Don’t work yourself into a sweat this year trying to do everything for the big Thanksgiving feast all at once. Employ a little make-ahead magic for the side dishes so you can focus on the main dish. So you can take time to enjoy the day with your loved ones.
Better yet: employ some help! Your guests can do double duty and help get dinner on the table. Assign one person to each of your made ahead sides. That person can take the responsibility for getting each of these things warmed (if needed) and on the table when it’s time for dinner.
Or you can take it one step better: give someone the recipe and tell them to bring it.
Colcannon makes mashed potatoes better
This lovely, comforting Irish dish ups the mashed potato game! Mashed potatoes join up with butter braised cabbage and bacon for a lighter version of mashed potatoes that somehow tastes eons better. You can make colcannon ahead of time and store it in the fridge for several days. Then warm it in the microwave on feast day.
If you have mashed potato purists in your family who want no green stuff in their mashed potatoes, simply cook up extra potatoes while you’re at it. Then warm the potatoes and mash them on Thanksgiving Day.
But you bet your bottom dollar I’ll be saying “please pass the Colcannon” if it makes it to our table this year. We’re having a smaller crowd this year, so I’m not sure what’s on the menu yet. I’m sure we’ll be discussing our dinner plans soon.
I’ve tried a few different variations on Colcannon. I think I prefer the first one, personally, but they’re all good:
- Colcannon with Red Onion & Bacon
- Cauliflower Colcannon – the low-carb option, with kale
- Blue Potato Colcannon with Ham
If you happen to have any leftovers, try colcannon for breakfast with an egg on top, make Colcannon Pizza OR use your colcannon to top a cozy cottage pie.
Whipped Vanilla Sweet Potatoes
One of my son’s childhood favorites, these whipped vanilla sweet potatoes also warm up nicely in the microwave, so you can definitely “whip” them up ahead of time. My family shies away from super sweet dishes during Thanksgiving dinner. Sweets are for dessert at our house!
But these whipped vanilla sweet potatoes provide enough sweetness to delight the children, while not being over the top intensely sweet. So the adults will love them too.
Cranberry Sauce to Rescue the Day
Did you know that cranberry sauce helps rescue dry turkey? So even if you’re not a fan of cranberry sauce, think of this one as failure prevention. Just in case you screw up the turkey and it’s super dry and flavorless. A bit of cranberry sauce makes it taste juicier.
My dad told me this one year when we had a sadly dry turkey. He said cranberries stimulate the salivary glands and it was a good thing I brought some cranberry sauce. Honestly, I wasn’t sure I believed him, but we all did a taste test and agreed. Yes, cranberry sauce definitely does magic to dry turkey!
While it might be tempting to grab a can of cranberry sauce at the store, please, don’t fall for the store-bought jellied cranberry sauce! Homemade is so easy and SO much better. Make homemade cranberry sauce several days ahead of time. You can make it in the microwave in 5 minutes. Then store the pretty red sauce in a jar in the fridge.
Here are my favorite cranberry sauce recipes. My family prefers the pineapple one because it has fewer cranberries. And wine. So I usually make that one now, although I love the other two just as much.
- Pineapple Red Wine Cranberry Sauce
- Microwave Maple Orange Cranberry Sauce
- Michael’s Maple Walnut Cranberry Sauce
Make Ahead Dinner Rolls
You have to have dinner rolls at Thanksgiving, don’t you? My sister discovered this recipe years ago. And we have made these rolls countless times over the years. My kids request them often, year round. Everyone loves the soft, fluffy texture.
The great thing about these rolls is you can make and shape them up to 3 days ahead of time, storing the raw shaped rolls in the fridge. On the day of the feast, take them out of the fridge, let them rise and bake. What’s better than hot, fresh dinner rolls? You can find this old favorite family recipe HERE.
Or, hey, if you have kids, you can let them join in the cooking fun on Thanksgiving and make these adorable pumpkin dinner rolls. Everyone loved these just as much as our standard dinner rolls! I haven’t tried making these ahead of time. Storing them after shaping would be tricky. But you could make the dough ahead of time and then shape it on feast day.
Autumn Butternut Cranberry Quinoa
I know, this is something completely different, so it might mess with your holiday traditions. But this dish is literally bursting with sweet and savory autumn flavors that taste SO good together. Think of roasted butternut squash with shaved brussels sprouts, toasted walnuts and pomegranate seeds. Topped with crumbled feta. So. Much. YUM!
You can make this beautiful side dish several days ahead of time (sans walnuts, pomegranate seeds and feta). And reheat it in the microwave on the big day. Then sprinkle on the pretty pomegranate seeds and crunchy walnuts. Finally crumble some feta cheese on top. It’ll take just minutes to get this dish on the table on Thanksgiving.
Snag the recipe for Autumn Butternut Cranberry Quinoa here.
But just in case you’re not into this one, I included a bonus recipe for harvest quinoa with BACON. Read on, my friends.
Savory Pumpkin Bacon Harvest Quinoa
One more quinoa dish and then we’re done, I promise. This one is similar to the one above, but without the brussels sprouts, walnuts and pomegranate seeds. And, as promised for you bacon lovers, there’s BACON!
Get the recipe here.
Side note: I think it might be even better if you use roasted butternut squash cubes in place of the pumpkin here. It’s quite easy for pumpkin to get mushy, which you do not want in this particular recipe. Of course, you could also skip the quinoa and bacon and just enjoy the roasted butternut squash. That’s a winner too.
So I hope you enjoyed this little holiday roundup of some of my family’s favorite Thanksgiving recipes, plus a couple fresh ideas to liven things up. If you’re traveling, I wish you safe travels and good times with loved ones.
I’m so thankful that you’re joining me on this bloggy journey. Happy Thanksgiving!
