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Ditch the boxed stuffing with this delicious and healthy cornbread stuffing recipe made with homemade cornbread, veggies and spices! Only one pan required and ready in under 30 minutes. It’s perfect for your Thanksgiving feast!

cornbread stuffing

Let’s be real, the best part of Thanksgiving is the stuffing! But you want to know what’s even better than traditional stuffing? Cornbread stuffing! When I originally shared this recipe all the way back in 2013, I was living in my parents basement in Toronto. C and I were bf and gf and still doing long distance. I was working my 9-to-5 job in psych research while moonlighting as a blogger. I shot the original pictures for this recipe early in the morning before heading to work because that what the only time I had. Clearly life has changed quite a bit since then.

This past weekend I had C’s family over for a pseudo-Thanksgiving dinner and as I was planning for the menu I jumped into the THM archives to see if I could find some inspiration. That’s when I came across this cornbread stuffing recipe which I knew immediately would be added to the menu. It is one of my favorite Thanksgiving recipes on the blog but if I’m being honest, the pictures kind of looked like dog food lol. I knew it was time for a reshoot just in time to be added to your Thanksgiving menus.

When I was serving the recipe at dinner, C’s sister remembered making a cornbread stuffing recipe from the blog years ago. I was excited she remembered it and gleefully exclaimed that this was the same recipe! She also remembered the horrendous photos that I’m pretty sure were shot on an iPhone 4. This, of course, took me down memory lane as I thought about how much life had changed. Rather than living in my parent’s basement, I now live in San Francisco. That long-distance boyfriend is now my husband and I’ve been running THM as a business for almost 6 years. Also clearly my photography skills have improved! Who knew cornbread stuffing could be so sentimental?! Let’s make the recipe

How to Make Cornbread Stuffing

This cornbread stuffing recipe is extremely easy to make and doesn’t require any oven cooking (let’s keep that space free for turkey!) but I thought I would walk you through the process so you can see how simple it truly is.

STEP 1: Make the cornbread

I love this recipe with my pumpkin cornbread. If you want to keep this recipe gluten-free + vegan, I highly recommend!

pumpkin cornbread

STEP 2: Cook your veggies

For this recipe you’ll need onion, celery and mushrooms. I prefer to cook in a cast-iron pan as I find it helps cook everything evenly.

cornbread stuffing

STEP 3: Add the cornbread cubes to the veggies along with the nuts and spices.

Give it a good stir before adding your water. The water helps give the stuffing more of that “I was cooked inside a turkey for hours before eating” taste. I don’t know about you but I’m a little freaked out about eating something that was cooked inside a turkey cavity! And just like that, your cornbread stuffing is ready!

cornbread stuffing in cast iron

Can you make this cornbread stuffing ahead of time?

Absolutely! Though I do find it tastes best fresh, you can make it ahead of time. If you’re tight for time/space on Thanksgiving, I recommend pre-baking the cornbread and chopping it into cubes then pre-cooking the veggies. When you’re ready to serve just re-heat the veggies, add the stuffing and spices and then the cornbread and water. This will take under 5 minutes so if you can swing it I recommend doing it this way.

Can you make this with any cornbread recipe?

yup! Though I do recommend this pumpkin cornbread recipe (honestly- it’s delish!), you can make this recipe with any type of cornbread. In a pinch I’ve made it with the Trader Joe’s boxed cornbread and it’s actually pretty good. I have found that you may need to adjust the amount of water depending on the type of cornbread you use. Don’t sweat it…it’s just Thanksgiving!

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Cornbread Stuffing

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  • Author: Davida Lederle
  • Prep Time: 5 minutes
  • Cook Time: 15 minutes
  • Total Time: 20 minutes
  • Yield: 6 servings 1x

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 loaf of pumpkin cornbread, sliced and cut into cubes*
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 large yellow onion, diced
  • 4 stalks of celery, sliced thinly
  • 3 cups of mushrooms, sliced
  • 1/2 cup walnuts or pecans, roughly chopped
  • 2 tsp dried sage
  • 2 tsp poultry seasoning
  • 1 cup water
  • salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

  1. Bake the cornbread and let cool completely. Once cool cut into cubes.
  2. Add olive oil to a large skillet over medium heat.
  3. Add onions and celery and sauté for 5 mins.
  4. Add mushrooms and continue cooking for an additional 5 mins
  5. Add nuts, cornbread and spices and cook for 1 min.
  6. Add water and let absorb. If it needs more water feel free to add 1 tbsp at a time.
  7. Serve warm or store in refrigerator for up to 5 days.

*you can use any cornbread recipe you like

Like this recipe? Here are a few other Thanksgiving favorites you might enjoy:

Meet the Maven

Hi! I'm Davida and welcome to my corner of the internet. I'm a wellness blogger, yoga teacher, certified herbalist, and green beauty lover.

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66 Comments

  1. YUM! I’m not a stuffing person (I know, the horror) but I may have to show this one off to my mom to see if they want to try something new this year 🙂

  2. I love stuffing. I think it’s my favorite part of thanksgiving (and dessert, of course)! Never tried it with pumpkin before though. It sounds delicious!

  3. Thanksgivukkah for the win! I’m so happy you introduced me to this holiday… it’ll be perfect for our celebration next Saturday 🙂 Now if I could only get you to bring some stuffing the the celebration…

  4. Now this, THIS is a recipe I can get behind! Amy sent me a recipe to make for dessert for Thanksgiving, and now maybe I’ll make this for the main course! My fam won’t know what hit them. Wanna come down to Louisiana and celebrate with me? If you don’t mind a family of 30 loud black people, we would love to have you! 😉

  5. You’re not invited to your mom’s Thanksgiving?! Aw, you can come to ours! haha. Although for the first time ever, we’re having Thanksgiving out, at the Cornell Club in ny. Next year when I have my new house, I’m totally hosting 🙂 I’m going to have to try this recipe, although a doctored-up boxed stuffing is definitely tops for stuffing in my book. Maybe you can convert me…it definitely seems promising based on those yummy pics!

  6. You are a Thanksgiving wizard, I love all your recipes! I don’t celebrate Thanksgivukkah but we celebrate Puerto Rican Thanksgiving. Yes, you read that right. Puerto Rican Thanksgiving takes place the day after Thanksgiving and I go to my sister & her PR mom’s house and we feast on what might be the most epic meal of all time.

  7. I never like stuffing, its either too dry, or has no taste, but adding pumpkin, im sure thats tasty! I cant wait for thanksgiving!