Scalloped Potatoes and Butternut Squash With Leeks

Submitted by LifeIsGood

"I love, love, love this recipe. It can be a little time consuming to make but you can prepare it in advance and then bake when ready. It is the creamy goodness of comfort food but gourmet enough to serve to guests. This comes from a favorite cookbook of mine, "Gourmet's Parties"."

 

• Ready In: 1hr 20mins
• Ingredients: 7
• Serves: 6

ingredients

• 3 cups leeks, washed very well and then thinly sliced (about 6 large, white and pale green parts only)
• 1⁄2 cup unsalted butter
• 3 1⁄2 cups whole milk
• 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 1⁄2 lbs potatoes (about 4 large)
• 1 lb butternut squash, peeled, seeded, quartered and cut into 1/8 inch slices
• 1 1⁄2 cups gruyere cheese, coarsley grated (about 4 ounces)

directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Generously butter a 3 quart baking dish (at least 2 inches deep).
3. In a skillet, cook leeks in 3 tablespoons butter over medium low heat, stirring, until very soft.
4. In a saucepan, bring the milk just to boil (don't scald.just keep warm).
5. In another heavy saucepan, melt the remaining 5 tablespoons of butter over medium low heat and whisk in flour - cooking and constantly whisking for about 3 minutes.
6. Add heated milk in a stream, whisking, and bring to a boil.
7. Simmer this sauce, whisking, for 1 minute - or until thickened - and season with salt and pepper.
8. Peel potatoes and slice 1/8 inch thick.
9. Spread about 1/3 sauce in baking dish and cover with 1/3 potato and squash slices, overlapping them slightly.
10. Cover slices with 1/3 leeks and sprinkle with 1/3 Gruyere.
11. Make 2 more layers with sauce, potatoes and squash, leeks and Gruyere in the same manner.
12. Bake, covered with foil, in middle of the oven for about 20 minutes.
13. Remove foil and bake 30 minutes more, or until top is golden and vegetables are tender. Yum!
14. *If you prepare this in advance you may need to bake it a little bit longer*.

Reviews

[Chef PotPie]

Wow! This was amazingly yummy! I mean, we like all the ingredients, but I wouldn't have thought of putting them all together in one dish. I'm sure glad someone did! So rich and creamy! It definitely needed salt, so I sprinkled salt and pepper between the layers, and we still used a little more salt and pepper at the table. I'm hanging onto this recipe, and will be taking it to this year's family get together for Thanksgiving! Thanks LIG, for another keeper!

 

[Jessie Y.]

Rich and luxurious! I used all squash and lactose-free whole milk. I was concerned about the LF milk because it is much sweeter than traditional milk, but it worked perfectly. I split it into two pans and froze one.

 

[kittycatmom]

My, my, my! This is so delicious! Another winning recipe from LIG!!! I loved scalloped potates and butternut squash so I knew this would be wonderful!! I sent DH to the grocery store to pick up a butternut squash and he came home with a buttercup squash! Well, no time to go back to the store so decided to make do with what I had! Otherwise made this recipe as is. What a wondeful and beautiful potato dish! I will be making this again very soon! Thank you GF!! Made for KK Chef's Pick

 

[bluemoon downunder]

My first review has been zapped into the fourth dimension! So here goes again. I love all the key ingredients in this recipe so my expectations of loving it were indeed high. I felt, however, that (to meet our taste preferences) it would benefit from a couple of additions which would add further variation to the flavour and texture. I added 3 Granny Smith apples (peeled and sliced to the same thickness as the potatoes), 1/2 a cup of chopped pecans, a flat teaspoon of brown sugar (just the teeniest amount) and sprinklings of cinnamon. I added some of each of these between each layer. As I'm usually one who who considerably reduces or omits sugar in recipes, it was with some ambivalence that I added it here, but it seemed such a natural pairing with the apple and cinnamon. The end result: absolutely fabulous. We thoroughly enjoyed this dish and would happily eat it as a vegetarian main course dish so I will certainly be making it again - often. And next time, for variation, I'm going to use walnuts. I'm also going to sneak in a liitle wine, perhaps by adding 1/2 a tablespoon to the leeks while they're cooking. For the moment, however, I'm happy that we have several additional serves in the freezer! Thank you so much for sharing this truly wonderful recipe, LifeIsGood!

 

[wesdb]

OMG this is surprisingly great