French Onion Stuffing

In his lovely recipe for Vegan Mapo Tofu, David Tanis describes making a light mushroom broth by simmering shiitake stems with water. I now freeze the stems when I cook shiitakes, to have them on hand for a quick mushroom broth as needed. https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017358-vegan-mapo-tofu Slightly more complex versions of mushroom broth: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017137-mark-bittmans-mushroom-stock https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/6641-mushroom-broth

“Better Than Bouillon” makes a decent mushroom base if you don’t want to make from scratch. I keep all their flavors in my fridge. Some have organic and low sodium options.

My mom's poodle ate the entire country bread loaf I bought yesterday, and then when I went to the store to replace it they were sold out. I ended up buying a garlic loaf and omitting the garlic in the recipe. When I tried to add the (dried) thyme I accidentally poured in 3/4 of the jar. Also, we drank the only 2 bottles of white wine in the house last night and I forgot to save 1/4 a cup so I subbed w/ cooking sherry. Cooked for 15 min longer than recipe calls for. All in all very tasty.

various brands of mushroom broth powder is available on Amazon. it's a great umami booster with all sort of applications.

To make ahead should I cook the freeze or make day before and put in oven when ready to serve

Delicious, but don't wait to make this on Thanksgiving day: no one wants to be babysitting a potful of caramelizing onions while tending to everything else on the day. I made the full recipe but divided it in half between two 8" square baking pans: baked one to have with a roast chicken today, and froze the other for an easy side dish on Thanksgiving.

This will definitely become my Thanksgiving standby. Just delicious. If you want to save some time, you can always throw the thinly sliced onions into a slow cooker with a couple tablespoons of butter. Let it cook on low for 10-12 hours, and you will have beautifully caramelized onions. Drain off the liquids to add to your mushroom broth.

i am sure chicken or vegetable broth would work just fine, too

This is amazing. Dressing is most always a battle at Thanksgiving. So we now have two kinds. Tried this one in advance. First, time is way off, but those of us familiar with NYT's recipe know that. Used Better Than Bouillon mushroom base. Everything else by recipe. Onions were awesome. Dressing, after coming out of the oven, is an eye rolling back into the head experience. Cooled it completely, cut into squares, vacuumed sealed it and into the freezer for Thanksgiving. Thanks so much Ms. Chun.

Followed the recipe to a T. In a word, it was monoflavored. The bread infused caramelized onions were all you tasted. I cried because I used four pounds of my precious homegrown onions. To salvage the situation, I deconstructed the leftovers with a pound of sausage with chopped sage and fennel seed -- with a small pinch of crushed red pepper. Stirred it all up and put under the broiler in a 8 X 10 pan for 10 minutes and voila! Tasted like my idea of dressing is supposed to taste like.

Has anyone made this without the eggs? I’m sure it works and I’m trying to make a vegan stuffing. The eggs are just there to add a more bread pudding type texture, is that correct? Any other suggestions for substitutions?

This is quite similar to a wild mushroom stuffing on epicurious that I’ve made for years since it’s always requested. https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/leek-and-wild-mushroom-stuffing-107292 I’m sure it’s delicious as well - cheaper to make given the ingredients. Maybe I’ll meld them!

Grate some comte over it, and you’ve got a main course.