Sprout & Pea

It may be a lit­tle bit early for Thanks­giv­ing, but tonight I decided to get into the spirit of the hol­i­day and make some stuff­ing. I was inspired by a new favorite drink that I’ve been enjoy­ing recently at a local restau­rant — a car­damom honey cap­puc­cino. I thought about mak­ing my own car­damom honey cap­puc­cino this morn­ing, but set­tled on tea instead and after that, the thought of car­damom was in the back of my mind and taste buds all day. When night­time came around, I had the sud­den idea to try mak­ing car­damom and honey stuffing.

After rack­ing my brain for a bit, the thought of adding a lit­tle orange zest popped into my head but I then felt stuck on how to bring it all together with tex­ture and savory fla­vor. So, I called the one woman who I knew would have the per­fect answer — my mom. Sure enough, after bounc­ing some ideas back and forth, she had added shal­lots, dried cran­ber­ries and pecans into the mix and I was ready to test this bad boy out. Into the oven every­thing went, and fif­teen min­utes later, I felt high off of the aro­mas in my kitchen. I dug my spoon in, and dis­cov­ered with one bite that this dish had turned out even more spe­cial than I had imag­ined. The fla­vors of fall and the hol­i­days whisked around in my mouth and warmed me right up. I’m count­ing the days until I fly home for Thanks­giv­ing and get to make this for my mom. Here’s the recipe…

1/​3 of a loaf of sprouted grain ezekiel bread or bread of your choice
2 large shal­lots finely chopped
1 tbs extra vir­gin olive oil
1 cup crushed pecans
1 cup dried cran­ber­ries
1 tbs car­damom (I found just a drop less than a tbs worked per­fectly)
Zest of 1 orange
1 tbs fresh chopped gin­ger
1 1/​2 cups veg­etable broth (or enough to moisten the bread crumbs, but not soak)
2 pinches of salt
2 table spoons of honey (I just driz­zled this)

Cut bread into small cubes and toast in the oven at 375 for about 5 or 6 min­utes– you want them toasted but not hard and crisp. While bread­crumbs are bak­ing, heat shal­lots in a pan (or Le Creuset if you have one) with olive oil for a few min­utes, just until translu­cent and remove from heat. Add bread­crumbs to your Le Creuset (or bak­ing dish) and mix together with shal­lots. Slowly add the veg­etable broth, mix­ing together 1/​2 a cup at a time, mak­ing sure not to drench the bread­crumbs, but moisten them. Mix in car­damom and add and mix together remain­ing ingre­di­ents. Bake in the oven for 15 min­utes at 375 degrees. Remove from oven and driz­zle and mix in a lit­tle more honey if desired.