32 Simple Green Side Dishes to Add to Your Dinner Table

It’s a foolproof, hands-off method that requires just a couple minutes of prep, and rewards you with crispy-tipped, tender asparagus every single time. Grab a rimmed baking sheet, a cutting board, and a sturdy chef’s knife – here’s how to do it.

While these fresh beans make me feel nostalgic, this quick and easy, subtly spicy side dish is nothing like the plain steamed green beans from my childhood. It’s a good side dish for any meal, from simple chicken to a hearty winter braise.

It’s a lightning-fast way to cook asparagus with fire, bringing out the best of this spring vegetable.

It’s a simple little dish, and one that I expect to make for years to come, always remembering my heartwarming and hilarious encounter with the Wild Bulgarian.

They’re the best way to use the in-season leafy green, and the easiest way to eat a full bunch of kale at once, while also satisfying all your salty snack cravings.

This dish is great for lazy summertime cooking — the only kind of cooking I ever feel like come July. The most effort you have to put in is chopping up ingredients. It utilizes the natural fats from the chorizo along with a splash of olive oil for frying the zucchini, which means there’s heaps of flavor.

The initial inspiration for this recipe was atakilt, a hearty Ethiopian dish of slow-cooked potatoes, cabbage, and carrots.

This recipe riffs off that one but sticks to a slightly easier preparation by hashing the sprouts (just chop them up fine, or use a mandoline).

This quick, easy side dish tosses them together with a handful of mint. If these are the elves, then mint is the good fairy of spring, and deserves to appear as often as possible.

Lots of garlic is essential, as are the two key ingredients for the sauce: oyster sauce and fish sauce. Look for brands without any unfamiliar additives; it really does make a difference in the finished stir-fry.

Steamed vegetables — this is one of the easiest and quickest ways to get vegetables onto our plates. It’s something we can do without needing to think about it too much or make too much effort. We can just let the veggies steam while finishing the rest of dinner and toss them with a little butter before serving. Vegetables, done!

Taking inspiration from a dish called Truffled Egg Toast at a since-shuttered neighborhood joint called ‘Ino, I was making this side dish (which also works as an appetizer) with truffle salt for years, and then that flavor profile became completely overdone.

I hesitate to call this a recipe because it’s just something that came together using fresh ingredients I had on hand. But perhaps that is the best kind of recipe for this season, when the new, vibrant flavors call for simple preparations rather than long hours spent over the stove or in the oven.

Think of this recipe as a starting point; you could also play around with ingredients like lemon juice and zest, shallots, capers, different herbs and nuts, or a Dijon mustard vinaigrette. Ricotta, chèvre, and Pecorino cheeses are good additions, too.

There is nothing wrong with your screen. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. What you see before you are not strands of pasta, but swirls of spiralized zucchini! It’s time to change things up from the usual summer salad and give these vegetable “noodles” a try.

What I think makes this a winning combination isn’t just the way the flavors work together, but also how beautiful the orange, purple, and green look on the plate.

Lunch or dinner, main dish or side dish, this kale salad is a keeper. Make a big batch tonight and look forward to easy meals all week long.

The salad takes seconds to make, even counting the time to shake together the easy vinaigrette of lemon juice and olive oil. Pair it with grilled salmon or serve it alongside an eggy brunch casserole — this arugula salad will suit whatever is on the table.

Sometimes a basic vinaigrette just won’t do. Sometimes we need a velvety, creamy dressing drizzled on our greens. And yet ranch dressing can sometimes feel a little … salad-bar-at-the-steakhouse? Occasionally, yes, I love it. But this dressing, well, this has a little more ooh-la-la in its favor. And it’s so, so easy.