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Happy new year! Let’s start the new year off the right way with my sheet pan gnocchi recipe, full of roasted honeynut squash, kale, mixed mushrooms, and ground pork. This will make enough for six one-bowl meals, which is great for meal prep and stocking the freezer with ready-to-go options for when I don’t feel like cooking (blasphemy, I know!)
Meal prep has been a key to managing busy schedules for myself and my husband. If I can cook once and have extras for healthy options throughout the week for lunch, that is a huge win. This particular recipe reheats well in both a toaster oven and a microwave, so it’s great for an office lunch (or a quick work-from-home lunch that doesn’t take too much time out of the day) or dinner at home if I don’t want to cook that evening.
Celebrating Seasonal Winter Produce
I’ll put it bluntly: winter is not peak farmers market season. For many across the United States*, the farmers markets are only open late spring through late fall, without a winter market option. Others have an indoor winter market, but they tend to have fewer farmers and drastically fewer options that are in season.
This sheet pan meal, however, is full of what is in season in winter market months: winter squash, which can be stored for months; kale, a cool weather crop; and mushrooms, which are often sold year round and grown indoors with exacting conditions. And all the flavors blend well.
*Of course, all of this is excepting California. California is special. Year round farmers markets rock!
Ingredients and Substitutions
Honeynut Squash
I’ve written about honeynut squash before, on my farmers market squash guide. Honeynuts look like miniature butternut squashes. They are sweeter with a thin, edible skin, which means that you don’t need to peel them. They’re incredibly easy to prep!
If you’re really feeling pressed for time, you can buy peeled and cubed butternut squash from the grocery store. You can also substitute with delicata squash; this will not need to have the separate roasting step, as delicata cooks extremely quickly.
Kale
I prefer using lacinato kale, also known as dinosaur kale, in this recipe. These kale leaves are thicker and can better withstand the roasting process without charring and burning. Instead, lacinato kale will crisp up and provide textural contrast with the rest of this one-dish meal.
If you want to use another type of kale, such as russian kale or curly kale, try wilting it in the pan with the sausage rather than roasting it with the honeynut squash and the gnocchi. This won’t provide the textural contrast that the lacinato kale gets in the oven, but it won’t burn as easily.
Gnocchi
Gnocchi is one of the easiest bases to use for sheet pan meals. They require no additional prep and
There are many different kinds of gnocchi that will all work equally well. I used shelf stable gnocchi (found in the dried pasta section of the grocery store), but you could easily substitute the fresh gnocchi (i.e. the stuff packaged in the refrigerated section next to the fresh pastas), or even Trader Joe’s Cauliflower or Kale Gnocchi. The prep is the same for all of them; no need to boil them first!
Ground Pork
I think pork adds a great umami flavor to this dish, but if you are against using pork for whatever reason, try ground turkey or chicken instead. If you want to make this vegan, chop up some more mixed mushrooms. This recipe is very flexible.
Tips and Tricks
My preferred method for deseeding squashes is a melon baller, rather than a normal spoon. Melon ballers have a sharper edge, and will cut through the seeds and the fibrous strands around the seeds (endocarp, if we are being super precise and scientific about it). This will be your new go-to method, I promise.
Some squashes won’t need the longer pre-bake; if using delicata squash, skip the first bake and roast the chopped squash along with the kale and the gnocchi.
Serving Suggestions
This recipe makes six servings, so plenty for dinner one night and multiple lunches during the week. What I like to do is freeze individual portions, then vacuum seal them for longer storage. Then, when I’m in need of a quick meal, I can just reheat in either the toaster oven (an individual portion will reheat in about 30 minutes or so, stirring halfway through), or in the microwave (3 to 5 minutes).
Sheet Pan Gnocchi with Roasted Honeynut Squash
Let's start the new year off the right way with my sheet pan gnocchi recipe, full of roasted honeynut squash, kale, mixed mushrooms, and ground pork.
Ingredients
- 2 honeynut squashes
- 4 tbsp avocado oil, divided
- ⅛ tsp red pepper flaked
- 1 tsp salt, divided
- 1 bunch lacinato kale
- 8 oz mixed mushrooms (shiitake, button, cremini, oyster, etc), sliced
- 1 package shelf stable gnocchi (typically 17.5 oz)
- 1 lb ground pork
- ⅛ tsp dried rosemary
- ¼ tsp paprika
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F.
- Cut honeynut squashes in half lengthwise and remove seeds (these can be roasted later and eaten as a snack or as a salad topping). Chop squash into ½ cubes. Coat in 1 tbsp avocado oil and ¼ tsp salt. Place cut side up on a sheet pan. Roast in the oven for 20 minutes until softened (squash will not be fully cooked).
- While squash is roasting, destem the kale and tear into bite sized pieces. Toss with the sliced mushrooms, gnocchi, 1 tbsp avocado oil, and ¼ tsp salt.
- Remove squash from the oven and add the kale, mushroom, and gnocchi mixture. Return to the oven and roast for an additional 20 minutes.
- While the gnocchi mixture is in the oven, mix ground pork with remaining salt, rosemary, and paprika. Brown pork in a cast iron pan in large chunks in the remaining avocado oil.
- Remove gnocchi from the oven and add the cooked pork. Toss to combine.
- Serve and enjoy!
- Leftovers will keep in the refrigerator for 3 days or 3 months in the freezer.
