Nothing feels more comforting to me than a Thanksgiving plate piled high with crumbly, savory, vegan stuffing. I know I personally grew up with stuffing being my favorite Thanksgiving dish. It even came before my family’s classic sweet potato casserole and decadent apple pie! My das had a fantastic recipe that had been handed down by his own mother and I modified it to be 100% animal product free! And, don’t worry, this does not come to any sacrifice to the flavor!
Making Vegan Stuffing
Stuffing is made traditionally with meat sausages, cubed bread, chicken broth, butter, and other spices, and is stuffed inside of a turkey or chicken as it bakes. Of course, most of these ingredients are not vegan friendly, but we’re still using the same main idea of the recipe.
First of all, you need some good bread! This is a great recipe to use up some old bread that is starting to become stale, and I suggest using a sourdough, french, or baguette loaf. I’d stay away from the pre-sliced sandwich breads, but if that’s all you got, I’m sure it will still be delicious!
For the ‘meat’, I chose some vegan breakfast patties that I got from Trader Joe’s, but other vegan sausages and patties will work too. For those of you that prefer to stay away from processed meat alternatives, pressed and crumbled, extra-firm tofu should work, although the texture of the overall stuffing might be off.
Next, for the other add-ins, I followed the spices from my dad’s recipe. That includes chopped celery (with the leaves!), poultry seasoning (this is vegan btw), vegan butter, olive oil, coriander, garlic, lavender, and vegetable broth. The vegetable broth keeps the vegan stuffing moist in the oven and allows the bread to absorb some tons of flavor without having to bake it inside a bird!
Prepping
If you want to get started on prepping ingredients the day before you are planning to eat the vegan stuffing, that’s great! I’d suggest cubing all of the bread into 1/2 inch slices and leaving it in a bowl in your fridge. Don’t worry, these cubes do not have to be perfect! And, I’d also dice the celery with the leaves. Did you know that celery leaves are packed with so much flavor?!?! All too often the leaves are forgotten and thrown out, but trust me, they go so well with this vegan stuffing recipe.
Also, if you do not have any poultry seasoning on hand, that’s totally fine and you can make your own following this recipe from allrecipes.com. All you really need to make this is dried sage, thyme, marjoram, rosemary, and black pepper. I took the lazy shortcut when making this and just bought a spice blend from my local grocery store. Looking back now, I regret not having done my research and made the spice mix myself. But for those of you prefer to keep things as simple as possible, poultry seasoning can be found at most grocery stores!
Scrumptious Vegan Stuffing
Ingredients
- 1 medium-sized loaf bread
- 3 tbsp olive oil, divided
- 3 stalks celery keep the leaves!
- 4 patties vegan breakfast or Italian sausage
- 1 tsp poultry seasoning this is completely vegan btw
- ¼ tsp coriander
- 1 clove minced garlic
- 1 pinch fresh lavender
- 1 cup vegetable broth, divided
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F.
- First, cut the entire loaf of bread into ½ inch thick slices, and cube each slice into ½' squares. Set the cubed bread aside.
- Thinly dice the celery and mince the celery leaves along with it. Celery leaves are actually very flavorful and tasty, so please don't throw them out! Meanwhile, start heating up the vegan breakfast or Italian sausages according to the directions on package. Once the sausages are cooked, allow them to cool off and then break them apart into pea sized clumps with your hands or another kitchen utensil.
- In a deep saucepan over medium heat, add 1 tbsp of the olive oil and allow it to heat up. Then, add in the crumbled vegan sausages, celery (including the minced leaves!), poultry seasoning, coriander, garlic, and fresh lavender. Cook for 5 minutes or until the spices start to get aromatic and the celery begins to soften. At this points, add in ½ cup of the vegetable broth, the remaining 2 tbsp of olive oil, and all the cubed bread into the mixture. Stir until the bread is evenly coated, turn down the heat, and simmer uncovered for 5 minutes on medium-low heat, stirring every minute or so.
- Transfer the stuffing mixture into an oven-proof dishpan and pour the last ½ cup of the vegetable broth on top of it. Bake in the preheated over for 30-35 minutes, or until the top of the stuffing starts to turn brown and crispy. Once it is cooked, let it cool down for 5 minutes, then serve and enjoy!
Notes
- For the bread loaf, I recommend a white french, country, or sourdough loaf that does not come pre-cut into slices. This is also a great recipe to use up older bread that might be a bit stale, and any other type of bread should work well too, including gluten-free bread or whole-wheat.
- For the vegan sausages, I used Trader Joe’s meatless breakfast patties. I personally prefer using breakfast sausages in stuffing, but for those who don’t, vegan Italian sausage or chorizo should work well too.
Curious for more?
Check out some of our other vegan and plant-based recipes, including tofu tacos, sweet-potato chili, and lentil & black bean veggie burgers. If you would like to learn more about the environmental benefits of following a vegan diet, check out some of my other posts here!
