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Layers of golden Yukon slices sink into a garlic and rosemary-spiked cashew béchamel so smooth it practically does jazz hands and tips its crooner hat at you. Sorry, but even your fanciest holiday roast that you worked on all day will feel like a supporting background actor to this vegan scalloped potatoes recipe.
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Forget sad beige sides. These potatoes step onto the scene and bring a tear to your eye with their glistening glory.
Fancier than vegan mashed potatoes or parsnip purée, but way less high-maintenance than hasselback potatoes. You don't need a culinary degree or 12 obscure ingredients from space that you have to get mail-ordered from The Sharper Image catalog. With a blender, a baking dish, and about 75 minutes of oven time, you've got a side that casually outshines everything else on the plate. No roux, no dairy, not a single thought that you should have made a different side instead-just deeply rustic flavor and clean-plate club vibes.
Wow, this was fun to make and ended up so delicious! I think it tastes better than any dairy version. It was a huge success at a vegan potluck.
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🥰Why you'll adore this vegan scalloped potatoes recipe
✊ Vegan AF and GF: Like all of my vegan Thanksgiving recipes, this one is rich and absurdly creamy without butter, cream, or a single animal product. It's one of the fully gluten-free vegan recipes you can throw on your plate with zero side-eye from your gut or your guests.
🔪 Weeknight Warrior: Surprisingly easy for something that looks this fancy. It's high-brow enough to serve with other vegan Christmas recipes, laid-back enough for a chill Sunday dinner at home, too.
✅ Tested and Approved Worldwide: Like all of my vegan recipes, this one was tested, tweaked, and perfected with feedback from hundreds of recipe testers from all over the world.
I'm on my knees staring weirdly into your eyes, asking you in a soothing voice to be my taste-testing partner in crime. Sign up for the recipe testing crew and get early access to new recipes before they're published.
🥔Vegan scalloped potatoes ingredients
The Potatoes
Yukon Gold potatoes are the best choice here. They hold their shape, don't require any fussy peeling, and bring that built-in buttery richness. Red-skinned potatoes are your best backup-similar vibe, slightly earthier flavor. Save russets for everything else.
Unsalted Vegetable Stock
Unsalted vegetable stock is the unsung hero that pulls the béchamel together with extra flavor. Homemade or boxed, both work. If you can't find completely unsalted stock, just cut back a little on the added salt in the béchamel.
To make it yourself, simmer chopped carrots, celery, onions, garlic, maybe a parsnip (if you have one), a couple of dried mushrooms, a bay leaf, and some black peppercorns in plenty of water for 45 minutes, then strain.
Nutritional Yeast
Nutritional yeast (aka nooch) brings the cheesiness to the béchamel without the dairy. I use it in everything from my vegan nacho cheese to vegan parmesan cheese-it's that versatile. Flakes or powder both work fine here, so use whatever's in your pantry.
Rice Vinegar
Rice vinegar keeps this from veering into cloyingly rich territory and gives the cream a dairy-like acidity. Apple cider vinegar or lemon juice also work great here if that's what you've got.
*See the recipe card at the bottom of the page for exact quantities, nutritional info, and detailed cooking directions.
🤯Variations
Chipotle Chorizo Scalloped Potatoes
Blend a big spoonful of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce into the béchamel for smoky heat. Layer in some vegan chorizo crumbles before baking. Garnish with cilantro and lime zest.
Truffle Bacon Scalloped Potatoes
Stir a generous pour of truffle oil and some fresh thyme leaves into the sauce. Then, when layering in the slices, add strips of seitan bacon, tempeh bacon, carrot bacon, or tofu bacon. Makes for a killer brunch side to go with vegan scrambled eggs, if you ask me.
Grab my easy-yo-use app that builds your whole week with real, chef-tested vegan dinners in 30 seconds, customized to your budget, time, and taste, with a shopping list sorted by aisle.
📖How to make vegan scalloped potatoes
If patience isn't your virtue today, the easy-to-print recipe card's got your back at the bottom of the page. But if you want to cook like the culinary legend you are, let's cue up the montage music and break this thing down step by step:
Step One
Cashews Rule Everything Around Me:
Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Grease a large baking dish with olive oil.
Bring the vegetable stock to a boil, add the cashews, cover, and remove from the heat. Let them soak for 15 minutes.
Step Two
Blend Times:
In a blender, combine the stock and cashews with garlic, mustard, olive oil, nutritional yeast, vinegar, and salt. Blend until silky smooth, and then stir in the chopped rosemary.
Step Three
Slice Slice Baby:
Slice the potatoes into thin rounds (about 2 mm. thick).
✅ A mandoline makes doing this evenly quickly so much easier (Just PLS promise me you will be careful if you use one, OK?) A a food processor fitted with a thin slicing blade works too, and is a little safer.
Step Four
Ruth 'Tater Ginsburg:
Layer ⅓ of the potatoes in the dish, top with ⅓ of the onions, and pour ⅓ of the béchamel over them. Repeat two more times, ending with the sauce.
Step Five
Foil Me Once:
Cover tightly with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Remove foil and bake uncovered for 30-35 more minutes until golden and tender.
Step Six
Top It Like It's Hot:
Garnish with fried onions, shaved vegan parmesan, and/or chives. Serve warm.
💡Serving Ideas
Plate this up next to some maple balsamic roasted Brussels sprouts and carrots or roasted parsnips. And remember your ol' childhood fave that you found out your mother made all along with sucky canned soup? Well, this from-scratch vegan green bean casserole recipe has your back and would never ever lie to you like your mean old mom did.
If it's Thanksgiving, you know you are going to NEED cranberry-related stuff in your life, so rock this out with some maple bourbon cranberry sauce or Turkish cranberry relish.
Skip the bird and go with stuffed vegan turkey roast, vegan corned beef, a rather creepy human baby-shaped tofu turkey, or get gloriously glazed with vegan ham.
Then round it all out with a heavy pour of mushroom gravy, onion gravy, or vegan brown gravy.
👉Top tips
- Choose the Right Potato: Yukon Golds strike the ideal balance between starchy and waxy. They hold their shape without getting mushy, and their natural buttery flavor amps up the richness without any extra effort. Russets can work in a pinch, but be warned-they tend to fall apart more.
- Don't Skip Soaking: That 15-minute soak is everything. It softens the raw cashews just enough to blend into well-emulsified béchamel.
- Even Slices = Better Baking: Whether you go mandoline, a slicing blade on a food processor, or freehand with a knife, keep your potato slices consistently thin. Uneven slices = weird texture city with some possibly undercooked spots.
- Rest Before Serving: Once baked, let the dish hang out for 10 minutes before you dive in. This allows the sauce to thicken slightly and settle into each layer. You'll get cleaner slices, better flavor, and fewer guests whose whole faces got burned off and become Freddy Krueger in real life.
🤷♀️ Recipe FAQs
Absolutely. Obviously, expect a sweeter, softer result and pair accordingly-something spicy or tangy on the side balances it out. You might also want to consider using some of the spices and seasonings that I use in my vegan sweet potato casserole or candied yams recipe.
❄️ Refrigerating:
Let the dish cool completely before covering. Store it in an airtight container or directly in the baking dish with a tight-fitting lid for up to 4 days.
🥵 Oven Reheating:
Cover the baking dish with foil and reheat at 350°F (175°C) for 15-20 minutes or until heated through.
Nope. The dreamy cashew béchamel you worked so hard to make? Turns into a wet drop-ceiling tile, sad trombone situation once thawed. Don't do it. Eat it fresh or refrigerate the leftovers for a few days like a reasonable human, instead of some kind of Silicon Valley cryogenic potato startup monster.
🍁 You'll adore these vegan potato recipes:
Vegan Scalloped Potatoes
Equipment
- Mandoline optional
Ingredients
For the Béchamel:
- 4 ½ cups unsalted vegetable stock
- 3 cups raw cashews
- 5 cloves of garlic
- 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 ½ cup nutritional yeast
- 3 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 2 ¾ teaspoons salt or to taste
- 2 tablespoons rosemary chopped
For the Scalloped Potatoes:
- 1 tablespoon olive oil for greasing the baking pan
- 3 lbs. yukon gold potatoes
- 1 ½ cup onion thinly sliced
Optional Garnishes:
- 2 tablespoons fried onions or fried shallots
- 2 tablespoons Vegan parmesan cheese grated
- 2 tablespoons chives thinly sliced
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Lightly grease a large baking dish with olive oil.
- Bring the vegetable stock to a boil in a saucepan and then add the cashews. Cover the pot and remove from the heat, allowing the cashews to steam for 15 minutes.
- Place the vegetable stock and cashews, along with the garlic, mustard, olive oil, nutritional yeast, vinegar, and salt in a blender.
- Blend until completely smooth to form the béchamel. Then stir or pulse in the rosemary.
- Slice the potatoes evenly into thin rounds, approximately 2 mm thick. If you have a mandolin, it's a good way to ensure all of the slices are evenly thick.
- Spread one-third of the potato slices in the prepared baking dish. Top with one-third of the onion slices, then pour over one-third of the béchamel. Repeat the layering process two more times, finishing with béchamel on top.
- Cover the dish tightly with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Remove the foil and continue baking until the potatoes are tender and the top is golden, 30-35 minutes.
- Garnish with fried onions or shallots, vegan parmesan, and chives.
Notes
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Lisa Braithwaite says
Delicious! I only had one potato on hand, so I used Red Kuri squash in equal quantity to the potato and it was LUSCIOUS. I would appreciate measurements in weight instead of cups, because I only cook for two people, and reducing a recipe is much easier using weight than fractions of cups.
Tabitha says
Sensational! I added the chipotle & vegan chorizo. Unbelievably fantastic!
Adam Sobel says
Yay! So pumped you did that variation of this, Tabitha. ❤️
Linda says
Wow, this was fun to make and ended up so delicious! I think it tastes better than any dairy version. It was a huge success at a vegan potluck.