This casserole is so comfort food delicious! Perfect to make for Thanksgiving, during the entire holiday season, or really anytime. It’s a wonderful side to turkey, beef, chicken, fish, or pork. It makes a yummy vegetarian dish too. If you’re not a cottage cheese fan, don’t let this stop you. You won’t taste it at all. The cottage cheese is pureed in the blender with a few ingredients to make a velvety cheese sauce. So rich in taste but not in calories and fat. Each skinny serving has 177 calories and 1 gram of fat.
Ingredients
- 2 cups onions, chopped
- 1½ cups fat-free cottage cheese or fat-free ricotta cheese
- ⅔ cup buttermilk
- 1 egg white
- 10 cups sweet potatoes (yams), peeled and sliced into very thin slices (~4 large yams, about 3 pounds) see shopping tips
- ⅓ cup Parmesan Cheese, shredded
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line a baking pan or cooking sheet with foil. Coat a 9 x 9-inch pan (glass or metal) with cooking spray.
- Place onions on a microwave-safe plate and cook for about 4 minutes in the microwave, until soft.
- In a food processor or blender, add cooked onions, cottage cheese, buttermilk, and egg white. Process until smooth.
- Peel all potatoes. Slice each very thin by hand or use a mandolin. Arrange ½ of the slices in pan. Start at the edges and work in, overlapping. Press down on potatoes then spread with ½ of cheese mixture. Season with a little salt, pepper, and 2 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese. Layer remaining potatoes and spread the top with remaining cheese sauce. Sprinkle with a little more salt, pepper, and top with 3 tablespoons Parmesan cheese. Cover with foil by making it a little tented so the foil does not touch the top of the casserole. You don’t want the foil to stick to the top of the cheese sauce.
- Bake covered for 1 hour 20 minutes. Uncover and bake for about 30 minutes until very golden brown and potatoes are soft. You can stick a knife into the casserole to see if the potatoes are fully cooked. If not, cover again with foil and bake for an additional 15-20 minutes. Note: if you haven’t cut the potato slices thin enough, they could take longer to cook.
- Remove from oven and let rest for at least 15 minutes before cutting into slices. This can be made the day before and reheated before serving.
Notes
Makes 12 servings (each serving, 1 slice)
Healthy Benefits
Sweet potatoes (yams) are relatively low in calories and have no fat. They are rich in beta-carotene; having five times the recommended daily allowance of Vitamin A in one sweet potato. They also contain an impressive amount of potassium, fiber, and vitamin C.
Shopping Tips
In the U.S. most people call the kind of potatoes I’m using for this recipe, sweet potatoes but this recipe and most recipes are actually using yams! They’re the darker skinned potatoes with a deep orange center. The other type called sweet potatoes, have a much lighter colored skin and pale yellow inside. They’re not nearly as sweet, moist or flavorful.
Prep Tips
This casserole can easily be doubled. Use a 13×9 inch baking pan. This can be prepped in advance and baked. Just reheat before serving.
WW Freestyle SmartPoints 5-Blue
WW SmartPoints 5-Green
WW POINTS PLUS 4
Sweet potatoes (yams) are relatively low in calories and have no fat. They are rich in beta-carotene; having five times the recommended daily allowance of Vitamin A in one sweet potato. They also contain an impressive amount of potassium, fiber, and vitamin C.
Shopping Tips
In the U.S. most people call the kind of potatoes I’m using for this recipe, sweet potatoes but this recipe and most recipes are actually using yams! They’re the darker skinned potatoes with a deep orange center. The other type called sweet potatoes, have a much lighter colored skin and pale yellow inside. They’re not nearly as sweet, moist or flavorful.
Prep Tips
This casserole can easily be doubled. Use a 13×9 inch baking pan. This can be prepped in advance and baked. Just reheat before serving.
WW Freestyle SmartPoints 5-Blue
WW SmartPoints 5-Green
WW POINTS PLUS 4
| SKINNY FACTS: for 1 slice 177 calories, 1g fat, 1g sat. fat, 2mg chol, 6g protein, 36g carbs, 5g fiber, 253 sodium, 3g sugar |
| FACTS: for SmartPoints 167 calories, 1g sat fat, 3g sugar, 6g protein |
Skinny Facts
Serving: 1sliceCalories: 177kcalCarbohydrates: 36gProtein: 6gFat: 1gSaturated Fat: 1gCholesterol: 2mgSodium: 253mgFiber: 5gSugar: 3gBlue Smart Points: 5Green Smart Points: 5Plus Points: 4
