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The mere suggestion of tweaking classic recipes at Thanksgiving has the potential to cause a familial uprising. I remember the year my younger brother first took over the turkey roasting. His personal touch of stuffing the cavity with herbs and oranges, nestling garlic cloves in between the skin and the breast, and covering the bird in bacon, was tantamount to sacrilege with certain family members.
But once the citrus and herb aromas mixed with the scent of turkey juices and bacon drippings began wafting through the house, the rumblings began to subside. And if there had been complaints about this avant garde bird at first, one would never have known as the family hungrily devoured every last bite of that juicy and flavorful turkey when we sat down to eat that day.
When it comes to traditions, Thanksgiving can be one of the most difficult meals to try and suggest a change. If you wish to embark on such a sensitive project, I suggest using caution and administering changes in small doses. The main players still need to be there--potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, stuffing, corn--but the option for change comes in how these staples are ultimately brought to the table.
Making a fix does not have to be complicated. Choosing a thematic tone for the sides can be a simple way to steer the menu and keep it cohesive, think Southwestern, Wine Country, or the American South. Even better, most recipes tweaks can be done with simple additions to the classic recipes that will add five minutes or less to the total kitchen time.
Mashed Potatoes: If you are choosing a theme to coordinate side dishes, mashed potatoes, a blank canvas of plain starch, is perhaps the easiest to manipulate. Think about adding sour cream, chopped chipotle peppers, and butter to basic pureed potatoes for a Southwestern twist. Crumbled bacon, heavy cream, and butter, would be proper additions to any Southern table. For the more daring, finely chopped California olives, roasted garlic, and olive oil has the completely local touch of a California wine country feast.
Corn: Corn is one of those staple items that we easily imagine the Pilgrims feasting on at the first Thanksgiving. Creamed or roasted, on the cob or off, corn is one of those foods that seem intimately part of the Thanksgiving ritual. Some reduced cream and chopped Virginia ham would put that corn squarely in its proper Southern place.
A more adventurous take on the classic could involve a nod to the grilled corn from our neighbors to the south. Remove cooked corn from the husk and mix with chopped, roasted Anaheim peppers (skins and seeds removed). Mix the corn and peppers with a creamy-lime dressing made by thinning some sour cream with lime juice, red wine vinegar, vegetable oil and seasoning with cumin, ground red chili pepper, and paprika.
Sweet Potatoes: As if they weren’t dessert-like enough already, Thanksgiving is always a great excuse to take the already sweet sweet potato or sugary garnet yam to near candy status. A more rustic and not quite so cloying approach would be to roast the potatoes whole in the oven with the turkey and to serve, split open like a baked potato and immediately top with a dollop of butter spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg and sweetened with honey.
I envision a wine country take on the classic pureed, casserole version involving sweetening the yam puree with a bit of fresh squeezed California orange juice and a couple of tablespoons of local honey. For an herbaceous twist, I’d add some chopped fresh rosemary from the garden to a traditional butter and brown sugar crumb topping before sticking it in the oven to caramelize into a candied crust.
Thanksgiving food tradition is more about the people at any one table on the fourth Thursday of November each year than it is about anything the Pilgrims ever ate. As families expand and dinner guests evolve, those traditional foods have the option of growing along with the group. With my brother taking the helm of making the Thanksgiving turkey a new tradition was born, as much about him as it was about his bacon and oranges. If you are rethinking sides this year, consider a five minute tweak to your family favorite sides and you might just be surprised to see a new tradition emerge: a tradition of change.
©2026 CDKitchen, Inc. No reproduction or distribution of any portion of this article is allowed without express permission from CDKitchen, Inc.
To share this article with others, you may link to this page:
https://www.cdkitchen.com/cooking-experts/amy-powell/1105-thanksgiving-side-dishes/
Five Minute Fixes for Thanksgiving Sides
The mere suggestion of tweaking classic recipes at Thanksgiving has the potential to cause a familial uprising. I remember the year my younger brother first took over the turkey roasting. His personal touch of stuffing the cavity with herbs and oranges, nestling garlic cloves in between the skin and the breast, and covering the bird in bacon, was tantamount to sacrilege with certain family members.
But once the citrus and herb aromas mixed with the scent of turkey juices and bacon drippings began wafting through the house, the rumblings began to subside. And if there had been complaints about this avant garde bird at first, one would never have known as the family hungrily devoured every last bite of that juicy and flavorful turkey when we sat down to eat that day.
When it comes to traditions, Thanksgiving can be one of the most difficult meals to try and suggest a change. If you wish to embark on such a sensitive project, I suggest using caution and administering changes in small doses. The main players still need to be there--potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, stuffing, corn--but the option for change comes in how these staples are ultimately brought to the table.
Making a fix does not have to be complicated. Choosing a thematic tone for the sides can be a simple way to steer the menu and keep it cohesive, think Southwestern, Wine Country, or the American South. Even better, most recipes tweaks can be done with simple additions to the classic recipes that will add five minutes or less to the total kitchen time.
Mashed Potatoes: If you are choosing a theme to coordinate side dishes, mashed potatoes, a blank canvas of plain starch, is perhaps the easiest to manipulate. Think about adding sour cream, chopped chipotle peppers, and butter to basic pureed potatoes for a Southwestern twist. Crumbled bacon, heavy cream, and butter, would be proper additions to any Southern table. For the more daring, finely chopped California olives, roasted garlic, and olive oil has the completely local touch of a California wine country feast.
Corn: Corn is one of those staple items that we easily imagine the Pilgrims feasting on at the first Thanksgiving. Creamed or roasted, on the cob or off, corn is one of those foods that seem intimately part of the Thanksgiving ritual. Some reduced cream and chopped Virginia ham would put that corn squarely in its proper Southern place.
A more adventurous take on the classic could involve a nod to the grilled corn from our neighbors to the south. Remove cooked corn from the husk and mix with chopped, roasted Anaheim peppers (skins and seeds removed). Mix the corn and peppers with a creamy-lime dressing made by thinning some sour cream with lime juice, red wine vinegar, vegetable oil and seasoning with cumin, ground red chili pepper, and paprika.
Sweet Potatoes: As if they weren’t dessert-like enough already, Thanksgiving is always a great excuse to take the already sweet sweet potato or sugary garnet yam to near candy status. A more rustic and not quite so cloying approach would be to roast the potatoes whole in the oven with the turkey and to serve, split open like a baked potato and immediately top with a dollop of butter spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg and sweetened with honey.
I envision a wine country take on the classic pureed, casserole version involving sweetening the yam puree with a bit of fresh squeezed California orange juice and a couple of tablespoons of local honey. For an herbaceous twist, I’d add some chopped fresh rosemary from the garden to a traditional butter and brown sugar crumb topping before sticking it in the oven to caramelize into a candied crust.
Thanksgiving food tradition is more about the people at any one table on the fourth Thursday of November each year than it is about anything the Pilgrims ever ate. As families expand and dinner guests evolve, those traditional foods have the option of growing along with the group. With my brother taking the helm of making the Thanksgiving turkey a new tradition was born, as much about him as it was about his bacon and oranges. If you are rethinking sides this year, consider a five minute tweak to your family favorite sides and you might just be surprised to see a new tradition emerge: a tradition of change.
Garnet Yam Puree with Rosemary Crumb Topping
Made with rosemary, flour, garnet yams, butter, orange juice, honey, salt, brown sugar
Made with rosemary, flour, garnet yams, butter, orange juice, honey, salt, brown sugar
Serves/Makes: 6
- 3 large (1 pound size) garnet yams cooked
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1/4 cup orange juice
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 6 tablespoons brown sugar
- 4 tablespoons flour
- 2 tablespoons cold butter, cut in pieces
- 1 tablespoon minced rosemary
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
In a mixing bowl beat together still warm mashed cooked yams, butter, orange juice, honey, and salt. Spread mixture in a 9x9 inch baking pan sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.
In a small bowl combine brown sugar, flour, butter, and rosemary. Use fingers to combine the mixture until it resembles crumbs. Spread crumb mixture over yam puree. Place pan in preheated oven and bake for 15-20 minutes until crust is golden.
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©2026 CDKitchen, Inc. No reproduction or distribution of any portion of this article is allowed without express permission from CDKitchen, Inc.
To share this article with others, you may link to this page:
https://www.cdkitchen.com/cooking-experts/amy-powell/1105-thanksgiving-side-dishes/