Savory Sausage Stuffing with Sweet-Tart Apples & Cranberries

If you love Thanksgiving stuffing, then you need to try this dairy-free sausage stuffing. It levels up with even more comforting ingredients, and has a delicious balance of flavors. Apples and cranberries might seem unexpected, but they each add a sweet-tartness and texture that balances the richness of the sausage stuffing itself. They also add festive color! Trust me, this popular side dish recipe is a keeper.

Why You’ll Love this Dairy-Free Sausage Stuffing

• Rich & Flavorful: This is everything stuffing should be. It’s buttery, filled with warm herbs, like sage, and perfectly moist.
• Can be a Side or Meal: This recipe is high in protein and balanced with produce, so your really can just eat stuffing for dinner!
• Festive: The cranberries and apples add color and flavor that speaks to the holidays.
• Allergy-Friendly: This version is naturally dairy-free, egg-free, and nut-free. It can easily be soy-free and gluten-free, if needed.

Key Ingredient Notes & Options

• Bread: Using a combo of white and whole wheat bread adds color, texture, and flavor to this dairy-free sausage stuffing. But you can use just one type of bread if preferred.
• Sausage: Sage pork sausage is amazing in stuffing, but you can use a mild Italian sausage in a pinch. Turkey sausage (not extra lean) is a suitable substitute, but won’t be as moist and rich.
• Onion: You’ll need about 1 small yellow onion. A sweet onion or white only will also work fine.
• Celery: This really is a classic stuffing ingredient. I recommend using it unless you really can’t stand celery. You’ll need about 2 celery stalks for this recipe.
• Herbs: I actually love the earthy flavor of dried herbs instead of fresh in stuffing, but it’s your call!
• Apple: Golden Delicious offers a light green hue, firm texture, and nice sweet-tart flavor. I wouldn’t personally use Granny Smith as they are too boldly tart. But apples like Jonagold and Braeburn are good substitutes.
• Cranberries: Feel free to use sugar- or fruit-sweetened cranberries. You can also use the nut option or omit the cranberries, if preferred. They aren’t essential.
• Parsley: The parsley must be fresh. Dried parsley is somewhat void of flavor.
• Broth: Using a salted stock or broth will add more flavor to the stuffing.
• Buttery Spread: You can use dairy-free buttery spread or sticks. If preferred, you can substitute olive oil. It will add equal richness, but a little less salt and buttery flavor.

Special Diet Notes: Sausage Stuffing

By ingredients, this recipe is dairy-free / non-dairy, egg-free, optionally nut-free, peanut-free, and soy-free. Just be sure to choose the bread, sausage, and broth that suit your dietary needs.

Gluten-Free Option: You can substitute gluten-free dairy-free bread for both type of bread. I find that gluten-free bread soaks up more liquid, so you might want to uses 5 1/2 to 6 cups of bread overall.

Vegan Option:  You can substitute a vegetable broth for the chicken stock and a vegan sausage, like Field Roast.

Alisa Fleming

Dairy-Free Sausage Stuffing

5 from 4 votes

We adapted this recipe many years ago from Allrecipes. The result is a delicious, rich and flavorful stuffing, balanced with slightly sweet and tangy cranberries and apple. These additions also create a festive look!

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr 10 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 20 minutes mins

Servings: 10 servings

Course: Side

Cuisine: American

Calories: 340

Ingredients Method Nutrition Notes

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x?

• 2 cups cubed dairy-free whole wheat bread
• 3 ¼ cups cubed dairy-free white bread
• 1 pound pork sage sausage see post above for options
• 1 cup diced onion
• ¾ cup diced celery
• 2 ½ teaspoons dried sage
• 1 ½ teaspoons dried rosemary
• ½ teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 Golden Delicious apple cored and chopped
• ¾ cup dried cranberries
• ⅓ cup minced fresh parsley
• 1 ¼ to 1 ½ cups chicken stock or broth can use turkey stock
• ¼ cup dairy-free buttery spread melted

Method

 

1. Preheat your oven to 350ºF.
2. Spread all of the bread cubes in a single layer on a large baking sheet. Bake for 5 to 7 minutes, or until evenly toasted. Transfer the toasted bread cubes to a large bowl.
3. Keep the oven temperature on 350ºF and grease a 13x9-inch baking dish.
4. In a large skillet over medium heat, cook the sausage and onions, stirring and breaking up the meat, until evenly browned. Drain the excess liquid. Add the celery, sage, rosemary, and thyme and sauté for 2 minutes.
5. Transfer the sausage mixture to the bowl with the bread cubes. Stir in the apples, cranberries, and parsley. Drizzle with 1 1/4 cups chicken stock and the butter spread, and stir the mixture gently until evenly combined.
6. Transfer the stuffing to your prepared baking dish and cover it with foil.
7. Bake the stuffing for 40 minutes. Uncover and if it looks too dry stir in another 1/4 cup stock. Bake uncovered for another 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden on top.

Nutrition

Serving: 3/4 cupCalories: 340kcalCarbohydrates: 29.5gProtein: 15gFat: 19.1gSaturated Fat: 5.8gSodium: 737mgFiber: 2.8gSugar: 13g

Notes

Cranberry Alternative: If you are okay with nuts, you can sub 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans for the cranberries.

Fresh Herbs Option: The general rule of thumb is to use 3 times the amount if using fresh herbs instead of dried. So you would use about 2 1/2 fresh chopped sage leaves, 1 1/2 tablespoons fresh chopped rosemary, and 1 1/2 teaspoons fresh chopped thyme.

Tried this recipe?

Let us know how it was!

Don’t Forget the Dairy-Free Mashed Potatoes!