September 28, 2013 September 28, 2013/ Morgan
Can you guess the secret ingredient of these creamy scalloped potatoes? I’ll give you a hint – everyones putting it into everything right now because its finally fall.
Did you guess it? It’s winter squash! (You know, pumpkin or sweet meat, red kuri, kaboca, etc!) Doesn’t it look beautiful?
When I first moved out on my own I didn’t cook a ton. I did like cooking already but I didn’t have the funds (or so I thought) to cook the things I wanted to. I didn’t have the motivation either. So I bought a lot of gross packaged things – especially those dehydrated scalloped potatoes in a box with the orange cheese mix. I would eat JUST THAT for each meal for weeks and weeks.
Well needless to say I don’t eat that crap anymore. What I do eat is yummy whole foods. And I’m not at all opposed to making those yummy whole foods taste a little bit like foods I’m nostalgic for like gooey cheesy scalloped potatoes.
I was inspired to make these by a friend that kept making scalloped potatoes recently and posting about it! Of COURSE the recipe she was using had cashews in it (I’m allergic) so I couldn’t make it. And then I thought I could make it substituting another seed or nut but hey if I’m not going to follow the recipe as written I might as well go crazy and make my own. And lower the fat while I’m at it. The recipe that everyone was going gaga over had around 60 grams of fat for the whole pan. I KNOW I can eat the whole pan of scalloped potatoes easily so I knew I needed to lower that. This has about 10 grams of fat for the whole pan. And if you use a lower fat non dairy milk it will be even lower. But it’s still hella creamy and yummy thanks to the pureed squash.
Now, I don’t know if they taste anything like that recipe but they do taste as delicious as I could have ever hoped (and I have finished the pan of them thank you very much!)
makes about 8 large servings
- 2 cups pureed winter squash (canned pumpkin works, or homemade baked and pureed squash such as butternut, sweet meat, turban, red kuri, kabocha, etc)
- 1 cup soy milk (or your favorite non dairy milk)
- 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
- 1 Tablespoon miso paste (whatever kind you have)
- 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1/8 – 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 Tablespoons cornstarch or tapioca starch
- 4-5 sliced green onions (you could also use chives here)
- 5-6 medium-large russet potatoes sliced thin (about 2 & 1/2 pounds)
Get a steamer ready on the stove for the potatoes and preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
Scrub and slice your potatoes. Steam them over boiling water in a large pot for about 5 minutes. Sure! If you don’t have a steamer you can do one of two things:
Throw it all together with the potatoes raw, cover the baking dish with a lid or foil and bake for about an hour or until the potatoes are tender. (I just like getting it done in half the time by steaming it beforehand.) OR Gently simmer your potato slices in salted water until almost tender.
While the potatoes are steaming blend the following together for your sauce: squash puree, soy milk, nutritional yeast, miso, lemon juice, garlic, cayenne, salt and cornstarch.
Combine the potatoes, sauce and sliced green onions in a large baking dish (I used a 9×13 glass dish) and place in the oven uncovered. Bake for 25 minutes. At the end you can turn on the broiler to brown the tops. Just watch it closely so it doesn’t burn and take it out as soon as it starts to brown in spots.
Let it cool a bit and serve it up! I guess it could be a side dish but I don’t mind eating this as my main meal!!
September 28, 2013/ Morgan/ 
