Vegan Holiday Stuffing

Preheat oven to 375° F.

Cut the sourdough bread into medium bite sized pieces. In a large bowl toss the diced bread with 4 Tbsp olive oil, Italian seasoning, granulated garlic and kosher salt. Place the croutons in the oven, cooking until golden brown about 15 minutes. Set aside.

Heat a large sauté pan with olive oil over medium-low heat, add the wal- nut pieces, we are looking to lightly toast the walnuts without burning the walnuts or the oil, low and slow is better than fast and burnt. Once the walnuts are lightly toasted remove from the pan and set aside. In the same pan add vegan butter, onion, celery and garlic. Cook until you have a light caramelization of the vegetables. Now add the poultry seasoning, the farro sausage, chopped parsley, the liquid smoke, chopped rosemary and the Kosher salt. Cook for another 5 minutes over medium heat. Place the vegetable mixture into a bowl, allow too cool.

Heat a heavy cast iron pan over high heat. Add the apple to the hot pan. The apple should start to char on the outside a little, leave the heat on high for the first 5 minutes. The apples should be starting to char a lot at this point, lightly season the apples with salt, reduce the heat to medium and cook until the apples are just starting to become tender about another 5-8 minutes. Once cooked add the apples to the bowl with the vegetables.

Mixing with your hands is the secret to perfect stuffing. Using your hands allows you to really feel the croutons and how much moisture they are ab- sorbing, plus you are rubbing the herbs and vegetables into the croutons. If you don’t have a bowl large enough, you can mix in batches. Place the croutons in the bowl along with the vegetable mixture, pour 1 1/2 cups of vegetable stock over the croutons, massage the croutons with the vege- table mixture, we are looking to coat the croutons with the fat and the veg- etables, once you have mixed everything the croutons should feel moist and juicy. Place the stuffing into a casserole dish, make sure to distribute the vegetable mixture evenly. Cover and place in oven, cooking for 40 minutes.

Turn up the oven to 425° F and remove the cover from the stuffing. Add another 1 to 1 1⁄2 cups of vegetable stock, you want to pour the stock all over the stuffing, almost as if you are trying to drizzle a sauce over the stuffing. Then drizzle olive oil over the top of the stuffing. Place the stuffing back in the oven uncovered for another 20 minutes. This is going to create that amazing crispy crust to the stuffing with a creamy custard like filling below creating that beautiful balance of crispy yet creamy.