40 Fabulous Holiday Side Dishes
Super sweet potatoes [1]
Sweet potatoes, a staple of many holiday meals, come power-packed with beta carotene, vitamin C, vitamin B6, manganese and fiber. But at your dinner table, you're more likely to just appreciate their rich color and taste.
The "other" holiday potato [8]
Chances are, you grew up either with either sweet potatoes or white potatoes at your holiday meals. And you might have been surprised the first time you visited someone who served the other potato at the holidays. Whichever tradition you prefer, you'll find many great choices for side dishes.
Heartland Mashed Potatoes [10]
Stuffing recipes [15]
Cornbread, apples, pecans, cranberries sausage, water chestnuts, fresh herbs -- they all can make your stuffing exceptional.
Turkey with Old-Time Stuffing [16]
Cranberry-Apple Cornbread Stuffing [17]
Green beans: creamy, tangy, or sweet [22]
The delicate flavor of green beans can be enhanced with our lightened version of a classic green bean casserole. Or skip the creamed-sauce approach and jazz up your beans by adding garlic, lemon peel, bacon, onion, brown sugar, chopped nuts or crumbled feta.
Delightfully Light Green Bean Casserole [23]
Tangy Green Beans [24]
Fresh ways to serve corn [29]
During the holidays, your corn won't be fresh out of a Midwest field, but you can serve it in creative ways to infuse it with flavor. The Smoked Corn Cakes with Tomato and Sour Cream Sauce is a favorite at Deadwood Thymes Cafe and Bistro in Deadwood, South Dakota, where the chef smokes the corn before adding it to this recipe. You can use roasted corn, too; we like it both ways.
Smoked Corn Cakes with Tomato and Sour Cream Sauce [30]
Escalloped Corn and Tomatoes [31]
Corn Pudding [32]
Carrots with appeal [36]
Carrots, like sweet potatoes, are a nutrient-rich root vegetable, packed with vitamins and minerals such as beta carotene, vitamin C, magnesium and potassium. Serve carrots roasted, scalloped, glazed or herbed. Our Five-Herb Roasted Carrots and Potatoes recipe, developed by the Midwest Living® Test Kitchen, uses fresh chives, oregano, parsley, rosemary and sage to make the veggies fragrant and delicious.
Five-Herb Roasted Carrots and Potatoes [37]
Scalloped Carrots [38]
Honey-Glazed Carrots [39]
Herbed Baby Carrots [40]
Colorful squashes [43]
Squash comes in so many colors and shapes -- from long, green zucchini to round, orange pumpkins to ridged, green-and-yellow butternuts -- and each has a distinctive flavor and texture. These recipes use a variety of squashes for colorful holiday dishes. The Holiday Squash Risotto is a favorite from the Kirby House Bed and Breakfast in Saugatuck, Michigan.
Fragrant rolls [50]
Bake a batch of the homemade Potato Rolls pictured here, and we guarantee they'll disappear as fast at your holiday dinners as they do at Lucia's restaurant in Minneapolis. The Pumpkin-Currant Scones, also in the picture, are from Cafe Latte in Saint Paul. The spiced, moist biscuit complements a dinnertime feast as well as breakfast.
Best Potato Rolls [51]
Best-Ever Rolls [53]
Sensational salads [57]
Your holiday salad can be just as much a star at the table as your main dishes, side dishes or desserts. These recipes use fresh herbs, mushrooms, fruit, chopped nuts and easy homemade dressings for eye-appealing, flavorful salads.
Herbed Winter Salad [58]
Wilted Spinach Salad with Hot Bacon Dressing [59]
Zesty relishes and salsas [64]
Both Amazing Cranberry Relish and Cranberry-Apple Relish use just four ingredients for an easy-to-make accompaniment to meat dishes. Autumn Fruit Salsa could be served as an appetizer with blue corn chips or pita wedges. Old-Fashioned Corn Relish is delicious with pork, beef or poultry.
Autumn Fruit Salsa [65]
