Tis’ the season for turkey and all the trimmings!! Since we switched to our Paleo lifestyle nearly three years ago, the “trimmings” that most obviously had to be “trimmed” was one of our favorites…STUFFING!!! It literally takes that plate of turkey, potatoes and gravy over the top! Sooo, we literally gave it up…had to, it was hard to have stuffing without having traditional bread. Did we miss it…you better believe it!
We tried making some paleo breads that first Thanksgiving (2014) and mixing up some stuffing with it – meh…it was just ok but certainly didn’t hit the spot for us. With the introduction of Otto’s Cassava Flour last year, things began to change in such an amazing way!!
Paleo bread made with cassava flour…winning, winning, winning and this means amazing paleo stuffing for Thanksgiving! There are many recipes to choose from now and aren’t we all excited about that!! For this recipe we suggest a the real deal crusty french bread baguette recipe from the Otto’s Cassava Flour blog – because we love it and it super easy to toss together and then of course ENJOY!
Most stuffing recipes have a boat load of celery in them…you will not find this here. We are not celery fans, and especially cooked celery…gah! We do use a bit of ground celery seeds to make the initial herbed bread cubes…but after that, you will not find it at all! The texture is just off putting and basically gross to us, if you like it…we’re happy for you, but it’s not for us! What you will find in this recipe that makes it drool worthy is the browned butter sage drizzle you top it all off with before you bake it…seriously ridiculous!
You can even prep this the day before the big day and keep it in the fridge…because anything you can make the day ahead around Thanksgiving is winning as far as I’m concerned. There’s so much food amazingness that has to happen on the day of, that meal prep ahead of time is always a plus!!
herbed apple pine nut stuffing
a flavorful paleo stuffing to add the perfect touch to your Thanksgiving meal
Credit: backporchpaleo.com
Ingredients
- 5-6 c 1″ cubed paleo cassava flour bread, dried out overnight in the oven
- 2 T Chosen Foods avocado oil
- ¼ t ground celery seed
- ¼ t Redmond Real Salt
- ¼ t garlic powder
- ½ c butter
- 1 large onion, diced
- ½ c diced apple
- ½ c toasted pine nuts
- 1 T fresh sage, finely chopped (or ¼ t dried)
- 1 T fresh rosemary, finely chopped (or ¼ t dried)
- 1 T fresh thyme, finely chopped (or ¼ t dried)
- ¼ t Redmond Real Salt
- cracked pepper
- 1½ c chicken bone broth
- 1 T of butter for baking pan
- ¼ c butter
- 6-8 fresh sage leaves
Directions
1. Pre-heat oven to 400°
2. In a medium bowl, add avocado oil, ground celery seed, salt and garlic powder and whisk to combine. Toss in bread cubes and using a spatula stir the cubes about until all are well coated.
3. Spread out on a baking sheet and bake in oven til golden, approximately 8-10 minutes. Watch them close, they can go from not golden to overdone quickly at this temperature!
4. Remove from oven and set aside.
5. Reduce oven temp to 350°
6. In a skillet (we like to use our Lodge Cast Iron Skillet), melt butter, add onion and apple and cook until onions are soft and a little bit caramelized…trust me, let them get a little brown…flavor town!
7. While onions and apples are sauteeing, toss in the toasted bread cubes in a large bowl, add the toasted pine nuts, chopped herbs, salt and black pepper.
8. Once onions and apples are done, pour this mixture over the bread cube mixture and toss to combine all ingredients.
9. Pour chicken broth into this mixture and again, toss to combine.
10. Coat baking pan (a 9×13 pan would probably do the job) with butter on bottom and sides.
11. Pour mixture into pan…luckily all the pine nuts that were probably on the bottom of the bowl have found their way to the top once this bounty is poured into the pan, if not…fluff it up and make sure they’re not all sitting on the bottom!
12. Using the same pan that the onions and apples were sauteed in, melt the remaining ¼ cup butter on medium heat until foamy and a little brown, toss in fresh sage leaves and stir about until leaves are crispy and take off heat.
13. Pour this sage infused butter all over the top of the mixture in the baking pan…you have just taken your Thanksgiving stuffing to whole new level and you’re mouth will be amazed!!
14. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes, remove foil and bake for an additional 12-15 minutes until tops of exposed bread cubes are toasty and mixture is bubbly!
15. If you want to make this the day ahead, after step #14, simply cover and refrigerate until ready to bake the next day. You will need to increase baking time by about 10-12 minutes.
