Vegetarian Apple Cranberry Stuffing - Nourished By Nutrition Print

Apple Cranberry Stuffing

5 from 1 review

An easy vegetarian apple cranberry stuffing made from scratch. It’s a delicious sweet and savory twist on traditional stuffing. I used sprouted whole grain bread. Feel free to use any bread of choice. This stuffing can be made gluten-free by using gluten-free bread.

Ingredients

Scale

12 ounces sprouted whole grain bread, cut into 3/4-inch cubes (I used One Degree Organic)*

1/2 cup dried cranberries or golden raisins

1/2 cup hot water

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 cup chopped onion

2 cups chopped celery

1 small Honeycrisp apple, diced

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 teaspoon dried rosemary

1 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

2 cups low-sodium vegetable stock

¼ cup melted ghee or olive oil

2 large eggs

Instructions

To dry out the bread the day before, let the bread sit out on the counter uncovered for 24 hours or more. It needs to be complete stale to prevent soggy stuffing. 

If using fresh bread, preheat the oven to 400F. Arrange bread cubes on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes, flipping the bread after 10 minutes. Once dried out, place bread in a large bowl.

Turn the oven to 350F and lightly coat a 9×13 baking dish with olive oil or ghee. Place the dried cranberries or golden raisins in a small bowl with hot water. Let soak for 10 minutes then drain and discard the water. 

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high. Add onion and celery to the pan and sauté for 6 minutes, or until tender. Add the apple and sauté for an additional 5 minutes. Add the garlic, drained cranberries, thyme, rosemary, salt, and pepper. Stir till evenly combined and cook for another minute fragrant. Add apple mixture to bread and toss.

In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs. Add in the vegetable stock, melted ghee or olive oil and whisk to combine. Drizzle half over the bread mixture. Let the bread soak up the liquid and slowly. Add the rest of the liquid a little at a time. The bread should be wet but not soggy. If you find your bread is completely wet without using all of the liquid, that’s okay. Let stand 5-10 minutes. 

Place the stuffing mixture in the baking dish and cover with foil. Bake for 35-40 minutes, remove foil and bake for an additional 15 minutes to crisp up the top. 

Leftovers can be kept in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week. To reheat, bring the baked stuffing to room temperature so that it will re-heat evenly; about 30 minutes. To reheat it, drizzle the top of the stuffing with about 1/4 cup of stock and bake at 350 until it’s warmed through.

Notes

Gluten-free option: Use any gluten-free bread of choice. I recommend Canyon Bakehouse. Make sure to add the liquid slowly, as the bread can absorb liquid more quickly. You want the bread to be wet but not soggy or sitting in liquid.

Vegan option:  I have not made this recipe vegan but have had success using flax eggs in other recipes. I recommend increasing the olive oil to 1/3 cup to make up for the richness from the eggs.