Meatless Monday: Painless Potato Au Gratin

How are your Mondays coming along? It’s so easy to go meat-free even if you can’t give up your steaks, fried chicken or bacon. Today’s recipe is another one using potato because it’s one of T’s favourite things to eat. He’s quite easy to cook for but strangely enough, he’s not a salad-loving vegetarian, so I have to find interesting ways to pair veggies with his meals to ensure he gets enough fresh greens in his diet. Anyway, this is a new recipe. I usually make a cheat Au Gratin with mashed potato instead and when he was in New York, he mentioned that his Aunt’s Potato Au Gratin was possibly the best he’s eaten… so I thought I’d try my hand at making one. I found 3 different recipes and I combined them through a combination of – what the heck do I have in my kitchen and what method is the fastest to make? It worked!!

This Painless Potato Au Gratin recipe serves up a really crispy hard shell top of cheese; a gooey cheesy middle mixed with the natural sweetness of the onions; ending right at the bottom with flaky and fluffy potato slices. I love food with different textures. Maybe you would too?

Painless Potato Au Gratin

Serves 4 (or 2 very greedy people). Prep Time: 10 minutes. Cooking Time: 1 hour.

3 large baking potatoes

1/2 cup diced onion

2 1/2 tablespoon butter

1 cup milk

1 cup shredded mozzarella

1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar

1 cup bread crumbs

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 400degF.

2. Scrub potatoes well and rinse. Do not peel.

3. Cut potatoes into 1/4 thick slices (I can never get them even but who cares).

4. Layer 1 1/2 potatoes worth of the slices in the baking pan.

5. Pour 1 cup of milk over the potatoes already in the pan.

6. Melt about 1/2 tablespoon of butter and brown the diced onions.

7. Sprinkle the browned diced onions over the first layer of the potatoes.

8. Layer the rest of the potato slices and spread 2 tablespoons of butter over them (you can just drop dollops all over).

9. Sprinkle the mozzarella over the potatoes, then the breadcrumbs and lastly the cheddar. Make sure to cover the surface well.

10. Put the baking pan in the middle rack and bake for 45 minutes.

11. Remove from oven and let cool for 2 minutes before serving!