour next time!
Thanks! I did mention above we tried baking them as well, instead of boiling, they will hold up better, not as soft as traditional when baked, but still good.
Hi,
I really want to try this recipe but my body doesn’t do well with xanthan gum. Can I use cornstartch or something else?
You can.
I would like to try baking them. What temp and for how long? Thanks!
I baked them at 350 for about 20 minutes, but flip over half way through.
Can I sub the coconut flour out for psyllium husk powder. I don’t eat coconut.
That might work well, please let me know if you try it.
Not good at all !! Sorry but they were balls of goo
Sorry about that. I did bake them and that worked great I just liked the outside texture better not baked, but baked they hold together well.
Can I sub out the parmasen and mozzarella cheese for something else?
Would Almond Flour work for these as well? Deathly allergic to coconut. I am low carb low sugar and so miss pasta!! Im a newbie at low carb and Mac and Cheese was my thing!!
Unfortunately I can’t try it with almond flour as my youngest has a tree nut allergy. I would like to say it will work but I can’t be sure. Sorry!
I’ve been using cassava flour recently and loving the results. It has a kind of stodgy consistency when cooked. I’m going to try it with this recipe. I’ve used it with sweet potato for flat breads, patties, oven and pan fried fries… I ordered it online. Happy cooking!
What other flours can be used? I’m allergic to both coconut and all other nuts as well
I’m thinking you could try whole wheat if you’re not looking to keep it low carb.
Try cassava flour. It’s great! And low carb.
Did you wring the cauliflower after it was boiled to remove some moisture?
I don’t recall doing that.
I baked mine and added them to a pot of turkey gnocchi soup. They are better than I imagined. Thanks. Also I was out of almond flour and only had coconut flour so they were perfect,
Thanks for sharing!
Quick question. You noted 12 oz mozzarella cheese but then it says 228g. 12oz should be 339g, same as the cauliflower, I’d suspect so just wanted to check and make sure I was using the right amount. Should I use 12oz or 228g of mozzarella? Thanks!
Many people don’t have a scale to accurately weigh in grams so I am trying to also give the ounces. But the grams is what I go by when I weigh.
These sound really good! Looking forward to trying them. Thanks for including the nutritional info.
So excited to try! Do you think these would these work well in a soup?
I wish I would’ve read the comments before spending the time prepping them for them to completely fall apart in the water. ? I’ll try baking them next time. Bummed!
I was thinking that adding a tsp of Gelatin could replace the Xanthum Gum??
That could work.
Is it 3 cups and 12 ounce of cauliflower or 36 ounces of cauliflower?
3 cups or in weight on a scale, 12 ounces.
Is your nutritional info for 1 gnocchi? Or is it for the 10-12 gnocchi you put in a pot at a time? Did i miss that somehwere?
My recipe plug in had a glitch and converted all servings to 1 gram, that’s a mistake which I am trying to fix manually on all recipes.It’s updated now, 8 gnocchi per serving.
This is not nut free. Coconut is a tree nut. I was looking forward to trying this, but unfortunately I’m allergic to tree nuts. Is there anything to substitute the coconut flour?
The FDA considers coconut a tree nut but it is not, it is actually a drupe which is a fruit with a hard stony covering enclosing the seed (like a peach or olive). While it is possible to be allergic to coconut, the cross reactivity for those with tree nut allergies is very rare. My son has a severe tree nut and peanut allergy and my allergist has told me most people with a nut allergy don’t have any issues with coconut. He’s 12 and he’s been eating coconut for years without issue. Even though the FDA says something, it doesn’t mean it’s true and I’d go by what your allergist says. You could try subbing sesame meal for the coconut flour in this recipe.
Hi Brenda, you mentioned everything needs to be weighed, but you give measurements in cups, tsp, etc. except the 12 oz of cheese. Can you send me the weight measurements – I prefer to cook by weight rather than other measurements. Thanks
At the bottom of the recipe you can click US or Metric to see the weight amounts.
The recipe here does not list the grams for the coconut flour but you mention that should always weigh it which I agree with. Can you provide grams for all the ingredients. Most scales can switch between grams and ounces so if you have a scale it is possible to do the measurements accurately
At the bottom of the recipe you can click either US or Metric measurements.
Has anyone here microwaved mozerella??? As soon as it hits the the other room temp ingredients it goes right back to a solid state. What the?? How do you mix in melted mozerella???
I read few comments, so if I want to put this in soup I should bake it first so it will hold up better? Or just put some in at time of serving? I have a very tasty recipe I found several years ago for tortellini soup but now I have to do low carb. I thought about just putting in zucchini chunks but it already has spinach in it.
Thanks!
Yes I’d bake first then add at the very end of the soup being down, maybe the last 5 minutes or so.
Made these tonight for the first time. They were delicious. Put them in my Zuppa Toscana soup that I have a recipe from the Olive Garden. Husband loved it. Thanks for the recipe.
What kind of mozzarella do you use?
Shredded part skim
Hi,
I’ve seen some instagrammers frying their Trader Joe’s cauliflower gnocchi instead of boiling or baking. Do you think this could work for this recipe as well? If you try it out, please report back! Thanks!