This vegan crockpot stuffing is delicious, easy to make, and doesn’t take up any real estate in your oven. It’s fluffy, buttery, and oh-so-delicious! Make this vegan side dish for Thanksgiving, or with any meal that loves stuffing.
This recipe was originally published in November 2012 and reposted in November 2023 with updated copy, photography, ingredients, and instructions.
I love every part of Thanksgiving, from prep to cooking, eating, and lingering over a glass of wine at the end. I love vegan roasts, fluffy mashed potatoes, crisp roasted green beans or Brussels sprouts, and gravy. I wait all year to make this decadent vegan stuffing recipe, which makes it even more special!
Reasons Why This Vegan Crockpot Stuffing Recipe Is The Best
This vegan crockpot stuffing is drenched in plant-based butter, rich broth, and layered with sauteed onions, and crisp celery, and sprinkled with ground sage for that heady stuffing aroma. This is no time to skimp on all the fat and carbs … this once-a-year dish is worth it!
During holiday prep, the oven is prime real estate, and planning can be tough. This vegan dressing only requires a slow cooker which takes up little space. Oh, and the aroma while it cooks on low for 4-5 hours? Heavenly!
Because the crockpot cooks this stuffing low and slow, it infuses the bread with so much flavor, transforming its texture into one that’s cake-like and fluffy. Let’s talk about the key ingredients.
Key Ingredients
There are lots of ways to add flavor and texture to stuffing, and you’ll likely gravitate towards elements that are nostalgic to you. Maybe that’s adding things like vegan sausage and dried cranberries. But this simple-is-best version is great because it doesn’t compete with other flavors in the dish and just melds so well with mashed potatoes and gravy on the plate.
Cheap, white bread – Use the cheapest, white vegan bread you can find (I like to use a blend of country white and traditional white bread.) This is important because we’re going to cube and dry the bread out overnight so it can soak up all of the other ingredients in the crockpot.
Plant-based butter – Use whatever brand you like best. You can’t go wrong with Earth Balance or Miyoko’s Creamery butter.
Vegan stock – Use cubed bouillon, a concentrated stock base, or boxed broth. No-chicken flavor works better than vegetable broth here.
Chopped celery – This is going to add a little contrasting crunch to the dish.
Sauteed onions – This is going to add great flavor to the stuffing, plus another kind of softer crunch.
Ground sage – This is the magic in this recipe. It adds a gorgeous, earthy, holiday-like feel.
How To Make This Vegan Slow Cooker Stuffing
This recipe is so simple! Once you layer your components into the slow cooker, you’ll need to give it a gentle stir every hour and add more bread cubes, broth, sage, and vegan butter as the stuffing slightly collapses as it cooks.
Cube And Dry Out Your Bread
The night before, cube your bread and leave it out on baking sheets to get stale. These little croutons will soak up so much flavor the next day!
Layer Your Key Ingredients In Your Crock Pot
Start by adding a layer of cubed bread to the bottom of your crockpot. You are going to add a drizzle of melted vegan butter, a splash of broth, some celery and sauteed onions, and a sprinkle of sage.
Repeat until all of the celery and onions are used up, then add a bit more melted butter and broth. Your crockpot should be almost filled to the top. You will have extra cubed bread left over, but you are going to add them to the pot every hour as the stuffing collapses and makes room for more bread!
Sprinkle the ground sage like fairy dust over each layer of ingredients. It’s going to smell so good!
Cook over low heat for 4-5 hours. Stir it enough to coat, but not so much that it bangs up the bread too much. Also, be sure to stir it all the way to the bottom to avoid scorching.
Serve right out of the crockpot or transfer to a serving dish and dig in!
More Vegan Holiday Recipes!
For more vegan holiday dish ideas, check these recipes out:
- Make this Shiitake Bacon & Roasted Brussels Sprouts for a toasted, umami-rich dish. The vegan bacon is amazing!
- Make this vegan Wellington complete with phyllo dough and duxelles.
- This vegan pot pie is so homey and delicious!
- Make roasted cauliflower steaks as a side or as a way to switch up your main dish!
FAQs
Vegan stuffing is made from bread that is free from milk or egg ingredients, plant-based butter, vegetable stock, and, in some variations, vegan sausage. It’s very easy to make stuffing vegan by swapping out a few ingredients!
It’s best to make crockpot stuffing and time it to be ready when your holiday meal begins. It’s best fresh out of the crockpot. While it can be reheated in a pan, the texture is not as good.
Vegan Crock Pot Stuffing
- Total Time: 5 hours 15 minutes
- Yield: 6-8 servings
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This vegan crockpot stuffing is perfect for the holidays! It doesn’t take up any oven space and the low and slow heat makes the best, fluffiest stuffing you’ve ever tasted!
Ingredients
for the stuffing
- 1 1/2 loaves (or about 32 ounces) of cheap, white sandwich bread, sliced and diced, and spread out on cookie sheets to dry out overnight (I like to combine vegan country white with plain vegan white bread)
- 2 TB olive oil
- 2 medium onions, chopped
- 1 cup melted plant-based butter, divided (plus more as needed)
- 3 cups vegan broth (plus more as needed)
- 3–4 tsp ground sage
- 1 cup chopped celery
Instructions
to make the vegan crockpot stuffing
- Heat the olive oil in a large saute pan over medium heat. Add the onions and saute until softened about 5-7 minutes.
- Add some bread to your crockpot, then drizzle with some of the butter and broth. Sprinkle with some of the sage, and add some of the sauteed onions and celery.
- Keep layering until you’ve used up most of the sage and all of the onions and celery.
- You’ll have some cubed bread left over. Every hour, stir the stuffing, and add more bread, moistening it with the butter and broth, and sprinkling with sage.
- After 4-5 hours, your stuffing is done! Serve immediately.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 5 hours
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Sautéed, Slow-Cooked
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: crockpot vegan stuffing, vegan stuffing recipe, vegetarian stuffing, vegan crock pot dressing, vegan stuffing, slow cooker vegan stuffing, vegan crock pot stuffing, vegan slow cooker dressing
Dawn says
What size crock pot di you use for this recipe? I am limited to SMALL/Large! Thank you for a response.
erin wysocarski says
Hi Dawn, I used a medium-sized crockpot, but if you have a large, go for that one. I hope you love the recipe!
Anu says
This looks wonderful! How many servings does it make?
erinwyso says
Thank you! This makes enough for 6-8.
Alex @ delicious-knowledge.com says
I really, really love stuffing too! This looks fabulous! Definitely going to make this for thanksgiving.
erinwyso says
cool! I hope you enjoy, Alex!
Leila A. Fortier says
I want to take this moment to thank you once again at length, especially because it is Thanksgiving after all (Well, the day after for us in Okinawa. Anyhow, I have grown so fond of your recipes as you know, to the point that I am becoming discriminant of other sites and recipes. Two times over the past week, I ventured out to try other delicious looking vegan recipes found on pinterest. Both times were epic disasters, and I would be so upset with the failed results that my husband started picking on me, "See! You should have known better than to try anything by anyone else but that lady! That's what you get for straying!" lol. Needless to say, I felt like trying something new and leaning more into vegan from my previous vegetarian holiday recipes, and I decided not to take any chances with our Thanksgiving meal- so I planned my dishes primarily on the foundation of your recipes. I ended up making the Shallot and Shiitake Wellington, this Sage Stuffing with the Shallot & Shiitake Gravy, and your Sesame Chiffon Collard Greens amongst a couple of my other vegetarian dishes and what I call a quadropalegic Turkey for my husband. Anyhow- because we live in Okinawa, not all of your ingredients are available to me. I have yet to be able to find chickpea flour or any form of seitan, which is frustrating. But I improvised on the Wellington because it looked so interesting, I just had to try it. I ended up using rice flour, and veggie crumbles to substitute the seitan- so I know it was not completely vegan. But I must say…I wanted to cry it was so beautiful! I am an artist, and this was like making art of food! Previous years I had made tofu turkey type recipes…which were mediocre but never held the same rich and satifying flavors. So I was nervous to eat this little masterpiece in fear that its taste would not live up to its aesthetics. Oh my goodness! It was so delicious! So rich and flavorful, as was the stuffing and gravy…best I have ever had…ever! This turned out to be the most satisfying holiday meal I have made since excluding meat from my diet years ago. Even my husband and son loved it all! Thank you so much for sharing all your delicious culinary creations! This has been such a blessing and made for a very special and fulfilling holiday.
erinwyso says
Leila, What a great comment to wake up to on the day after Thanksgiving! Thank you for taking the time to write it. I am of course, delighted that the recipes were successful, but even more delighted that you were able to adapt them based on the ingredients available to you, with excellent results! I must say that I do enjoy vegan Thanksgivings much more than I ever did as a meat eater — there are just so many more flavors and techniques to play with, as opposed to adhering to a traditional set of ingredients and methods. Again, thank you for your feedback and I am thrilled that they were successful and enjoyed by you and your family! xo
Maggie Muggins says
I'm with you on the stuffing and gravy, I looove it, it's a shame I feel the need to wait for a holiday to make it. I may have to have a second thanksgiving dinner.
Caitlin says
you know, pre-vegan days, i seriously hated stuffing and gravy. nowadays, i LOVE vegan gravy. i've only ever had cornbread stuffing and it was so delicious i nearly ate the entire recipe myself at thanksgiving. your versions look unbelievable, and i particularly am enamored with the mushroom gravy 😉
erinwyso says
Thanks Caitlin! Next to the stuffing, vegan gravy is my favorite thing at the table!
LittleMonsterx14 says
mmm this is the most amazing thing i have seen. my mouth is watering!