You can enjoy these creamy and cheesy Oil-Free Au Gratin Potatoes without worrying about the ill effects of dairy cream or cheese.
In my house, potatoes are the main star of most meals. Yesterday, I was excited to play with my new food processor (a very awesome gift from my daughter!) and I was in such awe of all the options it has that my old one doesn’t. One of the coolest options is an adjustable blade for slicing. Slicing up these Yukon Gold potatoes was so easy and fun!
Aside from slicing the potatoes and onions, all that is left to do is make a cheesy sauce of your choice. For this one, I used the Amazing Vegan Cheese Sauce from my buddy Chuck over at Brand New Vegan. I thinned it a bit with soy milk. Next time I might use my Vegan Nacho Cheese Sauce because I love to experiment with different flavors.
When you have the potatoes and onions sliced, start gathering them in stacks of about 5-6 potatoes and slide an onion slice or two in between each potato and place the stack on edge against the wall of the casserole dish. Continue doing this, stacking each stack around the perimeter of the dish. Fill in the middle with more stacks of potatoes and onions.
Squeeze the garlic and sprinkle/spread around all the potatoes.
Mix the cheese sauce with enough plant milk to get a pourable consistency. I thinned mine down to about the consistency of hmmm….applesauce? Mainly, you want it to be pourable, but still somewhat thick. After pouring it around all the potatoes, I had to bang the dish on the counter to get the sauce to settle in between the potato slices.
Sprinkle with smoked paprika, cover with parchment/foil and bake. Easy, right??
You can add any spices that you’d like. I recommend adding them before the cheese sauce so that they sink into the potatoes.
Pair this with a salad and you have a delicious, whole food, plant-based, oil-free meal full of all the nutrition you need.
- 2 lbs potatoes Yukon Gold are best
- 2 cups cheese sauce See cheese recipe in notes
- 2 cups onions, sliced
- 1 cup unflavored plant milk I used plain soy
- 4-6 cloves garlic, minced
- 1-3 tsp salt optional
- 1-3 tsp seasonings of your choice (I used smoked paprika) optional
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Slice the potatoes into 1/8" slices using a food processor, mandoline (be careful!!) or a very sharp knife.
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Slice onions using the same method.
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Layer stacks of 5-6 potatoes with onions between each slice. If using salt or other spices, sprinkle salt and spices between each slice as you stack. Stack on the edges of the potatoes so that the peel edges are up. Start at the outer edges of the pan and continue around if using a circular or oval dish. Fill in the middle with more stacks. If using a rectangular dish, make rows of stacked potatoes.
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Sprinkle/spread minced garlic over the top of the potatoes.
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Mix the cheese sauce with the soy milk to get a pourable, but still thick consistency. You may not need the entire cup of milk, depending on how thick your cheese sauce is.
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Pour the thinned cheese sauce over the entire dish.
Bang the dish down on the countertop so that the sauce gets down between the slices of potatoes and onions.
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Cover with parchment/foil and bake for about 1 hour at 400 degrees. Remove foil and bake until golden and some edges of the potatoes are crispy.
For the cheese sauce, use this Amazing Vegan Cheese Sauce from my buddy Chuck at Brand New Vegan.
Or try my Vegan Nacho Cheese Sauce
Thin either of these sauces to the consistency of apple sauce by adding up to a cup of unflavored plant milk. Pourable, yet still thick enough to cling to the potatoes and require a good thump of the dish on the counter to get it to settle into the potato slices. Make sense?
Potatoes are one of my favorite foods on the planet! I love how versatile they are and can be made into such delicious dishes as this au gratin! Mmm…I can almost taste them! Love how you made them oil-free too! 🙂
I’m a potato lover too! And this recipe meets my potato, gooey cheese needs 😉 I hope you like it! Let me know if you try it!
It’s a very new recipe to me. Thanks for sharing
I hope you love it! It’s a great one to bring to a potluck. When I take it, even the “don’t give me vegan food” people love it.
OMG, vegan cheese sauce! This is going to be such a neat surprise when hosting vegan parties 🙂
I know, right? People are always blown away at how yummy this is. I hope you and yours love it like I do.
Your Au Gratin Potatoes look amazing. I’m always too lazy to make mine as pretty as you made yours. Mine are just thrown together. I can’t wait to make your recipe, and I promise I’ll make it pretty like yours!
Thank you! But to be honest, I don’t always make them look this pretty 😉 Sometimes ya just wanna eat, ya know? Do it pretty at least once though, so you can post a picture!
This sounds like a great side dish for holidays! I can’t wait to try it with the vegan cheese sauce!
It is a great dish for the holidays…but also awesome for the main dish for dinner if you’re a starchivore like I am 😉 I hope you love it!
You had me at potato, so yes please! I’ll have a large portion please, to heck with my diet! Sharing this now!
LOL, yep…potato always gets my attention too. If you need to cut back on the nuts, you can use all tofu for the sauce. Thanks for sharing!
Potatoes au gratin were one of my favorite things as a kid. And now I’m totally craving it. 🙂 Love that you’ve vegan-ized it. That cheesy sauce looks incredible.!
Thank you! I hope you love it as much as I do!
Potatoes are just the ultimate comfort food. I find myself making them often. And this is going to be the perfect way to switch them up. So yummy!
Thanks for trying my recipe! It’s so nice to have different ways to enjoy our potatoes, isn’t it?
Do you think we can substitute some of those onions for chives? I’m also thinking about adding some herbs such as fresh parsley and or dried herbs. Just to give it a little bit more zing because it’s too much onions can cause my IBS a flare.
I think chives would be lovely in place of some of the onions. And definitely throw in some fresh herbs!
How many servings?
That depends…for me and my mom, we can easily eat half of the casserole for a meal. As a side dish, I’d say 8-10 servings, depending on how big a serving that someone would take. I hope that helps a little.