Healthy One-Pan Sausage and Gnocchi Dinner with a Dairy Free Cream Sauce
This Healthy One-Pan Dairy Free Dinner is amazing. Filled with delicious chicken sausage, cauliflower gnocchi, and made creamy with coconut milk and delicious seasonings. I used Trader Joe’s Cauliflower Gnocchi to make this a gluten free recipe, but you can also use regular gnocchi. This recipe is also dairy free, soy free, egg free, and nut-free but does contain coconut.
I love one-pan dinners with easy ingredients like this one. This one-pan sausage dinner uses pre-cooked chicken sausage to speed up prep time and make this meal even easier. I also used Trader Joe’s frozen cauliflower gnocchi because it cooks up quickly when added to the pan. All of the flavors from the sausage and seasonings meld together for a delicious, rich, comforting dairy free dinner.
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Key Ingredients and Replacement Options
Please see the recipe card for all ingredients and directions. In this section, I’m simply going to show some of the key ingredients and give possible replacement options if you can’t find these ingredients.
Chicken Sausage – I chose to use precooked chicken sausage from Trader Joe’s. If you do choose to use a different type of sausage just make sure you give yourself enough time to cook it all the way through in step 1.
Trader Joe’s Frozen Cauliflower Gnocchi – This stuff is delicious and naturally gluten free. But if you don’t have Trader Joe’s near you, any other gnocchi will work. You may just need to adjust your cook time to work with your gnocchi.
Canned Peas – I thought this dish needed a little pop of vegetables, but I also wanted to keep things easy. If you want to replace the peas with another vegetable, go for it!
Brown Rice Flour – I used a small amount of brown rice flour to thicken the sauce. If you don’t have brown rice flour, all-purpose flour (gluten free or regular) will work just fine.
Nutritional Yeast – If you’re new to dairy free dinners, nutritional yeast is an amazing ingredient that adds a “cheesy” flavor. I buy my nutritional yeast on Amazon here for a great price. If you don’t have this though, you can leave it out. You may just want to add in some other seasonings you enjoy to “mask” the coconut flavor from the coconut milk.
Reduced-Fat Canned Coconut Milk – Canned coconut milk is the best dairy free milk to use for this recipe because it’s thick and creamy. I used reduced fat because it’s a bit runnier, but still very creamy.
If you try this One-Pan Sausage and Gnocchi Dinner with Dairy Free Cream Sauce, let me know what you think! Hit the stars to rate the recipe and leave a comment down below. And if you do make any replacements please share your experience in your comment.
Want another creamy dairy free dinner recipe? Try my Dairy Free Lasagna Roll-Ups (With Ground Turkey + White Sauce)!
One-Pan Sausage and Gnocchi Dinner with Dairy Free Cream Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 -12 oz pack Sweet Italian Chicken Sausage – I got mine from Trader Joe's
- 2 -12 oz bags Frozen Cauliflower Gnocchi from Trader Joe's – see replacement options in the blog post
- 1 -15 oz can Peas (drained)
- 3 tablespoons oil
- 3 cloves garlic
- 4 teaspoons brown rice flour – if you're not gluten free you can just use all purpose flour. If you are gluten free you can also replace this with gluten free all purpose flour
- 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper – more or less to taste
- 1/4 teaspoon salt – more or less to taste
- 1 can reduced fat coconut milk
Instructions
- Cut up sausage and add it to a large pan (preferrably stainless steel because it will give you all the good "stuck to the pan" flavor when you add in your coconut milk). Cook on medium high for about 5-8 minutes or until sausage begins to brown. Once sausage is golden on the sides remove it from the pan and place it in a bowl.
- Remove your pan from the heat (just to let it cool slightly while you add the next ingredients). Add in oil, garlic and flour. Place back on the heat and turn down to medium. Mix these ingredients well until the flour is very lightly brown.
- Then add in your nutritional yeast, salt, and pepper. *If your ingredients begin to burn at any time remove from heat quickly and turn down your temperature.* Add in your canned coconut milk and turn back up to medium-high. Mix very well with a wooden spoon scraping up any (tasty) stuck on bits from the pan.
- Add in your frozen gnocchi, peas, and sausage. Mix well to combine. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to keep it at a simmer. Cover and cook for about 7 minutes, or until gnocchi are heated through, mixing every couple minutes to ensure the gnocchi doesn't stick together.
- Enjoy!
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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