6 Thanksgiving Side Dishes to Choose by Texture and Cooking Space

When the Thanksgiving main is decided, look at what the plate still needs. A savory bread side, soft potatoes, crumb-topped macaroni, spoonable corn, creamy green beans, and tart cranberry sauce each bring something different to dinner.

Keep the main’s cooking plan beside you as you browse. Four of these sides use the oven; mash and cranberry sauce use the stovetop. Every dish links to its maker’s complete recipe, so the one you save comes with a place to start.

Start the shopping list with unseasoned stuffing cubes. A seasoned mix would change the starting point for Jennifer Segal’s sausage-and-herb version. Her recipe already provides onion, celery, garlic, rosemary, sage, and parsley.

Sweet Italian sausage gives the bread side its savory character, while broth and egg belong to the mixture. The cubes bake separately with crisp top edges. Reserve space for that baking dish alongside the main.

These mashed potatoes move the comfort side to the stovetop, leaving the oven for the bakes. Their soft spoon swirls suit a plate that already has plenty of crisp edges.

Nagi Maehashi’s basic mash uses butter and milk. Floury potatoes such as Russets are her choice, so settle that purchase before picking chives or parsley for the bowl. Keep a pot and burner in the dinner plan, and use her complete recipe for the mash.

The top is the deciding detail. Buttered panko gives Nagi Maehashi’s elbow macaroni a golden crumb layer over pale, creamy milk-based cheese sauce. Under it, the selected cheese pairing is Gruyere and mozzarella.

Saucepan work and an oven finish both belong in this dish’s dinner plan. Open Nagi’s full recipe before buying the cheeses or choosing a baking dish.

Jennifer Segal builds the mixture from yellow cornmeal and all-purpose flour. It uses creamed corn and fresh kernels, with frozen kernels an option, plus sour cream, butter, and eggs.

Buy from her ingredient list rather than treating it as a corn-muffin-mix bake. The linked recipe supplies the mixture, and the serving dish needs its own oven space.

Read the onion-topping section before you give this casserole an oven slot. The brown panko rings are homemade and baked, so that work belongs in the plan as well as the casserole’s finish.

Below them are fresh green beans, mushrooms, and a pale half-and-half sauce. Sally McKenney’s version, adapted from Alton Brown, keeps the beans recognizable beneath the creamy layer. Her full recipe includes the topping and sauce, so one source covers the complete dish.

Lemon zest and retained berry pieces give Nagi Maehashi’s cranberry sauce its sweet-tart identity beside the richer sides.

Fresh or frozen cranberries both fit her recipe, with white sugar, water, and salt also on its list. Plan a stovetop pot and a small serving bowl.