One thing we love about the Christmas meal is the trimmings.The mix of beautiful winter vegetables and mature winter potatoes crisped into roasties. One or two Brussels sprouts and the tasty stuffing which is a great way to include seasonal chestnuts in your meal.
As usual I recommend making a batch of stuffing from scratch so you know what it contains. Most shop bought stuffing will be based on bread and contain lots of onions which contain fermentable carbohydrates and may upset a sensitive gut.
Stuffing is easy to make with breadcrumbs made with a small amount of leftover bread such as spelt or sourdough. One slice can be tolerated by most people so use it to make breadcrumbs. Make the breadcrumbs from gluten free bread if you prefer.
Christmas stuffing can be varied according to what you like. I love to add lots of herbs such as parsley, sage and thyme all of which can be tolerated by a sensitive gut. To get the onion flavour use the green ends of young leeks and leave the white parts to those who can tolerate them.
So here are our two recipes for Christmas stuffing we hope you will enjoy. One has meat the other doesn’t. Both are delicious.
The meat version
Serves 6
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- green leaves from 3 baby leeks, finely sliced
- 200 g / 7 oz cooked, peeled and ready to use chestnuts
- 50g/2oz walnuts, roughly chopped
- 25 g /1 oz breadcrumbs, spelt or sourdough
- 1 tbsp chopped parsley
- 10 sage leaves, finely shredded
- 1 tsp thyme leaves, chopped
- zest from one orange
- zest from one lemon
- 200 g / 7 oz minced pork
- 2 eggs, beaten
- sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 100 g /4oz prosciutto or serrano ham
Method
Preheat the oven to 200C / Fan 180C / gas 6. Lightly oil the hollows of two bun trays.
Trickle a little olive oil into a pan and sweat the leek leaves until soft. Roughly chop the chestnuts and place them in a large bowl with the leeks, walnuts, breadcrumbs, herbs, zest from the lemon and orange and minced pork. Season the mixture with a pinch of salt and a grind of pepper. Mix in the beaten eggs and stir well.
Fill the hollows of the bun tray with slices of Prosciutto (or Serrano ham) and place a couple teaspoons of stuffing mixture in each piece of ham.
Place the bun tray in the oven and cook for about 15 minutes until the filling is just turning golden. The stuffing can be cooked up to a day in advance and reheated just before serving.
The vegetarian option
Serves 6
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- green leaves from 3 baby leeks, finely sliced
- 200 g / 7 oz cooked, peeled and ready to use chestnuts
- 50g/2oz walnuts, roughly chopped
- 25 g /1 oz breadcrumbs, spelt or sourdough
- 1 tbsp chopped parsley
- 10 sage leaves, finely shredded
- 1 tsp thyme leaves, chopped
- zest from one orange
- zest from one lemon
- 2 eggs, beaten
- sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- a little grated Parmesan cheese
Method
Preheat the oven to 200C / Fan 180C / gas 6. Lightly oil the hollows of two bun trays.
Trickle a little olive oil into a pan and sweat the leek leaves until soft. Roughly chop the chestnuts and place them in a large bowl with the leeks, walnuts, breadcrumbs, herbs, zest from the lemon and orange and minced pork. Season the mixture with a pinch of salt and a grind of pepper. Mix in the beaten eggs and stir well.
Line the hollows of the bun tray with a piece of non stick baking parchment and fill with the stuffing mixture. Sprinkle a little parmesan cheese over the stuffing. Drizzle with a little olive oil.
Place the bun tray in the oven and cook for about 10 – 15 minutes until the filling is just turning golden. The stuffing can be cooked up to a day in advance and reheated just before serving.
Don’t forget to buy a copy of our lovely book Cooking for the Sensitive Gut for Christmas
Cooking for the Sensitive Gut 