Our favorite mashed and sweet potatoes, savory stuffings, rolls, and cranberries.
Sunset Staff
It’s time to get (some of) the focus off the turkey. It may be the face of the whole holiday, all the way down to the Thanksgiving crafts kids make it school, but it’s not everything. A Thanksgiving meal with just turkey is no meal at all. Sides make the meal.
Sides are also where you can have a little more creativity. Sure there are multiple ways to prepare your turkey, but in reality, turkey variation is limited. So it’s in the sides where you’ll have the most opportunities to throw in some interesting or non-traditional flavors and really show off for your guests. Even if you’re sticking with traditional sides, there’s still plenty of room to change things up.
For the stuffing (or dressing, depending on your preference), the only rules seem to be the base of bread, vegetables, and herbs. But the specifics are all up to you, meaning you can end up with a classic cornbread stuffing, a Southwest-inspired stuffing with chorizo, or even one with basmati rice, coconut, and almonds.
Sweet potatoes can be mashed, roasted, twice baked, or, for a bit of kick, glazed with chili. And the cranberries … there’s practically no limit to what you can do with them, from incorporating them into other dishes or crafting one to shine a spotlight on them all by themselves.
Thanksgiving is a time to come together with those close to you and enjoy delicious food together. Whether you’re sticking to the classics or experimenting with bringing new ideas and flavors to the holiday meal, it’s still Thanksgiving so long as the food is good and you’re with friends and family.
Mix It up with These Sides
1 /33Thomas J. Story
Roasted Turkey Gravy
Roasted Thanksgiving vegetables and drippings from the turkey pan, plus toasted roux for thickening, make for a deeply flavored gravy.
The caraway from the rye bread is delicious with the roasted squash. If you like the flavor, use a darker rye. If you’re not a fan, you can easily use a good-quality sourdough. This makes a good main dish for vegans (use kosher rye, which excludes dairy). But it’s good with sausage too; add about 1 pound, casings removed, browned and crumbled.
Every November, we’re asked again and again for this recipe, created by reader Leslie Jo Parsons of Sutter Creek, California. (Sunset readers from all over the West have actually called Parsons to thank her for it, too.)
She still makes the stuffing every year, and she agrees with us: It’s even better with extra parmesan, so we added some more here.
If we could have only one other dish besides turkey for Thanksgiving, this would be it: Hunks of juicy sausage, good bread, and lots of chard―a stuffing that works as a side dish too.
A medley of Thanksgiving vegetables including bell peppers, butternut squash, and mushrooms and a generous helping of spicy chorizo makes this hearty dressing a crowd-pleaser.
Like a cross between a dressing and a savory bread pudding, this rich mix of slightly sweet cornbread, earthy dried mushrooms, and creamy, sharp blue cheese had Sunset’s staff clamoring for seconds.
Twice-Baked Sweet Potatoes with Bacon and Goat Cheese
This is a decadent yet savory way to serve sweet potatoes. If you’re expecting vegetarians, make a couple of potatoes without the bacon. One potato can be enough for at least four people, depending on its size.
Coconut Pan-Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Sesame Seeds
Virgin coconut oil is unrefined and cold-pressed, like extra-virgin olive oil, and isn’t hydrogenated. It has a clean, slightly nutty taste that’s delicious in this dish. Deborah Madison, who adapted this recipe from one in a new revision of her book Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone (1997), likes to use a mix of sweet potatoes, but it’s fine to go with just one kind. Paler sweet potatoes tend to be drier, so if you use them, add more oil.
The tricks to achieving very creamy mashed potatoes are to not overcook them and to whip them just until smooth (if you overwhip, they’ll get gluey). Serve some of the butter on the side, so guests can determine their level of richness.
We’ve used two low-calorie tricks in here: broth instead of whipping cream, and neufchâtel cheese for rich creaminess with one-fourth the fat of butter.
Mashed potatoes are even better blended with celery root, which has a gentle but penetrating flavor. Don’t be deterred by the root’s hairy exterior; just trim it off with a knife. This recipe is adapted from one in Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone (1997), by Deborah Madison.
Earl Grey tea is the secret ingredient in this sweetly aromatic, lightly spiced sauce. Just pay close attention to the timing–too much steeping can turn the sauce bitter.
23 /33Iain Bagwell
Cranberry Sauce with Tangerine and Ginger
You’re a restless, inventive cook, and you itch to break free of the recipe on the back of the cranberry bag. But you can’t get too crazy, because everyone wants familiar flavors on Thanksgiving. Solution: This zesty yet crowd-pleasing recipe from legendary Bay Area chef Joyce Goldstein, adapted from her book, Jam Session (Lorena Jones Books). The sauce is even better the next day.
Bright but not too sweet, this relish from Cindy Daniel of Healdsburg Shed in Northern California is great with turkey as an alternative–or addition–to cranberry relish. You’ll need 3 pt.-size canning jars.
27 /33James Baigrie
Cranberry Ginger Sauce
Fresh ginger and the zest and juice of an orange gives a tart and fresh kick to this Thanksgiving mainstay.
Notes: Biga is a yeast-based starter for which a portion of the dough is mixed first and allowed to ferment, giving the finished loaf some of the characteristics of bread made with a sourdough starter. Mix biga 1 day before baking bread.
33 /33Aya Brackett
Buttermilk Skillet Cornbread
For this moist, fragrant cornbread, based on a recipe in her classic Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone (1997), author Deborah Madison searches farmers’ markets for interesting cornmeal, such as Floriani Red Flint (used here), Roy’s Calais, or blue corn. For a denser bread, you can use all cornmeal instead of mixing it with flour.