Vegan potato gratin

Step 1

Place drained cashews in an upright blender with 240 ml / 1 cup of plant milk, blend until super smooth.

Step 2

Add all the remaining sauce ingredients up to and including salt, blend until smooth. The sauce is quite intense tasting as it has to flavour all of the potatoes and it loses some of its potency once baked, but feel free to adjust the seasoning (salt, dry spices and herbs) to your liking. Transfer the sauce to a large mixing bowl.

Step 3

Grease an oven proof dish with a generous amount of olive oil and preheat the oven to 200° C / 390° F (no fan).

Step 4

Wash all the potatoes well, dry them on a kitchen towel and slice them evenly using a vegetable mandolin, on 3 mm / 1/8" setting (middle one in my case). You are welcome to peel the potatoes, I did not feel the need.

Step 5

Tip sliced potatoes into the bowl with the creamy sauce, mix well so that they are fully coated.

Step 6

Arrange sauce-coated potato slices in the prepared baking dish in the vertical fashion so that the cut sides press up against each other and the skin side faces up. Pack them fairly tightly, alternating big and small slices so that the top is as jagged as possible - it results in a crispier top.

Step 7

Fill the baking dish with the rest of the sauce, it should reach to about half the height of the baking dish (but leave a good portion of potatoes exposed to get those crispy tops even if that means you have some leftover sauce) and tightly cover the top of the baking dish with a piece of kitchen foil.

Step 8

Bake for about 30 minutes then take the cover off and bake for a further 45-60 minutes, until the tops are crispy and the potato slices are thoroughly cooked in the cream. Rest it for a few minutes before serving.