(Holiday Cooking 2017) Keto Pork Mushroom Stuffing with Pili Nuts

The holidays are a mixed bag of emotions for anyone entertaining guests. Filled with excitement, dread, and possibly remorse, this year I set out to not compromise on my own personal nutritional plans and if others wanted to try some of the yummy food (who can deny bacon wrapped scallops drenched in butter?) they were certainly welcome to it. Thanksgiving this year, my main goal was to recreate a low-carb version of my acclaimed stuffing that I had made in years prior back when I was stuffing myself more than a roasted bird. Thanks to my friends at Pili Nuts, I was able to create stuffing that had even more richness and buttery flavors in it, which I feel took this dish to “Oh wow that is pretty good” to “DAMN GIRL WHAT YOU PUT IN THIS STUFF?!”

This stuffing can be completely made the day prior, and then just reheated in the oven, covered, for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees. I preferred to put all the ingredients together day of, and will be making more again for our upcoming Christmas feast too, per the request of my non-keto friends, which is validation that I landed on something pretty tasty. This bread pudding almost ends up like a mix between a traditional stuffing and a bread pudding, which can also be adjusted by increasing or reducing the amount of liquids via the eggs and butter. If you want a more bread pudding-like texture, increase the total eggs by 4 more. If you would like less, reduce by one since you still need some liquid to bind everything together.

Yields about 10-12 one cup servings, rounded. Ish.

• 5 slices low carb bread, left out over night, or toasted
• 2 pounds organic grassfed ground pork
• 1 small chopped white onion
• 2 small chopped carrots
• 4 stalks chopped celery
  (If you want to save some time, Trader Joes sells a pre-chopped Mirepox mix in the fresh produce section)
• 6 eggs
• 1 stick of melted butter
• 1 tbsp garlic
• 3 tbsp finely julienned sage
• 2 tsp fresh thyme
• 2 tsp fresh rosemary
• salt and pepper to taste
• 5 oz sea salt flavor Pili nuts
• 1 cup roughly chopped walnuts
• 1-1.5 cups organic fresh made (if possible) chicken or turkey bone broth
• 2 cups roughly chopped fresh morel mushrooms (no bigger than half an inch across but large enough so they still have some texture)

1. Sweat out the onions in 1 tsp butter. Once clear, add the rest of the butter to melt it, along with the garlic for the last minute of cooking, then remove from pan.
2. Cook the ground pork, adding the salt and pepper to taste. Remove from pan.
3. Cook the roughly chopped mushrooms, salting heavily to draw the liquid out. These should take around ten minutes to fully cook down after all liquid is pulled out of the mushrooms.
4. In a large cooking dish with at least a three inch height, tear up the bread and place in the dish. Add all the cooked ingredients.
5. Whisk the eggs, and pour over the mixture, along with the melted butter, and herbs.
6. Mix everything together for at least a few minutes to make sure all the pieces are evenly coated with egg and butter and seasoning.
7. Add the walnuts and pili nuts then lightly toss in to the stuffing.
8. Add one cup of the broth and mix again. The bread should absorb all liquid and still have a thin layer of broth in the bottom of the tray if the ingredients are moved. Add more broth until this is achieved, which should most likely be no more than 1.5 cups or so.
9. Top again with salt and pepper and cover with foil.
10. Bake at 375 for around 1 hour, stirring half way through.

What other modifications did you try? Comment below and enjoy!!

Thanks again to Pili nuts for helping me nail down the perfect flavor that would match these yummy full-fat ingredients and the complimentary bag to educate my Thanksgiving guests on the amazing world of a Pili nut!