This vibrant green kale and white bean pasta sauce with gnocchi is a quick, 15-minute plant-based dinner that is perfect for weeknights.
Jump to:
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Quick and Easy: It only takes 15 minutes to make this simple green pasta sauce. Made using pre-made gnocchi that only takes a few minutes to cook, this is perfect for busy weeknights after work when you can’t be bothered cooking. Rinse your blender immediately after use to make cleaning up as easy as possible!
Nutritious and Tasty: This recipe is made mostly from wholefoods with fresh kale leaves, canned beans, fresh lemon juice and garlic. It has lots of flavor with only a few ingredients. It is a great recipe for the whole family.
Ingredients
This Kale & White Bean Gnocchi combines a few fresh ingredients with pantry staples for a delicious and quick meal. Here’s what you’ll need:
- Kale: Tuscan or curly kale will both work fine, whichever you prefer. If you can buy it pre-chopped in a bag, then that will make it even more convenient.
- White beans: cannellini beans my preference because they are so tender and blend well, but butter beans also work well. Drain and rinse them before using. That way the leftover water from the can doesn’t make the sauce too bean-y tasting.
- Unsweetened soy milk. I use fortified soy milk for most of my recipes because I eat plant-based. It’s creamy and has the most similar nutritional profile to dairy milk, but of course you can use any milk you’d like. Make sure it is unsweetened and note that the consistency of the sauce will depend on the kind that you use – almond milk is a bit thinner for example. The only milks I don’t recommend are rice and coconut (the kind from a carton, canned would be okay) as they are too sweet.
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Salt
- Lemon
- Garlic: if I’m ingredient prepping for the week, I’ll use my Tupperware chopper – it makes mincing garlic so much quicker and less messy.
- Gnocchi: don’t fuss making it from scratch, buy pre-made from the supermarket. This is supposed to be a quick dinner after all! If you’re vegan, check the ingredients list to make sure it doesn’t contain eggs. In Australia, the gnocchi sold in the grocery section is vegan friendly and the fresh gnocchi in the fridge contains eggs.
- Sourdough bread, to serve.
- Dried red pepper (chili) flakes: optional, for garnish.
How to Make Kale & White Bean Gnocchi
The beauty of this recipe is that it’s so simple to make. In a nutshell, it involves blending the sauce ingredients, pan-frying cooked store-bought gnocchi with some garlic, then adding in the sauce. I like to make this in my Vitamix as the kale has quite a lot of volume, so a larger blender makes it nice and easy to fit all the ingredients in one batch. If you were using frozen kale though (see the Substitution section below) you could use a small blender, like a Nutribullet (my other favorite appliance and a bargain as it is super powerful). Here’s how to make Kale & White Bean Gnocchi in 15 minutes or less:
Step One: Blend kale, cannellini beans, soy milk, olive oil, lemon juice, and salt until smooth.
Step Two: Cook pre-made gnocchi to packet instructions.
Step Three: Sauté minced garlic in olive oil until fragrant. Add cooked gnocchi to the pan and stir to coat with garlic.
Step Four: Pour the blended sauce into the pan, add water to thin the sauce as needed.
Step Five: Once the sauce is hot, serve with some crusty sourdough bread (I like to pan fry the bread with a little bit of olive oil and a good dusting of salt – heaven!). Garnish with lemon zest and red pepper flakes.
Substitutions and Variations
Greens: Swap kale for spinach, Swiss chard – it would also be delicious with a mix of greens. Try combining spinach and basil, or spinach and arugula (rocket) for a more peppery flavor profile. Frozen greens (like spinach or kale) will also work!
Beans: I love cannellini beans but this recipe works with any white bean, or even chickpeas.
Milk: Most unsweetened plant-based milks or dairy milk will work. I don’t recommend rice or coconut milk from a carton as they are too sweet and thin.
Storage
Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Reheat on low heat on the stovetop or in the microwave. The sauce will thicken once cooled, so you will likely need to add a splash of water to thin the sauce.
FAQs
Yes, you can use frozen kale. Thaw it first and squeeze out any excess water before blending it with the other sauce ingredients. You could also use frozen spinach.
Absolutely! You can prepare the sauce up to 2 days in advance. Store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator and reheat it gently when ready to use. Don’t forget to add a little bit of water to thin it if needed as it tends to thicken up when cooled. Don’t reheat the sauce again if you have leftovers though.
A regular blender will work too. You may need to blend a bit longer to achieve a smooth consistency and add a little more liquid if necessary. You could use a food processor, but you won’t get quite as silky-smooth results for the sauce, it may be a little lumpy.
Yep! You can use any pasta you prefer. Adjust the cooking time according to the pasta’s instructions.
Serving Suggestions and More Recipes
If you love quick and easy pasta recipes like me, then make sure to try my creamy Cauliflower Alfredo, Tomato Baked Orzo, Sundried Tomato Pasta or Tofu Carbonara.
I’d love to know what you think of this recipe, drop a rating and review in the comments section below. You can also tag me on Instagram (I’m @glowdiaries___) and I will reshare your posts to stories. I always love to see how your meals turn out and what you’re cooking up 🙂
Kale & White Bean Gnocchi
Equipment
- High powered blender
Ingredients
Sauce
- 3 cups kale leaves Stems removed; approx. 90g
- 1 15 oz can cannellini beans Drained and rinsed; approx. 265g drained
- ⅓ cup unsweetened soy milk Approx. 80ml
- ¼ cup olive oil Extra virgin; approx. 50g
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 lemon Juiced and zested; yields approx. 3 tbsp juice / 45ml
Gnocchi
- ½ tbsp olive oil Extra virgin
- 3 cloves garlic Minced; approx. 1 tbsp / 9g
- 1 lb gnocchi Cooked according to package instructions; approx. 500g
To Serve (Optional)
- toasted sourdough bread Optional; for serving
- red pepper flakes Optional; also called chili flakes
- olive oil Optional drizzle
Instructions
- Add the kale leaves, cannellini beans, soy milk, olive oil, lemon juice and zest, and salt to a high-powered blender. Blend until smooth, about 1 minute. If too thick to blend, add a splash of water and scrape down the sides as needed.
- Heat 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and sauté for about 1 minute until fragrant. Add the cooked gnocchi and stir to coat, cooking for 30 seconds.
- Pour the blended sauce into the skillet with the gnocchi and reduce the heat to low. Stir in about 1/4 cup of water (or more) to thin the sauce to your desired consistency. Heat through, then taste and adjust seasoning with extra salt if needed.
- Serve immediately with toasted sourdough bread. Garnish with a drizzle of olive oil, extra lemon zest, and red pepper flakes, if using.
Joel says
I made this sauce for pasta, and used spinach and oat milk and it was fabulous. I really appreciate the use of beans as a sauce thickener because it makes it filling / have enough protein to be a standalone meal. Next time I’ll definitely only cook the sauce until just heated through because it was much better when I tasted it before it was cooked than after.
Liz Douglas says
love hearing this! using it with pasta and spinach sounds soo good 🙂
Aoife Lyons says
A little unusual but still very good. Good olive oil is a must. Used spinach instead of Kale and worked well.
Liz Douglas says
heey Aoife spinach is such a good stand-in for kale. yummm. glad it worked out for you! 🙂
Tine says
loved how good and tasty the sauce turned out, can’t wait to use it on pasta too.