Side Dish and Salad Recipes

All the sides you need to round out your Thanksgiving spread, from casseroles to dinner rolls.

All the sides you need to round out your Thanksgiving spread, from casseroles to dinner rolls.

View all categories

Salad Recipes

Roasted Pear Salad With Endive, Pomegranate, Blue Cheese, and Hazelnut Vinaigrette

A Thanksgiving salad shouldn’t be boring. This one makes the most of seasonal produce for a simple but impressive take on fall flavors.

Make-Ahead Roasted Squash and Kale Salad With Spiced Nuts and Cranberries

This salad combines sweet roasted butternut squash with roasted kale in a vinaigrette flavored with maple syrup and sherry vinegar, along with some spiced pecans for crunch and dried cranberries for a nice chewy texture.

Winter Greens Salad With Fennel, Citrus, and Creamy Citrus Vinaigrette

An easy winter salad with bitter greens, shaved fennel, citrus, and a sweet and creamy citrus vinaigrette.

Fall Harvest Salad With Roasted Brassicas, Fingerlings, and Radishes

A fancy salad that won't add to your holiday stress. Made with roasted brassicas, potatoes, radishes, and sunchokes, frisee, and radicchio, this dish can be prepped ahead with no loss in quality. Plus, it hardly wilts once dressed!

Soup Recipes

Creamy Roasted Broccoli Soup With Buttermilk and Spiced Pepitas

A creamy broccoli soup with no cream? Yep. Blending buttermilk with a purée of roasted broccoli yields a full-bodied soup with a little bit of acidic tang, while spiced pepitas add crunch.

Creamy Cauliflower and Bacon Soup

Cauliflower gets a flavor-packed, smoky jolt from bacon in this creamy, comforting soup. Not only is it dead-simple to make, but it reheats beautifully, so you can make it days ahead.

Roasted Pumpkin Soup With Brown Butter

Pumpkin soup shouldn't taste like pie. We ditch the spices and roast our pumpkin until it's caramelized for a creamy, savory-sweet take on the holiday classic.

Classic Butternut Squash Soup

A dollop of sour cream-spiked, cinnamon- and nutmeg-spiced whipped cream and frizzled sage leaves complete this wintertime classic.

Bread Recipes

Parker House Rolls

These no-nonsense rolls are just the right amount of buttery and sweet. The secret to making them extra fluffy? Instant mashed potato flakes.

Brown Butter Cornbread

Yes, we like our cornbread with a little sugar to make it moist and tender. We also like it with nutty browned butter, which forms an incredible crackly crust in the pan.

The Food Lab's Buttermilk Biscuits

These buttermilk biscuits come out tender and crisp, with tons of extra-flaky layers. Plus, they're incredibly easy to adapt to whatever flavor additions you want—think cheese, bacon, scallions, or honey.

Fluffy, Crusty, and Chewy Dinner Rolls

With a crackly crust and fluffy interior, these simple hard rolls are perfect for mopping up gravy, dunking in soup, or sandwiching around thick slices of your favorite cheese.

Onion Recipes

Glazed Pearl Onions

A simple, all-in-one-pan method for delicate, flavorful onions in a smooth and buttery glaze.

Creamed Pearl Onions

Slow, slow cooking and a healthy dash of cream give these pearl onions a melting texture and rich, mellow flavor.

Roasted Shallots With Buttery Sweet-Tart Glaze

Our roasted shallots get a bright flavor boost from a simple glaze of butter, sugar, and sherry vinegar.

Red Cabbage Salad With Roasted Cipollini Onions

This winter salad combines gorgeously sweet, meltingly tender roasted cipollini onions with red cabbage, bitter chicory, walnuts, and crumbled goat cheese.

Carrot Recipes

Roasted Carrots With Black Sesame Dressing

A dark, earthy dressing meets sweet, tender carrots

Gingery Glazed Carrots

We give our glazed carrots some extra complexity by tossing sliced ginger, thyme, and orange peel into the cooking liquid.

Carrot and Rye Berry Salad With Marcona Almonds

A hearty salad with rye berries, tender carrots, onions, cilantro, celery, and toasted Marcona almonds.

Charred, Oven-Roasted Carrot Salad With Feta Cheese

Caramelized oven-charred carrots are finished with tangy feta for a refreshing change of pace.

Brussels Sprout Recipes

Easy Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Forget mushy, boiled sprouts; these little cabbages are at their best when they get a fast dose of blistering heat to preserve their sweet flavor.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts With Shallots and Balsamic Vinegar

The sweetness of these Brussels sprouts, charred and crisped in a fiery-hot oven, plays well with sliced shallots and tart balsamic vinegar. Rendered bacon fat or duck fat makes them extra flavorful.

Creamed Brussels Sprouts and Bacon Gratin

We rarely use the phrase “over the top,” but this casserole, packed with bacon, cream, and cheese, achieves a richness that’s not often associated with the humble sprouts. Plus, it’s 100 percent make-ahead.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts With Bacon, Pecans, and Maple-Balsamic Vinaigrette

Brussels sprouts roasted with bacon and pecans make a perfect holiday side.

More Side Dish Recipes

Easy Roasted Mushrooms

To bring out the flavor of mushrooms, nothing beats roasting. This recipe speeds up the process by draining off the liquid mid-roast, resulting in intensely savory mushrooms with a meaty texture.

Creamed Spinach

Tender, concentrated spinach is enriched with béchamel and a last-minute shot of crème fraîche for an extra dose of creaminess.

Classic Baked Macaroni and Cheese

This classic béchamel-based mac and cheese is loaded to the hilt with cheese.

Creamy Beet Gratin With Pistachio Crumble

This creamy gratin is topped with a crunchy mix of salted pistachios, panko bread crumbs, and a pinch of sugar to balance the chili's mellow heat.