Best Paleo Stuffing (Healthy, Gluten-Free, Grain Free)
Posted: 07/20/18
Updated: 12/22/22
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The best paleo stuffing recipe! Perfect for Thanksgiving or as a healthy grain-free side dish for roast chicken. Made with simple ingredients, you’ll be shocked at how much it tastes like “real stuffing”… but better!
No beating around the bush: this is the best paleo stuffing recipe.
I’m a fool for stuffing. Like, if you didn’t include stuffing on your Thanksgiving table, I’d just walk out without a word, dramatically tipping my chair over for effect. I’m really into it. Apparently.
The problem with being mostly paleo is that um, bread isn’t allowed? It’s kind of one of those main tenants of eating primal foods that… yeah, no white bread. No whole wheat bread. No cornbread. No bread. And normally it doesn’t bother me, which is also a little weird? But stuffing… different story.
What Makes This Recipe So Good
- It tastes surprisingly like “real” stuffing but is made with all healthy ingredients, like veggies and eggs.
- This healthy stuffing recipe is perfect with a roast chicken or turkey, making it a great side dish for both weeknight dinners and Thanksgiving.
- The ingredients are super versatile: you can swap out what you like and have.
Chef’s Tips
- Make sure you sauté your veggies long enough for them to be really softened. This helps everything meld together beautifully in this healthy paleo stuffing recipe, just like a traditional dressing!
- Use the dried herbs you prefer or make your own poultry seasoning.
- If you’re strictly paleo, make sure you get dried cranberries that are sweetened with juice, not sugar.
- This healthy stuffing recipe reheats well, so you can make it ahead.
- You can make this entire paleo stuffing recipe in a large oven-proof skillet, or you can bake it in a casserole dish.
Try These Recipe Variations
- Use chopped dates in place of the dried cranberries, or add 1/4 cup chopped dates to the whole thing!
- Increase the amount of celery by 1 cup and leave out the mushrooms, if you don’t like fungi.
Other Recipes You’ll Love
- Whole30 Green Bean Casserole
- Perfect Whole30 Turkey Breast and Gravy
- Whole30 Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes with Garlic and Herbs
- Whole30 Sweet Potato Casserole with Pecans
- Whole30 Crockpot Mashed Potatoes
Best Paleo Stuffing (Gluten-Free, Grain-Free)
A healthy paleo stuffing recipe that makes the perfect side dish for chicken or turkey. Ideal for Thanksgiving! Gluten and grain free.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons ghee or avocado oil or refined coconut oil
- 3 cups onion diced
- 2 cups celery diced
- 1 cup mushrooms diced
- 1 cup apple cored and diced
- ¼ cup dried cranberries or dates, chopped
- ¼ cup flat-leaf parsley chopped
- 4 teaspoons poultry seasoning
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 2 cups almond flour
- 3 large eggs whisked
Equipment
- Cast iron skillet (or other oven safe skillet)
- 9×9 baking dish (if not using oven-safe skillet)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350º Fahrenheit. Heat ghee or oil in a large cast-iron or oven-safe skillet over medium heat.
- Add onion, celery, apple, mushrooms, cranberries or dates, parsley, poultry seasoning, salt, and pepper. Sauté until ingredients are very soft, about 7 minutes.
- Remove skillet from heat. Keep ingredients in oven-safe skillet, or, alternately, transfer ingredients to 9×9" baking dish.
- Stir almond flour in to other ingredients until well mixed. Add the whisked eggs and stir well. Place skillet (or baking dish) in preheated oven and bake 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until stuffing is browned on top. Serve warm.
Notes
- If you don’t have a cast-iron skillet, grease a medium-size baking dish before sautéing ingredients (a 9×9″ works well). After eggs have been added and the mixture is well-stirred, transfer mixture to baking dish. Continue baking as directed.
Video
Nutrition Information
Serving: 1serving, Calories: 274kcal, Carbohydrates: 19g, Protein: 10g, Fat: 18g, Saturated Fat: 3g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g, Monounsaturated Fat: 2g, Trans Fat: 1g, Cholesterol: 79mg, Sodium: 197mg, Potassium: 464mg, Fiber: 6g, Sugar: 9g, Vitamin A: 409IU, Vitamin C: 9mg, Calcium: 121mg, Iron: 3mg, Net Carbs: 13g
Number of total servings shown is approximate. Actual number of servings will depend on your preferred portion sizes.
Nutritional values shown are general guidelines and reflect information for 1 serving using the ingredients listed, not including any optional ingredients. Actual macros may vary slightly depending on specific brands and types of ingredients used.
To determine the weight of one serving, prepare the recipe as instructed. Weigh the finished recipe, then divide the weight of the finished recipe (not including the weight of the container the food is in) by the desired number of servings. Result will be the weight of one serving.
I can imagine this is fabulous, I’m definitely trying it this year. Do you think it could work inside the turkey? I’m a sucker for stuffing that’s cooked in the turkey….i know, today people aren’t as into it. Has anyone tried it?
That should work fine, it just won’t be as crispy! Let us know if you try it, Yvette!
I really want to make this for myself ahead of thanksgiving, I am traveling and stuffing is my weakness! Could I cook the day before then re heat it in a microwave ? I don’t want to tie up my hosts oven:)
Hi Leah! You can definitely make this ahead of time. Reheating it in the microwave will most likely make it a little mushy/gummy (you’ll lose that bit of crunch). I’d recommend reheating in the oven and adding a little broth or water so it doesn’t dry out, but I totally get you not wanting to tie up the hosts! If it’s just for you and you don’t mind a little change in texture from the microwave, then I say go for it!
I’ve made this the last two years for thanksgiving and it’s a hit! What is your recommendation for baking dish size upon doubling and even tripling the recipe for bigger parties? Thanks!
That’s great! So glad it’s a hit, Amanda! A 9×13 would get you about 1.5 yield. For tripling I would recommend a 12×20 size pan! Thanks so much for the review!
I’ve made this the last two years for thanksgiving and it’s a hit! What is your recommendation for baking dish size upon doubling and even tripling the recipe for bigger parties? Thanks!
I haven’t tried the recipe yet but do you think I could substitute almond flour for rice flour or a gf flour blend?
We didn’t test this recipe with those alternatives so we can’t say how they might turn out! Let us know if you try them, though!
This stuff is THE BEST stuffing I’ve made since I gave up gluten.
I added sausage and Brazil nuts because I love sausage stuffing. I used fresh herbs because they jumped into my cart at Trader Joe’s.
Actually this is the best stuffing ever. Period. Hands down.
Thank you so much, Emily!! So, so happy you enjoy this stuffing so much!
I love this recipe! I’ve been making it for holidays for a couple of years now, and whenever I find myself missing the dressing of my childhood. I’m not really good at estimating how much of the produce to buy, especially when I’m scaling up for a crowd. So when I made it yesterday, I decided to weigh the ingredients after chopping and measuring. I was pleasantly surprised to find that for each item, 1 cup = ~ 125 grams. (These were approximations, obviously, with a recipe like this there’s elbow room.)
3 cups diced onion ~ 375 grams
2 cups diced celery ~ 250 grams
1 cup diced mushroom ~ 125 grams (aboutn 1/2 of an 8 oz package of fresh mushrooms)
1 cup diced apple ~ 125 grams (about 1 very large apple or 1.5 ‘lunchbox’ apple)
1/4 cup chopped cranberries ~ 30 grams
Thanks for a great recipe!
Wow! Just wow! I added sausage and left out the crans and apples, i was afraid of it making it too sweet but next time I’ll try the original. This was so good. Im doing s round of whole 30 and I was craving carbs. This hit the spot.
So glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for sharing!
Can I use gluten free flour instead of almond flour?
We haven’t tested it with gluten-free flour so we can’t say for sure how it would turn out, especially because every GF flour can behave differently. If you try it, please let us know how it goes!
Easy, tasty, & nutritious! What’s not to love.
Glad you enjoyed it!