These mixed russet and yam scalloped potatoes smothered in sage cream sauce and topped with Gruyère cheese put a decadent twist on a classic holiday side dish. They're guaranteed to leave your dinner guests raving until your next dinner party!

Scalloped Sweet Potatoes with Sage Cream Sauce

Name: Scalloped Sweet Potatoes with Sage Cream Sauce
Cook time: 1 h 55 min
Total time: 1 h 55 min
Yield: 12
Cuisine: Holiday
Ingredients: One medium to large yam or sweet potato (yams add a beautiful bright orange colour to this dish), sliced thin; 2-3 large russet potatoes, sliced thin; 1/2 a large onion, finely diced; 3 cloves of garlic, minced; 1/4 cup butter, plus extra for greasing baking dish; 2 cups whipping cream (or substitute heavy cream); 3 cups (about 300g) of Gruyère cheese, shredded (if you can’t find Gruyère you can substitute Swiss or Emmental); One bunch of fresh sage or 1/4 cup of dried sage, chopped fine; 1/4 tsp. sea salt, plus more to taste; Fresh cracked pepper to taste

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Close-up of scalloped sweet potatoes layered with cream sauce and crispy toppings, adorned with a sage leaf. Text: "Scalloped Sweet Potatoes Recipe." These scalloped sweet potatoes are actually a mix of russet potatoes and yams smothered in sage cream sauce and baked with Gruyère cheese. This twist on a classic holiday side dish is guaranteed to steal the spotlight at your next holiday dinner or special gathering!

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A few years ago at Thanksgiving, my husband and I came up with the idea to put a spin on traditional scalloped potatoes by mixing regular russet potatoes with yams and flavouring with fresh sage from our garden.

The final product was so delicious that it quickly became a crowd pleaser and a favourite dish at Thanksgiving and Christmas.

We would make it year-round if it weren’t so decadent! But keeping it a special dish for holiday meals makes it all the more special (and keeps our buttons from busting off our pants).

How it all began…

Scalloped potatoes have always been one of my favourite holiday dishes. I’m not generally a huge fan of potatoes as I find them too heavy and starchy most of the time. But thinly-sliced potatoes in a creamy sauce with melted cheese??? Um, yes please.

Still, I wanted to mix it up a bit, so when we found out we’d be hosting Thanksgiving dinner a few years ago, we decided to make a scalloped potato dish with a bit of a twist.

We opted to do a 50/50 mix of regular potatoes and yams, and used fresh sage from our garden to make an herb-infused creamy sauce that we just knew would compliment this twist on a classic holiday side dish.

I was inspired by a recipe I’d once tried that consisted of pumpkin-stuffed pasta shells with sage cream sauce. I remembered the sauce being out-of-this-world delicious and wanted to recreate it.

I also figured that since sage went so well with pumpkin, it would also go well with yams. I’m not really sure why I equated yams with pumpkins, other than the fact they’re both orange-coloured vegetables that are best enjoyed in the fall and winter months. But for whatever reason, I just knew that since pumpkin and sage went together so well, yams and sage would too.

So we assembled our dish, row by row, covered it in sage cream sauce and, of course, topped it with melted cheese.

These mixed russet and yam scalloped potatoes smothered in sage cream sauce and topped with Gruyère cheese put a decadent twist on a classic holiday side dish. They're guaranteed to leave your dinner guests raving until your next dinner party! #holidaydinnerideas #thanksgivingdinnerideas #christmasdinnerideas #scallopedpotatoes #yamscallopedpotatoes #scallopedsweetpotatoes

The best melty cheese for scalloped sweet potatoes

I think we used Swiss cheese the first time we made this, and it was really yummy. But as we made this dish more and more, the recipe began to evolve a bit and we upgraded to Gruyère cheese instead.

Gruyère is a type of Swiss cheese, but it’s richer and more flavourful than the standard Emmental-style Swiss Cheese (the kind with the holes in it) that we’re used to. You can, however, use either for this dish. But if you can afford the extra few bucks to splurge on Gruyère, I highly recommend it. It is hands down the best “melting” cheese on Earth. In my humble opinion, of course:)

The first time we made these scalloped sweet potatoes, they were a hit all around. We demolished the whole baking dish in no time and we and our family members raved about how good it was.

Naturally, we’ve kept this in our arsenal and have continued to make it at just about every holiday dinner throughout the year, especially Thanksgiving and Christmas, which we now tend to host every year. Coincidence?

The evolution of a much anticipated holiday side dish

We’ve now made this at least a half dozen times (probably more), and each time the dish seems to evolve just a little. I think we’ve finally perfected it. Oh, and every time we make it now, we make a double batch so we have one whole pan left over for ourselves. Because there is rarely, if ever, leftovers from just one pan full after a family meal! And we like to, um, indulge over the holiday season;)

We haven’t changed much from our original recipe (except the aforementioned cheese upgrade), but I think we’ve finally got all of the portions just right. Oh ya, and we now add a layer of sage cream sauce in between each layer of potatoes rather than just pouring it over top, making this dish the creamiest, most flavourful and decadent side dish to grace our table each holiday season.

This is not for the dieter, the vegan, or the faint of heart. But if you’re in search of a dish your guests will be raving about all the way until your next holiday dinner, look no further my friend. This is it.