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A must-have Thanksgiving side dish! Vegetarian Cornbread Stuffing is flavorful, moist, and the perfect holiday side dish.
Made with all of the best Thanksgiving ingredients like cornbread, onion, celery, cranberries, vegetable stock, and more, this vegetarian cornbread is packed with incredible flavor and can be on your Thanksgiving table in under an hour.
Looking for more holiday recipe inspiration? Check out my Healthy Green Bean Casserole, Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes, or Cranberry Bacon Broccoli Salad next!
If you love cornbread as much as I do, you’ll want to try these Pumpkin Cornbread Muffins or this Golden Sweet Cornbread too.
Vegetarian Cornbread Stuffing Recipe
Looking for that perfect vegetarian recipe for the holidays? I’ve got you covered with this super easy recipe for cornbread stuffing.
Everyone shows up to Thanksgiving dinner or the holidays for a specific dish. For some, it’s Green Beans With Bacon for others it’s Roasted Sweet Potatoes. For me, it’s anything but stuffing. That’s why I had to come up with one I actually love.
This year, I combined my two favorite holiday flavors and made one incredible cornbread stuffing recipe.
Ingredients You’ll Need
Cornbread: grab your favorite cornbread while at the grocery store or make a fresh baked homemade cornbread. I like to buy mine pre-made from the bakery section when I’m short on time, but I will say homemade cornbread just hits different. So if you’ve got the time, give it a try.
Vegetables: one of my favorite things about this stuffing is the vegetable flavors. To achieve all those great flavors and textures you will need to grab, some onion, celery, garlic, and vegetable stock.
Fruit: what’s Thanksgiving without some cranberries?! For this recipe, I used dried cranberries. If you are looking for them in your local grocery store, you can typically find them near the nuts and raisins.
Herbs and spices: add more flavor to the dish with kosher salt, fresh cracked black pepper, fresh sage leaves, and fresh thyme.
Eggs: they act as the binding ingredient to bring everything together and give your stuffing the perfect texture.
*For a detailed list of ingredients and measurements, please reference the recipe card down below.
How to make Vegetarian Cornbread Stuffing
1. Preheat oven. Preheat oven to 300° F. Add the cornbread to a foiled baking sheet and toast in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until slightly firm and no longer moist.
Pro tip: you can make cornbread croutons by cooking them a little longer until they get super crispy!
2. Sauté the veggies While the cornbread is toasting, melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Stir in onion, celery, garlic, and cranberries and season with salt and pepper.
Cook, stirring frequently, for 6-8 minutes, until soft. Then stir in sage and thyme, and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Remove from heat and toss with cubed cornbread.
3. Prepare the cornbread and bake. In a small or large mixing bowl (depending on how much you are making), whisk together eggs and vegetable broth. Add cornbread and onion mixture to a large bowl.
Pour broth mixture over cornbread mixture and toss gently to coat, then transfer to a 9X13 baking dish. Bake at 375° F until toasted on top, hot throughout, and golden brown for about 20-25 minutes.
Recipe Variations
Change up your stuffing with variations and substitutions!
- Make vegan stuffing: make your cornbread vegan by substituting egg with a vegan egg substitute like JUST Egg and using vegan butter.
- Make it gluten free: for gluten free, use a gluten free all purpose flour mix in your cornbread recipe if you make it from scratch. If you make it from a box mix, make sure it is a gluten free cornbread box mix.
- Add meat: looking to add some protein to your cornbread? Consider adding some sausage or ground pork.
- Tasty options additions: green onions, jalapeños, or blueberries are delicious and unique ingredients for stuffing.
Do I need to dry out cornbread for stuffing?
In order to make the perfect stuffing, it needs to be dried out or “staled” first. Do not attempt to make stuffing with soft or fresh baked bread will result in an overly soft and soggy texture.
The best way to do this is to cube your cornbread the night before and set it out on the counter uncovered overnight. Toasting it in the oven also helps to dry it out.
What is the difference between cornbread stuffing and cornbread dressing?
The tomato, to-mah-to and potato, po-tah-to debates are never ending. However, every year at every table someone brings up the stuffing vs. dressing debate.
Although similar, they are prepared differently. Traditional stuffing is literally stuffed inside a turkey when cooked. Dressing however is cooked in another dish or on the pan outside the turkey.
Is cornbread stuffing gluten free?
No, not all cornbread stuffing is gluten free. It can be made to be gluten free though!
If you are buying pre-made store-bought stuffing to save time, make sure you check the ingredients on the label. Now, if you are looking to buy and make a boxed stuffing make sure to check the box! Some box stuffing is in fact gluten-free.
Can stuffing be made ahead of time?
Yes! You can make the cornbread a day or even 2 days in advance and prepare the vegetable mixture a day in advance and store in the refrigerator until you are ready.
When you’re ready to make it, you can just mix it all together and place it in a baking dish. I prefer to do it this way, but you can also bake it ahead of time if you like.
If you want to fully prepare the dish ahead of time, you can reheat it by covering the dish in foil and baking for 30-40 minutes at 325 F or until it’s completely heated through. To get the top crisp, turn on the broiler and place the dish on the middle rack. Broil for 3-5 minutes or until the top is nice and toasted.
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Vegetarian Cornbread Stuffing
Ingredients
- 1 batch cornbread, cut into 1 inch cubes (about 5 cups)
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 3 stalks celery diced
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries
- kosher salt, to taste
- fresh cracked black pepper, to taste
- 4 fresh sage leaves, chopped
- 1 tablespoon fresh thyme
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup vegetable stock
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 300° F. Add the cornbread to a foiled baking sheet and toast in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until slightly firm and no longer moist.
- While the cornbread is toasting, melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Stir in onion, celery, garlic, and cranberries and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring frequently, for 6-8 minutes, until soft. Then stir in sage and thyme, and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Remove from heat and toss with cubed cornbread.
- In a small bowl, whisk together eggs and vegetable broth. Add cornbread and cooked veggies to large bowl. Pour broth mixture over cornbread and toss gently to coat, then transfer to a 9X13 baking dish. Bake at 375° F until toasted on top and hot throughout, about 20-25 minutes.
Love cornbread stuffing! And been eating a lot more vegetarian meals lately so excited to make this again for Christmas dinner!
What a great recipe! The addition of dried cranberries is truly inspired, and I love how the edges of the cornbread get browned and caramelized. Another winner from JZ Eats!
Glad you loved it!!
Made this for our Friendsgiving and it was a hit! Love the fresh sage. Thank you!
This cornbread alone is so moist! And the stuffing turns out lovely. Thank you for this great holiday savory treat!! We add extra dried sage and love it.
We love this stuffing recipe!! We made it for Thanksgiving last week and it was a huge hit with our family – it was moist, flavorful and so tasty!
Thank you!!