A simple one pan, no chop gnocchi bake! Packed with frozen mixed vegetables and a comforting cheesy cream sauce, you will not believe how easy it is to create this comforting family meal. Use your choice of vegetables to make it perfect for you.

Introducing a Life Changing One Pan, No Bake Dinner Recipe

So it might be hyperbolic to call a recipe “life changing” but let me have this one. It’s a one pan “dump and go” dinner and there is NO chopping. It was an absolute delight to create this recipe. On the nights I had it planned in, I just felt a little lighter all day knowing how simple my dinner would be.

And it’s a dinner to look forward to for more reasons than its ease! It is just pure comfort food. A big pan full of gnocchi and mixed veggies in a creamy cheesy sauce. With a cheesy topping too! It’s one for the cheese lovers, that is for certain.

Using a frozen vegetable mix is what keeps this so simple. There’s lots of variety, different flavors and textures to stop the meal from feeling too “samey”. And you can mix and match! Raid your freezer! I’ve made this with all kinds of different veggie mixes, or individual veggies, and it’s always good. You can throw in a mix of fresh and frozen veggies if you have things to use up and are willing to do some chopping – it really is so flexible.

With a recipe like this, the main thing is to take note of all the ratios and then you can do your own thing!

How it works… it really is this easy!

Ingredients: What to Know & How to Customize This Recipe

This can be a super affordable meal. You get 6 hearty portions and we are fine to use budget and store brand ingredients here. Keep it as cheap as you wish! The frozen veggies are a huge cost AND effort saver, so that is a win. But using pre-grated cheese and frozen garlic are two splurges for convenience sake, so you can get the costs down a little more by using fresh garlic and grating cheese off the block.
Dried packaged gnocchi is what we’re going for here. Napolina brand is great and I stocked up while it was on sale, but Aldi gnocchi is significantly cheaper than most brands and a great option.
So let’s talk about that cheese. In my last baked gnocchi recipe (which this one is based on) I told you that you HAD to grate your cheddar off the block, and if you used pre-grated cheese I had, like, no idea what would happen. Hands up – I tried it for this recipe and I even used a super cheap brand and it was FINE. It was actually a little less oily thanks to the potato starch the cheese is tossed in to stop it sticking in the bag. I can only vouch for the UK cheese (I think American bagged cheese uses different anti sticking agents) but I was more than happy with it.
I use double (heavy) cream for this recipe. If you wish to make it lighter and use half and half / single cream, go ahead, your sauce will just be runnier.
Mustard and dried herbs are there to add flavor but you can stray from my recipe. Provencal herbs or any herb mix will slot in fine. And I keep thinking how fun it would be to make it spicy with jerk seasoning! You can go so many ways with this.
I like to use mixed frozen veggies for this recipe! Or you can mix and match individual veggies. It’s super flexible but I have some guidelines to follow in the next section…

Top Tips: How to get the right mix of frozen vegetables

You want four cups of frozen vegetables for this recipe and you can mix and match to your own tastes but after several tests I do have some best practises to recommend:

You ideally want your frozen veggies to be in small pieces. I personally find that the vegetable mixes tend to have their veggies chopped pretty small, and I love how that works here. Individual broccoli and cauliflower florets, on the other hand, tend to be huge! You could let them defrost a little and then chop the florets down if you are particularly keen to use those.
Cubed sweet potato and butternut squash work well, though I wouldn’t do more than 50% of those or it can end up a little too heavy.
While I juuuust said that you can mix and match the veggies to your own tastes, I would definitely consider whether you’re incorporating enough bright sweet flavors. For me, this recipe really fell into place when I used a mix that included red pepper and corn.
I would also recommend that you go easy on water-retaining veggies such as mushrooms, zucchini, spinach and eggplant because they will leach a lot more moisture into the dish as they defrost and cook. Some of these may also cause the color of the sauce to muddy. I had success testing this with 1 cup of frozen mushrooms, so I can vouch for 1 cup being OK but I didn’t push the limits any more than that.
Adding fresh or canned veggies to the mix is completely fine to do, anything hard can go in alongside the frozen veggies and anything leafy could be stirred through at the end, before adding the cheesy topping. As noted in the recipe card, using a lot of fresh veggies will make the dish cook a little quicker, so you’ll just want to check in earlier if you’re doing this.
I never tried this myself but don’t hesitate to throw a can of beans in there as part of your veggie component to increase the protein of this dish.

Measuring your veggies without cups?

I specifically like to measure in American style cups for this, because the weights of frozen vegetables will vary, and it allows you to mix and match fresh and frozen veggies without the differences in weight being an issue.

Nevertheless, if you don’t have or use measuring cups I would suggest pouring your veggies into a measuring jug. 4 cups is 950ml so aim for that line.

More Easy Comforting One Pot Dinners

Cheesy Asparagus Gnocchi Bake

Baked Tortellini with Spinach & Cream Cheese

Creamy Halloumi Pasta Bake with Cherry Tomatoes

One Pot Tortellini with Mushrooms