Thanksgiving
60 of Our Favorite Thanksgiving Vegetable Side Dishes
These are the vegetable sides we want to sit next to at Thanksgiving.
Turkey gets a lot of attention on Thanksgiving (the holiday’s nickname is Turkey Day, after all), but it’s not the whole shebang. There’s also gravy and cranberry sauce and stuffing and, best of all, delicious Thanksgiving vegetable sides. These are where your holiday table finds its groove (color! freshness! vitamins!), and where you get to have fun with the recipes—maybe even try something new.
Here are 60 of our favorite recipes to mix and match, broken down into the most popular categories. Plan on each recipe serving two to three (and scale up according to your guest list).
1. Stovetop Green Bean Casserole
This contemporary take on the classic green bean casserole takes place entirely on the stove. Because Thanksgiving has enough recipes vying for the oven.
2. Glazed & Glistening Haricot Verts
If you’re searching for a simple, green side to serve alongside your feast, look no further than this garlicky, buttery beauty.
3. Green Bean “Casserole”
Like a casserole, but it’s actually a salad. Haricot verts in a mustardy crème fraîche dressing, with crunchy hazelnuts sprinkled on top.
4. Sichuanese Dry-Fried Green Beans
Sichuan peppercorns add citrusy, tingly spice to these green beans—a welcome snap-crackle-pop of flavor next to soo much richness.
5. Green Beans Vinaigrette
Sometimes simple does it. Green beans get boiled in salty water (so they’re seasoned throughout), then doused in a zingy vinaigrette with sherry vinegar and Dijon mustard.
6. Warm Purple Potato Salad With Green Beans, Radish & Fennel
I love a side dish that has so many vegetables in it, I can barely tell which category it fits into. Feel free to swap in whatever potato you like best, but I love how dramatic purple is.
7. Roasted Potato Salad With Mustard-Walnut Vinaigrette
Most potatoes start with a pot of water for boiling, but this one turns to the oven instead. Roasting adds even deeper, cozier flavor, perfect for a nutty vinaigrette.
8. Squashed Potatoes
Calling all crispy potato fans. The secret to these little wonders is boiling first (to soften), then squashing (to increase surface area, aka potential for crispy edges) and frying.
9. Mashed Potatoes With Caramelized Onions & Goat Cheese
Perhaps you want a twist on your usual mashed potatoes. These two ingredients are workhorses: savory-sweet caramelized onions and tangy-creamy goat cheese.
10. Twice-Baked Potatoes With Kale
This recipe has so much kale, it almost ended up in the “Hearty Greens” section below. I love how these are easy to serve to a big group—just snag a potato half and pass along the tray.
11. Spaghetti Squash With Kale Pesto & Burrata
Spaghetti squash is feeling very, very special thanks to a kale pesto (feel free to swap out the pine nuts for walnuts, pecans, or cashews), parsley bread crumbs, and creamy-oozy burrata.
12. Roasted Delicata Squash With Spicy Yogurt Dressing & Pomegranate
“Delicata squash is one of my favorite fall vegetables,” our test kitchen director Josh Cohen writes. He roasts half-moons, then dresses them up with a spiced yogurt dressing and handful of pomegranate seeds.
13. Caramelized Butternut Squash Wedges With Sage-Hazelnut Pesto
It doesn’t get more autumnal than a sage-hazelnut pesto. Feel free to swap in another squash instead of butternut, or even another vegetable entirely, like carrots or parsnips.
14. Roast Squash & Chickpea Salad With Orange-Tahini Dressing
Squash, chickpeas, and a tangy tahini dressing make this a hearty side that could double as a main if you have any vegetarians at your table.
15. Butternut Squash Gratin
That just happens to be vegan and gluten-free. Almond or soy milk take the place of heavy cream, while almonds and nutritional yeast create a crunchy-crumbly topping.
16. Roasted Butternut Squash With Spicy Onions
Butternut squash is sweet to begin with, then gets even sweeter when roasted. To balance things out, try topping it with spicy onions and plenty of fresh herbs.
17. Sweet Potatoes Anna With Prunes
Pommes Anna is a classic French dish with sliced, layer potatoes and a boatload of butter. This sweet potato take (with fudgy prunes!) comes by way of the late, great Nora Ephron.
18. Sweet Potato Casserole
You can’t beat this classic from Edna Lewis—silky, custardy sweet potatoes topped with a crunchy pecan streusel.
19. Mashed Maple Chipotle Sweet Potatoes
My family and I made these last year for Thanksgiving and I’ve been thinking about them ever since. I love the opposites-attract pairing of syrupy maple and smoky chipotles.
20. Ottolenghi-fied Sweet Potatoes
Sweet potatoes, inspired by some of Ottolenghi’s favorite flavors. You roast hunks, glaze with pomegranate molasses, drizzle with tahini sauce, and scatter with crispy chickpeas.
21. Roasted Sweet Potato, Chickpea & Kale Sheet-Pan Salad
Instead of a bowl, this salad comes together on a sheet pan for a delightfully colorful combo of roasted and raw produce.
22. Spiced Peanut Sweet Potato Salad
These sweet potatoes fell in with the right crowd: dates, black sesame seeds, and peanuts. Not to mention the peanut butter–sesame oil dressing, which we want to put on everything.
23. Roasted Brussels Sprouts With Pears & Pistachios
This recipe first published on Food52 in 2013 and went on to win our recipe contest for “Your Best Green Holiday Side.” (Green Brussels sprouts, green bears, green pistachios!)
24. Brussels Sprouts Caesar
Instead of romaine, this newfangled Caesar uses Brussels sprouts, which explode into confetti when shaved on a mandoline or with a knife.
25. Boiled Brussels Sprouts With Bacon Mayo
Boiled vegetable plus flavored mayo is one of my all-time favorite pairings. This recipe preserves Brussels sprouts’ bright green color, then calls in one of their best friends: bacon.
26. Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Bacon & Balsamic-Cranberry Glaze
Our contributor EmilyC writes, “These are my family's favorite Brussels sprouts, hands-down.” If you’re a fan of Emily’s recipes, like we are, that’s saying a lot.
27. Roasted Brussels Sprouts With Fish Sauce Vinaigrette
You will want to put this fish sauce vinaigrette—with rice wine vinegar, lime juice, and red chiles—on all roasted vegetables from here forward. And you should!
28. Brussels Sprouts & Apple Salad With Cheddar & Rye Bread Crumbs
This salad would love to sit next to your roast turkey. But if you want to repeat it after Thanksgiving (you will), try skillet-crisped sausages or pan-roasted pork chops.
29. Lacinato Kale Gratin
What happens when you combine a lot of kale with a lot of cream and a lot of cheese? Good things. Very good things.
30. Miso-Creamed Kale
Instead of classic creamed spinach, why not swap in kale? And, while you’re at it, add a spoonful of miso to the mix—its salty, fermented funk keeps the richness in check.
31. Kale & Bulgur Salad With Brown Butter Apple Vinaigrette
No shortage of good stuff here: kale, bulgur, apples, almonds, Gruyere! If you’re pinched for time, you can swap out the brown butter vinaigrette for something simpler (say, olive oil and apple cider vinegar).
32. Escarole Salad With Za’atar Pita Crisps, Blood Orange, Radishes & Hazelnuts
If you aren’t sure about escarole, this will convince you. The juicy blood orange and crispy radishes add some much-needed brightness to the holiday spread.
33. Chard Salad With Garlic Bread Crumbs & Parmesan
Chard is often cooked—but you should try it raw, too. Especially when garlicky bread crumbs and Parmesan are involved.
34. Slab Galette With Swiss Chard & Gruyere
Pie with dinner? Yes! This one is highly savory thanks to Swiss chard, onion, garlic, and not one, but two types of cheese.
35. Double Mushroom & Kale Farro
A one-pot dish that’s super hearty thanks to farro. It could even serve as a substitute for stuffing if anyone at your table doesn’t eat bread.
36. Roasted Mushroom Salad
The trick here is to use a variety of mushrooms (button, cremini, shiitake, oyster, you name it), so you get a range of flavors and textures.
37. Mushrooms WIth Caramelized Shallots & Fresh Thyme
Repeat after us: Don’t crowd the mushrooms. Cooking them in multiple batches means better browning (and, in turn, better flavor).
38. Caramelized Onion & Mushroom Tart
This tart crust has a couple of tricks up its sleeve: whole-wheat flour (which adds nuttiness) and fresh thyme (which gets along great with the onion and mushroom).
39. Mushrooms in Pickle-Brine Butter
Here’s a fun game to play at the Thanksgiving table: Serve this knockout Genius recipe, then ask your guests to guess the secret ingredient.
40. Tuscan Onion Confit
This recipe is a family favorite for our co-founder Merrill Stubbs. For years, she knew it as “Tuscan Onion Goo.” Maybe it’ll catch on.
41. French Onion Tart
This onion tart has cheese in two places: the filling, of course, but also the flaky pastry crust. Because when it comes to cheese, the more the better.
42. Onion Tarte Tatin
Traditional tarte tatin is made with apples for dessert. This one uses onions instead for a delightful dinner side.
43. Steamed Broccoli With Caper-Raisin Vinaigrette
Steamed broccoli might not be as trendy as roasted, but I love its crisp-tender texture and shiny green color. It’s also the perfect blank page for a salty-sweet vinaigrette, like this caper-raisin one.
44. Blissed-Out Crispy Cheesy Broccoli Sheet-Pan Gratin
Not all gratins need a casserole dish. This one turns to a wide, flat sheet pan for even more crispy goodness (think: corner piece in every bite).
45. Shaved Broccoli Stalk Salad With Soft Feta & Golden Raisins
Don’t throw out the stalks! This salad, with creamy feta and chewy raisins, is happy to turn them into pappardelle-like ribbons with a vegetable peeler.
46. Brown Butter Cauliflower With Dates & Capers
Brown butter cauliflower would be wonderful on its own (and a nice substitute for roast turkey). Sweet dates and briny capers make it even better.
47. Roasted, Spiced, Almond-y Cauliflower
Warm spices and sliced almonds add extra savory-sweetness to one of our favorite roasted vegetables of all time (although we know it's not a contest).
48. Shaved Cauliflower, Fennel & Beet Salad With Parmesan Dressing
A mandoline does all the hard work here. Feel free to swap in broccoli or Brussels sprouts or whatever vegetable suits your fancy. Just don’t touch the umami-laden Parmesan dressing.
49. Cauliflower Salad With Pickled Grapes, Cheddar Cheese & Almonds
Pickled grapes are equal parts sweet, sour, and sassy. Here, they liven up down-to-earth roasted (and raw!) cauliflower.
50. Broccoli Salad With Pesto, Apples & Walnuts
Raw broccoli stands up well to time, which is why this always-crisp make-ahead salad (featuring classic fall flavors) will leave you plenty of time for tending to entrées.
51. Roasted Carrots With Carrot-Top Pesto & Burrata
You say carrot, we say carrot-top pesto. This green often goes to waste, but is just as ready-to-rumble as basil.
52. Pomegranate-Roasted Carrots
The game-changer ingredient here is pomegranate molasses, which cookbook author Melissa Clark says “tastes nothing like either pomegranate or molasses, but has a puckery, caramel, almost SweeTarts candy flavor that perks up just about anything you drizzle it on.”
53. Turmeric-Roasted Carrots With Seeds
The more dishes you can make ahead for Thanksgiving, the better. Here to help are these turmeric-roasted carrots (“actually great at room temperature,” writes author Alison Roman).
54. Roasted Carrots with Mustard Greens Gremolata
Mustard greens can enliven most anything with their sharp, peppery flavor. Pair them with sweet, tender roasted carrots for a balanced, welcome addition to any fully loaded Thanksgiving plate.
55. Jerry Traunfeld's Root Ribbons with Sage
Cook wisps of root vegetables together, briefly and with restraint, so they stay full of sweetness. Earthy sage adds that inimitable Thanksgiving essence that we look forward to all year long.
56. Carrots with Brown Butter and Hazelnuts
Savory-sweet brown butter and toasted hazelnuts, a sprinkle of fresh parsley, and a little fresh lemon juice is all it takes to transform simple carrots into a bright, nutty side dish you'll make over and over.
57. Creamed Spinach & Parsnips
How to improve upon creamed spinach: Just add parsnips. Ta-da!
58. Seared & Glazed Parsnips With Rosemary
If glazed vegetables feel too blasé to you, do as our test kitchen director Josh Cohen does and give them a quick char before glazing.
59. Parsnip Biscuits with Black Pepper and Honey
Simple parsnip puree and a generous dose of honey add flavor and moisture to these lightly sweet buttermilk biscuits that are perfect for serving with Thanksgiving dinner (and will make great sliders for leftovers).
60. Parsnip Latkes With Apple Chutney & Horseradish Yogurt
Not all latkes have to start with potatoes and be served at Hanukkah. You can fry these in advance, cool on a wire rack, then blast in a hot oven before serving.
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Written by: Emma Laperruque
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7 Comments
That peach fuzz skin seems to be a common issue...I also have an aversion to that, but have found that if I wash my peach really well before eating or slicing, and don't dry it, just eliminate excess water, it works really well. Of course, your method does too, it's just that the skins of things usually have so many benefits, I hate to get rid of them.
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