Gnocchi and Vegetable Tray Bake with Sumac and Pesto

Halfway between pesto pasta and baked salad, this vegetarian gnocchi traybake with sumac and pesto is as easy as it is nutritious.

this gnocchi and vegetable tray bake is as easy as mixing and baking.

Simply chop up all the veggies, combine with gnocchi and protein of choice, and toss everything in olive oil and spices. There is no extra salt in this recipe as sliced olives scatters bites of saltiness throughout. Sumac and chilli brings an acidic and spicy kick. Sun-dried tomato pesto marries everything together, but can be optional.

recipe inspo: less oven time + more veggies

Pasta bakes are great, but dried pasta either requires pre-boiling or 40-60 minutes of oven time. Due to energy efficiency concerns and general impatience, I tend not to gravitate towards recipes which require long oven time, especially for everyday cooking. Gnocchi, on the other hand, requires much less time to be roasted through.

I remember around a year back, Mob had a bunch of baked gnocchi recipes – a quick look at their website however, reveals nothing like this ! Lots of creamy, cheesy bakes ( – not something my asian self can make or eat on a regular basis due to the amount of dairy/cheese ), but nothing that is predominantly vegetable-based. So maybe this recipe is more like a baked salad, but with added carbs from the gnocchi.

this recipe is easily adaptable

Vegan version

Simply use vegan pesto, sub sun-dried tomatoes, or omit the pesto altogether. Honestly, the tray bake is salty and flavorful enough that the extra cheese in the pesto is not needed. If your olives are not very salty, you can season with salt to taste. I served this gnocchi and vegetable tray bake with some hard cheese over the top, but I think I would have preferred a smattering of fresh herbs as the combination of roasted veggies and gnocchi is already quite intense in flavor.

Change up the veggies

I used cabbage, sweet potato, and broccoli, but the veggies can be easily changed up. Some veggies do roast better than others though. For tray bakes and baked salads I like to combine one textural veggie with one sweet/flavorful veggie. Here, the broccoli and cabbage provides texture, while the sweet potato is tender and sweet, bringing contrast to the final dish.

• Ideas for texture veggies include cauliflower, asparagus, brussels sprouts, red cabbage, kale, rapini.
• Ideas for sweet/flavor veggies include pumpkin, squash (so many kinds!), beets, peppers, carrots, and purple sweet potato.

Finally, I used chickpeas because they are forgiving and very nice texturally when roasted up, but chickpeas can be replaced with your protein of choice – beans, tofu, tempeh – just make sure that their size is around the same or smaller than the gnocchi, or adjust baking time accordingly.