Description

Vegan stuffing with a crisp golden-brown top and a perfectly soft center. Finely chopped walnuts, nutritional yeast and mushrooms add depth to this heart holiday side dish.

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp (7 grams) ground flax seed
• 3 tbsp (45 ml) water
• 9 cups (700 grams) cubed stale bread (approx. 2 fresh loaves)
• 2 tbsp (30 ml) vegan butter or olive oil
• 1 cup (120 grams) chopped celery (approx. 2 ribs)
• 1 cup (150 grams) chopped carrot (approx 2 medium)
• 1 cup (130 grams) chopped onion (approx. 1 small onion)
• 2 cups (140 grams) chopped mushrooms (approx. 8 medium mushrooms)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• Salt, to taste
• Black pepper, to taste
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme (1 tsp dried)
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano (1 tsp dried)
• 1 ½ cups (375 ml) vegetable broth
• 3 tbsp (15 grams) nutritional yeast
• ½ cup (60 grams) finely chopped walnuts
• 2 tbsp (30 ml) melted vegan butter, for brushing

Instructions

1. Prepare flax “egg”: in a small dish, stir together flax seed and water. Set aside to thicken.
2. Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C).
3. In a large saucepan heat vegan butter or olive oil over medium heat. Once the oil is hot, add celery, carrot, onion, and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion appears translucent, about 5 minutes.
4. Stir in the mushrooms and season with ¼ tsp salt and black pepper. Cook until the mushrooms start to sweat, about 1-2 minutes.
5. Turn the heat off and stir in walnuts, flax egg, nutritional yeast, thyme and oregano.
6. Add the bread cubes and stir well. Season with ½ tsp salt.
7. Gradually add the vegetable broth (depending on how stale your bread is, you’ll need more or less broth), ¼ cup at a time, stirring as you go to moisten the bread evenly. Add enough broth so that the outside of the bread is moist and the stuffing easily sticks together but not so much broth that the bread is soggy all the way through.
8. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.
9. Line a large (9×13-inch) casserole dish with parchment paper. Add the stuffing, spreading it evenly into the pan without pressing it down or compacting it. Brush the top with 2 tbsp of melted butter.
   Bake for 30-45 minutes, until the top is golden brown and crisp.
   For crispier stuffing, stir and cook for an additional 10 minutes.

Notes

If you don’t have stale bread:

Overnight method: As early as possible, cube the bread and transfer to a large bowl, casserole dish, or paper bag. Leave the bread out, loosely covered so it can dry out.

Quick method: Preheat oven to the lowest possible setting. Spread the bread cubes out on a baking sheet. Put your baking sheet into the oven to dry out slightly. If your oven’s lowest temperature is too hot, turn off the heat after 5 minutes. You want to the bread cubes to dry out, not toast. Once the bread cubes are “stale”, after about 1 hour, transfer them to a bowl until ready to prepare your stuffing.

Note: Fresh bread will lose about 20% of its weight once stale. Be sure to prepare a little more than called for in the recipe.

Keywords: vegan stuffing, vegetable stuffing