Cranberry, orange and pecan is the stuffing for people who find the traditional versions slightly beige. It brings colour, sharpness and crunch to a plate that otherwise runs brown from one side to the other — and it is the one stuffing on this list that vegetarians and meat-eaters will fight over equally.
Ingredients (serves 8)
- 200g fresh breadcrumbs
- 100g dried cranberries, soaked for 10 minutes in the juice of the orange below
- 75g pecans, roughly chopped and briefly toasted in a dry pan
- Zest and juice of 1 orange
- 1 onion, finely chopped and softened in 75g butter
- A teaspoon of chopped thyme and a little sage
- 1 egg, beaten, plus salt and black pepper
- Hot stock to loosen — a few tablespoons, until the mix just holds together
Method
- Soften the onion in the butter without colouring it.
- Combine everything, including the soaking juice, and season properly — the cranberries need more salt against them than you expect.
- Bake in a buttered dish at 190°C / 170°C fan for 25–30 minutes until crisp on top. It also makes excellent stuffing balls, which hold their shape well thanks to the fruit.
Made with vegetable stock this is naturally vegetarian, which quietly solves one seat at the table without a separate dish. It is also the best cold-leftovers stuffing of the lot — better in a Boxing Day sandwich than it was at the dinner.
Why you need the bad jumper for this one
Because cranberry is the single most dangerous substance on the Christmas table. It is vividly red, it travels, and it does not come out of anything pale. The person handling the cranberries wants to be wearing something patterned, dark and machine-washable — which is a precise description of half this catalogue. A jumper that already has red in the design is, frankly, camouflage. Two candidates below, and more in the Women’s Christmas Jumpers collection.
