Fruit & Toasted Almond Stuffing for Thanksgiving

Stuffing is a quintessential Thanksgiving side dish. I never understood the concept for stuffing, to me stuffing has to be inside something to be called that, but this stuffing is usually served on the side.
There are regional differences in the way stuffing is made. Southerners make their stuffing, called dressing in the South, from cornbread, while those in the other parts of the country make it from white, wheat or rye bread as base. Apples, chestnuts, raisins, celery and/ or other vegetables, sausage are added to stuffing.

Generally there is meat added to the stuffing and even if it is meat free, the bread is usually moistened with chicken/ turkey broth. So I've eaten stuffing very few times and never thought of making at home either. But my Thanksgiving recipe series made me look for traditional recipes and try and make them vegetarian.

This stuffing recipe is from Vegetarian Times magazine. I made No-knead Oat bread couple of days before making the stuffing and used it here. Celery is one of the ingredient that is almost mandatory for all stuffing recipes, but that is one vegetable I cannot get myself to like. So I conveniently omitted it in my dish :-)
All in all this is a very flavorful dish with all the aromatics and after making the crispy bread was just so addictive. I was snacking on the apples, crispy bread and plump dried cherries even before the dish got to the table ;-)

Ingredients: Serves 6~8

Multigrain or Oatmeal Bread - 8 cups, cubed (I used homemade Honey Oat bread)
Red Onion - 1 small, thinly sliced

Apple - 1 medium, chopped
Almonds - ½cup
Celery Stalk - 1, sliced (I didn't add this)

Dry Cherries - ⅓cup 

Fresh Sage - 2tbsp, cut into thin strips
Dried Thyme - 1tsp
Crushed Red Pepper - ½tsp
Black Pepper - ½tsp
Ground Nutmeg - ¼tsp 

Balsamic Vinegar - 1½tbsp
Pure Maple Syrup - 1½tbsp
No-Salt Vegetable Broth - 1½cups

Salt - to taste

Method:

• Preheat oven to 225°F. Spread the bred cubes on baking sheet, and bake for 30~45 minutes or until dry and crisp. Transfer to large bowl.
• Increase oven temperature to 350°F. Toast the almonds until pale brown and fragrant, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Coat a 9"x13" baking dish with cooking spray.
• Heat 3tbsp olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and cook for 5~7 minutes on medium until soft and translucent.
• Add celery (if using) and saute for 2 minutes more.
• Stir in apples, sage, pepper, thyme, crushed red pepper, parsley and nutmeg. Season with salt. Cook for 5 minutes.
• Next add maple syrup and vinegar and turn off the heat.
• Combine the apple mixture, bread cubes, almonds and dried cherries in the large bowl.
• Transfer to prepared baking dish and pour broth over top. Cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes or until stuffing begins to brown on top, 
• If you prefer crisp stuffing, then remove foil and bake 10 minutes more. Serve!!

Linking this to Valli's 'Cooking from Cookbook Challenge: November -- Week 4'.