Thanksgiving side dishes grouped by potatoes, vegetables, and make-ahead gratins built the day before serving.
If you have ever been in charge of cooking for Thanksgiving, you know that you the turkey isn’t really the hard part. It is the six side dishes and the one oven. Gratins, roasted roots, a crumb topping that has to stay crisp, something green that nobody really wants but everybody expects… all of it wanting the same shelf at the same time. Yikes! The fix? A combination of dishes assembled the day before that only finish in the oven while the turkey rests, and some that only demand a little attention on the Big Day. A gratin left overnight only improves, and a crumb topping added at the last minute stays crisp instead of turning soggy in the fridge. The strongest lineup also goes beyond the usual potato-and-green-bean roster, borrowing from other countries and other holidays entirely, while still holding its own against turkey and gravy. Here is the lineup we would build this year!
Jump to: Potatoes · Vegetables · Stuffing-Adjacent · Make-Ahead
Potatoes
1 · Danish Caramelized Potatoes: A Christmas Side for Thanksgiving Too
Sugar caramelizes dry in the pan before butter and boiled baby potatoes go in, coating each one in a glossy, faintly sweet glaze instead of a heavy sauce. It’s a Danish Christmas dish by origin, but the sweet-savory potato slot on an American Thanksgiving table is exactly the one it was built to fill.
Get the recipe: Brunede Kartofler – Danish Caramelized Christmas Potatoes
2 · The Crispiest Smashed Potatoes
Boiling the potatoes whole first, then smashing and roasting them, gives you the shattering crust a plain roasted potato never gets. Salt the boiling water harder than feels reasonable, that’s where the actual seasoning goes in, and skipping it is the one mistake that flattens the whole dish.
Get the recipe: The Crispiest Smashed Potatoes
3 · Candied Sweet Potato Casserole
Brown sugar and butter work into the sweet potato base itself rather than sitting on top, so the sweetness runs through the whole dish instead of one layer. Toast the pecan topping separately before it goes on so it doesn’t turn soft in the oven’s steam, the crunch is so important here.
Get the recipe: Candied Sweet Potato Casserole
4 · How to Make the Fluffiest Mashed Potatoes
Ricing the potatoes instead of hand-mashing them is the difference between fluffy and gluey, since a ricer never overworks the starch the way a masher can. Warm the butter and cream before they go in so the potatoes don’t seize, a small five-minute step some Thanksgiving cooks skip, don’t.
Get the recipe: How to Make the Fluffiest Mashed Potatoes
Vegetables
5 · Aromatic Lentil Tart: A Vegetarian Side for Thanksgiving
A savory tart built on lentils instead of meat, spiced heavily enough to hold its own on a table full of louder, richer dishes. It’s the one to make for the vegetarian guest who’s tired of getting handed the same three sides with the turkey just removed.
Get the recipe: Remembering Forgotten Flavors: An Aromatic Lentil Tart
6 · Sweet Potato, Spinach, Feta and Pine Nut Salad
Roasted sweet potato cubes go warm over raw spinach so the greens wilt slightly from residual heat, then feta and toasted pine nuts add the salt and crunch the dish needs. It’s the lighter counterweight to a table otherwise built entirely from butter and cream.
Get the recipe: Sweet Potato, Spinach, Feta and Pine Nut Salad
7 · Roasted Cauliflower and Pumpkin Gratin with Gruyère Cheese
Cauliflower and pumpkin both roast first to drive off extra moisture before they hit the gratin dish, which keeps the gruyère sauce from turning watery. Cut the pumpkin smaller than the cauliflower florets since it cooks through faster, mismatch the sizes and one of them ends up mush. I love this one so much.
Get the recipe: Roasted Cauliflower and Pumpkin Gratin with Gruyère Cheese
Stuffing-Adjacent
8 · Farofa with Bacon: Brazil’s Answer to Stuffing
Cassava flour toasts in bacon fat until it turns golden and faintly crunchy, the closest texture on this table to stuffing without a scrap of bread in it. Spoon it over everything on the plate the way you’d use stuffing, it makes it all so much better.
Get the recipe: Brazilian Side Dish – Farofa with Bacon
Make-Ahead
9 · Italian Béchamel Potato Gratin
The dish assembles a day ahead and sits in the fridge, since a béchamel-based gratin genuinely improves once the layers settle before baking. Pull it out an hour before it goes in the oven so it gets up to temperature quickly, this is a make-ahead dish that actually tastes made-ahead, in a good way.
Get the recipe: Italian Béchamel Potato Gratin
10 · Green Chile Potatoes au Gratin
Roasted green chiles bring a smoky heat a plain gratin never has, and the whole casserole holds up assembled a day out, covered and refrigerated until it’s ready for the oven. Let it sit at room temperature for thirty minutes before baking so the center cooks through evenly, not just the edges.
Get the recipe: Green Chile Potatoes au Gratin