Dairy Free Scalloped Potatoes

Published: January 17, 2023. Last Updated: July 4, 2024 by: Ligia Lugo

Dairy Free Scalloped Potatoes are comfort food at its best. Potatoes baked in a casserole covered with a creamy vegan white sauce. Herbs sprinkled over the top for a finishing touch

Comfort food can take a step forward and still give you that old nostalgic feeling. This Dairy Free Scalloped Potatoes recipe is a great example of that.

Since it is lower in fat, it can also provide lots of comfort. Right out of the oven comes a bubbling casserole filled with potatoes and creamy sauce.

The difference is that dairy-free milk is used in the roux, and the vegan scalloped potatoes casserole is sprinkled with a few fresh herbs, which cranks up the flavors a notch.

Table of Contents

How to Make Dairy Free Scalloped Potatoes

Prepare the potatoes. Preheat the oven to 350℉. Rinse, peel, and thinly slice the potatoes. As you work, place the sliced potatoes in a large bowl of cool water–this prevents them from turning brown due to air exposure. You’re looking for about 6 cups of sliced potatoes total. Once finished, you can leave the potatoes in the water and set aside while you work on the sauce.
Make the roux. Melt the vegan butter in a large saucepan. Add the flour and stir over medium heat for a few minutes until well mixed and paste-like. This mixture is your roux–the starting point of your creamy sauce! See below for more details and tips on making roux.
Finish the sauce. Pour in the dairy free milk. Bring to a low boil, then reduce the heat to medium and cook, stirring often, for about 10 to 15 minutes. You’re looking for the sauce to be smooth and slightly thickened, but not quite as thick as say a gravy or a vegan cheese sauce. Once cooked, stir in salt and black pepper.
Arrange the potatoes. Grease a large 9″ x 13″ casserole or baking dish with vegan butter (mine usually uses about 1 Tbsp) then arrange the potato slices. You want them to overlap each other in a staggered way, as this allows all of that creamy sauce to get down in between the nooks and crannies!
Add sauce and bake. Pour the sauce all over the top, covering all of the potatoes and in between them as best you can. Cover with a lid or aluminum foil, then bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes. Remove the lid, then bake for another 1 hour.
Rest and serve! Remove your vegan scalloped potatoes from the oven and sprinkle fresh thyme over the top. Let stand for 10 minutes to allow the sauce to thicken and the casserole to set. Slice into thick wedges and enjoy!

How do you make a roux

A roux is the beginning of a sauce and it starts with butter and flour. In our case, it’s dairy free butter.

Melt the dairy-free butter in a saucepan or skillet. For this recipe, a saucepan is used. I like to use one that holds at least four cups. This aids in stirring and making a larger quantity than you thought you might.

Add the flour and it is often the same amount as the butter. Stir until all is well blended. It will seem like a thick clump of moist flour. Keep stirring for about a minute. This cooks out the raw taste of flour.

How to make a sauce from roux

Pour in the dairy-free milk or whatever liquid your recipe calls for. It could be a broth or stock but this recipe is for dairy-free milk. Bring to a low boil and stir often. It will thicken as it comes to a boil.
Make sure you don’t curdle the milk and as soon as it just starts to bubble turn the heat down to medium.
Not all dairy-free milks will curdle but be careful – just in case.
The sauce may become clumpy but keep stirring. The clumps will smooth out. I love this type of stirrer as it helps make it smoother faster than a wooden spoon.
Keep stirring until it’s smooth and thick and add the salt and pepper. If it becomes too thick just add more milk or even a little water.
Stir well and taste to make sure it’s seasoned enough.
After all the baking, you’ll get a nice forkful of sliced potato that almost melts in your mouth.

Potatoes are such a great side dish. From one method to another they are crowd pleasers. They are such delicious vegetables in themselves that potatoes usually don’t need much preparation.

You do make a sauce for this classic dairy free Scalloped Potatoes Recipe and it’s NOT intimidating at all. Just creamy goodness all throughout the whole casserole.

My most popular recipe on the web!

Whether these easy vegan scalloped potatoes are served in a fancy casserole dish or in a clear pyrex dish they look beautiful. Eyes will light up and everyone will say “Pass the Potatoes, Please’.

I don’t think anyone can have enough potato recipes and you might as well start by having the most delicious and classic ones.

Chef Tips

There is no onion in this recipe either so it covers all of the picky eaters. You, of course, can add finely chopped onion into the melted dairy-free butter before you add the flour.

It will be great that way too but since I had to make it ‘onionless’ for my ‘big kid’ I thought I would give exact measurements for that.

There isn’t any cheese in real scalloped potatoes. If there is cheese then it is Potatoes Au Gratin. So if I wanted Potates Au Gratin then I would add a little nutritional yeast to the sauce.

Potatoes come in all colors and sizes. Some are better for boiling, some are better for baking.

I used russet potatoes for this casserole. They are such a straightforward tasting potato that holds up really well with lots of sauce.

This vegan scalloped potatoes recipe was so good last night. Ed verbally complimented me on the potatoes and went back for more. He is so happy there are leftovers for tonight.

Me too. Besides looking forward to a dish it is also almost like having the night off. That is something we can all use once in a while, right?

Can you freeze scalloped potatoes

IF FREEZING:
You’ll need to make the casserole in two smaller casseroles so that you can slip them into the large freezer bags.
Partially bake for the first 40 minutes. Let cool, lay plastic wrap over that but tap it down so that it touches the top of the casserole, then cover with foil then slip in a freezer bag.
TO BAKE:
Defrost overnight in the fridge and then remove the foil and plastic wrap. Replace the foil and bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Then uncover and bake another 30 minutes or until heated through.