Vegan Potato and Leek Bake

Bonjour, au secours, Arthur est un perroquet et nous mangeons un fantastique gratin aujourd'hui. Well, that's about as far as my French skills go after seven years of classes. But don't worry: you won't have to pass a vocab test to make our potato and leek gratin.

Casserole? Gratin? What's the difference anyway?

Honestly, it's a bit of a murky topic, because in German it means something different than in its country of origin, France. A gratin in France is a casserole made from raw ingredients that cooks and bakes in the oven while developing a golden, crispy crust. The focus is on the gratinating, i.e., creating that "crust." It can be a cheese layer, but it doesn't have to be. The French classic, gratin dauphinois, for example, consists only of thin, raw potato slices cooked and gratinated in cream and milk – completely without cheese. In Germany, the term gratin is used more when you spread already cooked ingredients flat in a casserole dish and then just briefly bake them. A casserole, on the other hand, can be pretty chunky and tall. But here too, there are versions with precooked and raw ingredients, so in the end you have to say: you can basically call it anything? Mon dieu!

And what's different about our version?

We've taken the French classic as our base. Instead of just potatoes, however, we're also using leeks that are sautéed with garlic and herbs. After that, plant-based milk and cream are added, along with some nutritional yeast for extra flavor. But we don't just pour the mixture over the potatoes – instead, we briefly add most of the potatoes to the sauce and then transfer everything to a casserole dish. There, it's all topped with the remaining potato slices. We sprinkled some vegan parmesan on top, but you can totally leave it out (très traditionnel!) or replace it with vegan shredded cheese (très délicieux!).

A few more tips for gratin beginners:

To make sure your gratin turns out perfect, here are a few tips for you.

1. Cut the potatoes thin and as evenly as possible. That way they'll all cook at the same time.
2. Let the sauce thicken well with the cornstarch before adding the potatoes. This'll make the gratin nice and creamy rather than watery.
3. If you don't have an oven-safe skillet, no problem. Just prepare everything in a regular pot and then transfer the mixture to a casserole dish.
4. Taste the sauce before baking and season it generously – after all, the potatoes soak up the sauce and would otherwise taste pretty bland.
5. By the way, you can also prepare the gratin completely ahead of time and keep it covered in the fridge for a few hours before baking. Then just pop it in the oven as is and simply leave it in for 5–10 minutes longer. You can also easily store leftovers in the fridge and reheat them the next day.

More vegan casseroles with potatoes:

If you still have potatoes left after this recipe and can't get enough of casseroles, check out our vegan potatoe and ground meat casserole, cauliflower an broccoli casserole und potatoe, spinach and fish stick casserole with „egg“.