by Nicole 83 Comments
This rich and creamy Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato Gratin is flavored with garlic, fresh thyme, and Manchego cheese. The ingredients are simple but indulgent, making this a perfect side dish for your next holiday meal.
It seems like we just finished eating a huge Thanksgiving meal and it’s already time to start thinking about Christmas dinner. Between the big holiday meals and all the Christmas baking I plan on doing, I think I’ll have to ask Santa for some larger clothes this year! But hey, that’s what New Year’s Resolutions are for, right? I’ll worry about dieting in January.
I made my first Butternut Squash Gratin for Thanksgiving 2007, and although everyone seemed to enjoy it, I really thought it was kind of boring. That dish was made with butternut squash, heavy cream, fresh thyme, and Gruyere cheese. I know, it sounds good. But it was just lacking something. Although I never tried making a different version, it’s always been there at the back of my mind, waiting to be revised.
Since I’ve been doing a lot of experimenting with sweet potatoes in savory dishes lately, I thought it might be fun to add some sweet potato to the Butternut Squash Gratin to liven up the squash a bit. I also added some garlic to the cream and used fresh sage in addition to the thyme.
The first version tasted really good but I decided I didn’t care much for the sage. I loved the addition of the garlic and I thought the butternut squash and sweet potatoes went together nicely. The sweet potatoes added a great punch of flavor and just a bit of sweetness that really perked up the dish.
The final version of the recipe is still very simple, but the garlic and sweet potatoes give it that something extra I was craving. And I really love the Manchego cheese (that idea came from EAT).
I think this would be a great side dish for either Thanksgiving or Christmas as I think it would go nicely with just about any type of main course you could dream up. Although it might be a little too rich for anything but a special occasion, I do think most of us can handle a dose of heavy cream during the holidays!
Related Recipes:
- Cranberry Applesauce with Fresh Ginger
- Sweet Potato Buttermilk Dinner Rolls
- Mashed Potatoes with Cream Cheese
- Sourdough Stuffing with Apples and Bacon
- Curried Turkey Salad with Apples, Cranberries, and Walnuts
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Around the Web:
- Butternut Squash Gratin from Daily Bread Journal
- Smashed Butternut Squash and Potato Gratin from Dressing for Dinner
- Pumpkin Gratin from Thyme for Cooking
- Sweet Potato Gratin from Anne’s Food
- Sweet Potato Gratin with Manchego from EAT
Yield: 12 servings
Prep Time: 40 minutes
Cook Time: 50 minutes
Additional Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 2 hours
This rich and creamy Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato Gratin is flavored with garlic, fresh thyme, and Manchego cheese. The ingredients are simple but indulgent, making this a perfect side dish for your next holiday meal.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
- 2 cloves of garlic, pressed
- 1 pound peeled butternut squash, quartered lengthwise*
- 1 pound peeled and trimmed sweet potatoes**
- 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
- 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 3/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
- 2 cups shredded Manchego cheese (or Gruyère)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a small pot bring cream and garlic just to a simmer. Remove from heat and set aside. Butter a 9″x13″ shallow casserole dish or gratin dish of similar size and set aside.
- Prepare the Ingredients: thinly slice the squash and sweet potatoes (no more than 1/8 inch thick) and keep them separate from one another.
- Measure out chopped thyme, salt, pepper, and shredded cheese and have them handy. Stir the cooling cream to help prevent skin from forming.
- Build the Gratin: In the buttered casserole dish, spread half of the sliced butternut squash out in a single overlapping layer. Sprinkle the squash with 1/3 of the salt, pepper, and thyme and then about 1/2 cup of the grated cheese.
- Using half of the sliced sweet potatoes, build a new overlapping layer. Again sprinkle with 1/3 of the seasonings and 1/2 cup of shredded cheese.
- Using the remaining squash, make another layer and sprinkle the last third of the seasonings and another 1/2 cup of cheese (you should have about 1/2 cup cheese remaining).
- Use the last of the sweet potatoes to make one final layer on top.
- Stir the garlic cream mixture then pour it evenly over the top of the gratin, being sure to cover the top layer of sweet potatoes. Shake the dish gently to distribute the cream.
- Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top.
- Cover the dish with foil and bake in the middle of a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes. Remove the foil, move the gratin to the top 1/3 of the oven and bake, uncovered, for an additional 20 minutes or until the top is nicely browned and the vegetables are tender when pierced with a sharp knife. You may also place it under the broiler for a few minutes if you wish the top to be a deeper brown (but watch it closely!).
- Remove from oven and let cool for 30 minutes before slicing.
Notes
*I used the neck of a medium butternut squash and quartered it lengthwise. Butternut squash can easily be peeled with a vegetable peeler. Measure out one pound of squash after it is peeled and the stem has been removed. Save the remaining squash for another use. **Peel the potatoes and remove the pointy ends (save them for soup!) so you’ll have more uniform slices. You need about one pound of prepared sweet potato.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 12Serving Size: 1/12 of recipe
Amount Per Serving:Calories: 323Total Fat: 24gSaturated Fat: 16gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 7gCholesterol: 73mgSodium: 341mgCarbohydrates: 14gFiber: 3gSugar: 5gProtein: 14g
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Reader Interactions
Comments
Lucy says
You described it so carefully and the photographs were so perfect that I felt able to do it. Thank you so much! Now it's in the oven and I'm looking forward to sharing it with my partner!
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Lucy says
My oh my, that was just amazing! We both agreed it was the best thing we'd ever tasted! Thank you for your lovley blog.
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Evi says
Great recipe! I prepared everything except the garlic-cream mixture for my boyfriend when I left town, then he did the last step and was gushing how amazing this was. I liked how you gave different variations- it does need some spice or something (from the original version)- have you thought about adding crushed red pepper in between the layers?
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Court says
Very delicious. I have played around with the recipe a few times. I like a little dried sage along with the thyme. I have also used a combination of butternut squash, sweet potatoes, and red potatoes. A dash of nutmeg in the garlic-cream mixture adds even another layer flavor!
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Rachel says
WOW!Just made this for Thanksgiving, following the recipe exactly, and it was a huge hit, incredibly yummy. Really an amazing, innovative recipe-- thank you for sharing it.
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Erin says
I made this for Thanksgiving and was was it good. So good in fact that there was only one small square left at the end of the meal and only because I had the forsight to take it out and put it off to the side before my guests decended on the table like cayotes. I love butternut squash and manchego cheese but not so much a fan of orange sweet potatoes but the combination was excellent. Thanks for sharing
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Dawnetta says
I found your recipe & it sounded great. I did not have the cheese on hand so instead I tried layering the squashthen top with Ricotta mixed with garlic, thyme & mozzerellaSweet potatopour over whole milk simmerd with garlic & Thymethen layer of mozzerellaIF YOU ARE MISSING they gryre try it anyhow- still delicious!!!
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Mark Hanson says
Can I make this the day before & then bake it the next day
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Nicole says
I have not made this ahead of time myself, but I think it would be fine assembled ahead of time. Maybe let the garlic cream cool before pouring it over the top so the cheese doesn't melt until it goes in the oven.
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Siena says
Lovely!
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Shirley Mosebaugh Simonaitis says
What kind of sweet potatoes do you use with the grated? dfssas@msn.com
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