Stuffing was always a HUGE favourite in our family. It literally was not Thanksgiving or Christmas without it. Of course, when I was growing up we usually had it stuffed inside of a turkey, but because we loved it so much, we often had a stovetop or casserole version in addition – or, because we often had a ham at one of the holidays, we would made it on its own as a separate dish. The point is, it was common for our family to cook it as a casserole, so adapting it for a plant-based family was very easy and kept the recipe familiar for me.
Grandma Donna’s cookbook had three recipes for “dressing” (this is what they used to call stuffing – which is not confusing at all with all her recipes for salad dressing, right?). I ended up taking quite a few liberties to adapt and merge two of those recipes.
One of my kids remarked to me “this is just wet bread, Mommy.” And then she took a few bites and said “I guess I like wet bread.” Within a few minutes she was asking for seconds.
Ingredients
- 1 cup Earth balance
- 1/2 cup onion, chopped (finely or more coarsely chopped to your preference)
- 2-4 ribs of celery, finely chopped
- 1-3 tsp poultry seasoning (in a pinch, you can use an Italian seasoning, or a mix of dried sage, thyme, even oregano – you want it to be aromatic, use what you have/like)
- 1-2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
- 10-12 cups soft stale bread, chopped or shredded
- 3-5 cups liquid vegetable broth, depending how crumbly/wet you like it
- 1 tbsp chopped parsley (optional – I don’t like parsley so I omitted it)
- 1 cup raisins, prunes, or dates, chopped (optional)
Yield: 10-12 cups (serves 8+, or 5 in our house)
DAY BEFORE: dry out the bread. In our family, we didn’t make a big deal about drying out the bread and sometimes we would forget and find ourselves doing this in the oven the same day or just not bothering (your bread won’t absorb as much of the Earth Balance and seasoning).
In my wife’s family, she has fond memories of many trays of tented slices of bread laying about the house the day before the holidays. She always knew it was the night before Christmas when they were putting out those trays. So to honour those memories and to bring them forward for our family, that’s what we did this year at Thanksgiving.
DAY OF: preheat oven to 375.
In a large pot on the stove, add Earth Balance, onion and celery and cook over medium heat. Once the Earth Balance is melted and the onion and celery start to saute, reduce heat to medium-low. Stir occasionally until the onion and celery are tender (may take 10+ minutes). Careful not to burn them! Once tender, add in the seasonings, salt, and pepper.
Remove the pot from heat and stir in the bread crumbs (and dried fruit, if using).
Spread out the bread mixture in a large greased casserole dish. Pour vegetable broth over top and lightly press down with the back of a spoon to help the bread absorb the liquid.
Like it crumbly? Grandma Donna’s recipe suggests you could just not add any liquid at this point if you like your stuffing crumbly, but that would be if you were putting it inside a turkey where it would receive some moisture. If you like it crumbly, when done casserole style, I would recommend 1-2 cups of vegetable broth.
Like it wet? Add 3-5 cups of vegetable broth.
Cover the casserole dish tightly with its lid (or if you don’t have one, you can use aluminum foil). Bake covered for 20-30 minutes.
Uncover the casserole dish and continue to bake for another 15-20 minutes. The top will start to brown. If you like it a little crispy on top, turn the oven to broil for 2-5 minutes. Watch continuously to ensure it does not burn.
Remove from the oven and let cool for 5-10 minutes before serving.
