John Torode's apple stuffing recipe

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(92 ratings)

Stuff your turkey or chicken with John Torode's tasty sage and apple stuffing made with fresh apples, lots of herbs and rich sausage meat, this Christmas

(Image credit: jason lowe)
Serves4
SkillEasy
Preparation Time20 mins
Cooking Time20 mins
Total Time40 mins
Cost RangeMid
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A decadent apple stuffing with tangy green Granny Smiths, sweet parsnip and pork sausage meat.

With nine ingredients, this is a little more complex than the average stuffing recipe, but it’s worth the extra effort. Rather than breadcrumbs it uses starchy vegetables - potatoes and parsnips - to add bulk, for a deep, robust flavour, cut through with sharp green apple. Along with the apple, the herb sage is the star of the show. Sage has a long medicinal history, thought at different times to ward off everything from evil spirits to infertility, and from plague to toothache. However, in this apple stuffing it simply wards off blandly flavoured poultry. 

Ingredients

  • 2 large potatoes, peeled and chopped
  • 2 onions, chopped
  • 2 parsnips, peeled and chopped
  • 50g butter
  • 2 granny smith apples, peeled and chopped
  • 1 handful mixed chopped sage and parsley
  • 50g fresh breadcrumbs
  • 100g pork sausage meat
  • 1 egg

WEIGHT CONVERTER

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Method

  1. Boil the potatoes, onions and parsnips until soft, then drain. Melt the butter in a pan then add the veg and fry for 1 minute. Season really well, adding lots of pepper.
  2. Stir in the apples and leave to cool.
  3. Mix in the sage and parsley, breadcrumbs, sausage meat and the egg and season generously. Stuff your turkey or chicken and cook according to their recipe timings, or cook separately in a baking dish.

Top tips for making John Torode’s apple stuffing

‘For crispy yet moist-in-the-middle stuffing, don’t cook it inside the turkey – make it separately,’ says John.

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John Torode
John Torode
Australian-British celebrity chef and TV presenter

John Torode is one of the UK's most well known celebrity chef, having been a judge on popular television cooking shows, Masterchef, Celebrity Masterchef and Junior Masterchef for over ten years. Originally from Australia, John began his cooking career at 16 years old after leaving school to attend catering college. By 1991, he had moved to London where he soon began working at the famous restaurant, Le Pont de la Tour and Quaglinos as a sous chef and was where he met his fellow co-host Greg Wallace. John was shortly after approached by ITV This Morning in 1996 and continued the role til 2000. By 2005, Masterchef was relaunched on BBC with Torode and Wallace as the presenters and by 2011, the show was sold to over 25 countries. Alongside this, John has created 11 successful cook books and has had many of own series including John Torode's Australia, John Torode's Argentina, A cook abroad, John Torode's Malaysian Adventure, The Korean Food Tour and many more. At the heart of all Johns food is simplicity and family. He said his nanna's cooking was one of things inspired him to be a chef and even though the food she cooked was simple, it was always full of flavour and delicious. He best remembers her for her awesome cauliflower cheese, her caramel slice and apple tea cake. While we might not have the recipe for John's nanna's  recipes, we do have plenty of his recipes designed for indulgent but easy homecooking.