Veggie Halloumi Gnocchi Bake

A hearty, cheesy and comforting gnocchi bake packed with bites of halloumi cheese and melt in the mouth roasted vegetables! This is a flavor packed vegetarian meal which can be personalised to your tastes and is sure to be a hit. This recipe gives you an ideal way of using up what’s in your fridge to create an amazing family meal!

Introducing My New Favorite Fridge Cleaner-Outer

Gnocchi! Halloumi! Two of my favorite things unite. With a tray of roasted veggies along for the ride to transform them into a super delicious, nutritious family meal.

My veggie lineup is very Mediterranean including pepper, eggplant (aubergine) and cherry tomatoes with a handful of fresh basil. But I’ve tried it many different ways with many different things. So you can definitely mix this up! Use what you’ve got.

This recipe is not of the “quick and easy” kind, given that you need to roast all the veggies before assembling it. It is simple and forgiving though, and has a lot of downtime, so it’s a project you can tackle without too much stress when you have the time to spare for multitasking at home.

Ingredients: How to build and customize your Halloumi Gnocchi Bake

• Gnocchi: dried gnocchi is what I tested this recipe with.
• Halloumi: any ol’ block of halloumi cheese.
• Canned tomatoes: I am using Mutti brand here which has a great flavor to it. I would encourage using high quality tomatoes here if possible because anything too bland or watery will compromise the end results. Canned cherry tomatoes or tomatoes with flavor infused (such as garlic or basil) are also great options.
• Garlic, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and honey come together to make a marinade for the veggies.
• Mozzarella: For the all important crispy topping.
• Butter: adding butter to the sauce will help bring out the flavors of the tomatoes.

The Veggies:

Basically, you’re going to fill one baking tray with vegetables + one casserole dish with tomatoes to roast in the oven. You can mix and match, but this is my lineup:

• Eggplant (aubergine): This one is divisive – it’s certainly not my favorite vegetable, but when roasted with the marinade? It is shockingly good.
• Peppers: These join the eggplant on the roasting tray and turn melty and delish. I’ve used red, yellow, green, bell peppers or romano peppers, and you can’t really go wrong. Any peppers are great.
• Cherry tomatoes: These roast directly in the casserole dish that the gnocchi will eventually be added to and form the base of the sauce. They provide delicious bursts of sweet jammy goodness.

What else could you add / swap?

• Other veggies to roast: Mushrooms and zucchini would work well.
• Other veggies to mix in just before baking: Frozen peas or corn, leafy greens such as spinach or kale.

I personally like to use the more Mediterranean style veggies that turn soft, juicy or melt in the mouth when roasted. I tend to avoid things like cauliflower, broccoli or green beans which are more chewy and tough as I feel they wouldn’t blend in so well, but if you are going to use them, I would suggest you chop them quite finely.