Today’s guest post comes from Camilla, the brains behind The Violet and professional foodie / food photographer. Her pictures make me SO hungry. If you’re looking for a stuffing recipe to make on Thanksgiving, look no further!
I have absolutely no hesitation in saying that Thanksgiving is my all-time favorite holiday. While I truly appreciate any opportunity to look around and be thankful for all that I’ve got, frankly, I really love all the food. In my family we never change things up. Some may think that sounds dull but I like the consistency year to year. Our menu goes something like this…
-Manhattans
-Cheese Diablo Wafers
-Roasted Turkey (these days we cook up a heritage bird)
-My Nana’s STUFFING
-Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Caramelized Onions
-Roasted Vegetables
-Mashed Potatoes
-Mashed Rutabagas
-Green Beans with Garlic
-Green Salad
-Cranberry Sauce
-Cheesecake
Yeeeeeeah, it’s a lot of exceptionally good food, but the stuffing is the star every year. Everyone in my family waits all year long to be able to dig into a nice hearty serving of this savory dish. If there isn’t enough of it, we know we’re in trouble, so we usually have to double the recipe. I’ve tried other stuffings, but this one has always remained my favorite. It’s ridiculously easy to whip up, doesn’t require expensive ingredients, and everything can be mixed together the day before to make for easier prep on Thanksgiving day.
Nana’s Stuffing (serves 4-6)
Ingredients:
1 loaf of good bread – I use sweet batard but I’ve made this dish with ciabatta as well.
1 large yellow onion
5-6 long celery stalks, washed
1 cup of fresh flat-leaf parsley
6-7 sprigs of fresh thyme (If you don’t have fresh dried works too. Use about a teaspoon of it.)
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 cans of campbell’s cream of mushroom soup
1 cup of grated parmesan cheese
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Butter a large casserole dish (or two small ones)
Dice the onion, slice the celery thinly, chop the parsley, and remove the thyme leaves from the woody stalk.
Drizzle olive oil around a big pan on the stove. Add onions and celery to the pan. Salt and pepper to taste- but not too much salt because the mushroom soup is really quite salty. Stir a little and let them cook down for about 5 minutes. Add the parsley. You want the vegetables to be nice and translucent and soft and this can take a little while. Add about half of the thyme to this mixture. Stir together and take off the heat.
Cut the bread into 1-inch cubes. Place bread pieces in a large bowl. Add the hot celery/onion mixture right over the bread. Add about 1.5 cans of the condensed mushroom soup (heads up: this stuff is pretty gloppy but don’t let it deter you). The more soup you add the more moist the stuffing will be – but at some point it will be too moist. I usually feel like 1.5 cans is about right. Throw in the rest of the thyme and add the grated parmesan cheese.
With a large spoon, mix everything together to get the bread covered in the soup and the vegetables. Everything should be pretty evenly mixed. Pack the stuffing into the large, greased casserole dish and cover with aluminum foil.
Place in the preheated oven and cook for about 30 minutes. Take off the aluminum foil and let the top get brown and crispy.
Serve hot!
