by Raquel Smith
Alright, here we go. Are you guys ready to get your Thanksgiving on?! I sure am!
This year, I’m focusing on a totally vegan Thanksgiving menu so that everyone can enjoy the meal.
And plus, I think it’s the healthier way to go. Not that Thanksgiving is all about being healthy or anything…
Definitely not.
But I’ll take some healthy anywhere I can get it.
What Thanksgiving is about is making a giant, delicious meal that everyone in your family can enjoy – including yourself.
If you’re the cook, making sure everything is hot and ready on time can be a big – and stressful – task. To make it easier on you, many of my Thanksgiving-themed recipes take some shortcuts to make them a bit more accessible.
Take, for instance, this stuffing.
Like many of my recipes, my inspiration came from my mother-in-law, who makes the tastiest Thanksgiving side dish I’ve ever had. She uses a premade boxed bread cube base, and it’s so good.
The recipe on the box calls for a half cup of butter and not nearly enough veggies. So instead, I did what I do best – made it vegan!
I used a 1/4 cup of olive oil, then made up for the lost moisture with an extra 1/4 cup of broth. I doubled the veggies, added a bunch of sliced mushrooms and used some veggie sausages to round it out.
It turned out amazing! The perfect vegan option that will soon become a classic made every year, just like a traditional stuffing or a tried-and-true oyster dressing.
I would say that my recipe not quite as good as Kathy makes it, but that might just be because food always tastes better when you don’t have to make it.
Easy Vegan Stuffing
- Author: Raquel Smith
- Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
Description
This easy vegan stuffing uses a boxed mix to start, but gets a flavorful update with a fun mix of spices and fresh vegetables.
Ingredients
Scale
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 large onion, diced
- 4 large stalks celery, diced
- 12 ounces sliced mushrooms
- 2 vegan sausages, sliced into 1/4-inch half-moon pieces
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/4 teaspoon dried sage powder
- 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 10-ounce box vegan premade stuffing mix
- 1 3/4 cup vegetable broth or stock
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9×13-inch casserole dish.
- Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large skillet. Add the onion, celery, mushrooms, and vegan sausages. Cook, stirring often, until everything is lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and let cook for about 30 seconds. Add the spices and mix until combined. Remove from the heat.
- Empty the bread cubes from the stuffing mix into the prepared casserole dish. Add the cooked vegetables on top. Pour the broth into the casserole dish, and use a spatula to mix all of the ingredients together.
- Cover the casserole dish with foil. Bake for 40 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 15-20 minutes, until it’s crispy and golden brown on top. Enjoy immediately!
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 55 minutes
- Category: Side Dish
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: Vegan
Keywords: vegan, stuffing, Thanksgiving, side dish
Partially Premade, Totally Tasty
You don’t have to make a Thanksgiving dinner all from scratch – get a little help this year!
Though my meatless recipe starts off a pre-made boxed bread mix, I add a few extra ingredients to make it taste homemade-ish.
With onions, celery, mushrooms, and a fun mix of spices, it’s an easy recipe you can change up with your own flavor combos.
For example, I just found out after making this that my mother-in-law likes to use the cornbread variety – so if you want to give that a go, then let me know how it turns out.
Do you have any semi-homemade holiday favorites? Share them in the comments below, after you rate this recipe.
Photos by Raquel Smith, © Ask the Experts, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. See our TOS for more details. Originally published on November 7th, 2015. With additional writing and editing by Nikki Cervone. Last updated: October 4, 2022 at 13:15 pm.
Nutritional information derived from a database of known generic and branded foods and ingredients and was not compiled by a registered dietitian or submitted for lab testing. It should be viewed as an approximation.
About Raquel Smith
Raquel is a whole foods enthusiast, an avid mountain biker, and a dog lover. She works by day at Food Blogger Pro and formerly maintained her food blog "My California Roots" (now merged into Foodal).
