This delicious crockpot chicken gnocchi soup has it all – it’s creamy and comforting, it’s low calorie, and you need just 20 minutes to prepare it. Whether you know and love Olive Garden’s creamy chicken and gnocchi soup or not, you’ve got to try this easy copycat version! Prefer to make the soup in your pressure cooker? I’ve got you covered there too!

Why you’re going to love it

Looks good, right? So let’s just dive right in (with a big spoon) and find out why this dreamy, creamy easy chicken and gnocchi soup might just be your new favourite crockpot (or pressure cooker!) chicken soup recipe…

• If you’ve ever had a similar soup at Olive Garden, this recipe will teach you to make your own version. I can’t promise it will be EXACTLY the same, but it’s close. If you haven’t tried it, make it anyway and find out what all the Olive Garden soup fuss is all about.
• Thanks to the evaporated milk you use (rather than cream), this is a LIGHTENED UP creamy soup.
• There are just 7 main ingredients in this soup. You see – so easy.
• You make it in your slow cooker with only 20 minutes hands-on time. So why not chop up your vegetables the night before and then throw them in the pot with chicken and stock/broth in the morning for an effort free and delicious dinner?
• Had a craving for this Olive Garden chicken soup at work? No worries – just make the recipe in your Instant Pot / electric pressure cooker when you get home instead.
• This is a very balanced but substantial meal. It’s packed with nutritious vegetables: carrots, celery, onion, spinach. It’s got protein (hello delicious shredded chicken). And let’s not forget those cute little potato dumplings aka gnocchi carbs!

So what’s gnocchi and how do you make it?

As gnocchi is usually right next to the fresh pasta at the supermarket, you might be wondering… erm, is gnocchi a type of pasta? Or is it a sort of potato?

As traditional gnocchi is made from mashed potato, flour, egg and sometimes cheese, it’s actually more like a kind of dumpling.

In fact, in Italian, gnocchi means ‘lumps’. I’m sure this sounds more appetizing in Italian though than it does in English!

Most people boil gnocchi but my favourite way to eat it is to bake it, like in this 30-minute gnocchi with sausage, peppers and tomatoes recipe. Or try pan frying potato gnocchi – they end up almost like crispy little roast potatoes like in this amazing pan fried gnocchi with cherry tomatoes recipe.

For this gnocchi soup recipe, I either buy a good quality ready made gnocchi from the supermarket, or I make my own. It’s actually pretty easy to make gnocchi. I usually use the ricotta gnocchi recipe in this post which is super quick because I don’t use any potatoes – just ricotta cheese, flour, egg, and parmesan cheese!

Whether you buy gnocchi or make it, you know it’s ready when it floats to the top of the soup!

What ingredients you need

I really wanted to keep the ingredients down to a minimum so that it’s a really easy win of a meal. But I wanted to make sure that it still has plenty of flavour.

So… these are the main ingredients in my soup, plus oil for sauteing and salt and pepper for seasoning, of course:

1. 4 kinds of vegetables: carrots, onions, celery and spinach
2. garlic and Italian herbs (for some good but simple flavour)
3. chicken breasts (the best quality I can find)
4. chicken broth / stock (again, I try to stick to really good quality)
5. evaporated milk (so it’s creamy but lightened-up!)
6. cornstarch mixed with a bit of water for thickening the soup
7. gnocchi (of course!) – either homemade or store bought. To be honest I usually buy my gnocchi ready made, but I look for a good quality brand.

Pro tip: As there are only a few ingredients, I try to use the BEST QUALITY INGREDIENTS I can find. I particularly like to buy good quality chicken and organic vegetables, and use good quality stock/broth (if I have some homemade, all the better!).

You can find other recipes for copycat Olive Garden soup recipes online, but many of them have a much longer ingredients list. There are just 7 MAIN INGREDIENTS in this soup!

How to make it in the slow cooker or electric pressure cooker

Photo 1: Chop the vegetables (carrots, celery, onion, garlic – everything apart from the spinach) and get all the other ingredients ready to go. So measure out the stock/broth, wash the spinach, get the herbs out of the pantry…

Throw the chopped vegetables, garlic, chicken and stock/broth into the slow cooker or instant pot. Slow cooker: cook for about 6 hours on low. Instant Pot/electric pressure cooker: 10 minutes on high, then let the pressure release naturally for 5 minutes (on my pressure cooker I use the ‘auto quick release’ setting which takes about 5 minutes).

Photo 2: After the cooking time is up, grab two forks and shred the chicken in the pot.

Photo 3: Now it’s time for the lightened-up creamy magic to happen! About half an hour before you want to eat, stir in a can of evaporated milk, some corn flour/cornstarch mixed with water (for thickening!) and the gnocchi. Replace the lid of the crockpot, turn it to high and let it bubble away for a few more minutes to cook the gnocchi and let the cornstarch do its thing. If you’re using your pressure cooker just use the saute function here.

Photo 4: Stir in a bag of spinach and let it wilt into the soup.

Photos 5 and 6: Season to taste and serve!

More things to know (recipe FAQ)

How to make your soup taste better than Olive Garden’s!

I say this with my tongue in my cheek. But I truly don’t think you need a ton of fancy ingredients to get a meal that tastes just as good.

In my very humble opinion, all you need to do is use the VERY BEST QUALITY ingredients you can find and/or afford.

In other words:

• local fresh and in-season vegetables. Organic if you can find or afford them.
• fresh and/or organic supermarket chicken stock / broth or homemade stock. How do you make homemade chicken stock? Sometimes, instead of throwing away a roast chicken carcass, I place it in my electric pressure cooker with: half an onion, some (unpeeled) garlic cloves, a carrot, a bay leaf, salt and pepper and some fresh or dried herbs. Then I pour water over (until everything is just covered) and cook on high pressure for 40 minutes. I then let it cool, strain and freeze for the next time I want to make this chicken soup (or these amazing Greek potatoes)! [No worries if you don’t have a pressure cooker. just simmer for 4 hours on the stove top or cook it on low for at least 8 hours in your slow cooker.]

More easy slow cooked meals

• slow cooker Korean chicken
• perfect Thai chicken and butternut squash curry (stove top, slow cooker or pressure cooker!)
• easy slow cooked Greek lamb with lemon garlic potatoes (oven or slow cooker!)
• Thai pumpkin and red lentil soup (vegetarian and delicious!)

More easy comfort food

• Fan of chicken pot pie? Try this lightened up version AKA creamy chicken and leek pie, or how about a samosa pie? (Like samosas? You’ll love samosa pie!)
• 30 minute Greek macaroni cheese (another lightened-up recipe using evaporated milk)
• Fan of the Mediterranean diet? Or just like chicken casseroles? You have to try this Mediterranean stove top chicken casserole (make it on the stove top or in your slow cooker or pressure cooker)
• Creamy lemon chicken orzo soup (a bit like this gnocchi soup, but it’s a stove top recipe ready in just 30 minutes!)
• Swedish meatballs!
• Or check out all of Scrummy Lane’s easy meal ideas!

Last but not least: Need a quick and easy dessert to serve after this meal? Here are 11 really easy dessert recipes (6 ingredients or less).