For today’s blog post, I’m focusing on Thanksgiving side dishes because, let’s be honest, that’s where all the fun is on Thanksgiving. Move over turkey, I need more room for stuffing, glazed carrots and sweet potato casserole!
Thanksgiving Side Dishes
If you would like to see a complete Thanksgiving meal plan I’ve got you covered in my Thanksgiving Dinner Meal Plan blog post but if you’re simply on the lookout for Thanksgiving side dish inspiration, keep on scrolling to check out some of our tried and true favorites!
Diane’s Pineapple Soufflé
Ryan talked up this side dish before my first Thanksgiving with his family and I wasn’t sure it could possibly live up to his praise until I took a bite. Oh my goodness. This pineapple souffle is sweet and buttery and quickly claimed a spot on my “Favorite Thanksgiving” dishes! This one could double as a dessert but somehow feels acceptable as a Thanksgiving side dish because who doesn’t love something extra indulgent next to their turkey on Thanksgiving!?
This dish is not only my all-time favorite Thanksgiving dish, but it’s also one of my favorite foods period. I truly think I could have a plate filled only with this stuffing at Thanksgiving and feel perfectly happy. IT’S THE BEST. It is nostalgia on a plate for me!
Bubbee’s Glazed Carrots
When Ryan and I celebrated our first Thanksgiving together as a couple in college, I remember asking him about his favorite Thanksgiving side dish and he said “carrots.” I thought it was crazy (who like carrots that much!?) but when I had his grandmother’s glazed carrots for the first time, it all made sense. They’re sweet (brown sugar!) and salty (bacon!) and have since become a staple within my family as well!
Arugula Beet Salad
In case you’re wondering what salad we’ll be serving on our Thanksgiving table this year, it’s the same one we served last year: This arugula beet salad! We fell in love with this simple salad in the summer of 2024 and love it so much because it’s a breeze to make (very, very minimal chopping). A lot of it can also be prepped ahead which I appreciate a lot when we’re the ones hosting! It’s a 10/10 salad!!!
Quinoa Salad with Pecans and Cranberries
Fluffy, fruity, crunchy, and nutritious, this fall salad is an easy side dish that makes for a unique addition to any Thanksgiving table. Ready in 20 minutes and easy to prepare ahead of time, it’s gluten-free and vegan, making it a great option for those who may have certain dietary restrictions. We served this one at Friendsgiving a few years in a row and it went over so well!
Traditional Sweet Potato Casserole
Growing up in Illinois, sweet potato casserole wasn’t really a “thing” on Thanksgiving. It wasn’t until I moved south that I realized southerners looove sweet potato casserole with some intensity! It’s a “must” dish on the menu for Ryan and he’s the one who initially got me to try the marshmallow-topped delight. More than a decade ago, I ripped the above recipe out of Cooking Light magazine and it wow-ed us so much that we’ve made it every year since!
While this dish is slightly lighter than your traditional sweet potato casserole, it doesn’t taste like it all. It’s always a hit with guests as well and I’m not gonna lie, I even like it cold straight out of the fridge the next day. It’s that good. Tip: This is another dish that can be prepped the day before, you’ll just want to wait to reheat it and then top it with marshmallows and heat it up until they’re nice and toasted right before serving.
Winning Cornbread Recipe
Sweet, salty, and deliciously moist, this winning cornbread is simple to make and definitely worthy of your Thanksgiving dinner meal plan! Top it with butter, or use it to scoop up the last drippings from your plate. Just be warned that you may want to make extras because it always disappears fast. Bonus: This is a dish you can easily prepare the day before Thanksgiving to check one dish off your list.
Chopped Broccoli and Brussels Sprouts Salad
This simple salad is the perfect way to add some greens (Brussels sprouts! Broccoli!) to your plate this holiday. Made with vibrant fresh produce, nutrient-dense chopped pecans, and a tangy homemade honey mustard vinaigrette dressing, it’s salad you can prep ahead of time (no wilted lettuce) which is a big-time win in my book.
Greek Yogurt Biscuits
The Greek yogurt in these biscuits bumps up the amount of protein in each biscuit in a way that makes them a lot more filling and satisfying, not to mention absolutely delicious, especially when topped with a smear of butter and jelly. They’re a “good-for-you” biscuit but the flavor makes them absolutely worthy of a Thanksgiving meal, especially if you serve them with homemade honey butter.
Cranberry Sauce
My main requirement for a cranberry sauce recipe is that is be one that incorporates orange juice or orange zest into the mix. The fresh citrus from oranges complement the tartness of the cranberries so well! Sally nails it in this easy 5-ingredient recipe for a simple cranberry sauce!
Sauteed French Green Beans with Toasted Almonds
I am not one for traditional green bean casserole. It’s too mushy and soupy and just not for me. But this recipe? Oh yes!! Sauteed green beans are elevated to Thanksgiving-worthy status with this recipe thanks to sesame oil, garlic, a touch of brown sugar and crisp, toasted almonds. And it’s a 20-minute stovetop recipe so no need to take up coveted oven space!
Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes
Confession: I hate making mashed potatoes. I find them tedious and less-than-fun to prepare. It’s dish I’ll happily offload to anyone else who offers to make them. (I once served instant mashed potatoes during Friendsgiving and people actually asked me for the recipe so if ya need to take a Thanksgiving shortcut here and there, I say DO IT.) But I will admit Thanksgiving doesn’t feel like Thanksgiving without mashed potatoes and thankfully Instant Pot mashed potato recipes exist out there for people like me who want them to be low-maintenance. The above recipe is a great one and checks all of my boxes: Easy to prepare, simple and delicious! If you’re like me and my dad, make sure you serve them with peas and gravy! Don’t knock that combination ’til ya try it.
Question of the Day
- What is your all-time favorite Thanksgiving dish?
I am all about the stuffing, baby!!!
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Looks delicious! Julie, will you be posting the recipe for your mom’s monkey bread this year? I want to make it! 🙂
oooh!!!! i’ll definitely do this before christmas! it’s a christmas morning staple in our house and i’ve been meaning to share the recipe for years. thanks for the reminder!! <3
Yay! Been a follower since the beginning, so I am excited to read about it!
Have a great Thanksgiving!
I had that sweet potato casserole at Friendsgiving this past weekend, it was delicious, highly recommend to your readers as well! My favorite side dish is butternut squash hands down.
I am all about my mother’s apple/cranberry crisp. Delish!! I found a ton of new recipes this year-we are hosting our first Thanksgiving in our new home. Some of our sides we found-harvest succotash, cheesy greenbean casserole’ tex mex corn stuffing 🙂 Yummo!
Thank you for the link love, friend! My favorite Thanksgiving dish is pumpkin pie. 🙂
of course!! love that dish so much! no wonder it was such a big hit at your wedding! <3
Great recipe suggestions! My fave is pumpkin pie – always.
Deviled eggs! And black olives filled with cream cheese…I know, weird. But it’s not Thanksgiving at my parent’s house without them.
Stuffing is my favorite side too! All these look yummy. I’m so excited for Thursday!
I LOVE a green bean casserole! And man – what is it about the cranberry/nut combo that is SO delicious?! I need to try that quinoa salad immediately!
For favorites, I’m torn. I’m a huge carb person so I can’t get enough of the stuffing and biscuits. But I also love the broccoli casserole ( https://ofjessandjen.com/2014/11/23/grandma-sylvias-broccoli-casserole/ )
Pumpkin pie wins, hands down! But I also love the cranberry orange relish and my aunt’s pumpkin ravioli 🙂
oooooh i would loooove pumpkin raviloi right now!!
Stuffing always comes first. But I also love the sweet potato casserole my cousin makes topped with marshmallows and pecans and green bean casserole.
I used to hate stuffing, but now I love it! My all-time favorite is sweet potato casserole, though.
Well pumpkin cheesecake pie is my favorite, but I also like some good stuffing or sweet potato casserole. Great choices! I can’t wait:)
When it comes to my Thanksgiving meal, I love mixing! I love a big bite of turkey topped with cranberry, mashed potato, stuffing, and dressing. My husband is the opposite – he eats one thing at a time and has everything neatly separated. My plate always looks like a big mixed up mess, but I love it!!
haha i eat like you! i call my plate “thanksgiving soup” because i stir everything together. it looks horrible but tastes amazing!
My favorite is definitely cranberry sauce.
Thanks for sharing your favorites! I’ve been instructed to bring the veggie tray this year (very important, but kind of boring). I was looking for something extra to bring and I think the Quinoa Salad with Pecans and Cranberries will be a great addition! My must-have on Thanksgiving is Three-Bean casserole.
My aunt makes the most delicious stuffing made with acorn squash, cornbread, and cranberries. Each person gets their own (adorable) acorn squash filled with the good stuff!
Oh man this is going to sound so conceited but my dressing and cheeseball. It’s not that my family doesn’t make good stuff but they all say that I am some culinary freak of nature! HA! I always save back a serving for leftovers because if I don’t, they let it sit out too long and get stale crunchy. (Plus you always have ‘those’ relatives that assume all of the leftovers go to them. Uhh…no.) 🙂
For some reason I really love cranberry sauce from the can. I cant stand real cranberry sauce. Weird huh? I really only like that and turkey. Those are my Thanksgiving must haves 🙂
Stuffing is a fave!! I learned the hard way a few Thanksgiving’s ago that it is possible to have too much stuffing! Happy to say it is one of my faves again. This is the recipe I am most looking forward to make this year, sweet potato casserole: https://ohsheglows.com/2014/11/04/saweet-potato-casserole-with-a-crunchy-nut-crumble-vegan-gf/
Hands down, sweet potatoes. But I do love homemade stuffing.
You know, it’s funny: I always hated stuffing! And then a few years ago I used a recipe from scratch (imagine that), and I loved it! So that’s up there, but I love dessert the most. 🙂
Ever since we started smoking the turkey, that’s become my favorite part. I’m going to make your curry roasted butternut squash this year as a side dish though! It was so tasty!
Oo yay I needed a recipe for sweet potato casserole! I love that- so yummy. Also love cranberry sauce. And pumpkin pie. And everything hah I basically like all food
Sweet tater casserole looks AMAZING! Wow, I want to try that one this year!
My favorite side dish is yams. I just recently had TWO jaw surgeries this year and so therefore the pecans or marshmallows (I have braces now because of the jaw surgeries) on top won’t be on them, but it’ll still taste amazing. No one in my immediate family (mom and dad) like yams, so it’s only on the big holidays that I truly get to enjoy them.
Definitely stuffing…I could eat stuffing everyday, soooo yummy!
Those brussels sprouts…holly yum!!!
I agree with you – stuffing is the best! My other favorite side is turnip casserole with apples and brown sugar crumble on top. Yum!
I love creamy, homemade macaroni and cheese for a side dish! I also love garlic green beans and a big tray of roasted fall veggies.
I agree that stuffing has my heart on Thanksgiving!!! Seriously though, the turkey is second-rate compared to the stuffing in my mind…
I also love me some fluffy, crispy-the-outside cornbread! And brussels sprouts 🙂
Fannetastic Food’s Quinoa Salad with Pecans and Cranberries is definitely my new favorite side dish. After seeing your friendsgiving post last year I knew I had to make it for my family. They loved it so much and they stole all the leftovers from me! They’ve already requested me to bring it again this year!! LOVE IT!
I was just eyeing that brussels sprout gratin on skinnytaste! It looks amazing. I love stuffing. And pumpkin pie. And bacon wrapped green beans. So pretty much everything- turkey is probably my least favorite part!
Man these recipes all look delicious! I alway work during Thanksgiving but this year at work we are doing things different and having a Mexican thanksgiving feast! We are shaking things up since the years before have always been the traditional thanksgiving dinners.
Those carrots look amazing, I think I will have to try them this week. I am a traditional mashed potato kind of girl and in the last couple of years I have really enjoyed my Aunt’s homemade stuffing. You can also find me rushing through my meal just to get to the dessert.
Stuffing! That is the BEST part of Thanksgiving!
Homemade stuffing is the bomb.com! I look forward to my mom’s because it’s something you just don’t get to eat regularly throughout the year!
I’m with you, I LOOOOOVEEEE stuffing. Our good family friends always make these sausage stuffin’ muffins that are amazing, but I love my Mom’s stuffing recipe too (it’s a lot like your mama’s!). A very, very close second in my book is mashed potatoes, especially when smothered with New Mexican red chile instead of gravy and some turkey!
I can’t pick a favorite. I think part of what makes it all so good is eating it together! Now I’m hungry…
I have been wanting to try glazed carrots for a while now! They look so good 🙂 I will definitely have to try this recipe!!
I made your pineapple soufflé for Thanksgiving last year! It was SO good! I was thinking of what I should make to take to work this year for the holidays and had totally forgotten about that! Perhaps I’ll make that and the stuffing!
So happy to hear this!! 🙂
The quinoa salad looks AMAZING!
I’m with you! Stuffing is the thing I have only at Thanksgiving and look forward to the rest of the year. I think my third favorite is the mini pumpkin cheesecakes I make, but this year I took the easy way out and bought a pumpkin roll from a lady at work. They are seriously number two on my favorite list! So delicious!
That quinoa recipe looks insanely good!
This will be my third Thanksgiving making your glazed carrots! They are so, so good! Thanks for sharing your recipes =)
I love Paula Deen’s Pineapple Casserole. It’s not really your traditional casserole–it’s essentially just pineapple, cheese, and a cracker crust. But it’s delicious!
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/pineapple-casserole-recipe.html
I just added the stuffing to our Thanksgiving menu! Can’t wait to try it. Thanks for sharing!
I always look forward to your Thanksgiving recipe recommendations! 2 years ago, I made the glazed carrots and quinoa salad. Last year, I made the stuffing and pineapple souffle. All have been HUGE hits! Looks like this year, I need to try out the sweet potato casserole 🙂 Thanks for the inspiration!
so happy to hear this!!! <3
hey Julie, the link to the pineapple soufflé isn’t working…
Love from a long time Belgian reader 🙂
Ah!! Thanks for letting me know — just updated the post!!