I went grocery shopping this morning and spied a new (to me) product: Basil gnocchi. Gnocchi are potato dumplings. Not all brands are vegan. Some contain dairy or eggs, but this brand is both vegan and gluten-free. We love the chewy texture of gnocchi, and since they cook in just 2 minutes in boiling water, they are great to have on-hand for fast meals.

I decided to cook these up for lunch today and top them with some of the veggies from yesterday’s CSA delivery. While the water was boiling, I diced up some onion, garlic, and half of a serrano pepper I had leftover from another dish. Next, I snapped off the ends of the peas and removed the strings. I cut them in half, to allow some of the peas to fall out of the pods while cooking. I also roughly chopped 1/2 of a red bell pepper, and about 1 cup of Swiss chard.

I sauteed the onion, garlic, and serrano pepper in some olive oil until soft, then added in the bell pepper and peas. I sauteed a few more minutes, until cooked but still crisp, and then added in the Swiss chard and let it wilt down for a few minutes, until it looked like this:

Since the gnocchi is so heavily flavored with basil, I didn’t feel the need to add much else. If you like a saucier pasta, you could add some crushed tomato to your veggie mixture.

Once the water for my gnocchi started to boil, I plopped the little dumplings in the water and let them cook until they begin to float to the top—2 to 3 minutes. After cooking, I drained the gnocchi and served them with the veggie mixture on top. Like so:

The end result was pretty tasty, although I don’t think I will buy these basil gnocchi again. For one, they turn an unappetizing shade of grey when cooked. Second, I am not in love with the basil flavor. It tastes more like dried basil than fresh, and since I have boatloads of fresh basil in the garden, I’d rather use that. Still, this was a quick and easy way to use up some of the CSA veggies.

CSA veggies used: Sugar snap peas (all), about one-quarter of the Swiss chard we got on Thursday