Superconvergent error estimates in l2(H¹) and linfinity(H¹) norms are derived for recovered gradients of finite difference in time/piecewise linear Galerkin approximations in space for linear and quasi-nonlinear parabolic problems in two space dimensions. The analysis extends previous results for elliptic problems to the parabolic context, and covers problems in regions with non-smooth boundaries under certain assumptions on the regularity of the solutions.