![Potatoes au Gratin](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/04/26/dining/mb-gratin/merlin_147141342_5554df8b-75f7-4e2e-b7ed-7284671a6426-mediumThreeByTwo440.jpg?width=1280&quality=75&auto=webp)
Potato and Swiss Chard Gratin
![Potato and Swiss Chard Gratin](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2010/12/22/dining/22vegetarian/22vegetarian-articleLarge.jpg?width=1280&quality=75&auto=webp)
- Total Time
- 1 hour 45 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- Salt
- 1pound Swiss chard leaves and slender stems, stems cut into ¼-inch cubes
- 2½cups heavy cream
- 1garlic clove, smashed
- 1small shallot, sliced
- 2thyme sprigs
- 1bay leaf
- ¼teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 3pounds (6 to 8 medium) Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled
- 1tablespoon butter, at room temperature
- Pepper
- 6ounces grated Gruyère
Preparation
- Step 1
Heat the oven to 350 degrees, and place rack in the center. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil; set a bowl of ice water on the side. Boil the chard leaves until tender, 3 to 5 minutes, then transfer with a slotted spoon to the ice water. Squeeze them dry and chop roughly. Boil the diced stems until tender, 3 to 5 minutes. Drain well and add to chopped chard leaves.
- Step 2
In a small saucepan, bring the heavy cream, garlic, shallot, thyme and bay leaf to a simmer. Cook until reduced by half, about 25 minutes. Strain out the solids and add the nutmeg.
- Step 3
Meanwhile, slice the potatoes into ⅛-inch-thick rounds with a mandoline or sharp knife. Butter a 12- to 14-inch gratin dish. Assemble the gratin by layering the ingredients in this order: a single, slightly overlapping layer of one-third of the potato slices, a sprinkling of salt and pepper, one-third of the Gruyère, half the Swiss chard and one-third of the reduced cream. Repeat once, and then top with one more layer of potato, salt and pepper, and the rest of the Gruyère and cream.
- Step 4
Bake until the top is browned and the potatoes are fork-tender, about 45 minutes.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
have made this dozens of times over past 4 years. no need to
cook chard if you only use leaves and not stems or ribs.
dish great with pancetta and/or mushrooms. can use dry jack too
can lighten it up w chix stock sub for some of the cream.
To speed up cooking time, I chopped the swiss chard and sliced the potatoes. Then I boiled the sliced potatoes for about 12 minutes. Then added the swiss chard and boiled for another three minutes or so. Next I drained the chard and potatoes together, and just put half in the gratin dish, topped with a layer of the cream sauce and cheese, then followed with the second half, topped with cheese. This way it only takes about 15 minutes more to cook in the oven with foil on top.
This was delicious. I did not have cream so I used whole milk and added some butter. I am saving this recipe!
This is an overlooked recipe from the number of ratings. It is truly delicious and easy to make. In addition to looking and tasting great, the aroma from the Gruyere is mouthwatering. I didn't have any Yukon Gold potatoes on hand, so I used Kennebec Russets and cut them by hand. I agree this is an excellent dish when you have non-meat eaters coming to the table.
Made this with kale instead of chard. Didn't pre-cook the kale, just put it in with everything else raw, turned out great. Watch the salt; easy to go overboard with all that cheese. Cooked in casserole dish. Will use this again!
Delicious. I always cook gratins for at least an hour covered and then uncovered until thick and browned.
I was skeptical about the reduced cream, which seemed to be too little liquid compared with the other versions of pommes dauphinoises that I do. But perhaps the chards add enough moisture to make it just perfect, which it was. I kept it in the oven for more than 45 minutes (more like 60 minutes) and then let it cool down and reheated later; it was meltingly tender and delicious.
I made a dish very similar to this last night from a Cooking Light recipe, only it used sweet potatoes rather than Yukon Gold. It came out delicious. That recipe calls for parmesan cheese but I like the idea here of Gruyere much better. I'm going to try that next time. Possibly also some bread crumbs on top for a little crunch.
Made this as written, but followed the notes to boil potatoes and chard to cut cooking time. Flavor profile was excellent but the dish needs the full cooking time (or maybe more?) for the cream to meld with the potatoes and for the cheese to brown on the top. Even so, it was a hit with the family and I will definitely be making this again.
I cut the recipe in half and chopped the chard before steaming - worked great.
A few caveats to Liz's excellent suggestions on how to speed up this dish: 1. if slicing then cooking the potatoes bf constructing the gratin, they should be cut no thinner than 1/4" thick. Anything thinner will disintegrate during the boiling. 2. cut the heavy cream by 1/2 c. Otherwise it will be soupy.
One more note about Liz's excellent suggestions for speeding up this dish: 3. Also, don't worry about cooking the chard and potatoes together. If you have a good pair of tongs, you can easily separate them when you're draining.
As others suggested, don't cook or cook only the stems of the Swiss chard. Once cook, chopped, and squeeze, the swiss chard clumps and it is hard to distribute within the casserole. Also, 2x Swiss chard to improve the ratio versus the potatoes. For extra kick, consider white pepper.
I made this with a few slight modifications based on what I had on hand. Mozzarella vs. gruyere. And coconut milk vs. heavy cream, since I try to reduce my dairy intake. It was delicious, next time I would add a bit of onion salt I think that would give it the little kick it was missing, but overall loved it, can’t wait to have the leftovers. As others have said 45 minutes is not enough time to cook, I had to put back for an additional 20 minutes. @NYT please update cooking time!
It was very soupy. But it tasted great. I substituted some of the cream for chicken broth. I liked the chard addition. Next time I'll either add a thickener or I'll cook the cream down.
Fantastic! I love it!!
I followed the advice and didn’t steam the chard. I sautéed the stems and an additional shallot and added them as a layer. It was delicious.
Too much potato, not enough chard. Cream sauce should be thicker.
Potentially a tasty veggie recipe, but the final baking time is at least 30 minutes too short. Without previous parboiling, as some readers have recommended, 45 minutes is not enough to make potatoes soft and creamy. Also, why not heat water for chard and put stems in first for 3-5 minutes and then add the leaves for another 3 minutes?If the stems are tougher, why cook them for the same time as leaves? Put them in boiling water first and then add leaves, drain, and chop all together.
And a PS to my prior note: I’m also tempted to leave the shallot and garlic in the cream, which by end of reduction time is butter-soft anyway. And too delicious to discard! I saved tonight’s and will smear on some toast tomorrow and top with an egg for breakfast!
Right out of the gate, I took other readers’ advice to skip parboiling step. Wrong!! You need to do it to avoid the gratin from being too soupy! Flavors were great, but next time will absolutely parboil, drain, & chop before assembling.
I have made this twice - both times were a HIT! The second time I added diced cooked bacon.
took way longer than 45 minutes. and my oven runs hot.
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