Thanksgiving And Side Dish

It all starts with a hot baking sheet.

There are many ways to cook carrots, but roasting them is hands-down my favorite method. It’s one of the best vegetable side dishes that pairs well with anything for dinner. Roasted carrots might seem simple, but when done right, they can rival just about any other vegetable side, be it Brussels sprouts or sweet potatoes. When it comes to glazed carrots, some recipes call for cooking them on the stovetop, but I opt for the oven so that the carrots can do their business while I do mine.

It’s flawless.

Yeehaw!

It wins the award for coziest side dish.

It’s all about the compound butter.

It’s all about the salty, crispy Parm.

Pommes Anna is a French side dish made of just three simple ingredients: potatoes, butter, and salt. It’s classic and elegant all at the same time; potato slices are arranged in overlapping concentric circles, creating layers upon layers into a round cake that resembles a flower. The outside is golden-brown and crispy — like the fanciest hash browns you’ll ever have — and makes a satisfying crunch when you slice it into wedges.

A little olive oil, a generous sprinkle of salt and pepper, some alone time in the oven — this is all that’s between you and a cozy dish of roasted acorn squash this evening. Here is a step-by-step recipe and guide to help you cook perfect acorn squash every time. It’s the perfect fall side dish. This simple side dish pairs well with almost everything for dinner, from roast chicken and pot roast to creamy risotto. It’s great for meal prep.

I like to think sweet potatoes eagerly await Thanksgiving every year, knowing it’s their time to shine. Whether it’s a tradition to bake them into a pie for dessert or turn them into a casserole with marshmallows as a side dish, sweet potatoes are a holiday classic. However, there are so many more ways to serve them than these fan-favorite dishes.

Pommes aligot is more than just a cheesy twist on mashed potatoes. This incredibly magical blend of creamy potatoes and cheese was born in the French region of Midi-Pyrénées, and it is a celebration of regional cheese, served on special occasions alongside sausage or roasted meat.

It’s not a contest, but if you aspire to win Friendsgiving with the best side dish of the night, you’re hardly alone. From an everything bagel stuffing and smashed potato casserole to Thanksgiving slaw, this impressive collection of recipes will help you up your game with a side dish that will keep everyone talking.

These creamy, caramelized coins are almost too good to be true.

Consider this a must for Thanksgiving dinner and meatloaf Sundays.

They're not the same as gratin.

Is there nothing more comforting and delicious than mashed potatoes? This warm, creamy, dairy-laden starch might be more of an indulgence than everyday fare these days, but even if you only have them once a year (Thanksgiving!), I say go all out and do it right. Read on for our method for classic mashed potatoes, with recommendations for potato type, dairy additions, and mashing methods. Potatoes: The best potatoes for mashed potatoes are Russets and Yukon Golds.

Do you have a soft spot in your heart for roasted winter squash, like butternut squash, kabocha, or acorn squash? If so, it’s high time to roast a pumpkin. If you’ve done this before then you know the results are nothing short of amazing. And spoiler alert: it’s not as tough or fussy as you might think. In fact, prepping a pumpkin is a lot easier than some other squash varieties (I’m looking at you, butternut squash).

A creamy, dreamy mac & cheese that you can prep days ahead of time and just pop in the oven.

This easy vegan number won't wilt like more fragile salads.

Say bye-bye to the blue box.

Tender sautéed greens are an easy go-to vegetable side everyone should know how to make. They pair with everything from quick pastas to weeknight chicken dinners, and come together in minutes. While mustard greens might not be as trendy as kale or as omnipresent as spinach, they’re well worth getting to know. They’re the leafy green of the mustard plant and are related to collards, cabbage, and, in fact, kale, and are common in Indian, Chinese, Japanese, African, and Southern U.

You don't even have to boil water.

Despite your most careful planning (did you make a detailed timeline?), cooking Thanksgiving dinner can still feel a little stressful once the big day rolls around. It holds true whether you’re having a small Thanksgiving dinner or hosting the whole extended family. That’s why we love getting a jump-start with one or several make ahead Thanksgiving sides.

Sweet potato casserole is one of the most popular Thanksgiving side dishes for a reason: It serves up the vegetable in a creamy, sweet, and decadent way, and as we pile it onto our plates, it makes us feel like a kid again. Unfortunately, it’s often overthought and over-complicated, riddled with too many unnecessary steps and ingredients (I’m guilty of it, too, although this classic, meringue-topped version is delish).

Baked potatoes are incredibly easy to make – you can walk in the door, throw a few potatoes in the oven, and carry on with your after-work routine until they’re ready to eat. Cracked open and still steaming, baked potatoes are ready to receive anything from a pat of butter, a sprinkle of cheese, or last night’s beef chili. Baking a potato in the oven does require a little more time than zapping it in the microwave, though.

Ham is one of my favorite things to serve as a main dish. I’ll either cook my ham in the slow-cooker or bake it in the oven. I love that it’s easy to make and provides the perfect savory foundation to build the rest of your dinner around. In my opinion, a large part of the pleasure of serving ham is enjoying the side dishes that play well with its rich flavor. Plus, leftover ham can be reinvented into several other meals throughout the week or frozen until further notice.

There's more to it than you think.

I could eat potatoes every day for the rest of my life. At their core these spuds are so humble, but with a little finesse, they suddenly blossom into a comforting side which turns out to the best thing on the plate (no offense to the main dish!) Mashed potatoes, roasted potatoes, baked potatoes — sign me up as interested for all of the above.

With so many beautiful and unusual squashes showing up in markets right now, I can’t seem to come home without at least one knobby, colorful, speckled squash in my bag. Happily, stuffed squash is a dish that will work for just about any winter squash I happen to pick up. You don’t really need a recipe — just a few basic steps and dinner practically makes itself. I consider stuffed squash to be one of the most perfect autumn weekend meals imaginable.

If you need dinner on the table with zero delays, then a microwaved baked potato is pretty much an ideal solution. A single potato is ready in under 10 minutes, and cooking a few more alongside hardly takes any longer. Topped with leftover chili, pulled pork, or cheesy broccoli, this dinner staple couldn’t be quicker or easier. Good ol’ russet potatoes will do the trick here. Any size will do, although larger potatoes might need an extra minute.

Everything I know about cornbread dressing — and Thanksgiving — I learned from my mother, which she in turn learned from her mother. It is a long line of resourceful Southern cooks, and I trust them with this important meal completely. The secret? It’s all about the butter! My very wise nanna once said, “Whatever the amount of butter called for in a dressing recipe, double it, triple it, heck, even quadruple it!

Pumpkin and butternut squash seem to get all the attention this time of year, but when it comes to orange-hued vegetables, I actually prefer the humble sweet potato. I’ll take sweet potatoes any which way, but at my Thanksgiving table I prefer mashed sweet potatoes. Some mashed sweet potato recipes call for baking the them in the oven first, then slipping them out of their skins and mashing them. Other recipes call for boiling the sweet potatoes in water.

On Thanksgiving, I don’t think any dish inspires quite as much love and jealousy as classic stuffing. Or, for that matter, technical debate over stuffing vs. dressing. Sure, if it’s baked inside the turkey it’s stuffing, and if it’s not, it’s dressing. But to me, it will always be stuffing — it sounds so much more satisfying than dressing, which brings to mind vinaigrette. And on my table, the stuffing is always some version of this classic sage and onion mix.