Cauliflower is a superfood that’s all the rage right now, and we keep finding it in places we’d never expect. Who knew they’d figure out how to make pizza crust out of cauliflower?
Today, we’re diving into another creative cauliflower concoction, the Lean Cuisine Meatless Lifestyle Pesto Cauliflower Gnocchi Bowl. Sure, this isn’t quite as surprising as a cauliflower pizza, but it still looks pretty gosh dang tasty! And really, that’s what counts, right?
This is as simple to cook as pretty much any Lean Cuisine meal. Pop it into the microwave for two and a half minutes, give it a quick stir, then pop it back in for two more minutes. Easy. (If you want to read the full cooking instructions straight off the box, check out the package scans at the bottom of this review.)
If we didn’t already know this was a cauliflower gnocchi, we probably wouldn’t have ever figured it out. It’s perhaps a bit too chewy, but that seems like more of a result of the microwave than the cauliflower. This really doesn’t have the cauliflower aftertaste that we expected it to. If you’re here for the cauliflower, that might come as a disappointment, but if you’re just looking for a gnocchi alternative, this is going to suit you just fine.
But it’s the pesto sauce that really makes this pop for us. It’s loaded up with parmesan and garlic, but that doesn’t mean that earthy basil flavor doesn’t shine through. Now, the first time we pulled this out of the microwave (at the two-and-a-half-minute mark) the sauce was a little bit chunky (probably due to the parmesan). So we were surprised to see how creamy it ended up being after the full cook time. There’s a lot to love here.
Oh, and the sauce portion is surprisingly generous. After all our gnocchi was gone, we still had enough sauce to slurp it like a soup.
While Lean Cuisine normally makes sure their meals are pretty low in calories, they seem to have made an exception here. While 380 calories is certainly nothing to get alarmed about, it’s also a bit more than we expected for this dish. The sodium is pretty high too, at 1,024 mg.
The Lean Cuisine Meatless Lifestyle Pesto Cauliflower Gnocchi Bowl is a pretty satisfying take on frozen gnocchi. If you’re hoping this tastes like cauliflower, you might be disappointed, but this will also be a boon for those looking to eat more of this superfood without having to taste it (we definitely know people who fall into that latter camp!) All that said, this is a dish we definitely recommend!
To learn more about the nutrition content, ingredients, or cooking instructions for this meatless frozen meal, check out our package scans below.
