Let’s recap the weekend. It was really fun. Friday night I went to bed at 9 after I rolled out on lacrosse ball on my living room floor while watching Keeping up with the Kardashians. Thrilling, I tell you. But it was needed. I had to get up extra early on Saturday morning to get my butt to MBS CrossFit for their Turkey Challenge. Super fun competition in a super awesome gym. No seriously, it’s in an airplane hanger. How freakin cool is that? Well, it was a really wonderful day. Colorado CrossFit athletes are pretty damn awesome. I got to see so many great athletes, some really good looking people, AND readers of my blog. So cool. Finding out people have actually tried some of MY recipes really means the world to me. Ok, now I’m just being emotional. I hate emotions.
But the real excitement of the day (other than eating a bag of dark chocolate almonds and a pint of coconut milk ice cream after the competition) were the half naked men. That’s the best part of CrossFit, right? Extremely good looking people taking off their clothes while lifting heavy objects and throwin down. Right. Good looking people should just never wear shirts. Just kidding…kind of. You know what good looking people should definitely not wear though? Five fingers. Oh sh*t, I just offended the hell out of some people reading this. CrossFitters love five fingers. They think they become incredibly quick, more nimble, and one with the earth. In my opinion, your shoes make me uncomfortable. Seeing a good looking guy with a fit bod then seeing his wiggly little toes in those shoes really makes me nervous. Legit nervous. I wore toe socks on Christmas day when I was 6 and found them in my stocking. It was cute then, and funny. It’s not cute now. I don’t care if your feet issues went away when you got them, you still look like a creeper. Get some minimal shoes that don’t put your toes on display like a porn star. That last sentence made sense in my brain.
Moving on. Holy sh*t, I’m full. I just ate a lot. Far too much. I guess that’s what Thanksgiving is all about though, right? I know, that’s wrong. Thanksgiving is all about pumpkin pie. But I had to come up with Thanksgiving recipes so I could fit in with all the other paleo bloggers out there. BUT, if you are looking for some fancy turkey recipes, don’t think you’re going to find them here. I honestly don’t give a sh*t about turkey. Thanksgiving, to me, is all about the comfort food. The side dishes. And the dessert. So that’s what you will be getting in the next 3 days. Two sides and one dessert.
Paleo Thanksgiving Stuffing
Ingredients
- 1lb ground pork sausage
- 5 pieces of bacon, diced
- 5 stalks of celery, diced
- 1 yellow sweet potato (is that a yam? or a sweet potato? whatever.)
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 1 container of mushrooms, diced
- 2 apples, diced
- 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
- 1 cup dried cranberries
- 1 cup pecans, chopped
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1/3 cup chicken broth
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cover a baking sheet with foil, throw diced sweet potatoes/yams on it, sprinkle with olive oil and salt and pepper. Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until sweet potatoes are tender, then set aside.
- While those cook, pull out a large skillet, place it under medium-high heat and place chopped bacon in it to begin to cook down. When some of the fat has seeped out and bacon has begun to cook, add your chopped apples, celery, and onions.
- When onions begin to become translucent, add ground pork and mushrooms and your white wine vinegar. Let that cook down until pork is almost completely cooked through. You will be placing it in the oven so you want it pretty close to done. (If you’re not sure how long that will be, use your eyes. Pink meat is not what we want here people.) Add salt and pepper, to taste.
- Once the sausage is all done, add mixture to a bowl to cool. Now beat your eggs, add to your sausage mixture, and add your chicken broth, along with your sweet potatoes, pecans, and dried cranberries. Mix well.
- You can now either use a 9×13 baking dish to place your stuffing in OR place on a foil-lined baking sheet. Either way will work.
- Bake at 375 degrees for about 15-20 minutes or until everything is a bit browned.
- Eat it up!!!! OMG OMG, its so good. Laura gave it a 9.
For those of you asking about making this ahead, I have made this for Thanksgiving every year since Juli posted it (yes, I’m obsessed), and it really is better if baked the day-of Thanksgiving. However, I think I’ve come up with a way to pre-make some of the elements the day before, then finish it in the oven on Thanksgiving. The day before, I roast the sweet potatoes and make the pork mixture (complete with the onions, celery, mushrooms, and vinegar). I store the sweet potatoes and the pork mixture separately, in the fridge, overnight. I chop the pecans and measure out the cranberries, and put them in jars for easy use the next day. A couple of hours before dinner, I beat the eggs and add them to the pork mixture, then add the chicken broth, cranberries, pecans, and sweet potatoes, and bake. It crisps up and warms through nicely in time for dinner. Make this! You will not be sorry!
What kind of ‘dried crandberries’ do you need to use? Craisins?????
nope, these ones – https://rstyle.me/n/dbqbmnbq557
There are sooooo many paleo stuffing recipes out there – it’s overwhelming. I decided to make this one as part of my weekly meal prep leading up to Thanksgiving since I wanted to try it, but wasn’t sure if my guests would appreciate stuffing without any bread or bread substitute.
OMG – I am now debating making more just for Thanksgiving. I am seriously blown away by how good this is! I thought it would just be a root veggie hash… but it tastes EXACTLY like stuffing! I did add some sage, thyme, and rosemary and delicata squash, but I followed the rest of the recipe exactly.
Last year I made a paleo stuffing that required making almond/coconut flour bread and it was meh. This is seriously so much better. If you’re on the fence… MAKE IT!
hahahah i’m so impressed you even tried it based on the horrible photo lol!! so glad you loved it! that makes my heart so happy!
This dish is AMAZING!!!
awesome!! glad you liked it Traci!
Juli! I have literally made this every year since you published it and yup – still bomb. The only changes I have ever made are no celery (not a fan) and fresh rosemary. Always such a hit!! I didn’t host this year so (greedily) I made it for myself tonight and I’m so excited to eat it all week. Heh. 😀
awesome! so glad to hear you’ve loved it so much that you’ve made it multiple times!
FYI, when you try to print recipes on your blog ads pop up and cover the ingredients.
thank you so much for letting me know, shannon!! get someone on this immediately!
Been. Making this stuffing for awhile now, it’s awesome freezes well
Have been making this for years now and it’s become a favorite! Who would’ve thought I’d be a convert from good old cornbread based dressing! Yes, we call it dressing because we it’s not stuffed the bird! 😝
I add carrots and some fresh thyme as well, yum!!
It’s also awesome as leftovers, so be sure to make a big batch!
Thanks so much for this recipe!
yummmmmm! so glad you liked it, Nancy!
Just want to say I’ve been making this recipe every year for several years and even though my brain remembers I love it even more than traditional bread stuffing, it isn’t til I take a bite that I really REALLY remember how amazing it is. This year I remembered to half the recipe though, cooking for 2 the full batch is way too big! I don’t follow a paleo diet per se but my ex introduced me to this recipe when he was, and as a lifelong stuffing fan, this took it to the next level. I’ve introduced it to many non-paleo folks who have been amazed at how good it is as well. Thanks for the wonderful recipe.
PS – my only modifications are no mushrooms, and I use low-sugar craisins instead of fresh cranberries.
awwwwww that makes me so freaking happy since it’s such an old recipe!! so glad it still holds up!!
First time making this and LOVED it! I ended up only using bacon…we thought we had sausage and the store was closed by the time we realized we didn’t…so we used more bacon instead and it was AMAZING! I made a very large batch and am so happy to have leftovers!!! Will definitely make this again soon and will include sausage this time!
so glad to hear it!!