Vegan Cornbread Stuffing (and Gravy)

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Up until a few years ago, my take on stuffing came in a red Stove Top box. That was until nana showed me how easy it is to make homemade stuffing. Her secret? Saturate your bread mixture with broth. It should be wet and pasty … which doesn’t sound delectable at all, but is, trust me! On Thanksgiving Day, our friend Eric said that this stuffing was the highlight of his meal. We also made it today for the special SEEDS holiday-inspired graduation lunch (… which was AWESOME! by the way…). After one bite, a volunteer told me that I should have testimonials on the blog! I told her to leave a comment … hopefully she will, hint, hint! :D. We also made a vegan gravy … both recipes are below.

Vegan Cornbread Stuffing

1 large yellow onion–diced
4 stalks of celery–diced
2-3 tablespoons fresh sage
1 teaspoon fresh thyme
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon black pepper
2 teaspoons earth balance
1 package favorite vegan sausage–cooked
1 carton (32 oz.) of vegetable broth
4 sliced toasted whole wheat bread
cornbread (see note below)
salt/pepper/sage to taste

*Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F. Heat olive oil in frying pan on medium/medium low. Add diced onion and celery. Saute until soft and translucent. Prepare cornbread batter, add cooked onion and celery to cornbread batter, add black pepper and stir to combine. Pour batter into “buttered” (w/ earth balance) baking dish. Bake approx. 30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. (This step can be done the day before).

*Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F. Cook sausage in frying pan on stove top. Break up cornbread into big chunks and add to large mixing bowl. Lightly toast bread. Spread thin layer of earth balance on toast and break toast up into 1/2 – 1 inch pieces. Add to mixing bowl. Chop sage and thyme; add to bowl. Add cooked sausage to bowl, along with vegetable broth. Stir. The mixture will be wet and will not resemble stuffing at all! But do not skimp on the vegetable broth. A pasty mixture is key to moist stuffing in the end!!! Adjust for salt/sage/pepper.

*Add mixture to “buttered” baking dish and cover with foil. Bake approx. 30 minutes. Remove foil. Bake another 10-15 minutes until the top of the stuffing is light brown and slightly crusty.

(I forgot to take a picture of the baked stuffing on Thanksgiving … BUT here’s the final product from the SEEDS lunch today!)


Vegan Gravy


1 small onion
3 tablespooons olive oil
3 tablespoons flour
3 cups vegetable broth
1 tablespoon fresh sage (or 1 teaspoon dried sage)
1 teaspoon black pepper
salt to taste

*Heat olive oil in medium saucepan over medium heat. Add onion. Cook until soft and translucent. Stir in flour to make a roux. Cook over medium until roux turned golden brown. Add vegetable broth a little at a time, thinning out roux and whisking so that you have a nice smooth gravy (do not add all broth at once and then whisk or you’ll have lumpy gravy). Add sage, salt, and pepper to taste. Heat on medium low until thickened.


Notes
: I used a cornbread mix from Whole Foods. The mix called for one egg, 1 cup of milk, and 1 tablespoon of honey. Instead, I used 1 egg’s worth of egg replacer, 1 cup of unsweetened/unflavored rice milk, and no honey. Be sure to check the ingredients in your mix if you use one (i.e., Jiffy mix is not vegan or vegetarian!).

Written by

Tiffany M. Griffin is the woman behind Como Water, Washington DC’s premiere veg-centric cuisine consulting company. Through cooking classes, demonstrations, catering, and consultations, Como Water gives people the opportunity to learn how to prepare veg-centric cuisine that boasts maximum flavor, with minimal effort. Tiffany is quickly becoming a go-to expert on the future of veg-centric cuisine, and is a regular contributor to Como Water, the blog, as well as to vegetarian and vegan sites across the Internet. For over a decade, this self-taught, entrepreneurial expert has developed a set of tried and true techniques for making simple, delicious, and sometimes decadent veg-centric dishes. Featured on the Steve Harvey Show and other leading media outlets, Tiffany was born and raised in Springfield, MA. She then earned Bachelors degrees in Psychology and Communications from Boston College and a PhD in Social Psychology from the University of Michigan. She now resides in Washington DC, where she has worked in the US Senate and at a federal agency on issues around health, food, nutrition, and international food aid/development, and of course, as the owner of Como Water. Tiffany gets culinary inspiration from the food she grew up eating, and from her travels throughout Latin America, the Caribbean, Western Europe, and Sub-Saharan Africa. She is dedicated to sharing her wealth of knowledge on veg-centric cuisine with others and to help others live by her mantra—love life, live long, and eat veg-centric cuisine!

Comments

  1. I wish I can come over for this one! I'm not a vegetarian but I do cook some vegetarian foods for my better half and enjoy them too.

  2. That looks really tasty! I've never tried vegan sausage…

  3. Homemade stuffing is great and surprisingly easy. This Thanksgiving we added a lot of veggies to ours, including mushrooms, carrots and celery. Yours looks wonderful!

  4. Wow this vegan stuffing sounds healthy and delicious. I sometimes cook vegetarain dish for my friends, I think they will love this 🙂

  5. This looks great! I've had some pretty awful vegan gravy in the past but this recipe looks delicious!! Thank you for sharing 🙂

  6. Thanks for the comments!

    Nikki, bad vegan gravy? How do you mess up gravy? Hmmm…. well, this version is pretty yummy! 🙂 Let me know if you try it! (I think the secret is cooking your roux until it's nice and dark tan…)

  7. Looks yummy. I've always made my dad's recipe for stuffing, which includes nuts, mushrooms and olives and can be made vegan if you use vegetable stock. Will have to blog it one day… 🙂

  8. Please do Ruby! Sounds great, I'd love to try it 😀