Wheat-free Cornbread Stuffing
I just couldn’t wait any longer.
It was time to make stuffing.
But not just any stuffing.
Cornbread and butternut squash stuffing.
I always make stuffing and cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving. It’s my thing. The cranberry sauce goes back to when I was a teenager and I loved to cook but only super simple things; Cream of Wheat, noodle soup, chocolate pudding (from scratch and from a box), and cranberry sauce. These days I think I like to take charge of the sauce so that I can cut the sugar and throw in some spices. Since I don’t eat meat I started making stuffing for the big meal to ensure that I would enjoy a delicious-whole grain-meat-free-yet-still-sort-of-traditional side dish.
A few weeks ago I caught a glimpse of a beautiful recipe for a cornbread stuffing. My mom doesn’t eat a lot of wheat so I thought this would be the perfect addition to our table this year. I couldn’t find the recipe so I came up with my own.
This dish is gluten free, vegetarian (and can easily be made vegan), and “light” compared to traditional butter laden stuffings.
First I made cornbread.
Into a bowl went
- 3 cups organic cornmeal
- 2 tablespoons ground flax seeds
- 1/2 teaspoon each baking soda, baking powder, and salt
- a good pinch each of the stuffing herbs (dried parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme) or a few pinches of your homemade Stuffing Salt (reduce salt if using herb salt)
- 2 cups any kind of milk you like; soy, cow, nut, coconut, zucchini…yep, I have a friend soy/dairy allergic friend who makes zucchini milk!
- 1/4 cup yogurt, applesauce, or pumpkin puree
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- One onion, minced
- ~3 cups of butternut squash, diced
- 3 stalks of celery, diced
- 3 carrots, diced
- 3 or more cloves of garlic, minced
- fat for cooking
- honey or sugar
- balsamic vinegar
- salt
- 2 cups of water