14 Easy Side Dishes to Serve with Prime Rib

Meghan Splawn
Meghan Splawn
Meghan was the Food Editor for Kitchn's Skills content. She's a master of everyday baking, family cooking, and harnessing good light. Meghan approaches food with an eye towards budgeting — both time and money — and having fun. Meghan has a baking and pastry degree, and spent the first 10 years of her career as part of Alton Brown's culinary team. She co-hosts a weekly podcast about food and family called Didn't I Just Feed You.
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updated Nov 29, 2023
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Let’s be honest — you could serve almost anything next to prime rib and your dinner would be incredible, because prime rib is the king of dinner roasts. But if you’re looking for a few easy sides to fill out the table and enhance your prime rib dinner without a huge extra expense or effort, these 14 recipes are a good place to start.

In This Article
  1. Potatoes, Parsnips, and Cauliflower
  2. Green Beans and Broccoli
  3. Salads and Slaws
  4. Bread and Biscuits
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Potatoes, Parsnips, and Cauliflower

Whether they are baked, roasted, or fried, potatoes are a mandatory holiday dinner side. Roasted, baked, or twice-baked potatoes are easy to cook alongside the roast, while slow-cooked mashed potatoes and parsnip latkes take advantage of other methods (slow cooker and stovetop, respectively) while the prime rib roasts.

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3-Ingredient Roasted Dijon Potatoes
Not only do these potatoes have the ultra-crispy, crackly edges you love, but they also have a little added tang and go with everything.
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Twice-Baked Potatoes
Twice-baked potatoes stuffed with creamy mashed potatoes, melty cheese, and bacon, all served up in a crispy little boat.
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Mashed Potatoes in the Slow Cooker

Here’s a step-by-step recipe for the best mashed potatoes, made from start to finish in the slow cooker.

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Parsnip Latkes

Parsnips — sweet, citrusy, spicy, and starchy — make a crazy-good latke. What? You thought latkes were only made from potatoes and only for Hanukkah? Let me explain.

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Creamiest Mashed Cauliflower
Mashed cauliflower isn't just a replacement for mashed potatoes — try this hearty side with merits all its own.
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Green Beans and Broccoli

When it comes to green sides, no need to make an elaborate salad. Just keep it simple with sautéed green beans or roasted or steamed broccoli and you’ll have the perfect pop of green.

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Green Beans
For perfectly cooked green beans that are flavorful, crisp, and tender, you have to employ a quick two-step technique. Here's how to do it.
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Roasted Broccoli

In the grand pantheon of roasted vegetables, I feel that broccoli is king. Reviled by picky toddlers and neglected by snacking party-goers, here is a vegetable that is absolutely redeemed by the power of a hot oven. The tough stems turn tender, the tree-like tops turn crispy, and the color goes from dull and boring to a brilliant, appetizing emerald green. All hail King Broccoli.

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10-Minute Miso Broccolini

Not to be confused with its thicker, fuller, and more bitter cousin broccoli, Broccolini is a milder vegetable. A cross between leafy Chinese broccoli and regular thicker-stemmed broccoli, Broccolini has long, tender, and very edible stalks topped with a cluster of florets. Its flavor is much less bitter than regular broccoli; its earthiness and sweet, grassy flavor makes it an ideal candidate for getting tossed with savory, umami-rich miso paste.

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Salads and Slaws

Slaw might not be the first thing you think of when you’re planning out sides to serve with prime rib, but it should be. I’m working on a winter slaw campaign because I believe fresh, crunchy slaw is the perfect counterpoint to rich roasts and creamy mashed potatoes.

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Thanksgiving Lentil Salad
A hearty recipe for lentil salad with butternut squash, red onion, and kale tossed in a roasted garlic vinaigrette.
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Tangy Carrot Slaw
A recipe for easy carrot slaw tossed with a tangy Dijon mustard dressing.
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Apple-Bacon Slaw
Welcome fall with this easy slaw of crispy bacon, crunchy cabbage, and sweet apples.
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Bread and Biscuits

You’ll need something bread like to soak up the roasts juices and drippings, right? All three of these take less than an hour each.

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Buttermilk Biscuits

Southern biscuits are the perfect fictional device for telling the narratives of Southern families. One cook makes his biscuits with White Lily flour only because that’s how his Maw Mae did it.

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Popovers

One of nature’s great wonders, popovers are made with just milk, eggs, and flour. Plus a little butter and sugar, if you’re feeling sneaky. Whisk, pour into tins, and bake (no peeking!). A half hour later, you’re rewarded with the most incredibly airy and crispy puffs you could ever imagine. Oh, and p.s., no popover tin required.

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One-Hour Dinner Rolls

Fresh-baked dinner rolls seem to fall into two categories: the kind you bake from the tube from the grocery store, or the kind that takes you most of an afternoon to mix, rise, and bake. Looking for a somewhere-in-between solution, we discovered the one-hour dinner roll. These won’t replace the perfection of tender, yeasty rolls, but if you need a roll ready in about an hour, look no further.

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