Stuffing on your Christmas dinner plate is a festive tradition up there with turkey and mince pies. For a tasty variation on a classic how about stuffing made from two of the biggest Christmas foods out there – sausages and chestnuts.
You can be quite flexible with this dish serving it inside the bird or on the side. As well as a mouth-watering taste and texture many people are surprised by how light this stuffing is; making a change from some of the heavy, stodgier food we fill up with at Christmas. The addition of apricots adds a delicate sweetness that compliments the two main ingredients.
This recipe uses chestnut puree to make your life simpler as softening and shelling whole chestnuts is far too fiddly and a bit too time consuming. For most of us time is at a premium in the run up to Christmas so anything that saves a bit of time is well worth it.
This stuffing is pretty healthy anyway being low carb and high fibre but you can make it even healthier by using low fat sausage meat. Whatever you use, this yummy chestnut and sausage stuffing is a welcome addition to any Christmas meal.
Serves 6-8
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Ingredients:
- 225g pork sausage meat
- 225g unsweetened chestnut puree
- 85g chopped walnuts
- 115g chopped dried apricots
- 2 tbsps chopped parsley
- 2 tbsps chopped chives
- 2 tsps chopped sage
- 4 tbsps double cream
- Salt and pepper to season
- In a bowl mix the sausage meat and chestnut puree together. Then stir in walnuts, apricots, parsley, chives and sage.
- Stir in enough double cream to create a firm mixture. If the mixture looks dry add a little more double cream. Season with salt and pepper.
- Roll the mixture into small balls and place onto a baking tray. Although you can cook stuffing inside the bird I believe it cooks much better separately.
- Place the baking tray into an oven heated to 190C for 30-40 minutes. If you are cooking your bird at the same time allow a little longer to ensure they are thoroughly cooked.
Tip – If you do not want stuffing balls you can spoon the mixture into an ovenproof dish. It can then be cooked as recipe states.
