This oven baked stuffing recipe goes well with roast chicken or turkey. Cook it in the oven alongside your roast and you have the perfect companion for a fall or winter meal. It may be better titled as a dressing since it is not stuffed in the poultry cavity. If you use vegetable broth instead of chicken broth it makes the perfect side dish option for your vegetarian dinner guests.
Save bread crusts for stuffing
I recently visited the early 18th century windmill at Pointe du Moulin just west of Montreal and it made me appreciate how our ancestors worked so hard to harvest crops, mill their grain and eventually turn it into the staple of western culture, bread.
In this day in age, we are far removed from this labor intensive process. Our abundance has lead to a high rate of food waste and habits like tossing out produce or even bread crusts since they just aren’t pretty. Why not do your pocket book and the planet a favour and cut that bruise off your otherwise perfectly good fruits or vegetables and save some of those bread crusts, to turn into this wonderful herb infused side dish.
The mystical herbs of yore
If there was ever a time for those mystical herbs that any baby boomer can rhyme off thanks to Simon & Garfunkel’s “Scarborough Fair” it is this recipe. I’ve always wondered about the significance of those herbs and it just so happens that McGill University has published this article: The Mystique of Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme by Joe Schwarcz PhD. Research reveals that those symbolic herbs played a big part of well being centuries ago back when windmills produced flour.
Parsley Sage Rosemary and Thyme Stuffing
Ingredients
- 6 slices bread crusts, cut into small cubes
- 2 cups instant mashed potatoes
- ½ cup diced red pepper
- 1 yellow onion finely chopped
- ½ cup chopped parsley stems removed
- ½ tsp sage
- 1 tsp rosemary
- ½ tsp thyme
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp pepper
- ½ cup vegetable* or chicken stock
- ¼ cup olive oil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F
- Mix ingredients and place in a greased 9″ x 9″ pan
- Bake covered for 45 minutes
- Remove cover and bake 15 minutes more to make the top a little crisp
- Remove from oven and let stand for 5 minutes before serving
