Creative Christmas Dinner Side Dishes

With Christmas right around the corner, many cooks are already planning the most important meal of the year - Christmas dinner. While a traditional Christmas dinner is always loved and appreciated, it's easy to get tired of eating the same thing year after year. Fortunately, there are many easy ways to twist old favorites into new, exciting side dishes.

Potatoes
Mashed potatoes and gravy is one of the must have Christmas dinner side dishes. But, laden with butter and gravy, mashed potatoes are heavy and fattening. Fortunately, potatoes can easily be adapted into a much healthier, yet still delicious, side dish. Roasted potatoes are a fantastic substitute for mashed, and they're easy and inexpensive too. This useful guide gives instructions and recipes for great roasted potatoes. Personally, I like to toss mine with salt, pepper, thyme and fresh grated parmesan cheese.

If roasting potatoes isn't your thing, you can also turn those mashed potatoes into a delicious potato soup. You'll still have the creamy, thick goodness of mashed potatoes, with the extra special flavor of bacon. After all, who doesn't love bacon? Potato soup is traditionally very filling and made with cream, butter and bacon, but can easily be adapted to lighter, lower fat ingredients. The best potato soup I've ever had is made with a recipe I was lucky enough to obtain from my former bosses' wife, a genuine Irish woman who knows her spuds. That recipe can be found here.

Green Beans
Traditionally green bean casserole is the way to go. But, lets face it - sometimes soft green beans in a bath of soggy fried onions and canned soup just isn't impressive. Fresh steamed green beans are not only easy, they are also fantastically healthy and have a satisfying crunch when bitten into. Steamed green beans are also versatile - they can simply be served with bacon bits, slivered almonds, or a can of diced Italian style tomatoes added in. Or toss with a flavored vinegar, soy sauce or salad dressing for a flavorful, easy Christmas dinner side dish. To cook the beans, simply trim the ends and pop into a steamer.

Salad
Do you always ask the non-cooks in your family to bring the salad? And are you tired of eating boring green salad every Christmas? For a more creative salad, toss together some fresh spinach leaves, crumbled feta cheese, craisins, diced red onion, and cherry tomatoes, and serve with a good balsamic dressing. Your taste buds will thank you as the sweet and sour flavors play off each other in this delicious side dish, and your Christmas dinner guests are sure to love your creativity with this salad.

Stuffing
Christmas just isn't quite right without stuffing - or is it? If you're one of those many people who can't get that stuffing right - always too soggy or way too dry - it's time to let it go. Instead of stuffing, go with a lighter, healthier rice or couscous based side dish. For an easy rice dish, mix cooked rice in a sauce pan with a can of light cream of anything soup, grated sharp cheddar cheese and a little milk to smooth the sauce out, and cook over medium heat until cheese melts and its heated throughout. Like rice, couscous is a very versatile ingredient. This useful article gives information on what couscous is and recipes for cooking it.

These creative Christmas dinner sides will leave your guests satisfied and happy - and sure to come back for more next year.