Sure, the turkey is the centerpiece of your Thanksgiving meal, but the side dishes you serve can really help the dinner shine and be what people remember the most about the meal. Choosing new, interesting or classic side dishes is easy when you take a look at over 100 different side dish recipes that Food Network provides for you. Check it out!
Source: 100+ Classic Thanksgiving Side Dish Recipes : Food Network
It’s that time of year again – when people begin to think about Thanksgiving and what the meal will contain. It’s never too early to start planning out your menu and the more organized you can be the smoother the days leading up to and Turkey Day will be for you. A good place to start is to consider some of the side dishes that you will want to make for the day. New York Times Cooking has put together 20 of their most popular Thanksgiving side dishes so you can see some classic recipes or give something new a try this year. Check it out!
Source: Our 20 Most Popular Thanksgiving Side Dishes – Recipes from NYT Cooking
While making the turkey is certainly the centerpiece of your Thanksgiving adventure when you are cooking, the side dishes can be more fun and even more memorable. You get the opportunity to really try out some new things if your willing to break from tradition a bit. Sure you can still have mashed potatoes and stuffing, but you have a lot of options with the ways you make both and with your vegetables, the combinations seem almost endless. Since we will be away this Thanksgiving and I won’t be cooking the meal this year, I wanted to try out some dishes and recipes I have seen recently for sides for Thanksgiving. A personal favorite of mine is always Brussels sprouts and I love them roasted, so when I came upon this recipe from Tasting Table for roasted Brussels sprout with squash and apples, I had to give it a try. The original recipe also tops it all with candied walnuts, which I omitted because Michelle and Sean don’t eat walnuts, but you can certainly include them back in to give you some extra crunch to your vegetables.
Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Squash and Apples
1 pound Brussels sprouts (about 30 sprouts), trimmed and halved
2 pounds butternut squash (about one small squash),cut into 1-inch chunks
1 apple, cut into 1-inch chunks
2 shallots, thinly sliced
15 sage leaves
3 tablespoons butter, melted
2 tablespoons maple syrup
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine the Brussels sprouts, the squash, the apple, the sliced shallots and the sage leaves. Add the melted butter and the maple syrup and season the vegetables with salt and pepper. Toss all of the ingredients until all of the vegetables are well coated with the butter-maple syrup mixture.
Spread the vegetables in an even layer on a parchment paper-lined sheet tray. Roast, turning the vegetables occasionally, until the Brussels sprouts are golden brown and tender and the butternut squash is tender, about 35 to 40 minutes. Transfer the roasted vegetables to a serving dish, season with salt and pepper to taste, and serve, topping with walnuts if you desire.
It is a nice and simple combination of vegetables that provides you with some great fall flavors. You get the taste of the sprouts and the squash combining nicely with the apple and the hint of maple syrup throughout the dish adds a nice glaze and flavor to the vegetables overall. We all loved the dish when I made this past weekend and I think it would go really well not just with turkey, but with any poultry, pork or beef meal where you wanted some nice roasted fall vegetable flavor on your plate. It’s definitely one I will make again this fall since it all comes together pretty quickly.
That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
I still have some side dishes that I made recently that would be great for your Thanksgiving table. I made both of these recently for Michelle’s birthday dinner and both were very simple to do. I think you want to try to keep the side dishes as easy as you can and even make them ahead of time if at all possible to save yourself some time on Thanksgiving when you are focused on family and the turkey. You can always simply re-heat your sides in the oven while the turkey is resting. This can give you more than enough time to get your sides heated properly and get everything on the table while it is hot. The first one for today is a very easy recipe for some maple glazed carrots.
Maple Glazed Carrots
12 medium carrots, with the greens attached
3 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon sugar
3/4 cup water
Salt
2 tablespoons maple syrup
Trim off all but 2 inches of the green tops of the carrots. Put the carrots, butter, sugar, water and salt to taste in a large skillet. Cover the skillet and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Maintain the boiling until nearly all the liquid evaporates, about 8 to 10 minutes.
Uncover the skillet and add the maple syrup. Cook, shaking the skillet over the heat frequently, until the carrots have obtained a nice glaze on them, about 2 to 3 minutes. Serve.
You could certainly leave out the maple syrup and still get something of a glaze on the carrots using this method and they would be good, but I think the maple syrup adds a really nice flavor to the carrots. You could also substitute honey for the maple syrup and get a nice glaze from that as well. Since this recipe was so easy, I did not need to make it ahead of time and simply made these on the stove top while the turkey was resting.
The second recipe is one I picked up from the cooking blog A Wee Bit of Cooking. It is a Finnish dish that is often used for the holidays called Lanttulaatikko. This is a turnip casserole that makes use of rutabaga, or yellow turnip. We have often eaten rutabaga on Thanksgiving in my family. It has a very distinct flavor to it and some people are put off by the aroma it can give off, but I love the flavor that you get from it. I often make it during the year, simply mashing it up, but this recipe adds a little bit more and is just as easy.
Lanttulaatikko (Turnip Casserole)
1 large rutabaga or yellow turnip
2/3 cup cream
1 egg
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons butter, softened
Peel the turnip and cut it into 1/2-inch chunks. In a medium saucepan, place the turnip and cover with salted water. Bring the turnips to a boil and boil until they are completely tender, about 15 to 20 minutes. Drain the turnips.
Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Mash the turnips well with a potato masher and then run them through a potato ricer. Combine the cream, butter, honey, nutmeg and egg and mix until blended. Add the mixture to the mashed turnips and mix well. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Add the turnip mixture to a small casserole dish and smooth the top with a fork or spatula and dot with the butter. Bake in the 350 degree oven for 40 minutes until golden and crisp on the top. Serve.
Since the turnip can take a long time to soften and get tender and then to bake, I made this dish the day before our meal and simply re-heated it in the oven while the turkey rested. You get the flavor of the turnips along with the honey and nutmeg and it is a simple, sweet flavor. I would make this any time of year as a side dish for poultry or beef.
That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for even more recipes. There’s still time before Thanksgiving and I still have recipes to share. Until next time, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
30 Super-Simple Thanksgiving Sides – Photo Gallery | SAVEUR.
You need lots of options when it comes to the side dishes for your Thanksgiving meal, so here are another 30 recipes that are very easy and simple to make from Saveur Magazine. They cover all kinds of vegetables and potato dishes so you can liven up your menu with little effort. Check it out!
There seems to be an endless supply of Thanksgiving side dish possibilities. There are so many great Fall vegetables that you can use in so many different ways that the combinations you can come up with can help you to tailor your meal to fit whatever likes you may have or whoever may be coming over for dinner on that day. In my trail run dinner that I made for Michelle’s birthday, I made a lot of side dishes this year so I could try different things. One of her absolute favorites is one that often gets overlooked on the dinner table – creamed pearl onions. I actually got this very simple recipe from chef Thomas Keller and with just a few ingredients, you can have this dish made easily.
Creamed Pearl Onions
2 cups peeled pearl onions
2 cups chicken stock
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2/3 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon minced chives
Combine the pearl onions, chicken stock, sugar and salt in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Simmer the mixture until all the liquid has evaporated and the onions are tender, about 15 to 20 minutes. Add the heavy cream and cook until the cream has thickened. Stir in the chives and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste before serving.
It is very easy to make and you can do this while your turkey is resting so you can get it ready easily or you can even make it the day before and just lightly simmer it on the stove to heat it through. You get a nice, thick creamy sauce with the great flavor of the pearl onions. If you can get frozen pearl onions, you can save yourself the aggravation of having to peel the onions yourself. I couldn’t find any frozen onions, so I did buy the fresh ones, but there is an easy way to peel them. Simply place the onions in two cups of boiling water for 2 or three minutes. Remove the onions to an ice water bath or cold water bath to cool them off when you strain them off the stove. Once they are cool enough to the touch, simply cut off the root end of the onion and give the onion a gentle squeeze and it will pop right out of the skin. It still takes some time to do all of them, but it is a lot easier than trying to peel the paper off of all those tiny onions.
I also made a simple Brussels sprouts recipe. Even though sprouts may get a bad rap, we love them in our house and they make a great Fall or holiday side dish. And nothing seems to be better than some roasted Brussels sprouts with a little bit of bacon to add some flavor. This quick recipe is from chef Marcus Samuelsson.
Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Maple Bacon
1 pound Brussels sprouts, bottom trimmed and cut in half lengthwise
1 ounce maple syrup
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
Salt and pepper, to taste
1/2 ounce olive oil
4 ounces bacon, cut into quarters in strips
Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Toss the Brussels sprouts in the olive oil, salt, peppers and smoked paprika.Place the Brussels sprouts on a baking sheet and roast until they are browned and cooked through, about 15 minutes.
In a medium skillet over medium heat, fry the bacon until it is crispy, about 5 minutes. Drain the bacon of the fat and toss it with the maple syrup and the roasted Brussels sprouts. Finish the dish with a pat of butter over the top or just serve immediately.
Again, you can roast the Brussels sprouts a day ahead of time, like I did, and while the turkey rests before carving simply place them in the oven to warm them through with any other side dishes you are also warming to save yourself some time. The maple flavor along with the smokiness of the bacon and the paprika make this a fantastic side dish. If you want to try to keep it lighter and vegetarian, you can simply omit the bacon and roast the Brussels sprouts alone on a baking sheet or even in a cast iron pan and make them that way.
Unfortunately, I had so many side dishes when I made everything that there were a few things I forgot to take pictures of in all the rush to get things on the table. Sorry about that, but the pearl onions and Brussels sprouts got away from me. I do have pictures of the next 2 sides I will be posting tomorrow though.
That’s all I have for today. Keep checking back for some more holiday recipes and ideas. Until next time, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
Since I won’t be cooking the actual Thanksgiving meal myself this year, I thought I would get the month started early and try to make a bunch of Thanksgiving side dishes all month long so you have some new things to choose and try for your Thanksgiving meal this year. I recently made two side dishes that would be perfect to use for Thanksgiving. The first is a very simple baked ginger sweet potatoes dish that I got from Chow.com. it is very simple to make, with a wonderful glaze that adds some great flavor to the potatoes.
Baked Ginger Sweet Potatoes
3/4 cup apricot preserves
1/3 cup freshly squeezed orange juice (from 1 medium orange)
3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon peeled and grated fresh ginger
1 tablespoon kosher salt
4 pounds medium sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced into 1/2-inch rounds
Heat the oven to 425 degrees and arrange an oven rack in the middle position of the oven.
Place the apricot preserves, orange juice, butter, ginger and salt in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring the mixture to a simmer, stirring occasionally, and cook until the butter and the preserves are melted and smooth, about 6 minutes.
Place the sweet potatoes in a large bowl and drizzle them with about 1/3 of the apricot mixture, and, using your hands, toss the potatoes to coat them well with the mixture. Shingle the slices in a 13-by-9-inch baking dish. Cover the dish tightly with aluminum foil and bake for 25 minutes.
Remove the baking dish from the oven and remove the aluminum foil. Drizzle the potatoes with another 1/3 of the apricot mixture and bake the potatoes uncovered for 10 minutes. Drizzle the potatoes again with the remaining 1/3 of the apricot mixture and bake uncovered until the sweet potatoes are tender and the glaze has thickened, about 10 minutes more. Transfer the baking dish to a wire rack and cool for 10 minutes before serving.
The sweetness of the potatoes is enhanced even more by the apricot preserves and orange juice and the ginger adds a nice little bite of spice to the dish. It’s a great tasting dish that goes well not just with your Thanksgiving meal but with any weeknight meal of something like chicken or pork chops.
The second side dish I had made recently is another orange vegetable that is perfect for your Thanksgiving table. It is a very simple mashed butternut squash recipe that I got from Cook’s Country that has a great earthy flavor thanks to the spices it uses in the recipe.
Mashed Butternut Squash
4 pounds butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 1-inch pieces
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
Salt and pepper
4 tablespoons butter
2 apples, peeled and shredded (about 2 cups)
1 onion, chopped fine
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 tablespoons maple syrup
Adjust an oven rack to the upper-middle position and heat the oven to 425 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Combine the squash, vegetable oil, 1 teaspoon of salt, and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper in a bowl. Spread the squash out evenly on the prepared baking sheet. Roast the squash until it is tender and starting to brown, about 40 to 50 minutes, rotating the sheet halfway through the roasting process.
Meanwhile, melt the butter in a Dutch oven over medium-low heat. Add the apples, onion, and 1/4 teaspoon of salt and cook, covered, until the apples are soft, about 5 minutes. Uncover the pot and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the apples and onion are golden brown, about 5 to 7 minutes longer. Add the garlic, cumin, coriander, cinnamon and cayenne pepper and cook until the mixture is fragrant, about 30 seconds. Remove from the heat, cover and set the pot aside while the squash finishes roasting.
Add the roasted squash and maple syrup to the Dutch oven with the apple mixture. Mash the mixture with a potato masher until it is mostly smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve.
The mashed squash has great consistency and flavor and will go well with your turkey and other side dishes if you want to make something a little bit different. The apples really help to add some great depth of flavor to the dish and the maple syrup just gives it a final touch that we all really enjoyed. I actually served this with the slow cooker pepper pork chops I made the other night and the whole meal was fantastic.
That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for some more recipes. I have lots more ideas for your Thanksgiving side dishes, a good turkey recipe, a wonderful lemon cake I making for Michelle’s birthday, a great burger recipe we tried yesterday, some simple battered shrimp and a whole lot more. Until next time, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
Okay, so Sunday we did the turkey and stuffing, yesterday we did the soup, today we’ll do some side dishes. I wanted to choose some classic sides but maybe try something a little different with them, and I ended up choosing both of these recipes from Cook’s Country. The first takes the traditional sweet potato casserole and makes it a little differently. I am not a fan of marshmallow and didn’t want to make something that was going to use them and this recipe seems just perfect and it is not hard to make.
Sweet Potato Casserole with Bacon-Brown Sugar Topping
3 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
5 slices bacon
4 tablespoons butter, cut into 6 pieces
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon grated orange zest plus 2 tablespoons juice
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 400 degrees. Lay two 24 by 12-inch sheets of heavy-duty aluminum foil perpendicular to each other inside a rimmed baking sheet. Place the sweet potatoes in the center of the foil and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of sugar. Fold opposite sides of the foil toward each other and crimp edges to seal tightly. Transfer the baking sheet to the oven and bake until the sweet potatoes are tender, about 60 minutes. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and heat the broiler.
Cook the bacon in a large skillet over medium heat until crispy, about 5 to 7 minutes. Transfer the bacon to a paper towel-lined plate. When the bacon is cool enough to handle, crumble it into bite-size pieces. Pulse the bacon and the remaining 3 tablespoons of sugar in a food processor until coarsely ground, about 10 pulses; set aside.
Carefully open 1 end of the foil pouch, taking care to avoid escaping steam, and pout the potatoes and accumulated liquid into the food processor. Add the butter, cream, orange zest and juice, salt cinnamon, pepper and cayenne and process until smooth, 30 to 60 seconds, scraping down the bowl as needed.
Transfer the potato puree to a 2-quart souffle dish and sprinkle evenly with the reserved bacon-sugar mixture. Broil the sweet potatoes until the topping is lightly browned and bubbling, about 2 to 4 minutes.
You can make part of this ahead of time to save you time on Thanksgiving. The processed potatoes can be refrigerated without the topping for up to 2 days. To serve it, cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake on the middle rack of a 400 degree oven until hot throughout, about 30 to 40 minutes. Remove the foil, add the bacon-sugar topping and broil as directed.
I think it is going to turn out quite nicely and I’ll be sure to take some pictures of it so you can see it on Thursday.
My second recipe frees up some stove or oven space for you by making good use of your slow cooker. it is a version of the classic green bean casserole, but made using the slow cooker to make things a little easier for you along the way.
Slow-Cooker Green Bean Casserole
1 cup canned fried onions
3 tablespoons butter
10 ounces cremini or white mushrooms, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices
Salt and pepper
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups chicken broth
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
2 pounds green beans, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
2 slices white bread, torn into pieces
2 tablespoons butter, melted
2 cups canned fried onions
To make the sauce, pulse the canned onions in a food processor until finely ground; set aside. Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add mushrooms, 3/4 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper and cook until the mushrooms release their liquid, about 5 minutes. Increase the heat to medium-high and cook until the liquid is evaporated, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and thyme and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the flour and ground onions and cook until golden, about 1 minute. Stir in the broth and the cream and bring to a boil. reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is thick and creamy, about 10 minutes.
Combine the sauce and the green beans in the slow cooker. Cover and cook on low until the beans are tender, 5 to 6 hours.
Meanwhile, pulse the bread and butter in a food processor until coarsely ground. Toast the bread crumbs and onions in a skillet over medium-high heat until golden brown, about 3 to 5 minutes. Top the green beans with bread-crumb mixture and serve.
You can also start making this ahead of time as well to save you some effort on Thanksgiving. The sauce and the topping can be made and refrigerated in separate airtight containers for 2 days. To finish it, microwave the sauce, covered, for 1 minute before proceeding with slow cooking. Crisp the bread-crumb mixture in a skillet before topping and serving.
I like the idea of using the slow cooker, but I also like the not using canned green beans or cream of mushroom soup to make it. Personally, I am not a big fan of canned vegetables and soups. If you like them better, stick with what you like, but I think giving the freshness is worth the little bit of extra time it takes to prep everything.
Okay, so we almost have a complete meal for Thursday. Tomorrow, I am going to talk a little bit about some appetizers and a dessert to round out the meal if you want to check back and see. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
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