Up here in the Midwest, we love food. We especially love eating food with friends. The average joe’s paridise up here is a nice big potluck. And the most favored food here? Cheese, of course. You know you’re in the Midwest when you find a huge dish of cheesy potatoes at every potluck, get-together, and party. Everything is an excuse for cheesy potatoes.
I have always really loved cheesy potatoes. There are many variations on the base recipe, but it usually involves lots of potatoes plus process cheese and canned cream of mystery soup. Yum yum.
This dairy free cheesy potato casserole recipe is a salute to my Midwestern heritage with a healthy twist. I wanted to have a creamy, pure-comfort-food kind of dish that I could make and serve at Thanksgiving and bring to parties. This recipe fits the bill. It’s so creamy, and it really brings me back to my younger days, when I ate potato cheese casserole with abandon every chance I got.
This recipe could very easily be made autoimmune protocol friendly by using white yams.
Shared at Allergy-Free Wednesday
- potatoes or white yams for AIP option – 3 pounds, peeled and sliced
- bacon – 10 slices
- onion – 1, chopped
- garlic – 3 cloves, minced
- canned full-fat coconut milk – 1 can
- water – 1 cup
- carrot – 1/2 cup chopped
- salt – to taste
- nutritional yeast – 3/4 cup
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Reserve 2 cups of the sliced potatoes, and cover the rest with water and bring to a boil. Simmer 5 minutes, drain, and set aside.
- In a large skillet, cook the bacon until crisp. Remove bacon and chop up. Add the onion and garlic to the bacon grease and saute until translucent.
- Add the coconut milk, water, 2 cups reserved potatoes, carrots, and salt. Simmer 20-30 minutes.
- Pour into a blender and add the nutritional yeast. Puree until very smooth.
- Place the parboiled potatoes in a 9 inch by 13 inch glass baking dish and pour the sauce over. Add the chopped cooked bacon and toss with large spoon to coat everything evenly.
- Cover tightly with foil and bake until bubbly, about 45 minutes.
- Uncover and broil just until golden brown.
I really liked this casserole, the only thing I added was some creole seasoning and a little cholula sauce for extra kick. the sauce tasted like there was real cheese in it! thanks!
Is there any brand of nutritional yeast that isn’t “fortified” with synthetic B vitamins? I have an MTHFR defect and can’t take folic acid, etc. I haven’t been able to find nutritional yeast without it.
I think both Sari Foods and Dr. Fuhrman’s brands have non-fortified nutritional yeast.
Thanks!
Hi! This looks absolutely delicious! My only concern is that the coconut milk may impart too much of the flavour and make it less appetizing. I find that there’s certain applications such as desserts that I can tolerate the flavour, but I don’t know if I could tolerate it here.
Perhaps a homemade almond milk and some bacon fat or ghee would be a fair substitute. What do you think?
Because of the nutritional yeast, the sauce really doesn’t have a coconutty flavor in my opinion. If you want to substitute, a homemade cashew cream would probably be good.
Looks really good! I don’t understand though. Step 5, do you puree the coconut milk, water, potatoes, carrots, salt, onion and garlic? That would only leave one cup of potatoes and the bacon left. I love that I found a blog by another paleo teen!
Hi Kiera, thanks for commenting! You’re right; I wasn’t too clear in my instructions. You’re supposed to puree the reserved 2 cups of potatoes with the sauce and use the rest in the casserole. I fixed it so you should be able to understand it better 🙂
Thanks, that does help.
what am I missing? I can’t find the recipe. this looks so good! I really want to try it!
Hi Andi,
I am having some severe technical difficulties with the site- my recipe form is down. Working hard to get my recipes back up; shouldn’t be long!
Thanks Heather! I can see it now! Just have to find some white yams (I’m on AIP) and I can’t wait to try it!
Hi there. LOVE this recipe! Can you please link to my Allergy Free Wed post? I’m picking features and might feature you but I can’t if you don’t link back…..Thanks!
Hi there Adrienne, there’s a link right before the last picture 🙂
This sounds wonderful Heather. I would definitely choose the sweet potatoes because I love then any way I can get them. Will pin & twitt.
YUM!!! This looks delicious!
This looks AWESOME. A Midwestern girl myself, I grew up with cheesy potatoes and ham as a well-loved treat in my house. I’ll definitely be using your recipe to try and make a paleo version!
Let me know how you like it! 🙂