Stuffing Magic: Two Homemade Stuffing Recipes With Herbs from Your Indoor Garden.

At Happy Leaf, we think that holiday meals… ALL meals!… should be absolutely herbaceous. As we head into the big holiday meals season (Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas and New Years…. And, oh, there can be many more!), we start our feast planning EARLY and Thanksgiving dinner is the holiday feast season kick-off.

It’s no secret that herbs grown at home, specifically those grown indoors, are much more flavorful than anything you can buy in the grocery store. And here’s the good news: herbs are about the easiest things to grow in your indoor garden and will absolutely elevate your holiday recipes from “This is good!” to “This is HEAVENLY HERBACEOUS!” to “This is the BEST STUFFING EVER!”

Herbs For The Holidays (and Every Other Day Too)

Having fresh herbs growing in your kitchen will definitely give a flavor boost to not only these homemade stuffing recipes, but to any of your holiday meals. We recently posted about our love for basil, and here we’ll expand on your herb growing by adding those holiday staples parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme. You can easily grow any and all of these herbs in your indoor garden using Happy Leaf LED grow lights. Harvesting fresh herbs on Thanksgiving morning? Yes please!

One secret to being a stand-out home chef is to have a variety of fresh herbs at your fingertips anytime you need them.  Skip the grocery store sub-par herb packs that cost $$$ and start growing any herb you can think of and have it last for a long time.   We show you a variety of herbs we grew at the same time, and give you links to learn how to grow with this method.

Note: The herbs we are highlighting here, with the exception of parsley, take some time to mature for use in your kitchen (from several months to a year). However, as we are in a holiday feast state-of-mind, we’ll help you get them started this year and we can all enjoy the herbs of our labor and love with future feasts! Parsley can be grown from seed indoors and ready to use in a month.

B.J. from Happy Leaf LED shares with you how you can get started growing food indoors with this easy to follow method that lets you grow a large variety of plants, all year long!

Quickly, you need to brush up on the SIMPLEST WAY for growing herbs indoors, just about anywhere, anytime and not JUST for your homemade stuffing recipes. We promise, it’s so easy that even the least “planty” people can do this. Here’s the short form – Hydroponics in 1 minute and here’s the long-form Easy indoor Hydroponic Garden | The Kratky Method.

Let’s Get Cooking!

Wild Rice, Nut, and Fall Fruit Stuffing Recipe

There are specific steps laid out here, but this is really another non-recipe recipe. These homemade stuffing recipes are a bit like soup or salad in that you can be guided by the ingredients and proceed according to taste!

Print or download the wild rice stuffing recipe below.

Makes 8 – 10 servings

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups wild rice
• 1 cup finely chopped sweet onion (such as a vidalia)
• 3/4 cup (3 ounces) pecans
• 1 cup diced apple
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 1/4 cup (about 3 ounces) dried apricots, coarsely chopped
• 1/4 cup (about 2 1/2 ounces) golden raisins
• 1/2 cup (about 4 ounces) fresh cranberries, thinly sliced
• 1 1/2 cups thinly sliced small celery stalks (from celery heart)
• 1/2 cup celery leaves from celery heart, coarsely chopped
• 2 cups bread crumbs (Choose a bread that is hardy such as a strong sourdough or a dark raisin nut bread. Cut the bread into small cubes. use more or less bread depending on your taste.)
• 2 – 3 Tablespoons melted butter
• Chicken, turkey or vegetable broth
• Fresh herbs to taste (parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme)
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt plus more

Instructions

Step 1: Cook the wild rice according to package directions. Usually wild rice is cooked with a 4:1 water:rice ratio. You can also cook the rice in broth for extra flavor. You can cook your wild rice ahead of time, and that is recommended, as wild rice can take some time to fully cook. 

Step 2: Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 325°F. Spread out pecans on a rimmed baking sheet. Toast until fragrant, 5-7 minutes. Let cool; coarsely chop. 

Step 3: Stir fruit, nuts, onion and celery into wild rice until fully combined.

Step 4: Fold bread cubes into mixture.

Step 5: Fold melted butter into mixture

Step 6: Fold the broth into the mixture a little at a time to desired moisture.

Step 7: Season with herbs, salt and black pepper to taste.

Step 8: You can now use this homemade stuffing recipe for a turkey or other bird you will roast. Alternatively, you can place the stuffing in a buttered casserole dish and heat, covered, in a 350 oven for about 30 minutes.

Grandpa’s Traditional Homemade Stuffing Recipe

Grandpa’s traditional stuffing is the more classic out of the two homemade stuffing recipes.  It’s balanced, moist, and savory. It’s the stuffing you remember from your childhood.

Download Grandpa’s traditional homemade stuffing recipe below and bring on the nostalgia

Ingredients

• 12 cups dry bread cubes homemade or store-bought (3 large loaves of bread for homemade). Simple white sandwich bread is perfect!
• ½ cup butter
• 2 cups onion ½” diced
• 2 cups celery ½” diced
• 2 cups mushrooms sliced
• Thyme fresh chopped
• Sage fresh chopped
• Rosemary fresh chopped
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 large eggs
• 1 ½-3 cups broth (chicken, turkey or vegetable)
• 1 tablespoon parsley fresh chopped for garnish

Instructions

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 250 degrees.

Cut the bread into cubes, about ½” to ¾” cubed pieces, and lay them on a baking sheet in a single layer.

Step 2: Bake in a 250-degree oven for about an hour, tossing them a few times to make sure they dry all the way through.

Step 3: Remove bread from the oven and set aside.  If you make these ahead of time, let them cool completely then transfer to an airtight container and store at room temperature for up to 1 week.

Step 4: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Step 5: In a large pot over medium heat, add butter and melt. Add onion, celery and mushrooms and cook, stirring frequently, until the celery and onions are tender and translucent ~ about 8 minutes.

Step 6: Add the herbs, salt and 1 ½ cups of the chicken broth. 

Step 7: Add eggs and whisk until combined.

Step 8: Put the dry cubed bread into a large bowl and pour the broth and celery mixture over the top of the bread.  Gently fold the ingredients together – the stuffing should be moist but there should be no standing liquid. If it seems a little dry, add up to ½ cup of the additional broth.

Step 9: Butter  a 9″ x 13″ baking dish, then spread the stuffing evenly into the prepared dish.

Step 10: Bake in the preheated oven for 45-60 minutes, stirring gently every 15-20 minutes. The top should be lightly golden brown.

Step 11: Remove from the oven and top with chopped fresh parsley before serving Immediately. Enjoy!

Don’t think your indoor herbs can only be used for these homemade stuffing recipes. A local cocktail bar in Oregon, Il grows mint in their storefront!

Happy Leaf LED is a proud member of the National Garden Bureau