20+ Easy Vegan Stuffing Recipes (healthy & delicious!)
These easy Vegan Stuffing Recipes will be a delicious and must-have addition to your Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner table (although I make these all year round ;-)). Made with mushrooms, apples, vegan sausage, chestnut and more tasty ingredients.
Vegan Stuffing Recipes
For more vegan recipes for fall/winter, check out our wild rice, lentil, polenta, fall, Just Egg, Thanksgiving and Christmas roundups.
The ingredients in wild rice stuffing simply scream of the fall harvest. This is an earthy dish with grassy wild rice, woodsy mushrooms, rustic walnuts, and seasonal sweet apples. The umami is enhanced by vegetable broth and the addition of tamari, a wheat-free soy sauce. Yes, this stuffing is 100% gluten-free.
Don’t let the name of this recipe fool you. It is definitely vegan. I love that it takes a leap of faith by adding vegan chorizo to sourdough bread and roasted chestnut stuffing that is traditionally prepared with mildly seasoned sausage. This is a stuffing with a uniquely Mexican flair, which is so refreshing and a bit bold.
Combining mushrooms with pears never occurred to me until I saw this beautiful stuffing. It is a gluten-free dish packed with mushrooms, pears, and leeks. It is topped with a coating of toasted pumpkin and sunflower seeds for a lovely contrast in textures.
Once you embrace leeks you will be adding them to many savory dishes in place of other aromatic vegetables, such as onions and shallots. Leeks have a milder onion flavor and they literally melt when cooked in soups and casseroles. Leeks and meaty mushrooms are the stars of this rosemary and thyme seasoned vegan stuffing.
Cornbread is by far one of the best base ingredients for holiday stuffing. It all starts with homemade vegan and gluten-free cornbread. Medium-grind cornmeal is nice and chewy for the bread. Apples, celery, mushrooms, and chestnuts offer tons in the way of flavors and textures.
Butternut squash is both naturally sweet and savory. The flesh is creamy when cooked. And the bright orange color indicates a high content of beta-carotene and antioxidants. When you combine this magical fruit/vegetable with a toothsome wild rice blend, dried cranberries, and chopped pecans, you have a holiday stuffing that the whole family will love as a side or a main dish.
Ready to be transported to the Adriatic Sea? Sourdough bread cubes are paired with the concentrated flavors of tangy kalamata olives and sun-dried tomatoes in this stuffing dish that takes inspiration from the healing Mediterranean Diet.
You can have the most classic version of stuffing and it can be completely vegan without sacrificing that buttery essence. This specific recipe is as basic as it gets and I love that. Dried-out or day-old crusty bread is softened in vegetable broth with onions, celery, and plenty of seasonal herbs. Vegan butter is what brings richness to the dish and aquafaba (the liquid from canned beans) makes it creamy.
Carb lovers rejoice! This dish is a twist on traditional Thanksgiving bread stuffing with the inclusion of plant-based sausage and cranberries. This is a casserole that is savory, sweet, and as high in protein and fiber as it is in satisfying carbohydrates in the form of sourdough bread.
One of my favorite mushrooms is cremini which are baby portobellos. These are solid and beefy little fungi that retain their structure when cooked. Sage is the only herb in this dish and it is all that is needed because mushrooms and sage are a perfect marriage. In fact, there are only 8 ingredients in this crowd-pleasing stuffing. Make a lot, because it freezes well.
Cherries are an often-overlooked fruit to add to savory dishes. This recipe calls for dried cherries, which is great because fresh cherries have a very short season. Simply add the ingredients to a gluten-free store-bought stuffing mix and bake the stuffing. It’s really that easy.
Herbed wild rice studded with cranberries and pecans is the best stuffing for roasted acorn squash cups. The rice is a combination of nutty brown rice and chewy wild rice. This combo is assertively seasoned with dried herbs and aromatics. Perfect as an entrée as well.
Some dressing or stuffing recipes can be dry, requiring a healthy ladle of gravy on top. This recipe is none of that. Despite, starting out with day-old bread, the stuffing is moist and almost creamy from the softened apple, an abundance of vegan butter and the vegetable broth.
In the Southern parts of the United States, stuffing is almost exclusively made with cornbread. Start by baking some homemade cornbread muffins the day before so they can lose some of their moisture. No one really wants mushy cornbread dressing. This particular offering is free of allergens and gluten, making it awesome for guests with food intolerances.
Want to fool your meat-eating guests this holiday season? There are some vegan sausage products available that will do just that. This vegan sausage stuffing recipe uses one of the most popular brands that is both gluten and soy-free. They really taste like meat! Don’t skip the pomegranate seeds because they burst when you bite into them, in a good way.
Ready to switch things up in the stuffing arena? Leave the sage and thyme in the spice rack and opt for curry powder and turmeric. Roasted butternut squash chunks are combined with apples and bread cubes for a sweeter version of stuffing. The brilliant orange spices contrast with and complement the sweetness of the fruits. This dish is naturally moist and very filling.
I love a rustic side dish that is comforting, like this vegan cornbread stuffing. What makes this work so well is the combination of crumbly cornbread and slight toastiness on the white bread. It’s a straightforward dish and pairs nicely with green bean casserole and creamy mashed sweet potatoes on your vegan holiday table.
Bring on the veggies! A good vegan casserole has an abundance of vegetables in my book. The celery, carrots, onions, and mushrooms are combined with cubed bread moistened with broth. Nutritional yeast and fresh herbs bring a depth of flavor to the dish. Chopped walnuts offer some chewiness.
Traditional vegan sausage stuffing is a throwback to childhood when Thanksgiving dinner always had a bread stuffing with bits of sausage. Back then, the dressing was actually stuffed inside the turkey! It is a miracle we all survived that method of cooking. But it was good. This recipe is just as robust in appearance and taste as the original but without meat or turkey juices.
Finally, a stuffing made with quinoa! I love how fluffy and delicate quinoa is. I always feel lighter when I eat dishes made with quinoa instead of grains or bread. That is why I think this stuffing can grace a table any time of year. Quinoa seeds are a wonderful source of plant protein, high in fiber, and naturally gluten-free.
More tasty vegan recipes:
What are your favorite vegan stuffing recipes?
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Servings: 4
Calories: 300kcal
- wild rice
- butternut squash
- ground black pepper
- sourdough bread
Calories: 300kcal
FAQ
Traditional stuffing, or dressing as it’s called in some regions, is a savory bread, cornbread, or wild rice casserole served on Thanksgiving and other holidays. It’s usually not vegan because it’s made with turkey or chicken broth, butter, and it’s often cooked inside turkey and basted with liquid from the turkey.
Vegan stuffing is made with all the same ingredients as traditional stuffing but with vegetable or vegan “chicken” broth in place of the animal broth, vegan margarine in place of butter, and egg and dairy-free bread cubes, cornbread, or wild rice. Some stuffing recipes contain eggs so those can either be omitted or replaced with a vegan friendly alternative.
The best vegan egg substitute for stuffing depends on the recipe. Try tofu or JUST Egg for binding and flavor, or simply leave out the eggs if you prefer a looser texture. If you’re making a bread stuffing, the bread will help hold together the stuffing. If you make cornbread stuffing, make sure the cornbread is vegan.