Sausage and Apple Wild Rice Dressing

Thanksgiving is two days away! It’s the most epic foodie day of the year. Just in case you aren’t fully prepared and have a menu fledged out completely, I have one more recipe for you. A wild rice dressing (or stuffing if you prefer) loaded with turkey sausage, apples, and pecans. This is a much lighter alternative to the traditional heavy carb laden dressing.

Wild rice dressing also comes together quickly and could be made ahead of time. One other thing that’s great about this recipe? It’s a stove top dish that doesn’t require your oven, which may be occupied by a bird and other sides.

Sausage and Apple Wild Rice Dressing

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Ingredients

  

• 1 cup wild rice
• 3 cups water
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 medium onion chopped
• 1 cooking apple such as a Golden Delicious, Gravenstein, or Rome, peeled, cored, and chopped
• 2 ribs celery with leaves chopped
• 2 cloves garlic chopped
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme leaves
• Pinch ground nutmeg
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 pound fresh Italian-style turkey sausage casings removed
• 1/2 cup pecan pieces toasted
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Instructions

 

• Combine the wild rice, water, and 1/2 teaspoon of the salt in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer until the rice is tender and just bursting, about 30 minutes. (Times may very depending on the brand of rice used.) Drain and set aside.
• Preheat to 325 degrees F.
• Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion, apple, celery, garlic, thyme, mace, remaining 1 teaspoon salt and pepper, to taste. Cook until the vegetables soften, about 5 minutes. Stir in sausage, breaking it up with a wooden spoon and cook until it loses most of its rosy color, but not so much that it's dry, about 5 minutes more. Stir in the cooked wild rice, pecans, and parsley into the vegetable mixture.
• Once well combined and warmed through, spoon into serving dish.

We made this as a side dish for Friendsgiving one year since that’s a meal where we tend to stray slightly from the more typical dishes and it was a nice change of pace. We hope you enjoy it too!