This Thanksgiving, We Deserve Better Sides

This Thanksgiving, I can’t face another bowl of orange mush. I love vegetables in their crispy, roasted, caramelized, seared glory. Why do we turn them into baby food every November?

This year, I’m determined to make sides that, frankly, don’t stink. I want elevated dishes packed with flavor, verve and crunch—sides that are so good, people forget about the turkey.

Instead of sweet potato casserole, make Spiced Sweet Potato Tian

The cardinal mistake people make when preparing sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving is doubling down on the sweet. I don’t want to see a brown sugar topping or marshmallow anywhere near my favorite root vegetable—it’s plenty sugary on its own. But this tian, which looks at first glance like a ratatouille with its shingled slices of sweet potato, offers everything the orange tuber excels at: tender, buttery centers with crisp, browned edges. The slices are tossed with vinegar, spices and red pepper flakes then alternated in the pan with herbs and sliced shallots. It’s balanced. Break out your mandoline and don’t look back.

Simmer your mashed potatoes in milk

This recipe makes a smart change over standard mashed potato dishes. Instead of boiling potatoes and dumping their precious starch down the drain—a shame, as starch is the real secret to silky, creamy potatoes, not heavy cream—we simmer the potatoes in milk. They absorb the dairy’s flavor and get rich and buttery, without a drop of heavy cream. I find this recipe forgiving with timing: easy to make ahead and reheat or keep warm in a Crockpot without congealing. Make it just for that.

Instead of green bean casserole, make Green Beans with Chipotle Chili and Peanuts

Green bean casserole is another head scratcher. It’s not 1950, are we still bogging down a fresh green vegetable in canned soup? No, I say. This recipe is smoky, nutty and bold. Green beans, charred and steamed so they still hold on to a bit of bite, get plenty of crunch and flavor from peanuts, sesame seeds, chipotle chilies and lime juice. It’s bright, it’s fun, it’s spicy, which the Thanksgiving table needs—spice works almost like an acid to cut through the richness of a holiday meal.

Make better stuffing the “Easy-Bake” way

I love the stuff—even the substandard fare of college cafeterias in November—but I’m not serving bland, mushy bread and calling it stuffing. Consider the food processor your secret weapon for better, faster stuffing. Speed things up and amp up flavor by giving butter, fresh herbs and raw shallots a whiz in the food processor, then use that paste to season bread cubes while they toast in the oven. A little celery, chicken broth and a splash of cream round out the mixture before the oven does the rest of the work. It’s the easiest stuffing ever and doesn’t compromise on flavor.

Trade carrot coins for these tender, butter-roasted carrots

Sweet and tender, these Butter-Roasted Carrots with Za’atar and Pomegranate Molasses carrots get their nutty richness from roasting first in olive oil then with a drizzle of butter. Za’atar, orange zest, pistachios and pomegranate molasses add plenty of zip and wake up Thanksgiving’s most neglected vegetable. (Last year, they were the first side to disappear from my table.)

In addition to cranberry sauce, make Agrodolce Red Onions

I apologize to the Thanksgiving purists, but I’m all for getting more types of acid on the table besides cranberry sauce. One of the best recipes you’ve never heard of, Italian sweet and sour onions—called cipolline agrodolce—typically are small whole onions simmered with sugar and vinegar. Cipolline are hard to find stateside (I’ve only been able to twice in the past five years), so slightly soften supermarket red onions with vinegar, brown sugar and salt until you’re left with a sweet-and-sour tangle that’s perfect with roast turkey.

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Priyanka Shahane