Easy Side Dish Ideas for Thanksgiving Dinner

If you're at a loss for easy Thanksgiving side dish ideas, don't look at complicated recipes- reduce your stress by sticking with what you already know! Thanksgiving isn't a time to experiment with food, it's time for the tried-and-true family favorites.

Side dishes can be broken down into three major categories: starch, vegetable, and sweet. (Some cross over a little bit- that's just a bonus.) If you having a big dinner with a lot of people, plan on having at least two or three side dishes from each category. Check out the ideas below and see if anything strikes you as a good idea for this year's Thanksgiving dinner.

Let's start with the starches. (Or what most people call carbs, or complex carbs. Maybe I should have labeled this section "the foods formerly known as starches". Whatever you call them, you need some good "stick to your ribs" side dishes for Thanksgiving dinner.) The traditional Thanksgiving favorites mashed potatoes, stuffing, and gravy are trusty old stand-bys. But there's no reason to limit yourself to just that. Baked potatoes, boiled potatoes, and roasted potatoes are good, too. And don't forget about rice- white rice, brown rice, rice pilaf, and fried rice are all good options. Buttered egg noodles, garlic shells, and macaroni and cheese are delicious options in the starch category. You'll also want something like bread, rolls, and croissants on the table. There are a ton of choices for the starches. You know what your family eats, so go with your instinct on this category.

Now for the vegetables, and don't anybody cringe at the thought! A tossed salad or a Caesar salad are always popular. And Thanksgiving wouldn't be Thanksgiving without green bean casserole. There are a lot of other hot vegetables to consider. Broccoli, cauliflower, butternut squash, carrots, corn, asparagus, lima beans, zucchini, brussel sprouts, and peas are all good choices. For cold vegetable side dishes, try broccoli salad, cole slaw, or carrot and raisin salad. Fruit- in my book a close relative to vegetables- also makes a nice Thanksgiving side dish. No Thanksgiving dinner would be complete without cranberry sauce, but you could start the meal with a fruit cup or serve fruit salad at the table.

The most obvious of the sweet Thanksgiving side dishes is sweet potatoes. There's an example of one that fits into all three categories- sweet potatoes are a starch, a vegetable, and sweet! (The triple threat, so to speak!) Other sweet choices are jello salad, ambrosia, and candied carrots.

Lest you think I've ignored the most obvious food on the Thanksgiving dinner table, the turkey, fear not! The Thanksgiving turkey warranted it's own article: "Which is the Best Way to Cook a Turkey: Oven, Deep Fryer, or Turkey Roaster?". Click here to read it.

I'm sure you know how to make some (or maybe most) of these basic side dishes, it was the idea of making them that slipped your mind. Have a wonderful meal by serving these easy side dish ideas for Thanksgiving dinner.