French-Inspired Vegan Potato Gratin

French-inspired potato gratin is the perfect comfort food for gloomy days. It’s cheesy, creamy, filling, satisfying, and super delicious.

Vegan Potato Gratin is very easy to prepare, yet it makes a beautiful, delicate, and elegant dish. You can serve it as a main, or as a side dish with veggies, salad, patties, or meat alternatives.

The key to an amazing potato gratin is slicing your potatoes evenly and as thin as possible. You can achieve perfect potato slices using a mandoline slicer (or the slicer attachment of your food processor), but if you don’t have any fancy gadgets, a sharp knife will do the job as well.

The other important part of an outstanding gratin is the cream. We like to use a creamy blend of soft cashews, plant milk, nutritional yeast, vegan parmesan, garlic, and a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg. You can of course also use a store-bought dairy-free heavy cream, if you want a quicker version.

You can play around with the ratios, and reduce or increase the amount of cream depending on how cheesy and creamy you like your potatoes.

You can also flavor your potato gratin with extras like roasted garlic, caramelized onions, chili, sage, or rosemary.

Want an inexpensive version?

• Use sunflower seeds instead of cashews
• Store-bought vegan heavy cream can be a budget-friendly option as well
• Instead of vegan parmesan use only nutritional yeast or a cheaper vegan cheese
• Don’t waste the potato peels! Unpeeled potatoes are just as tasty as peeled ones here

Want to make your gratin extra nutritious?

• Use sweet potatoes instead of regular potatoes
• Alternate slices of potatoes and zucchinis or beetroots for a lighter version
• Or add extra greens in-between the potato slices. Garlicky spinach is especially delicious here
• Skip the store-bought cheese to make this a whole foods plant-based meal
• Serve your gratin with a big green salad on the side

Want to really impress your guests with your gratin?

• Drizzle the gratin with a little truffle oil for extra flavor
• Roast a head of garlic, and add the cloves to the cashew mix
• Prepare gratin in smaller, individual ramekins
• Take your time to arrange the potato slices in a pretty pattern

Prep time: 15 mins
Cook time: 80 mins

Vegan Potato Gratin

Serves 6-8

Ingredients

• 2.2 lbs / 1 kg potatoes, peeled
• 1 cup of cashews, soaked overnight
• 1.5 cups of unsweetened plant milk
• 1/4 cup of water or vegetable broth
• 5-6 cloves of garlic, peeled
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp white miso paste
• 1 tsp mustard
• 3 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 2 tbsp grated vegan parmesan
• 2 sprigs of fresh thyme
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• salt, pepper

Instructions

1. Using a mandoline or sharp knife, slice potatoes evenly into 0.04-0.08 inch / 1-2 mm thin slices.
2. Add cashews, milk, and vegetable broth (or water) to a blender, and blend until completely creamy.
3. Add garlic, lemon juice, miso, mustard, nutritional yeast, parmesan, thyme leaves, nutmeg, and a large pinch of salt and pepper, and blend again to combine everything. Taste and adjust if needed. The cream tastes intense at this point, it will taste milder once the potatoes soak it all up.
4. Pour sauce over the potatoes, and mix very well to coat the slices everywhere.
   Transfer potatoes to a baking dish. Arrange the top layer neatly for a pretty presentation. Cover dish with kitchen foil.
5. Bake at 400 F/ 200 C in a preheated oven for 50 minutes, then remove foil, and bake for another 30 minutes, or until golden and bubbly.

Nutritionals 

Calories 321 | Total Fat 12.2g | Saturated Fat 2.3g | Cholesterol 0mg | Sodium 243mg | Total Carbohydrates 45g | Dietary Fiber 6.9g | Total Sugars 8g | Protein 11.6g | Calcium 163mg | Iron 5mg | Potassium 990mg |