Vegetarian Stuffing Recipe The Perfect Savory Side Dish

You’ll love its rustic, hearty, and homey flavors and the combination of soft and crunchy textures. Every bite is a celebration of tradition and comfort. Dietary Note: this recipe is suitable for a vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free diet, provided you use gluten-free bread.

Vegetarian stuffing video

Ingredients & Substitutions for vegetarian stuffing

How to make vegetarian stuffing

Serving Suggestions

More Thanksgiving sides

Storage & Make Ahead

Holiday desserts

For example, suppose you are making this for Thanksgiving, Christmas dinner, or any other special holiday dinner. In that case, we recommend serving it next to our Mushroom Wellington, Lentil Loaf, or Stuffed Butternut Squash. Also, since vegetarian stuffing is made primarily with toasted bread and herbs, we recommend serving it with another side dish, such as roasted sweet potatoes, sautéed green beans, roasted Brussels sprouts, or a refreshing kale salad. Nevertheless, you and your guests will love this recipe because it’s flavorful and fulfilling, combines soft and crunchy textures, and has a cozy rustic and aromatic feel that makes you feel like everything will be alright.

Bread

We recommend a combination of white and whole-grain bread for the best and richest flavor. Also, combining two breads makes the stuffing more interesting from a texture perspective. Avoid sandwich bread as it gets too mushy when mixed with the broth. Pick something with more crust, like an artisanal loaf, a Tuscan or Italian load, or anything crusty. You can use fresh bread, which is easier to cut, or day-old bread. The bread must be cut into dice and toasted in the oven or air fryer. Substitute gluten-free bread to make gluten-free stuffing.

Olive oil

Olive oil, or even better extra virgin olive oil, is what we use to cook the vegetables. Substitute melted butter, vegan butter, or avocado oil for olive oil. Tip: extra virgin olive oil is the healthier option.

Veggies

We recommend yellow or white onion, celery, carrot, and leek, chopped and gently cooked in olive oil until soft. This combination of veggies adds the most flavor, and although some recipes don’t add carrots and leeks, we surely recommend them.

Herbs

Italian herbs should be used in stuffing. We combine a rosemary sprig, fresh sage leaves, and dried or fresh thyme. You can use fresh or dried herbs. If you use fresh, make sure to chop the herbs finely with a knife before you mix them with the vegetables. Also, you’ll want to add a couple of cloves of garlic. You can mince, chop, grate, or press the garlic. Our advice is to stick to fresh garlic and avoid garlic powder. Finally, we recommend adding fresh parsley – Italian or flat-leaf is best.

Vegetable Broth

Since this is a vegetarian stuffing recipe, we use vegetable broth instead of chicken broth. Using vegetable broth is an excellent way to make the recipe vegetarian and vegan-friendly and reduce meat consumption easily and painlessly.

Salt & Pepper

Adjust the amount of sea salt or kosher salt and black pepper to your liking. Note: We don’t use eggs in this recipe. If you want to, whisk a couple in the vegetable broth.

1. Toast the bread

Preheat the oven to 350°F or 180°C. Cut the bread into small bite-size pieces with a bread knife, and toast it until it’s dry and crunchy. You can toast the bread in an air fryer, in 2 batches, at 320°F or 160°F for 5 to 10 minutes. Or you can arrange it on a baking tray and bake at 350°F or 180°F for about 8 to 10 minutes or until dry. Transfer the bread to a large mixing bowl.

2. Cook the vegetables

Next, you’ll want to chop onion, carrot, and celery finely. You can do so by hand with a chef’s knife, or you can use a food processor. For the leek, though, it is best to cut it in half lengthwise first, rinse its layers under water to remove dirt, and then slice it with a knife. Tip: hand-cut veggies have a more pleasant texture, but if you are short on time, processed vegetables are also fine. Now, heat the oil (or melt the butter) in a large skillet, add the chopped carrot, onion, celery, and leek, season them with salt and black pepper, and cook them on medium heat for 10 minutes or until they are soft. Add minced garlic, rosemary, sage, and thyme (remember to chop the herbs if they are fresh) and cook for 2 more minutes or until you smell the fragrant aroma of the garlic.

3. Mix the bread and the veggies

Add the vegetables, chopped parsley, and half the vegetable broth to the large bowl with the toasted bread. Toss until well combined, adding more broth as required, then taste and adjust for salt and black pepper. The bread should be soft but not completely soaked in the broth. Tip: If you use a good quality artisanal crusty bread, you’ll need all the broth. If you use white supermarket bread, you’ll need less.

4. Bake the stuffing

Transfer the bread mixture into a lightly oiled casserole dish or baking dish (we use a 9×13-inch Pyrex dish). Bake in the lowest rack of your oven at 350°F or 180°C for about 35 to 40 minutes until the top is golden brown and crunchy. Tip: this shouldn’t happen, but if the top of your stuffing browns too fast, you can cover it with foil but make a couple of holes for the steam to escape. We think it’s delicious as a side dish to our mushroom Wellington, lentil loaf, or stuffed butternut squash with a good drizzle of mushroom gravy. Also, don’t forget to pair it with other festive side dishes, like:

Sautéed green beans or Air-fried green beans. Fennel orange salad or Pear and orange salad. Roasted sweet potatoes or Mashed sweet potatoes. Shaved Brussels sprout salad or Rainbow Kale salad. Roasted carrots or Roasted carrots and potatoes. Roasted Brussels sprouts or Roasted Brussels sprouts and carrots.

Green Bean Salad

Air Fryer Brussels Sprouts

Butternut Squash Salad

Roasted Potatoes and Carrots

Mashed potatoes or cauliflower mashed potatoes. Vegan sweet potato casserole. Roasted butternut squash or Roasted Kabocha squash. Mushroom gravy or Roasted vegetables.

For many more side dish ideas, check out our sides category page.

Mashed Potatoes

Vegan Sweet Potato Casserole

Roasted Vegetables

Roasted Kabocha Squash

Fresh vs Stale Bread: stable bread (even one-day-old bread) is harder to cut into bread cubes, so we don’t recommend it. It’s faster and safer to use fresh bread, cut it into dice with a serrated knife, and toast it in the oven or air fryer until dry. We don’t recommend cooking the stuffing the day before because you’ll have to store it in the fridge. The stuffing will get soggy and cold, and reheating it will take about the same time as baking it from scratch, but the result is much worse. Refrigerator: transfer the stuffing to an airtight container and store it in the fridge for up to 3 days. Alternatively, wrap the casserole dish and keep it in the refrigerator. Freezer: let the stuffing cool down completely, transfer it into a freezer-friendly container, and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw and reheat: defrost in the fridge over several hours. Reheat in the oven if you want to make it crunchy again or in the microwave for a few minutes, but it won’t get crunchy.

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