Wild Rice Cornbread Stuffing

As my husband said perfectly... "It feels like I'm cheating on the holidays, but this is SO good!"  The only reason I have a stuffing recipe up in JULY is that we had some leftover cornbread that needed eating  (see October 2008, Comforting Cornbread)!  I now know that we will be eating cornbread much more frequently in this household!  This is a 2 step recipe, but just do like I did...plan it over 2 meals!

3 cups of crumbled cornbread (see Oct '08)
2 1/2 cups veggie stock, divided
2 cups water
1 cup wild rice
1 TBSP olive oil
1 cup finely chopped yellow onion
1/2 cup finely chopped celery
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
2 TBSP finely chopped parsley
1 tsp finely chopped oregano leaves
1 tsp finely chopped sage leaves
1 cup toasted pecans
1/4 cup Earth Balance
salt and pepper

In a medium saucepan, boil together rice, 2 cups of veggie stock, and water.  Once boiling, cover and reduce to a low simmer, cooking for about an hour. It may feel awkward to you to add so much liquid to the rice, but this is done on purpose to create a more 'wet' rice or the stuffing.  Once complete, drain the rice.  When there is about 20 minutes before the rice is completed, saute the onion and celery in oil until softened (5 minutes).  Add the oregano, parsley, sage, salt and pepper and cook about 1 minute more.  Remove from heat.  In preparation for the rice, also preheat the oven to 375 degrees and lightly grease a 9" casserole dish with Earth Balance spread. Finally, toast the pecan pieces.

Once the rice is cooked and drained, combine that with the onion/celery mixture, crumbled cornbread, and toasted pecans.  Transfer the mixture to the casserole dish and add the remaining veggie stock and 1/4 cup melted Earth Balance over the entire top.  Bake in the oven for 20 minutes!