John Myers
Potatoes cut into slices, covered with cream sauce, and refined with cheese – the classic potato gratin is one of the most popular hearty dishes. Here you can find out which side dishes are our favorites for this originally French dish.
Versatile casserole
Extremely simple, but particularly tasty – the casserole made of thin, crispy potato slices and creamy sauce, known in France as “Gratin Dauphinois” after its region of origin in the south-east of France, is eaten either with a side dish or as a vegetarian main course with a salad. You can create very different variants of potato gratins by adding various spices and using different types of potatoes and cheese, depending on your taste. So side dishes offer further welcome opportunities for variety because in fact there is an awful lot that goes with the potato recipe. Luckily, since the oven does most of the work on this dish, you can use the hour or so it takes for the gratin to golden brown to make separate side dishes.
Already knew?
The classic variant – Gratin Dauphinois – contains not only the creamy milk sauce over the thin potato slices but also spices and a few breadcrumbs and butter flakes on top. Strictly speaking, the cheese variant – Gratin Savoyard – uses broth instead of cream or milk. We usually cook a mixture of both.
Salad as a potato gratin side dish
The hearty dish also goes very well with various refreshing salads. As a counterpart to the heavy cream sauce, particularly light versions with a sour vinaigrette or yogurt sauce are ideal:
- green salad
- Lamb’s lettuce
- coleslaw
- cucumber salad
- Tomato salad
- carrot salad
Try our delicious salads! How about, for example, coleslaw like in the Greeks or a refreshing cucumber salad with yogurt?
Tip: Of course, potato gratin is also vegan or lactose-free. Simply use broth or animal-free products made from soy or oats instead of the normal cream-milk mixture and cheese. Yeast flakes also make a nice crust. If you are lactose intolerant, there are suitable alternative cream or milk products. Various types of cheese such as Parmesan or Emmental contain no lactose at all. As a rule of thumb, the riper and older the cheese, the less lactose it contains.
Vegetable side dishes
Crunchy, lightly steamed vegetables and pan-fried vegetables are the perfect light side dish for potato gratin. Be inspired by the following suggestions:
- broccoli
- Green beans
- carrots
- fennel
- sugar snap
- asparagus
- spinach
- Mushrooms
- zucchini
- eggplants
- Cauliflower
- Kohlrabi
- Leek
- pumpkin
Tip: Especially with a vegetarian version, you can give your dish a special twist with spicy cheeses. These include, for example, strong mountain cheese, Camembert, or Gorgonzola.
Meat as a side dish
Potato gratin together with meat becomes a classic main course. You can choose to serve the meat separately or add it directly to the potato and cream mix:
- ground beef
- meatballs
- meatloaf
- Cevapcici
- pork tenderloin
- Roast beef with onions
- beef tenderloin
- cashier
- lamb
- turkey breast
- venison
- chicken fillet
- Cutlet
Tip: Try adding pear, apple, or peach fillets to potato gratin variants with meat. This sweet component brings that certain something again.
Fish as an accompaniment to potato gratin
If you love to fish, then this is also a delicious side dish for potato gratin. Here fit particularly well:
- Salmon
- tuna
- Fillet of coalfish, cod, zander, or redfish
- monkfish
Tip: Lemon juice drizzled over the fish brings a delicious kick of freshness.
Side dishes with sausage
A very simple variant, which is particularly suitable for children, is the combination of potato gratin and sausage. Of course, you can serve them separately, but it tastes best when the sausage variety is cut into slices or cubes and ends up in the casserole dish with the potato slices. For example, the following are perfect for this:
- diced ham
- bratwurst
- bacon
- meat sausage
- salami
Wine with potato gratin
In addition to side dishes, a delicious wine also tastes great with potato gratin. Fresh wines such as Riesling or a Chablis go best with dishes baked with cheese. Light wines are also particularly tasty with fish or light meat dishes. With red meat or a potato gratin with sheep’s cheese or Gorgonzola, however, you should better use a dry red wine such as a Primitivo or dry Pinot Noir.
