Wild rice stuffing with turkey sausage, apple and cranberries
95 min · 12 g protein · 217 cals / serving
A holiday stuffing with no bread at all: nutty, chewy wild rice cooked in broth, then tossed with browned sage-and-fennel turkey sausage, onion, celery, mushrooms, sweet-tart apple, dried cranberries and toasted pecans. Good beside the turkey, and generous enough to eat on its own as a light lunch the next day.
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups wild rice (uncooked) wild rice, rinsed
- 3 cups low-sodium chicken broth
- 12 oz raw turkey sausage, casings removed
- 1/2 tsp fennel seed, lightly crushed
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 4 stalks celery, diced
- 8 oz crimini mushroom, sliced
- 2 medium granny smith apples, firm and tart, cored and diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tsp dried sage, rubbed, or 1 tbsp fresh chopped
- 1 tsp leaves fresh thyme
- 1/4 cup dried cranberries
- 1/4 cup pecans, chopped and toasted
- 1 tbsp butter
- 1/3 cup fresh parsley, chopped
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
Steps
- Bring the broth to a boil in a saucepan, add the rinsed wild rice, cover and simmer gently 45–50 minutes, until the grains are tender and many have split open. Drain off any broth that is left and fluff with a fork.
- Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the sausage and fennel seed and cook, breaking the sausage into small crumbles, 7–8 minutes until browned and cooked through to 165°F. Lift out with a slotted spoon, leaving the fat in the pan.
- Turn the heat to medium, add the onion, celery and mushrooms and cook 8–10 minutes, until soft and the mushroom juices have cooked away. Add the apple, garlic, sage and thyme and cook 3–4 minutes more, until the apple is just tender but still holds its shape.
- Heat the oven to 350°F. Stir the rice, sausage, cranberries, pecans, butter, parsley and pepper into the pan, taste for salt (the sausage brings plenty), and spoon into a baking dish. Cover with foil and bake 20 minutes, until hot through and the flavours have mingled.
Good to know
Can I make it ahead?
Make it up to two days ahead and refrigerate in the baking dish, then bake covered 30–35 minutes from cold, with a splash of broth if it looks dry.
Can I make it vegetarian?
Leave out the sausage, use vegetable broth, and double the mushrooms to take its place. It is lighter and earthier, and the fennel seed still gives a sausage-like note, at about 49 instead of 45.
Can I use a wild rice blend?
Yes, a wild and brown rice blend works and cooks in about 40 minutes. Follow the packet for the amount of liquid.
Alternative
Per
- Calories
- 122
- Protein
- (22%)
- 6 g
- Fat
- (30%)
- 4 g
- Carbohydrates
- (48%)
- 15 g
- of which sugar
- 5 g
- Fiber
- 2 g
- Sodium
- 226 mg
More side dishes
Computed from the ingredients with our published formula, not yet kitchen-tested. How
As written, 2171 kcal goes into the pot and 2251 g of ingredients comes out as about 1780 g of food: 122 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water and energy density is the score's biggest lever, so the dish is scored as cooked, not as an average of its parts. Every ingredient links to its food page, with the same data and score. The label's percentages are each macronutrient's share of the calories. The full formula.