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Goat Cheese Sweet Potato Gratin features tender layers of sweet-salty and tangy flavors wrapped around a blend of thinly sliced potatoes and sweet potatoes. Add creamy goat cheese and bake this gratin until golden brown to make your new favorite holiday side dish.
Delicious Details
- Cuisine Inspiration: French
- Primary Cooking Method: Oven
- Dietary Info: Gluten-free
- Skill Level: Easy
Why You’ll Love This Sweet Potato Gratin Recipe
Not your ordinary sweet potato gratin, this recipe calls for goat cheese and fresh thyme, playing up the savory flavors of fall. While maple cinnamon mashed sweet potatoes always have a spot on my menu, I like leaning into the pungent tanginess of goat cheese in this gratin. It’s elegant and just different enough to feel truly special.
Easy to make and always sure to impress, this gratin makes a wonderful holiday side, or you can serve it anytime. It’s a nice vegetarian offering at Thanksgiving and it also happens to be naturally gluten free, making it ideal for everyone gathered around the table. Some high points include:
- Layers of texture and flavor. Goat cheese adds beautiful richness while using a mix of sweet and regular potatoes keeps this grain from being overly sweet.
- Easy to adapt. You can use this method to make a potato gratin, add other vegetables to the mix, such as baby spinach, or try different cheeses.
- Gluten free! Every ingredient in this gorgeous sweet potato gratin is naturally gluten-free! It’s also vegetarian, so it’s suitable for those who go meat-free as well as gluten free.
What You’ll Need
Simple ingredients are all that’s required for this rich-tasting dish. I’ve outlined them below. Don’t forget to check the recipe card at the end of this post for the full ingredient amounts.
- Garlic: This is used to rub the cooking dish for a little extra flavor.
- Milk: Either whole or 2% milk works fine.
- Goat Cheese: Parmesan makes an easy swap if you don’t like goat cheese.
- Thyme: Fresh herbs will give the most flavor, so try not to substitute these!
- White Potatoes: You can substitute these for sweet potatoes for an all-sweet potato gratin.
- Sweet Potatoes: Any variety of sweet potato or yam will work in this recipe.
- Olive Oil: Extra virgin olive oil is my choice. Avocado oil also works.
- Salt and Pepper: I use kosher salt and black pepper.
How To Make Goat Cheese Sweet Potato Gratin
This is a super easy recipe that anyone can make. Here’s a look at how to do it. Find the detailed instructions in the recipe card lower down.
- Prepare a pan. Grease a round glass pie plate and rub it with garlic.
- Heat the milk. Simmer the milk, two ounces of goat cheese, and thyme in a pot to melt some of the cheese. Discard the thyme.
- Make the gratin layers. Layer half of the potato slices on the pie plate, then drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
- Add sweet potatoes. Top the potato layer with a layer of sweet potato slices and also drizzle them with olive oil, salt, and pepper.
- Top with potatoes. Add the final layer of white potatoes, oil, salt, and pepper.
- Add milk. Slowly pour the milk mixture over the top of the potatoes.
- Bake. Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 450°F for 20 minutes.
- Finish baking. Uncover the gratin and add the remaining goat cheese. Continue to bake, uncovered, for another 20-25 minutes.
Tips & Variations
You can try a combination of fresh herbs, including rosemary, rather than just using thyme if you want to play up the herbal flavors in this dish. A few more tips and ideas include:
- Rest the gratin. When the sweet potato gratin comes out of the oven it can be bubbling and liquidy. I like to let it cool for at least 5-10 minutes to let it solidify a bit before I cut into it.
- Prep ahead. Prepare the sweet potato gratin ahead of time. You can store it, covered and unbaked, in the fridge and then bake it when you want to eat it. You can also prepare the recipe fully, then cover and store the dish in the fridge until you’re ready to rewarm it.
- Add toppings. To add a little bit of crunch to this gratin, sprinkle the top with chopped walnuts or gluten free breadcrumbs.
- Try other cheeses. If you don’t care for goat cheese, you can substitute it with another cheese you prefer. I like Parmesan cheese in place of goat cheese, and Gruyere or cheddar cheese are nice too.
- Use all sweet potatoes or all potatoes. For an all-sweet potato grain, omit the potatoes and replace them with an equal amount of sweet potatoes. Likewise, you can use this method to make a potato gratin by using all potatoes rather than sweet potatoes. The total amount of sweet potatoes or potatoes should equal about 1 ¾ pounds.
How To Store & Reheat Leftovers
- Fridge – Place cooled sweet potato gratin in an airtight container and store it in the fridge for up to 3 days.
- Freezer – Transfer the leftover sweet potato gratin to a freezer-safe container and store it in the freezer for up to 2 months. Thaw the gratin in the fridge before reheating it. The texture of the gratin may change after being defrosted because it contains dairy, but it will still taste good.
- To Reheat – Reheat leftovers in the microwave in 1-minute increments until heated through, or place the gratin in an oven-safe dish and heat it in a 350°F oven until heated through and the cheese is melted.
Make It A Meal
Sweet potato gratin is such a rich dish it needs a side of lightly cooked vegetables like air fryer green beans or air fryer broccoli to balance it. A few more serving suggestions include:
- Make it into a vegetarian meal. This sweet potato gratin is hearty enough to serve as a vegetarian main dish. Add a side of harvest salad for a seasonal pairing, along with a bowl of lightly caramelized roasted cauliflower.
- Add to the holiday table. Sweet potato gratin is the best side for festive meals. Along with creamy corn pudding and roasted butternut squash plus the holiday roast, you’ll have a colorful and celebration-worthy dinner.
- With meat dishes. A hearty meat main is perfectly balanced by gratin. I love serving sweet potato gratin with apple cider dijon marinated tip roast, gluten free cube steak with gravy, or easy steak bites.
Goat Cheese Sweet Potato Gratin
Ingredients
- 1 garlic clove, halved
- 1 cup milk, whole or 2%
- 4 ounces goat cheese
- 3-4 sprigs fresh thyme
- ¾ pound white potatoes, peeled and sliced 1/8 inch thick (see note)
- 1 pound sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced 1/8 inch thick (see note)
- 1 ½ Tablespoons olive oil
- ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
- black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 450°F. Spray a 9 inch round glass pie plate with olive oil or cooking spray. Rub with the cut sides of the garlic. Discard the garlic.
- Add the milk to a small saucepan, crumble in 2 ounces of the goat cheese, and add the sprig of thyme. Bring to just a simmer and whisk to make it a bit smoother. You may still see small curdles of the goat cheese. Remove from heat and remove the thyme stems.
- While the milk is heating, layer half of the potato slices on the pie plate, and drizzle with ½ tablespoon olive oil, and season with ¼ teaspoon salt and a pinch of black pepper.
- Make a layer of the sweet potato slices, drizzle with ½ tablespoon olive oil, and season with ¼ teaspoon salt and a pinch of the black pepper. Add the final layer of white potatoes, oil, salt, and pepper.
- Whick the milk mixture again and slowly pour it over the top of the potatoes so that it can fill in all the spaces. There will be a layer of the melted goat cheese on top.
- Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 450°F for 20 minutes. Uncover, crumble the remaining 2 oz. of goat cheese and sprinkle on the top. Bake uncovered for another 20-25 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender and the cheese starts to brown.
- Remove from the oven and let cool for a few minutes before cutting into slices with a sharp knife.
I am loving the combination of potatoes in this dish. Really, the slices make a great presentation.
Thanks! So happy to have joined the Challenge. It was a lot of fun, and I can’t wait for next month.
I love goat cheese…so tangy….what a great idea using it in this potato dish. I see you also have fiestaware! 🙂 I have a set of only one color, but my neighbor has a mixmatched every color set…I like hers better! haha
Yes, I LOVE Fiesta. I have a mixed set, but unfortunately almost all of my colors are retired, so it is hard to get anything new. The new colors are a lot darker so don’t match.
Brianne! What a beautiful gratin! I love how you described it all, sweet, creamy, tangy. And I love that you used both regular and sweet potatoes. The best of both worlds! So glad you are a part of Improv….Kristen is wonderful and it’s a great group of people!
Thank you so much. I am so happy to be part of the group. It was a lot of fun,and I am enjoying checking out all of the recipes this evening.
That looks delicious – you had me at goat cheese! I’ll try to get the recipe for the wonton cups on my last blog post – it was artichoke dip put in baked wonton cups – so good!
I love goat cheese. Well, I suppose I love pretty much any cheese. I have some wontons in the freezer… hmmm…
Looks and sounds delish – I love the thought of sweet, salt, creamy and tang all in one dish.
Thanks. Yes, definitely good to have all of those flavor combinations. I love sweet and salty. Mmmm… chocolate covered pretzels 🙂
That looks delicious! I’m also having the same Inlinkz issue as you. I don’t know what’s going on with it. I’ve tried every code possible and its still not working.
I was able to add my link and am starting to see others. Maybe it is fixed. I am going to check again.
Thanks for stopping by. Can’t wait to check out your recipe.
Welcome to the ICC and your gratin looks wonderful, I adore goat cheese so you had me hooked. Looking forward to seeing your entries in future challenges.
If you haven’t already, I’d love for you to check out my Improv Cooking Challenge entry: Loaded Potato & Buffalo Chicken Casserole
Lisa~~
Cook Lisa Cook
Thanks, and I am happy you stopped by. I can’t wait to check out your entry. Sounds awesome!
I’m impressed—I love it when things turn out great when they were off the cuff!
Thanks! Yes, I must say, I was quite impressed as well. Could be perfected, but definitely yummy just like this.