Traditional Thanksgiving Side Dishes
There is no other meal quite like the big Thanksgiving feast. In addition to the turkey, ham or roast beef, there is almost always a litany of side dishes to choose from, some of which quite often are recipes handed down for generations, others still might be something no one at the table has ever seen before. But one thing you can be sure of, on Thanksgiving, there will be a lot to choose from.
The number one main item on the list of side dishes for Thanksgiving has to be whipped (or mashed) potatoes and gravy. Whether it’s made old world or southern style, or haphazardly slapped together in a frying pan, good potatoes and turkey gravy is what makes the whole rest of the meal work together.
And what would whipped potatoes and gravy be without the stuffing, or dressing, depending on where you’re from. It can be bready and full of flavor, or chock full of rice, or even corn. And best of all, on Thanksgiving there is almost always more than one kind to choose from, which makes it all the more fun.
Another traditional Thanksgiving side dish is cranberry sauce; whether the smooth kind that comes shaped like the can or the kind that feels in your mouth like it’s still got the trigs on it; cranberry sauce is as much a part of Thanksgiving dinner as is turkey.
Something else most everyone expects with Thanksgiving dinner is some sort of dinner rolls; whether home cooked our struck over the counter, rolls with lots of butter and jelly or jam, or dipped in gravy is the side dish that exists for the most part to supplement and enhance the meal, rather than as something that should stand on its own.
Also, for many people there are a variety of vegetable dishes, from simple corn in a microwave dish to extravagant concoctions that only a few people know how to make. Vegetables are the part of the meal that makes everyone feel good about themselves in spite of how much other stuff they may be eating.
And lest we forget, it’s hard to think about Thanksgiving without mentioning yams, or sweet potatoes. Some people like them cooked and simple, others like them mashed with butter and brown sugar, but either way, if they weren’t there, everyone would want to know why.
And finally, there are the dishes that sometimes defy categorization; the casseroles or mixed dishes; the bread puddings or roasted nutty things, or maybe something with lots of eggs or something whipped or something else with noodles. So often it’s a sort of mystery, but more often than not, it’s something surprisingly good.
Thanksgiving dinner would just not be the same without all the side dishes to go along with that big turkey.
