Grilled Cheesy Gnocchi With Leeks and Mustard | Joe Wicks Healthy Vegetarian Recipe

Grilled cheesy gnocchi with leaks and mustard recipe by joe wicks cover image.

This grilled cheesy gnocchi bake filled with cheesy leaks and mustard is an indulgent but healthy dinner time recipe brought to us by the body coach himself - Joe Wicks

Along with what seems like everyone else in lockdown. I’ve was spending my mornings spidermaning and kangaroo hopping around my living room following along to P.E with Joe on Youtube.

It inspired me to dust off and crack open my old Veggie Lean in 15 cookbook. Written by the body coach himself, Joe Wicks.

Filled with wonderful vegetarian recipes however It’s his homemade gnocchi recipe that I will be talking about today.

This homemade, healthy, vegetarian gnocchi recipe is both easy and cheesy. It’s not just a basic gnocchi bake, but it’s grilled. Which gives the cheesy top layer a lovely crisp texture.

I love these kind of recipes. Easy, delicious and quick. No fuss about it. Joe wick’s hit the nail on the head with this one.

If you do have the time, this recipe becomes that much better when you make your own homemade gnocchi from scratch.

Healthy Recipe

For all of you who know Joe Wicks from his silly looking exercises (Thank god i’ve never been caught by the window cleaner doing Silly Billy’s around my living room) and motivating home workouts. You may be familiar with his cookbooks. 

If you are unfamiliar with his cookbooks, you should give them a look into. He’s got around 7 cookbooks filled with healthy and delicious recipes. 

The thing I enjoy most about his recipes are; not only are they healthy and guilt free, but they are quick to make. It’s in the name after all, “Lean In 15”. 15 minute healthy recipes.

The book I have, is his vegetarian lean in 15 book. Although I can’t say all the recipes in this cookbook are delicious, because I haven't made every recipe in there. What I can say, is that every recipe I have made from the book, has been delicious.

Recipe inspiration

Recently, I have been making my own homemade Gnocchi pasta from scratch, so when I was flicking through his cookbook and saw this recipe for Grilled cheesy gnocchi with leeks and mustard. I just had to give it a try. Homemade gnocchi? gnocchi recipe? Perfect timing! I was not disappointed.

It’s low calorie, but very self-indulgent. I mean, it’s a big bowl of cheesy pasta. That’s not something you would usually consider with “healthy” or “low calorie” and yet, it is. I would happily eat this every night if I could, without needing healthy motivation to do so. In-fact i’ve had it two nights in a row so far…

Why not have a full healthy eating, yet delicious eating day? Try swapping out your morning toast or cereal with this Greek yogurt and Granola recipe. Then have this Grilled cheesy gnocchi bake for dinner. Full day of delicious healthy eating.

Vegetarian Recipe

This recipe is a vegetarian gnocchi recipe. For those who don’t know the only meat I eat is fish, hence why you won’t see any meat recipes on this blog. Other than the occasional seafood recipe.

If you are a meat-lover. Don’t let this being vegetarian gnocchi put you off this dish. I promise you, you won't miss the meat. 

So, it’s a healthy recipe? Tick, It’s a delicious recipe? Tick, It’s a vegetarian recipe? Tick. What else could make this dish better!? I’m glad you asked.

Joe Wick’s veggie Lean in 15 cookbook.

Veggie Lean in 15 by Joe Wicks

Quick Dinner Recipe

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any better, It’s also a super quick recipe.

That’s one of the most important things for me. Don’t get me wrong, I love long recipes. Spending a few hours in my kitchen making good food. Surrounded by food and delicious foodie smells.

It’s somewhat meditative. Just having this one thing to concentrate on. Try it out, next time you are feeling stressed, anxious or overwhelmed, just start cooking. See how you feel afterwards. How calm you feel (When it goes right)

However, the issue with all these longer recipes is that it’s unsustainable. just like most people, won’t have the time to be always in the kitchen.

From waking up, grabbing something to eat for breakfast then going for a 9 hour shift on my feet. Having to come home, clean, shower, maybe put a wash on. Finding 2 hours to spend in the kitchen is difficult.

Done in 15 minutes

Which often leads to unhealthy eating due to the quickness and ease of it. This gnocchi recipe is made in 15 minutes.

Anyone can find 15 minutes in their day to cook some food. 15 minutes is nothing. And I know I know, normally, when a recipe says 15 minutes, they actually mean 30 minutes prepping ingredients, 15 minutes putting the dish together, Then 1 hour cooking time. But that's not the case here. When I say 15 minutes I mean 15 minutes. It’s 5 minutes prepping, 10 minutes grilling and you’re done.

If you do want to make the afternoon out of this dish and you want that longer, meditative recipe. You can do that as well. Instead of using a bag of store bought Gnocchi, make your own! Homemade gnocchi is great.

Believe me, it’s easier than you think. So easy in fact, I have a recipe for making homemade gnocchi pasta from scratch here. It also includes a video to help you along. We will speak about that in a little more detail below.

Gnocchi

The main ingredient in the dish is going to be your Gnocchi pasta. What is Gnocchi you ask? Gnocchi, pronounced nyawk-kee or nok-ee. Is an Italian pasta, commonly a potato pasta, or as the Italians say Gnocchi di patate.

Basically, they are little fluffy pillows of delightfulness and heavenliness. 

Gnocchi pasta is made very simply with flour, eggs, and mashed potato. 3 ingredient goodness. Once they are prepared they freeze very well and cook in around 2 minutes.

Another pro to making your own homemade gnocchi, is that it’s a hell of a lot cheaper then buying it from the shop. Store bought gnocchi might set you back £3 for a 500gram bag. You can easily make triple that with £3.  

If you want to make your own homemade gnocchi from scratch (and I urge you to do so) I have a full post on how to do that at home, without any fancy pasta making equipment.

Ialso included a video so you can follow along with. You can find that post here.

So go to that post, make your own homemade gnocchi from scratch then return here for your grilled cheesy gnocchi with leeks and mustard recipe. I will see you in about 40 minutes.

Grilled Cheesy Gnocchi With Leeks and Mustard Recipe

Finally, we get to the bit that you’ve probably scrolled all the way down looking for. The gnocchi recipe. Easy to get ingredients and easy to follow recipe. If you prefer visual aid to follow along to, then prepare your ingredients and scroll a bit further down for my step by step photo instructions.

Grilled cheesy gnocchi with leeks and mustard photo.

Grilled cheesy gnocchi with leeks and mustard photo.

Step by Step instructions with photos

Below is a step by step instructions on how to make this. For the ingredients and full recipe card keep scrolling. Use this section as a reference once you’ve read over the recipe card.

Step one

Preheat your grill to maximum and bring a kettle of water to boil. Whilst the kettle is boiling, finely trim your leaks.

Trimmed leaks on chopping board.

Trimmed leeks photo.

Step Two

Melt the coconut oil in a frying pan over a medium heat and add the leeks with a pinch of salt. Fry leeks for 5 minutes or until softened. 

Trimmed leaks in a frying pan cooking.

Frying leeks photo.

Step Three

Whilst your leaks are frying, pour your boiling water into a source pan and bring to a rolling boil. Drop in your gnocchi pasta and cook according to the packet instructions.

With fresh gnocchi, they should only take 2 minutes to cook. When you first add your gnocchi they will sink to the bottom of the pan. Once cooked they will float to the top. That’s how you know they are ready.

Gnocchi just added to a pan sank at the bottom.

Gnocchi added to pan.

Gnocchi cooking floating to the top of pan.

Gnocchi 2 minutes after added to pan.

Step four

Once cooked, strain your gnocchi and add to an ovenproof dish or ovenproof frying pan and spoon over the leeks.

Gnocchi and fried leaks in baking dish.

Leeks and gnocchi layered.

Step Five

Combine the veg stock, double cream and mustard. Mix together. Pour this mix over the gnocchi and leaks and scatter the mature cheddar cheese evenly over the top.

Step six

Grill until bubbling then allow the gnocchi to cool for 5 minutes before eating. Season to taste and Voila! 15 minutes, healthy, delicious, grilled cheesy gnocchi pasta with leeks and mustard. 

Grilled yellow pasta photography,

If you want to see the behind the scenes to how I took my gnocchi pasta dish photos, and see how I do my food photography or want to recreate my photos. Then check out this post here on The behind the scenes food photography | Gnocchi pasta dish.

Joe Wicks Grilled Cheesy Gnocchi With Leeks and Mustard

Joe Wicks Grilled Cheesy Gnocchi With Leeks and Mustard

Yield: 3
Author: Cameron Fielding
Cook time: 15 MinTotal time: 15 Min
This grilled cheesy gnocchi bake filled with cheesy leaks and mustard is an indulgent but healthy dinner time recipe brought to us by the body coach himself - Joe Wicks

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Preheat your grill to maximum and bring a kettle of water to boil.
  2. Melt the coconut oil in a frying pan over a medium heat
  3. Add the leeks and a pinch of salt. Fry leeks for 5 minutes or until softened.
  4. Whilst your leaks are frying, pour your boiling water into a source pan and bring to a rolling boil.
  5. Drop in your gnocchi pasta and cook according to the packet instructions.
  6. Once cooked, strain your gnocchi and add to an ovenproof dish and spoon over the leeks.
  7. Mix the veg stock, double cream and mustard together. Pour over the gnocchi and leaks and scatter the mature cheddar cheese over the top.
  8. Grill until bubbling then allow the gnocchi to cool for 5 minutes before eating.

Notes

If you have the time and want to make elevate this recipe, make your own gnocchi seasoned with mixed herbs to take this dish to another level.

Nutrition Facts

Calories

310.74

Fat

17.09

Sat. Fat

11.19

Carbs

33.52

Fiber

2.68

Net carbs

30.84

Sugar

3.16

Protein

7.94

Sodium

502.17

Cholesterol

35.62

The nutritional information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.

grilled cheesy gnocchi bake, leaks, mustard, pasta, joe wicks recipe, healthy, low calorie pasta dinner,
dinner
Italian
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Hi, I’m Cameron, guv’nor of Smartblend. If you liked this then you’re in luck, I have a bunch more recipes like it. I share only vegetarian and pescatarian food recipes, cocktails, and drink guides with a sprinkling of wellness and mindful drinking. If that sounds like you, then stick around!

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