Rainbow Grilled Gnocchi Skewers
Published 7/11/2025
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Eat the rainbow with my vibrant grilled gnocchi skewers! These delicious vegetarian skewers feature colorful sliced veggies and the star of the show is perfectly crispy grilled potato gnocchi. Everything gets tossed in a flavorful herby lemon dressing.
Serve ’em right on the skewers for a handheld appetizer or toss them in a bowl and top with goat cheese crumbles for a light and bright side dish perfect for any summer meal.
Typically grilled skewers or kabobs are reserved for the meat eaters in the family, and I’ve got a lot of those on Fit Foodie Finds, too — a few of the most popular every summer include:
But, today I’m excited to share these vegetarian gnocchi skewers that are tossed in an herby lemon dressing and then topped with goat cheese crumbles. They’re always a crowd pleaser at BBQs at my house — I love serving them as an appetizer to pass while we cook the rest of the meal.
recipe highlights ⤵️
- Great for serving as a side dish or as an appetizer.
- When grilled, the gnocchi gets super crispy on the outside while still maintaining its creamy, soft potato innard — its such a yummy texture!
- Use any veggies you’d like! I’ve made these with colorful bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, onion, broccoli florets, eggplant — the list goes on.
- Super easy to make, and fun to get the kids involved in building the skewers before grilling.
Ingredient Highlights
- Potato gnocchi: I like to use store-bought gnocchi for this recipe, but if you want to whip up your own homemade gnocchi, here’s a recipe I love! Just make sure you par-cook the gnocchi (boil it for 1 minute) before assembling on skewers. When Rosie and Linley tested this recipe, the gnocchi would fall apart on the skewer if they weren’t boiled first.
- Colorful veggies: I’m using bell peppers, red onion and cherry tomatoes on these skewers, but truly choose your own adventure here! Any veggie that can be easily skewered will work 🙌🏻.
- Fresh herbs: You’ll use fresh basil, mint and cilantro in the lemon-y, herb-y dressing for these skewers. Don’t skip it! It adds really nice depth of flavor to these gnocchi skewers, and helps tie all the flavors together.
Find the list of full ingredients in the recipe card below.
Storage
These gnocchi skewers are most easily stored off the skewers, so allow any leftovers to cool before removing from the skewers and placing in an air-tight container in the fridge. I honestly love eating these cold as leftovers because everything has even more time to soak up the herby dressing goodness.
Serving Suggestions
As an alternative to a salad: sometimes it’s nice to have a veggie side that ISN’T a green salad. These gnocchi skewers definitely scratch that itch.
With some yummy grilled meat: my grilled steak recipe or these grilled chicken legs are both go-tos for summer BBQs in our backyard. Both pair so well with these gnocchi skewers.
Keep the whole meal vegetarian: love it! I gravitate toward these grilled portobello mushrooms or these five-star black bean burgers.
Grilled Gnocchi Skewers Recipe
Ingredients
- 12 oz. potato gnocchi*
- 1 large bell pepper, chopped into chunks, any color
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes
- ½ red onion, chopped into chunks
- ½ cup olive oil, separated
- ¼ cup fresh lemon juice, separated
- 1 teaspoon sea salt, divided
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper, divided
- ¼ cup chopped fresh basil
- ¼ cup chopped fresh mint
- ¼ cup fresh chopped cilantro
- 4 oz. goat cheese crumbles
Instructions
- Preheat the grill to 400℉ and spray grates with cooking spray.
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the gnocchi for 1 minute. Drain and rinse with cold water. Set aside.
- In a 9×13 baking dish, add ¼ cup of the olive oil, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, ½ teaspoon sea salt, and ⅛ teaspoon black pepper. Whisk to combine.
- Build the skewers. Add gnocchi, peppers, onions, and cherry tomatoes to metal or wooden skewers alternating between the four until all the ingredients have been used.
- Roll each skewers in the olive oil and lemon juice mixture. Save the olive oil and lemon juice for the dressing at the end.
- Place on the grill for 20 minutes, rotating the skewers every 5 minutes. Remove from the grill and set aside on a serving plate.
- Make the dressing. Add remaining olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and herbs to the baking dish with the leftover lemon juice and olive oil. Whisk to combine.
- Pour the dressing over the grilled skewers and garnish with goat cheese crumbles.
Tips & Notes
- We used a packaged potato gnocchi for this recipe, but you can use any type of gnocchi.
- Do not skip parcooking the gnocchi. I found that the raw ones fell apart on the grill.
- Any herb mixture can be used in this recipe.
- Feta would be a great substitute for the goat cheese.
- Feel free to mix up the vegetables that you add to the skewers.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Photography: photos taken in this post are by Erin from The Wooden Skillet.
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