Dairy-Free Dauphinoise Potatoes: A Creamy Vegan Gratin

Dauphinoise potatoes, or gratin dauphinois, is a traditional dish from the Dauphiné region in southeast France that is similar to scalloped potatoes. But unlike our Americanized versions, they use crème fraîche rather than copious amounts of cheese. To make dairy-free dauphinoise potatoes, this recipe uses a quick creamy sauce made from cashews. It’s a wonderful comforting dish for the cooler months or for the holidays.

Raw cashews are actually quite soft and blend easily, but I still recommend pre-grinding them, particularly if you don’t have a high-power blender.You can pre-soak the nuts to soften them (1 to 2 hours), but this will produce a slightly thinner sauce for your dairy-free dauphinoise potatoes. Dry cashews will soak up liquid from your sauce as it cooks, but pre-soaked ones are already quite saturated.

I also highly recommend using a mandolin to prepare the potatoes. The one I use was very inexpensive, and it makes very quick work of the slicing process.

Special Diet Notes: Dairy-Free Dauphinoise Potatoes

By ingredients, this recipe is dairy-free / non-dairy, egg-free, gluten-free, grain-free, peanut-free, soy-free, vegan / plant-based, and vegetarian.

Adapted from The Daily Press of Ashland

Dairy Free Dauphinoise Potatoes

5 from 1 vote

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Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr

Total Time 1 hour hr 15 minutes mins

Servings: 6 servings

Calories:

Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x?

• 5 medium potatoes see note below
• ½ cup raw cashews see note below
• 2 cups water divided
• 2 tablespoons arrowroot starch can sub non-GMO cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon dried onion flakes
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• Pinch cayenne pepper optional
• Paprika for topping

Method

 

1. Preheat your oven to 375ºF.
2. Slice the potatoes very thin. A mandolin is very helpful here (I use this one).
3. Spread the potatoes evenly in a 7x11-inch baking dish or oven-safe skillet.
4. Place the cashews in your blender and add half of the water. Blend until smooth. Add the remaining water, starch, onion flakes, salt, and cayenne (if using. Blend until smooth.
5. Pour the cream over the sliced potatoes, and lightly sprinkle the potatoes paprika.
6. Bake for 1 hour or until the potatoes are fork tender and appear crispy on top.

Notes

Potatoes: I think small to medium-sized Russets or large Yukon Gold are the best potatoes to use for dairy-free dauphinoise potatoes.

Cashew Tip: To avoid chunks of cashew, I recommend grinding the cashews into a powder in a spice grinder before adding them to the blender. This only takes a minute.

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