Thanksgiving Dinner Sides

We are right into Fall now. The weather is cooler and crisper and there are more clouds and overcast days. The leaves are changing colours on the trees and on my way to work I see all the squirrels burying their nuts for the months ahead. With Fall, comes Thanksgiving. Canadian Thanksgiving is just over a week away and we have a couple of posts dedicated to that.

This week we are looking at that big Thanksgiving dinner. Some of the most important elements of that dinner are the sides that accompany the turkey and ham. We have put together a list of yummy sides to try out for your Thanksgiving dinner along with a couple of recipes for ones that we have made in the past at our own dinners.

Green Beans – They seem to be a popular veggie for Fall meals. Try a Green Bean Casserole or Green Beans with Shallots.

Bread – You’ll usually find some sort of bread or buns with you big Thanksgiving dinner and Cornbread or Fresh Biscuits are perfect for that.

Cranberry...-You will most likely find something cranberry with your turkey dinner for something different you can try a Cranberry Relish or a Citrus, Apricot, and Cranberry Compote.

Brussel Sprouts- You will love them or hate them, but they are a permanent part of most Thanksgiving dinners and a way to try them is to crisp and “burn” them like in Samantha’sYummy Brussel Sprouts recipe or cover them with cheese in a Cheesy Brussel Sprout Bake.

Veggies- Most of the time you’ll find your typical veggie mix on the table for dinner but a twist on them would be a Holiday Roasted Vegetable mix or some Maple Bacon Carrots or some Smashed Broccoli.

Sweet Potatoes – Something that always makes me think of turkey dinner is yams/sweet potatoes and a Sweet Potato Salad or Sweet Potato Soup are different takes on this staple.

Here are a couple of recipes that we like to make...

Caramelized Carrots

8-10 carrots

Brown sugar

Butter

Water

Peel and cut carrots into sticks. Place them in a casserole dish and sprinkle some brown sugar onto them along with blobs of butter. Add in a little bit of water so that it just covers the bottom of the dish. Make sure you don’t use too much as you’ll have water coming out of the carrots.

Put in the microwave wave with the lid on for 5-10 minutes or until soft. Don’t overcook.

After they have softened in the microwave, take the lid off and put the dish on the stove top on medium heat. Let the liquid come to a boil and cook off. You want the carrots to caramelize and get all goldenly brown. You can give them a stir here and there while they are cooking on the stove. As soon as they look ready, take the off the stove and serve.

Yam Casserole

3 large yams

1 Tbsp. of butter

1 Tbsp. of honey

Juice of 1 orange

Nutmeg to taste

Salt and pepper

Boil the yams and cool before slipping off the skins. Blend or puree all of the ingredients together. Spoon into a buttered casserole dish and bake at 325 degrees for about 20 minutes. Serve warm.

Fluffy Mashed Potatoes

You’ll often see mashed potatoes on the table at Thanksgiving dinner. One thing that everybody loves is fluffy and flavourful mashed potatoes so take a look at this super simple how-to to make the fluffiest mashed potatoes ever!

The key to fluffy mashed potatoes is to remove as much starch as you possibly can. Boil your potatoes as you usually would. Drain them and rinse them under warm water for about 30 seconds; that’ll get lots of the starch off. Allow them to dry as much as possible.

Pass the potatoes through a food mill/ricer back into the pot that they were cooked in and add 2 cups of whole milk and 12 tablespoons of butter (these measurements were based on 4 pounds of Russet potatoes. Make sure the butter and milk are warm before adding them to the potatoes. Fold the mixture until all combined and season with salt and pepper.