Dairy Free, Creamy Scalloped Potatoes

I feel like I just accomplished the impossible. We just ate scalloped potatoes that had a rich and thick creamy sauce, without any cream in it. Plus, it looked exactly like what normal scalloped potatoes look like, minus some stringy cheese, but big deal. This was so cool.

I'm going to say Happy Easter now, just like I did when we sat down to eat. Yeah, I know I'm about 6 months too late (or early) but when you're sitting down to ham and scalloped potatoes what else can you say.

The texture of this dish was bang on and the flavour was there as well (which truly boggles my mind considering some of the ingredients that are listed to be used: tahini, rice vinegar??). You actually don't taste any of these 'different' ingredients when it's all said and done. They just blended in to give the right texture to the sauce. One thing I might do differently next time is add 1/2 tsp of salt to the sauce as it cooks (instead of just sprinkling some over the top before cooking), or a couple of cloves of garlic. Because it's missing the cheese it just needs a bit of something else to go with the 'cream' flavour. This is definitely a keeper.

I used the exact recipe that I found at Tessa the Domestic Diva and I added in my suggestions as optional ingredients.

Serves ~6

Ingredients

1 3/4 C. Chicken Broth
1/4 C. Mayonnaise
1 Tbsp. Nutritional Yeast
1 Tbsp. Tahini
1 Tsp. Rice Vinegar

*Optional* 1/2 Tsp. Salt

1/4 C. All Purpose Flour
5 Large Potatoes, peeled (I used Russets)
1 Onion, chopped finely
*Optional* 2 Cloves Garlic, minced
Paprika
Pepper

Directions

~Preheat oven to 350 F.

~Slice potatoes thinly using a mandolin, slicing attachment on a food processor or a knife.

~Chop the onion finely and mince the garlic.

~Arrange the potatoes, onion and garlic in a greased 9x13 baking dish.

~In a medium saucepan, combine all the ingredients from the chicken broth through to the salt and stir until smooth.

~When mixture begins to heat, whisk in the flour a little bit at a time, making sure to whisk out all of the lumps before adding more.

~Continue to whisk until mixture thickens and starts to bubble.

~Pour mixture over top the potatoes, and sprinkle with paprika and ground pepper.

~Bake for 1 - 1 1/2 hours or until fork tender and bubbly (cooking time will be dependent on how thin you sliced the potatoes, so watch carefully).

Enjoy