Eazy Cheezy Potatoes Au Gratin

This dish is a nice change from our usual weekday side dish of mashed potatoes or roasted potatoes. My partner isn't the biggest fan of the "yeasty stuff" taste (nutritional yeast) and I have to say, it does have a distinctive taste that I wouldn't want to eat every day, but every few weeks I'm happy to yeast it up!

The sauce, adapted from the Cheezy Sauce out of Veganomicon, turned out super-creamy and paired with the potatoes perfectly.

Ingredients:

• 3 medium potatoes, sliced about 1/2 cm thick (I used desiree potatoes)
• 2 cups liquid vegetable broth
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 pinches of fresh thyme
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• a few grinds of fresh black pepper
• pinch of tumeric
• 3/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp dijon mustard
• 2 tbsp Nuttelex

First you need to parboil the potato slices for about seven minutes. Drain all the excess water and set them aside in a strainer.

Next, heat up the olive oil in a medium-sized saucepan or large frypan. While it cooks on low-medium heat, whisk the flour into the vegetable broth until all large lumps are gone. Once the garlic is lightly (lightly!) browned, add the thyme, salt and pepper and cook for another 30 seconds. Add the stock/flour mixture, stir, then add the turmeric and nutritional yeast. Stir for about three minutes until the sauce starts to thicken. Add the lemon juice, Nuttelex and mustard. Stir stir stir until everything is combined. Cook for another couple of minutes, stirring so the sauce doesn't form a skin on top. Remove from the heat.

Make one layer of potatoes at the bottom of a glass or ceramic baking dish. 

Pour half the sauce onto the potatoes and add another layer of potato slices. Pour the rest of your sauce on top and spread around so the potato slices are evenly coated. If you have a few leftover slices, arrange them in a fancy pattern on the top and scrape out the rest of the sauce from the pan with a spatula to cover them.

Bake, covered with aluminium foil, for about 10 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 15-20 minutes, to your desired brownness. Sprinkle some paprika on top to make it look extra-fancy and serve hot!