This flavor-packed vegan stuffing will steal the show! Made with crusty sourdough bread and savory herbs, this scrumptious and easy to make side dish is a must-have at your holiday table.
Stuffing seems to be the popular favorite among holiday side dishes. I've gone many-a-Thanksgiving without stuffing though, because while it's easy to make vegan a meal out of lots of Thanksgiving sides, stuffing is usually cooked in the turkey.
So I set out to create a killer vegan stuffing — one that would be my favorite side dish and everyone else's too! One that would have all the non-vegans at the table ditching their turkey-fied stuffing in favor of the plant-based stuff.
Well, I did it! As a testament to how good this stuffing was, I'll tell you that I was totally ready to make an entire meal of it. My husband talked some sense into me and we ended up eating it with salad and Field Roast sausages.
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Ingredients You'll Need
- Bread. You'll need a decent-sized loaf of crusty bread that's preferably a day or two old. Vegan sourdough stuffing is my favorite way to go, but you could use just about any variety of bread — French, Italian, multigrain, rye...whatever you're into!
- Vegan butter. You should be able to find this near the regular butter at the supermarket. Look for brands like Miyoko's and Earth Balance.
- Celery.
- Onion.
- Garlic.
- White wine. Use a dry variety such as chardonnay or pinot grigio, and make sure you run your brand through Barnivore to ensure it's vegan. If you prefer to cook without alcohol, just omit the wine.
- Fresh herbs. We're using rosemary, sage and thyme. You can substitute with dried herbs if needed, but cut the amounts by about two-thirds.
- Vegetable broth. I used Better Than Bouillon in seasoned vegetable flavor. If you have your own favorite, feel free to go with that.
- Cold water.
- Cornstarch. This is our binder! Cornstarch makes a great egg substitute in vegan baked goods. Turns out it's great for making an eggless stuffing as well!
- Salt & pepper.
How to Make Vegan Stuffing
The following is a detailed photo tutorial on how to make this dish. Scroll all the way down if you'd prefer to skip right to the recipe!
- Cut or tear your bread into small pieces or cutting it into cubes — about 1-inch in size. You'll want your bread cubes to be a bit dried out, so either cut them a day in advance, or, once cut, place your bread cubes in a warm oven to dry out.
- Melt some vegan butter in a skillet.
- Once the butter begins to sizzle, add diced celery and onion. Sweat the veggies until they soften and just begin to brown, for about 10 minutes, then add some garlic and cook everything for about a minute more.
- Add your wine and herbs, then bring the wine to a simmer and let it cook for a few minutes to evaporate the alcohol.
- Once the liquid has reduced, add your broth. Bring that to a simmer and let it cook for a few minutes.
- Stir some cornstarch and cold water together in a small bowl or container. Make sure to completely dissolve the cornstarch.
- Pour the cornstarch mixture into the skillet, give it a stir, and bring the mixture back to a simmer. It should thicken up pretty quickly.
- Remove the skillet from the burner. It's time to add the broth mixture to the bread. If your skillet is oven-safe, you can add the bread right to it, and then cook the stuffing right in your skillet. Otherwise, transfer the bread and the broth mixture to a separate baking dish.
- Stir it up, mix it with your hands, or do whatever you need to do to get a nice even coating of the broth mixture on the bread. Try to avoid saturating any of the bread pieces — you want a nice even coating on the exterior of each one.
- Cover the stuffing and bake it for 20 minutes, then uncover it and bake it for another 20.
- Sprinkle your stuffing with fresh parsley if you like. And if you're the kind of person who likes to douse their stuffing in gravy (hi friend!), I highly recommend my super simple vegan gravy.
Make-Ahead Option
Assemble the stuffing (up to step 18 of the recipe) up to a day in advance, cover, seal, and refrigerate. Bake the stuffing according to the recipe on the day of serving.
Leftovers & Storage
Leftover vegan stuffing will keep in a sealed container in the refrigerator for about 3 days, or in the freezer for about 3 months.
Frequently Asked Questions
It can! Use your favorite gluten-free bread, but keep in mind that gluten-free breads tend to be softer than wheat-based breads, so the texture of the stuffing won't be quite the same.
Sure! You'll need to replace the vegan butter, since it's made from refined oil. Sauté your celery and onion in water instead. The stuffing will be a bit dryer if you follow this method.
More Vegan Holiday Side Dishes
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📖 Recipe
Perfect Vegan Stuffing
Ingredients
- 1 pound sourdough bread, cut or torn into 1-inch pieces
- ½ cup vegan butter
- 1 ½ cups diced celery (about 5 ribs)
- 1 cup diced onion (about 1 medium onion)
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- ½ cup dry white wine
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
- 2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage
- 1 cup vegetable broth, plus more as needed
- ½ cup chilled water
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200°F (or the lowest temperature your oven allows)*.
- Arrange the bread pieces on a couple of baking sheets.
- Place the baking sheets into the oven and bake until the bread pieces feel somewhat dried out on their surfaces, 15-20 minutes.
- While the bread is in the oven, place a medium skillet (oven-safe, if available) over medium heat.
- Melt the butter in the skillet and let it heat up for a minute.
- Add the celery and onion to the skillet and cook them, stirring occasionally, until soft, about 10 minutes.
- Add the garlic to the skillet and cook for 1 minute more, until very fragrant.
- Add the wine, rosemary, thyme, and sage to the skillet. Raise the heat and bring the wine to a simmer.
- Allow the wine to cook until reduced by about half, about 4 minutes.
- Stir in 1 cup of broth. Bring it to a simmer.
- Lower the heat and allow the broth to simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- While the broth simmers, stir the water and cornstarch together in a small bowl.
- Add the cornstarch mixture to the broth and continue to let it simmer until it thickens up a bit, about 1 to 2 minutes.
- Remove the skillet from the heat.
- Remove the bread from the oven when it's finished drying out, and raise the heat to 350°F.
- If you used an oven-safe skillet to cook the vegan butter mixture, you can add the bread directly to the skillet. Otherwise, place the bread into a medium (2 to 3 quart) baking dish, and add the onion and celery mixture.
- Gently stir the bread and butter mixtures together until the bread is evenly coated. You can add up to an additional ½ cup of broth if necessary, but be careful to avoid oversaturating the bread.
- Taste-test and season the stuffing with salt and pepper to taste.
- Cover the skillet or dish and bake for 20 minutes.
- Uncover and bake for about 20 minutes more, until dried out on top and slightly crisp around the edges.
- Remove from the oven and serve.
Notes
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Lovely stuffing, I always add 1 cup each toasted pecan halves, fresh cranberries, and cooked mushrooms to my stuffing, makes it very festive looking. When they aren't so expensive I also add a cup of broken up cooked chestnuts. Instead of 1/2 cup water add cold broth to the cornstarch. Heavenly!!
Can i make it in my home? and can it taste the same if i follow the recipe?
What can I use instead of dry white wine?
You can leave it out if you prefer.
It looks amazing!!! thanks for sharing this delicious recipe.
Very welcome! I hope you enjoy it!
Me and Bobby were eating this on Thanksgiving for mst3k Turkey Day marathon, this will have to go with the tradition from now on! Didn't have the wine but carrots worked for a bit of a balancing sweet... Sourdough was clutch though!
Awesome! I'm so glad you guys liked it! I'll have to try it with carrots - that sounds really good. I miss you guys! <3
This stuff is AMAZING! I've made it twice (once for Thanksgiving), vegans and omnivores all loved it! I added an extra .5 cup of broth the second time around because I like a softer stuffing. So delicious!!! Thank you!
Yay! I'm so glad it was a hit! Thanks Lauren!
Blissful...!!!
Thank you! I agree! :)