Potato bake

The classic potato bake dish made dairy-free, but still the creamy and tasty flavors you adore!

I don’t know how it happened, but Grant and I have always had a fondness for potato bake, and yet it’s something that we very rarely have.  Even before I had all the dairy intolerances (and the rest of my special snowflake stomach issues), we always loved potato bake, just found it one of those things we never really made the effort to make.  I remember going to one of our friends houses (hi Vicki!) and watching as she made some – just kind of threw the sliced potatoes in, poured some cream, milk and cheese on top with some french onion soup powder, and baked it for about 90 minutes.  And it was awesome!  So much dairy, but so much cheesy goodness!

Fast forward until a few years ago when Grant mentioned he’d been having cravings for potato bake again.  Now, this was after I found out my body doesn’t tolerate dairy very well, so I tried multiple substitutions, but none of them turned out.  Sometimes it may have been because the potatoes weren’t cooked through (I can be impatient when cooking sometimes!), sometimes it just wasn’t creamy enough.   Other times it just didn’t have a good flavor.  But, do not fear, my friends, because I have sussed out the perfect dairy-free potato bake recipe.  Check it out and let me know what you think!

This is an awesome side dish for any occasion – but I would particularly recommend having it with either your Christmas or Thanksgiving turkey, or a Sunday roast, because it does take quite a bit of time in the oven!  

PS Do you call this potato bake or scalloped potatoes?  And does it really matter when it’s this yummy?

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Potato bake

(Whole30, Paleo, gluten-free, dairy-free)

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour 30 minutes

Servings 8

Ingredients

• 1 kg potatoes thinly sliced
• 4 cloves garlic finely chopped
• 1 onion finely chopped
• 4 rashers bacon chopped
• 1 cup coconut cream
• 1 cup unsweetened plain almond milk
• 2 tbs potato starch
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1 tbs nutritional yeast

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350F and spray a casserole dish (approx 2 qt).
2. Slice the potatoes thinly (recommend using a mandolin to get the desired thinness without cutting fingers!). Leave the skins on for extra fiber.
3. In a medium frying pan, saute the onion, garlic and bacon until the onion has softened. Set aside.
4. In a medium sauce pan, pour the coconut cream and almond milk and allow to boil.
5. In a separate small bowl, mix together the potato starch and approx 2 tbs of almond milk until smooth.
6. When the milk mixture is boiling, add the potato starch mixture and stir constantly for approximately 2 minutes of boiling.
7. Reduce the heat to medium, add the salt, pepper and nutritional yeast and cook for an additional 5-6 minutes to allow the sauce to thicken.
8. Arrange 1/3 of the potatoes in the casserole dish in a layer, with some pieces overlapping. Spoon 1/3 of the onion/bacon/garlic mixture on top and pour 1/3 of the sauce over all.
9. Repeat in two stages for the remaining potatoes, onion mixture and sauce.
10. Cover the pan with aluminium foil and bake for 45 minutes. Uncover the pan and cook for an additional 45 minutes, or until the potatoes are soft throughout.
11. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Recipe Notes

Leftovers can be stored in sealed containers in the fridge and reheated up to 3-4 days later.