Potato Torte

Another wonderful recipe adapted from my Pure Vegan cookbook. This Potato Torte is a combination of thin slices of potatoes coated with garlic, herbs and olive oil, all cooked up together in a spring form pan to give the dish some height. A very savory dish that goes well served alongside other vegetables and/or salad.

This Potato Torte has been on my list of recipes to try ever since I received this cookbook as a gift. I remember one day, back in October 2012, I gathered all my ingredients together to make this torte and then realized it called for a spring form pan. I can’t believe after all these years I have never owed a spring form pan. About a month later I had purchased a spring form pan (finally), but didn’t have the ingredients on hand to make this. It seemed as though it was never meant to be until one weekend in January when I had some potatoes that I needed to use, fast…this time I was prepared with my spring form pan and went to work on this recipe.

I did adjust this slightly from the original recipe. It calls for Tapioca starch and lecithin to help bind the layers together, however you can omit them if you prefer a flakier texture. I used Tapioca starch, but did not use lecithin. The original recipe also calls for rosemary as the main herb, however, my rosemary was slightly too old to use, so i went with what I had fresh in my fridge – Thyme. It was a very savory and flavorful dish, so much that it ended up being my main course for dinner, only being served along side other veggies or a salad.

Potato Torte

Serves 8

3/4 Cup Extra-Virgin Olive Oil, plus more for oiling the pan
2 Tablespoons Tapioca Starch (optional)
2 Tablespoons Unsweetened Plain Soymilk
2 Tablespoons Liquid Lecithin (optional)
3 cloves Garlic, minced
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground pepper
2 teaspoons minced herb of your choice (Thyme, Rosemary, etc)
4 Pounds Yukon Gold or other baking potatoes, unpeeled
3 teaspoons nutritional yeast flakes, or as needed

1. Preheat oven to 400. Coat a 9 inch spring form pan with olive oil and place it on a rimmed baking sheet.
2. In a small bowl combine the tapioca starch and soymilk. Stir to form a thick paste.
3. In a large bowl combine the olive oil, lecithin, garlic, salt, pepper, herbs and tapioca mixture and whisk until well combined.
4. Clean the potatoes, using a scrub brush to remove any dirt. Using a mandolin or a sharp knife cut the potatoes lengthwise into 1/8 inch slices.
5. Add potatoes to the olive oil mixture and toss gently until evenly coated.
6. Layer 1/4 of the potato slices in the bottom of the prepared spring form pan, overlapping each piece slightly overlapping each piece slightly on top of the previous to form a circular fan shape.
7. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of nutritional yeast over the potatoes.
8. Continue layering the potatoes and nutritional yeast, ending with a final layer of potatoes. Drizzle any remaining oil from the bowl over the top.
9. Oil a piece of parchment paper or foil and place it on top of the torte, oiled-side down. Press down on the parchment paper to compress the potato layers as much as possible.
10. Bake for 1 hour, then remove the parchment paper and bake for an additional 30 minutes until a skewer easily pierces all the way through the torte.
11. Let cool to room temperature. Carefully loosen the pan and separate the torte from teh pan with a spatula. Cut into wedges and serve.