Let’s get one thing straight. I am a carbohydrate gal. Yes, I like roasted turkey. And I’ll pile on the green bean casserole. But give me mashed potatoes and stuffing, and I’m set for Thanksgiving.

So when one of my dearest friends introduced me to homemade vegetarian stuffing, I found a dish so delicious that I have to remind myself to slap a little poultry and potatoes on my Thanksgiving plate.

Prior to learning this recipe, the only experience I had making stuffing was by scooping it out of a red canister. But making stuffing from scratch was far more easier than I expected, and infinitely more scrumptious.

Plus, the little ones can get involved! I hand over the bowl of toasted bread to my kids and have them rip it to shreds. They get their holiday aggression out, and I get help in the kitchen. If that’s not winning, I don’t know what is.

I don’t normally do recipes on this blog, but I can’t resist letting you in on my favorite dish.

One piece of advice? I know this calls for an insane amount of butter. Just don’t even think about it and put it all in. Trust me, it will be worth it.

You’ll need:

1 tablespoon of olive oil

1 package of vegetarian sausage cut in to rounds (I prefer to use Gimme Lean! by Lightlife)

1 stick of butter (though, if you’re squeamish about this, you can reduce this)

1 medium yellow onion, chopped fine

1 large bunch of parsley, stems removed, chopped fine

1 bunch of celery tops, chopped fine

½ cup of celery, chopped fine

1 loaf of white bread, toasted

¾ teaspoon dried thyme

½ can of vegetable broth

Salt and pepper to taste.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1) Pour enough olive in a large skillet to thinly coat bottom and heat on medium-low heat, then place sausage rounds in pan to brown, breaking the sausage down into smaller and smaller pieces with the end of a wooden spoon, about 5-10 minutes (depending on sausage used).

2) While sausage is cooking, melt butter and onions in another pan until onions are translucent. Then add parsley, celery tops, celery and thyme, and a little bit of salt and pepper, cooking another 5 minutes.

3) As the sausage and onion/celery mix is cooking, have your kids tear the toasted bread in to small pieces. Mine just use their (hopefully clean) hands, ripping off very small pieces and throwing them in to a very large bowl. You can use a food processor to do this job, or cut the toast with a knife if you want more uniform pieces, but I prefer the rustic look of the shredded pieces.

4) Once the sausage and onion mixtures are cooked, mix them both in with the toasted bread pieces. When it is all fully combined, gradually add the vegetable broth until the stuffing is to your desired moistness.

5) Pour stuffing mixture in a 9×12 brownie pan or casserole dish and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Yep, I’m pretty grateful for all this carby goodness. To all of you and yours, I hope you have a fantastic Thanksgiving!