The great thing about this recipe, is that it is adjustable to your family’s taste - make the vegetables smaller or larger, use more herbs or less, change the bread or the nuts, cook the ingredients longer or or shorter. Since most of the ingredients can be eaten raw, you get to decide the finished product! Below is how I cook mine.
1/2 lb breakfast sausage
1/2 large yellow onion, diced small (1/4”)
2 stalks celery, sliced small (1/4”)
Fresh sage, sliced, to taste (about 6 leaves)
Fresh thyme, chopped, to taste (about 1 tsp)
1/2 cup cashews, toasted
5 slices multigrain bread, 1/2” cubes, toasted
1 - 1 1/2 cups vegetable broth (depending how wet you want your stuffing)
In a large skillet over medium heat, cook the sausage until well done; remove the sausage from the pan and allow to drain on paper towels.
Leaving the sausage drippings in the pan, add the onions and celery, and cook until the onions are just translucent. If the bottom of the pan darkens with cool-on residue (this is called “fond”), add a little water to the pan and scrape it all up with the vegetables - it is great additional flavor. Cook until the water is gone, then remove for the heat.
Gently toss in the herbs, bread, cashews, and cooked sausage, until well mixed. Pour into a greased 9x13 baking or serving dish (oven proof), and hold until 15 minutes before serving. (This can all be done the day before)
Heat oven to 400°. Drizzle 1 cup of broth evenly over the stuffing mix and let sit for 5 minutes before placing into the oven, uncovered, for 10 minutes, or until your desired doneness (10 minutes for softer stuffing, longer for more crispy bits).
Serve hot!