Healthy Stuffing Recipes

This amazing wild-rice stuffing recipe is bursting with rustic fall flavors, including rye bread, sausage, apples, dried cherries, pecans and fresh herbs.

Who says a Thanksgiving stuffing recipe has to be dominated by the bread? Check out this veggie-packed healthy stuffing, with 4 cups of Brussels sprouts topping the list. Chorizo adds some piquant flavor, in this case a zesty chile-pepper-and-vinegar kick found in the Mexican version of the sausage, but quite frankly you won't go wrong using any type of fresh, spicy sausage.

Caramelized onions are a sweet and savory addition to this healthy stuffing recipe. Choose an apple that becomes tender yet holds its shape when cooked--try Jonagold or Cortland.

Make chicken and stuffing in the slow cooker for this easy, one-pot recipe. When it's done, top it with a mix of fresh lemon peel, parsley, and walnuts.

This crab-cake-meets-stuffing recipe gets a double dose of crabby goodness--little bits of claw crabmeat add flavor throughout the stuffing while pieces of higher-grade “jumbo lump” crabmeat contribute big bites of crab. Shape the stuffing into cakes or bake in a casserole dish. Look for crab in the seafood department of large supermarkets. The recipe that's included for Bay Spice Blend makes 1 cup, but you'll only need 1 teaspoon for the stuffing. Try the extra spice blend in a turkey brine, sprinkled on almost any type of seafood and/or in recipes calling for Old Bay Seasoning.

Here's a one-skillet version of chicken and stuffing made with wholesome ingredients. We use chicken thighs because we love the rich flavor of dark meat, but boneless, skinless breast works too. Serve with Brussels sprouts and mashed potatoes.

This sausage and apple stuffing is extra-moist and full of classic fall flavors. Using a slow cooker makes this side dish even easier and saves on oven space.

You don't have to skip the traditional Thanksgiving dinner if it's just the two of you--and you also don't have to eat turkey for days. In fact, you may not want to wait for a special occasion to have this satisfying mini celebration.

Wild mushrooms make an amazing, rich base for a stuffing for Thanksgiving dinner. This stuffing includes diced turkey liver, which gives it an intense, deep flavor. If you're not a liver lover or if you're serving vegetarians, you can omit it from the recipe. Recipe adapted from Alice Waters.

Cornbread stuffing, a Southern favorite, is a nice change from more traditional white-bread stuffing. Our delectable recipe uses Italian turkey sausage, rather than pork, and omits all the butter and cream to cut the fat by two-thirds. The stuffing is lower in sodium as well and so easy to make that it's sure to become a favorite side year-round.

Save space in your oven and use your slow cooker to whip up this easy, classic stuffing. Hearty whole-grain bread gets toasted in the oven for only 10 minutes (and you can toast the cubes ahead of time!) while your slow cooker does the rest.

Apples and fresh cranberries add a unique twist to this variation on the classic stuffing. Use fresh sage or rubbed sage in this recipe; the ground version is too bitter.