These healthy Vegan Scalloped Potatoes and Sweet Potatoes are easy to make, incredibly creamy and absolutely delicious - the perfect side dish for your vegan Thanksgiving feast!
Think scalloped potatoes without cheese and cream is impossible? This recipe for vegan scalloped potatoes will prove you wrong! It's the wholesome, healthy, and irresistibly creamy solution to life's big questions—or at least to “What’s for dinner today?”
My non-dairy scalloped potatoes, also known as “Dauphinoise potatoes,” come with a twist: the recipe combines white and sweet potatoes. The result? A perfect balance of sweetness, flavor and color.
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Why You Will Love This Recipe
- Potato Party: Let’s be real—who doesn’t love potatoes? Paired with sweet potatoes, they create an unbeatable duo that takes your potato casserole to a whole new level of flavor.
- Easy to Make: Simply slice the potatoes, sauté the onions and garlic, simmer the broth, blend sauce, layer everything into a casserole dish, and let the oven do the rest.
- Gentle on Your Stomach: With a wholesome mix of potatoes, sweet potatoes, cashews, and nutritional yeast—and no cream, cheese, or oil—you’ll feel satisfied without slipping into a food coma.
- Customizable: Make it your own by adding vegan shredded cheese, extra veggies like spinach, zucchini or broccoli, or a sprinkle of homemade vegan parmesan.
Ingredient Notes
For our vegan potato and sweet potato gratin, all you need—besides white potatoes and sweet potatoes—are a few simple ingredients you likely already have in your pantry.
- Potatoes - Use starchy potatoes, such as Russets or Yukon Gold.
- Sweet Potatoes - It is best to choose a sweet potatoes with the same circumference as the potatoes to ensure evenly sliced slices.
- Cashews - They are the main ingredient for the the non-dairy, creamy gratin sauce.
- Nutritional Yeast - Adds a cheesy flavor while being an excellent source of B vitamins.
- Onion & Garlic - Sautéed briefly, they infuse the sauce with robust flavor.
- Vegetable stock, Thyme, Bay Leaf - Essential for seasoning. I use fresh thyme, but dried thyme works just as well. The bay leaf is optional but adds depth.
- Salt & Pepper - Essential for perfectly balanced seasoning.
See recipe card for quantities.
Step-By-Step Instructions
Preparing these flavorful vegan scalloped sweet and white potatoes is quite simple. Most of the time involved doesn’t require any effort from you—the oven and stove will handle the work!
- Step 1: Sauté the diced onion and minced garlic. Add the vegetable stock, thyme, bay leaf and cashews. Simmer for 10 minutes.
- Step 2: Peel and slice your white and sweet potatoes about ⅛ inch (3 mm) thick. Remove the thyme and bay leaf from the stock, then blend the remaining contents of the pot with the nutritional yeast, salt, and pepper. Pour the creamy sauce over the potatoes.
- Step 3: Layer the potatoes into a baking dish. Spread or pour the remaining sauce on top.
- Step 4: Cover and bake in a fan oven at 356°F (180°C) for about 20 minutes. Then uncover and bake for an additional 30-40 minutes.
Top Tips!
For best results, use a mandolin to slice the potatoes and sweet potatoes into thin slices, approximately ⅛ inch (3 mm) thick. This ensures they cook evenly and are fully tender by the end of the baking time.
Sweet potatoes cook more quickly, so their slices don’t need to be quite as thin as the regular potato slices.
I highly recommend this recipe as a wholesome side dish for your vegan Thanksgiving or Christmas menu, paired with my lentil-meatloaf or chickpea-loaf. All three recipes are gluten-free and soy-free, making them suitable for a variety of dietary needs.
Variations
This recipe can easily be customized to suit your preferences:
- Not a fan of sweet potatoes? Then simply replace them with more white potatoes or try butternut squash.
- No nuts, please! Instead of cashews, you can also prepare this vegan scalloped potatoes recipe with sunflower seeds. Bear in mind that this will of course affect the flavor. Alternatively, use a plant-based cream substitute. To do so, reduce the amount of stock to ¾ cup and add around the same amount of plant-based cream. Tofu is also an option - see notes below!
- Where's the protein? Potato gratin is not exactly known as a protein bomb. However, you can increase the amount of protein (at least slightly) by adding some (silken) tofu to the the cashew sauce.
- Vegetable power! You could layer a few thick slices of zucchini or carrot between the potatoes. For a green touch to your potato casserole, add a few broccoli florets or frozen spinach.
- Other Flavor Variations: Feel free to add in other herbs, like sage, rosemary or oregano.
FAQ
Yes, you can store leftovers in the freezer up to 1 month. The texture of the cheesy cashew sauce will be slightly less creamy when you defrost it, though.
Sure, you can replace the white potatoes with more sweet potatoes. For scalloped sweet potatoes only you can reduce the baking time to around 40-45 minutes, as the sweet potatoes will cook more quickly.
Yes, you can make your scalloped potatoes ahead of time and pop them back in the oven right before you want to serve it. Bake for only 40 minutes, let cool, then cover it with aluminum foil and refrigerate for up to 2 days. Reheat at the same temperature for about 30 minutes on the day you are serving the dish.
I hope you’ll give these healthy scalloped sweet potatoes and white potatoes a try. If you love this recipe, be sure to leave a comment, rate the recipe and tag me on instagram (#veggiejam) with your recreation.
PrintRecipe
Vegan Scalloped Potatoes & Sweet Potatoes
- Prep Time: 15 min
- Cook Time: 50 min
- Total Time: 1 h 4 min
- Yield: 4-6 servings 1x
Description
These healthy vegan Scalloped Potatoes and Sweet Potatoes are easy to make, incredibly creamy and absolutely delicious - the perfect side dish for your vegan Thanksgiving feast!
Ingredients
- 14 oz. (400 g) Yukon or Russet potato
- 12 oz. (350 g) sweet potato (approx. 1 medium-sized)
- 1 onion
- 3 garlic cloves
- 2 sprigs of thyme (or ½ tsp dried)
- 1 bay leaf (optional)
- 1 ½ cup (375 ml) vegetable stock
- ½ cup (70 g) cashews
- 3 tbsp (15 g) nutritional yeast
- ¼ - ½ teaspoon salt
- black pepper
Instructions
- Roughly dice the onions and chop the garlic.
- Heat a pot over medium heat, add a few spoons of water and sauté the onion with a pinch of salt for 2 minutes until translucent. Then add the garlic and cook for another minute.
- Pour in the vegetable stock. Add the thyme, bay leaf and cashews, bring to a boil and simmer over a low heat for 10 minutes.
- In the meantime, peel the white and sweet potatoes and cut them into ⅛ inch (3 mm) thick slices, preferably using a mandolin. Place the potato slices in a bowl.
- Remove the thyme sprigs and the bay leaf from the pot.
- Blend the remaining contents of the pot into a creamy sauce and season with salt and pepper. Start with ¼ teaspoon salt. Depending on how salty your broth is, you may need to season a little more.
- Pour the cashew sauce over the potato slices and spread well using your hands.
- Preheat the oven to 356°F (180°C).
- Layer the potato and sweet potato slices alternately in an approx. 10 x 7 inch (26 x 18 cm) baking dish. Pour over the remaining sauce.
- Cover the baking dish and place in the oven for 20 minutes. Uncover and bake for another 30-40 minutes.
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Lauren M. says
This was absolutely delicious! I loved the blend of regular and sweet potatoes. Next time, I’ll add a bit more liquid since I prefer my scalloped potatoes to be saucier. Still, it’s a fantastic recipe!
Melanie@Veggiejam says
Thank you so much for the kind words, Lauren! I’m so glad you enjoyed my vegan scalloped potatoes recipe. I totally get wanting a bit more sauce – feel free to adjust the amount of broth next time and let us know how it turned out.