My mom used to make scalloped potatoes with margarine, milk, and flour. Then it turned into dairy-free butter-like, sort-of-margarine-like spread, with soy milk, and gluten-free flour. My version of the dish involves earth balance, potato starch and almond milk. It was alright. You won’t hate it if you can’t eat the real thing, but boy I miss cheese. I’d love to be able to follow all these recipes with cream and rich sauces, but then I remember that I’m probably a lot healthier because of how much I have to think about what I’m eating. And the planet is hopefully a little healthier because I’m not employing more cows. The cows may even agree.
I can replace cream with coconut milk (or coconut cream for extra luxury), and earth balance isn’t all bad. It’s no butter, trust me, but it’s alright. The potato starch is kind of muck, though. I’d recommend using maybe almond flour for a nutty flavour and slightly crunchy, meal-y texture. Rice flour might be okay, and so might quinoa or buckwheat. Light spelt, if you can handle it, would be the ultimate unrefined, white-flour replacer. It’s not gluten-free, but it’s smooth and un-paste-y.
Dairy-free, Gluten-free Scalloped Potatoes
My recipe was pretty bad, so try this one. The key is to brown the flour and then whisk in the milk so it’s not paste-y. Uncooked flour = disaster. I would recommend actually dicing real onions (or shallots) and using real, minced garlic instead of powder, though. And I skip the nutritional yeast (it’s what gives the cheesy flavour, but is also hard to digest for me). And (unsweetened plain) almond milk over the hemp or soy any day. But that’s just my preference.
Oh, and this is NOT a main course. Add some protein. Some salad. Some vegetables that aren’t starch. Some colour, for goodness sake.
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