Sweet Potato Au Gratin With Gruyere
This is one of my mainstays for pot lucks and such. Easy to make, and always well received.
Ingredients:
- 5 pounds Sweet Potato
- 1 Medium Red Onion
- 1 pint heavy cream
- ~1 pound Gruyere Cheese
- Butter
- 1 Tbl spoon Thyme
- 1/2 Tbl Spoon Cinnamon
- 1/2 Tbl Spoon Nutmeg
- 1/2 Tbl Spoon Salt
Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees. Grease up your pan with butter. Then put away the butter, you won’t be needing it again.
Measure out the spices into a bowl. I don’t actually measure the spices out myself. I’ve cooked this recipe quite a few times, and I let my mood determine how much to use. I highly recommend doing that, always makes the dish more personal, and not often too terrible. 
If you are feeling a little spicy, add some ground black pepper to taste.
Next, bust out your Mandolin Slicer. These make for great think slices of sweet potato. If you don’t have one you will have to boil the sweet potatoes first, then cool them, then slice them thinly by hand. That adds a fair amount of time to prep. I’m too lazy for that, and was lucky enough to get one of these bad boys for a birthday present a few years back. Go to your local Japan/China town and get one. They’re cheap, quick, and safe if you pay attention.
Clean your sweet potatoes, cut a bit off of one end, and go to town!
The Mandolin will also make short work of the red onion for the next step.
Okay, once you have half the sweet potato sliced up, layer them into your buttered pan. Next half your red onion, cut off one end and peel the top layers of skin. Hang onto the uncut end for a grip while you slice the onion up on your Mandolin. Scatter those onions over your sweet potato base layer.
Then repeat. Slice up the rest of your sweet potatoes, layer them in, and then slice up the rest of the red onion and spread those over the top.
Okay, get out a mixing bowl. Grate your gruyere, nice and thick. Toss that into the bowl. Pour in your heavy cream, and the spices you mixed earlier. Stir that up with a fork.
Pour that over your sweet potatoes and red onion. Use the fork to spread out the cheese.
Cover with foil and put into the oven for 45 minutes.
At 45 minutes remove the foil and put back into the oven for 15 more minutes to boil down the fluid and brown/crisp the top.
Take ‘em out of the oven and let them cool a bit before serving. In a party of 20 people I often end up with some left overs. They microwave up fine!
2 Responses to “Sweet Potato Au Gratin With Gruyere”
Comment from Travis
Time October 7, 2009 at 1:56 pm
I don’t count calories. I try to eat only enough to feel not hungry, or at least not stuffed. I do keep an eye on using fresh, actual ingredients with a variety of colors to get my nutrients.
This recipe is in no way low impact. So, don’t eat much.
Comment from April Belle
Time October 7, 2009 at 11:57 am
I am a sucker for sweet potatoes! This looks fabulous… thanks for including the photos, it helps to see what the different stages look like. I have a cuisinart – looks like it has a kind of mandolin blade, but maybe not as wide. Hmmm. I bet it would work.
Quick question… I notice this has a lot of cream and cheese, not that I mind that terribly, but I guess it’s not terribly calorie conscious? LOL. Perhaps the nutrients in the sweet potatoes make up for it.