Side Dish Recipes & Ideas

With winter out of the way, one vegetable I’ve been seeing in abundance at Bay Area farmers markets is the sputnik-like vegetable with the funny name, kohlrabi. Eaten raw, it’s fresh, crisp, and the ideal ingredient for a summer slaw. This kohlrabi slaw is actually one of my favorite summer recipes. Quick and easy to make, it’s a nice cool side dish to eat after a long, warm day of working in the garden, or at a sunny picnic under flowering fruit trees.

The result is easy, lightened-up, and still oh-so-crunchy.

It's inspired by one of YouTube star TJ Lee's favorite restaurants.

This fabulous egg bake starts with those convenient pre-cut veggies from the produce section.

It will get to the table faster, too.

One time during fall, I tagged along with my husband on a work trip to Toulouse, France (as one does when one’s spouse has meetings in such nice places). It was our first time in Toulouse, and it was stressful. I feel like the first trip to any new city is a kind of sacrifice to the travel gods, seasoned with blunders and bad maps and jet lag, especially when you don’t speak the language or have a credit card with the right kind of chip inside.

Poppy seed dressing has a balance of sweet and tangy that I find completely irresistible. The ingredients are easy-to-find; you need white wine vinegar, sugar, and some finely shredded shallot or onion. It’s great on a spinach and strawberry salad, makes a fun spin in a coleslaw, and also does wonders as a marinade for chicken. It’s the jack-of-all-trades of the salad dressing world. This dressing is also surprisingly easy to make yourself.

With your favorite cut of cured pork, molasses, canned beans, and a secret ingredient, you can be eating creamy beans suspended in a velvety sauce in just 30 minutes.

They're also vegan.

I didn’t grow up eating pickled shrimp, which is surprising considering my mom’s coastal upbringing. Her family spans from the Atlantic beaches of Florida, all the way to the bayous of Louisiana. Seafood made regular appearances at our family gatherings, but usually in the form of spicy Cajun gumbos and jambalayas. It wasn’t until I attended an annual Christmas Day cocktail party a few years back that I discovered the wonder that is Sea Island Shrimp.

There are many reasons we’ve been trying to cut down on kitchen waste — to stop tossing so much out and stretch our budgets, to name a few — but thankfully there are plenty of recipes that use up all those odds and ends in our kitchens. I mean, have you tried baking your potato peels? You should.

It's no less creamy or flavorful.

Beneath the sweet banality of butternut, there is its alter ego: a deep earthiness that can only be coaxed out by pushing the squash around a little. No boiling, or braising, or baking will find it. A wide pan and searing dry heat, though, swaps the facets of butternut’s personality from sugary-soft to full-bodied and a little bit savory — the perfect accompaniment to a crisp-skinned roasted chicken.

You'll want to make room at your next potluck or barbecue for this fast side.

Red beans and rice for Mardi Gras at home.

Of course Ina has the smartest way to make lasagna ahead!

There's a much smarter way to buy it.

Of course Ina has a few extra tips for ways to finish it off in a special way.

If you're looking to skip the mayo, here's what to reach for instead.

A refreshing, light slaw fragrant with roasted peanuts you can serve on a weeknight or on a buffet.

Potatoes are dreamy — there's no way around it. But dreamiest of all is when their tender innards are spiked with salt and vinegar.

The best bacon you'll ever eat is sweet, smoky, and spicy.

A crock of slow-cooked grits is a dream to wake up to and an easy, no-fuss base for weeknight dinners.

Who said cakes have to be sweet?

This creamy, comforting dish is calling your name.

I’ve been craving a nice, hearty risotto so I’ve decided it would be a good time to make this type of dish during cold months. I had it in my mind that I wanted to make something with mushrooms and leeks. I wanted it to be savory and woodsy, encompassing the flavors of fall. I have a collection of nice dried mushrooms waiting to be used; some chanterelles picked by friends, and some dried porcinis that I picked with my mushroom picking club.

From burgers and chicken to fish and steak, these sides make a perfect partner to them all.

This has become our favorite cooking technique for vegetables! Not only does it require less hands-on work than sautéing on the stove top, but vegetables develop a nice char under the broiler. This translates into smoky flavor in our dishes. We also like the texture contrast. Since broiling is a quick cooking method, the outsides of the veggies soften while the insides stay relatively crisp. Yum! Want more smart tutorials for getting things done around the home?

Everybody loves creamed spinach, even folks who hate spinach! Here’s a luxurious baked version that I love serving with oven-roasted pork tenderloin, though it pairs just as well with steak, pork chops, or any other protein on your plate. Splurge on a little mid-week comfort food and make this with your dinner tonight! This spinach bake is a cross between creamed spinach and a spinach soufflé, and in my opinion it’s the best of both worlds.

Or cookout side ... or light dinner.

Here's how to make a delicious, one-pan, ​bulgogi-style rice bowl on a busy weeknight.

The one-pot affair comes together without fuss, when you need it most.

Exactly how you want to eat carrots with a steak dinner.

Based off a soup so good, its memory outlasted the memory of the person I ate it with.

File under: Another trick we learned from Alton Brown.

My grandfather's recipe has a secret ingredient that makes all the difference.

If you can't get enough of Mexican street corn, we combined all the flavors in one sweet, salty, and crispy fritter.

Pro tip: Add extra-creamy burrata as soon as it comes out of the oven.

Eggs, sausage, and, yes, cheese go into this comforting breakfast fried rice.

You only need two ingredients.

Eat them straight from the sheet pan, or make spicy, saucy tacos.

It's waaay better than baked mac and cheese.

This is the one potato salad to know.

When the dimmer seasons turn you inward toward big pots of braising things or simmering batches of slow-cooker meals, match those recipes with a sturdy side dish that won’t cower behind their homey hardiness. Chili, for example, with its robust kick and bulky beany, meaty sauciness would use a “mixed greens salad” as a footrest, stomping out the side’s subtlety.

It's a one-bowl affair that'll happily play sidekick.

Give a warm welcome to your new favorite weeknight side dish. Stir-frying a big bag of spinach has become one of my favorite ways to get greens on the plate, and a few slices of garlic in the mix makes the spinach feel all grown up. To prepare, you’ll only need five ingredients, high heat, and a wok, and stir-frying spinach should only takes two-minutes. Even in the world of fast stir-fries, spinach is a speedy dish.

This deep-dish quiche is a hearty, flavor-packed meal in a pan. There are a few culinary tricks built into the recipe, like making a very stable cream cheese dough that — in an unusual twist — has eggs in it, and plenty of chilling and pre-baking. The result is a showy, lightly eggy, deeply satisfying meal that’s worth every moment of effort.

Spoiler: It levels up so much more than salad.

Oh, and it's the perfect make-ahead lunch.

It beats any other version.

Ratatouille, the classic French vegetable stew, is a perfect candidate for this hands-off cooking method.

Raise your hand if you’ve ever actually made a soufflé. Yeah, me neither. Not until, that is, I took a class years ago with Paule Caillat in Paris and realized what a cozy, simple, weeknight dish a cheese soufflé actually is. In case you’ve never had one, a cheese soufflé is like a giant cheese puff, a hot cheese pudding with a crispy top and creamy, melting cloud inside.

A savory and satisfying vegetarian option for your holiday spread

A super-fast side you'll make all summer long.

To make something crispy, creamy, cheesy, and hard to beat.

Crash hot potatoes are like a cross between a fluffy baked potato and a greasy, golden french fry.

The better way to compound butter.

It goes with almost everything.

This rich, creamy pasta sauce was the result of an experiment. We wanted to make a creamy, mushroom-y pasta topping with no cream. We’re trying to watch our diet a little better, and while we were eating pasta there was no need to indulge in cream, right? Instead, the bulk of this sauce is white wine, broth, and mushrooms. We don’t use a lot of wild mushrooms – they are expensive, and just a few will do here to give flavor. The result?

If hash brown casserole had a bougie aunt, this dish would be it.

Like the classic salad, but way better.

Layers of sweet potatoes and black beans amped up with smoked mozzarella and smoked paprika make for one seriously satisfying dinner.

I don't think I've ever been this excited about lunch. Ever.

It features four types of cheese and a buttery breadcrumb topping.

It's the perfect combo of sweet, savory, and toasty.

Fry your watermelon rind in spices, never look back.

Rice is rice, right? Not quite. Short-grain Japanese rice is quite different from long-grain basmati or jasmine rice, so achieving the right texture — glossy and tender but not sticky — calls for a particular cooking method. A fancy rice cooker makes the process easy, but it isn’t a necessity. Making perfect Japanese rice on the stove is simple, requiring only a good pot and careful listening skills.

Crispy on the outside, buttery and tender on the inside.

They’re also pretty to look at.

This easy dip will make your potato chips taste just like sour cream and onion flavors — only better.

This flavorful Southern dish celebrates two of winter's staple vegetables: cabbage and potatoes.

I don't like to brag, but I think these are the mashed potatoes you've been searching for.