Side Dish
4106 recipes found
Grilled Zucchini With Miso Glaze
This dish plays on the sweetness and fruitiness of plump zucchini. Scoring the flesh in a crisscross pattern creates crevices for the miso glaze to seep into while also allowing the heat to penetrate the zucchini. Cooked quickly on high heat, the squash maintains its shape and heft, with flesh that is just tender enough. Covering the zucchini with a lid during cooking locks in all the moisture, ensuring that it becomes juicy. A grill pan is ideal for achieving smoky char marks, but you could also use a regular skillet or cook it on an outdoor grill (see Tip). If you are cooking for a group, count on one zucchini per person. Serve this as a side dish or with rice for a simple, quick and flavorful meal.
Sweet Potato and Gruyère Gratin
This rich, cheese-laden gratin is a more savory take on the usual Thanksgiving sweet potato casserole, with sage and rosemary giving it an herbal bite. If you'd like to make it partway ahead, you can peel and slice the potatoes the day before; store in a sealable plastic bag in the fridge. You can also simmer the cream mixture (don’t add eggs) and grate the cheese the day before as well, storing them covered in the refrigerator.
Summer Squash Curry, Shellfish Optional
This simple stew of fresh summer squash is delicious and beautiful, with a mixture of shapes and colors. Look for small zucchini, pattypan, crookneck, gold bar and other types. The optional addition of mussels and squid makes it more of a meal, but a vegetarian version is just as satisfying.
Maple-Glazed Butternut Squash and Sweet Potatoes
You can dress up this side as a whole meal by piling these sweet, warmly spiced vegetables into a grain bowl, putting them over quinoa, couscous or white rice, and adding a lean protein — or even another wintry vegetable like brussels sprouts. You could also throw an egg on top, finishing it with cracked black pepper. Just don’t be tempted to put everything on one sheet pan. Using two allows for more air flow, which creates those crispy edges, a contrast to the soft middles.
Zucchini Agrodolce
Wherever the sun is powerful, it has been used to dry local produce. Sundried zucchini are commonly found in the markets in southern Italy, and this sweet-sour marinade, agrodolce, comes from even farther south, in Sicily. The flesh of the zucchini becomes dense and meaty when dried and, after frying, the slices perfectly soak up the aromatic, piquant, lively marinade. Served with slices of sopressata and a fresh orb of burrata, this dish is a delicious addition to an antipasto course. If you can use the sun to dry the zucchini where you live, do so; for the rest of us, the oven in your kitchen will do the trick.
Quinoa With Corn and Zucchini
Sweet corn and nutty-tasting quinoa make a nice combination that is also nutritionally rich. Quinoa has more iron than any other grain, and it’s a good source of manganese, magnesium, phosphorus and copper. It’s also a good source of protein.
Roasted Sweet Potatoes With Smoked Paprika
This is a simple way to put an enormous amount of flavor on a plate, and it is particularly delicious with roast chicken — or as a side dish for slab-bacon tacos with burned scallion crema. (Drizzle a little of the crema onto the potatoes just before serving, as if to recall the aioli served with patatas bravas in Spain.) As always when using paprika, smoked or plain, if you can’t recall the last time you did so, it is time for a new jar. All spices go stale. Paprika does so quickly.
Stir-Fried Sweet Potatoes
In a 2010 love letter to the food processor, Mark Bittman gave the machine the ultimate compliment: “I upgraded its position in my kitchen from a cabinet to a spot on my itsy-bitsy counter,” he wrote. Here, he uses the machine to chop and grate vegetables, cutting down on prep time (and any possibility of shredding your knuckles on a box grater). The end result is a quick side dish, full of flavor from the ginger and soy sauce.
Maple-Whipped Sweet Potatoes
Zucchini Panzanella
Zucchini shines in this take on panzanella, a Tuscan bread salad commonly featuring tomatoes. (Panzanella didn’t include tomatoes until the 16th century, and earlier versions featured onions as the main vegetable.) Here, scallions crisp up alongside the pan-fried croutons, which get a last-minute candying with maple syrup to provide extra crunch and insurance against sogginess. While the croutons are magnificent and dangerously snackable, the star of this salad is the zucchini. Cooked zucchini tastes wonderful, but the crunch of the raw vegetable in this recipe is stimulating and sweet, especially when doused with the punchy, garlicky dressing. To get vegetarian recipes like this one delivered to your inbox, sign up for The Veggie newsletter .
Stephanie L. Tyson’s Sweet Potato Cornbread
Stephanie L. Tyson, the chef at a Winston-Salem, N.C., restaurant called Sweet Potatoes, likes to blend one Southern staple into another: sweet potato cornbread laced with a holiday-friendly undercurrent of cinnamon and nutmeg. Ms. Tyson has said that the cornbread just clicks with a side of greens, but we have a feeling it will play well with cranberries and gravy, too.
Candied Sweet Potatoes
When Fred Harvey opened his first Harvey House restaurant in 1876 on the railway line in Topeka, Kan., his idea was radical for the time: Railroad passengers would be fed good food in a pleasant environment. His concept was so successful that it spawned 84 restaurants, a Hollywood movie and an official cookbook. And it was in “The Harvey House Cookbook” that we found this excellent recipe for sweet potatoes candied with confectioners’ sugar and butter. It is best served warm rather than piping hot, which makes it convenient for big meals like Thanksgiving. Bake it before you roast your turkey, then reheat it briefly just before serving.
Roasted Sweet Potatoes With Horseradish Butter
This recipe plays velvety, honeyed roasted sweet potatoes against the sharp bite of a fresh horseradish and herb compound butter. It’s a great dish for feeding a crowd at Thanksgiving or another gathering. You can roast the potatoes and make the horseradish butter ahead, then pop them into the oven just 15 minutes before serving, while the turkey rests. If you can’t find fresh horseradish, substitute another aromatic ingredient like garlic, fresh ginger or scallions, adjusting the quantities to taste. You'll need less ginger and garlic than you would horseradish, and probably the same amount of scallions. Taste as you go.
Mashed Sweet Potatoes
Believe it or not, not everyone wants their sweet potatoes topped with marshmallows or brown sugar. For them, here is a straightforward dish that lets the natural, earthy sweetness of sweet potatoes shine.
One-Pot Orzo With Tomatoes, Corn and Zucchini
This recipe is inspired by the tail end of summer, when fresh produce and herbs abound but the heat waves are finally starting to relent. And while this dish makes a wonderful stage for the season’s produce at its peak, it can also turn sad-looking February vegetables into a sauce that makes it feel like summer. The trick is to sauté the tomatoes slowly, until they’ve collapsed and become deeply sweet and fragrant. The orzo cooks right in the sauce, which cuts down on the dishes and allows the pasta to absorb the flavor as it cooks. If you prefer a larger pasta shape, stick to the traditional method of boiling pasta for best results, and save some pasta water to help loosen the sauce. To get vegetarian recipes like this one delivered to your inbox, sign up for The Veggie newsletter.
Garlicky Hasselback Sweet Potatoes
Tender in the middle, with charred ruffles on top, hasselback potatoes — sliced thinly all the way through so that they fan open like an accordion — are the ultimate treat for people who can’t choose between creamy and crisp. In this recipe, the sweet potatoes are halved first, so they cook faster and so their flat sides sear in the hot pan, leaving a caramelized edge. If your spice cabinet is fully stocked, try adding red-pepper flakes, smoked paprika or dried oregano to your garlic-butter mixture. A sprinkling of chopped parsley, right before you’re ready to eat, would also be welcome. Serve these as you would roasted potatoes, like alongside roast chicken.
Greg Collier’s Sweet Potato Pikliz
Haitian pikliz traditionally uses cabbage, but this version from Greg Collier, chef and co-owner of Leah & Louise in Charlotte, N.C., calls for grated sweet potato. It’s victory garden larder meets Caribbean flavor. If you have a well-stocked pantry, you are halfway to this relish, but note: Not every sweet potato is the same; look for the jewel variety for its vibrant orange flesh. This pikliz is mild in spice level compared to traditional versions. Serve it with Memphis Dry-Rub Ribs or Memphis Dry-Rub Mushrooms.
Maple-Glazed Sweet Potato Wedges With Bacon
To make maple-glazed sweet potatoes irresistible, you may want to look to bacon, another of maple syrup’s best friends, for a salty, smoky boost. The bacon fries in the oven while the sweet potato cooks, leaving the stove open (grits? oatmeal? fried eggs?) and avoiding the messy sputtering of bacon cooking in a skillet.
Sweet Potato-Pecan Salad
Southern-style sweet potato salad with pecans makes an excellent companion for fried chicken.
Candied Yams
Sweet enough for dessert but savory enough for a side, candied yams are a quintessential Southern staple for Sunday dinner, get-togethers or holidays. Many supermarkets use the terms “sweet potatoes” and “yams” interchangeably. For this recipe, any orange-fleshed varieties like Jewel or Garnet will do. Whatever you use, this dish will definitely round out anything savory on your plate, on Thanksgiving and beyond.
Fried Zucchini With Pecorino and Hot Pepper
These shallow-fried zucchini rounds are delicious served as a snack with drinks, but they are equally good at room temperature as part of an antipasto.
Sweet Potato Aligot
In a classic French pommes aligot potatoes are mashed with butter and enough cheese to turn them into a stretchy purée that’s soft, gooey and eminently comforting. This version, made with sweet potatoes, has a gently caramelized flavor and a deeply satiny texture. Pan-fried sage leaves make a crisp, herbal garnish that’s worth the few extra minutes of work. Note that the bigger the sage leaves, the easier they are to fry. If you can’t find Saint-Nectaire or Tomme de Savoie cheese, you can use fontina or mozzarella. And if you want to make this ahead, or reheat leftovers, let the mixture cool, then store it in the fridge for up to 3 days. Reheat it on low, stirring in a little cream until the mixture is elastic and smooth. Serve this as a side dish to sausages or roasted meats, or as a meatless entree with a fresh, crunchy salad.
Roasted Sweet Potatoes With Yogurt And Sesame Seeds
You can live happily now and feel prudent enough to live tomorrow if you cautiously employ your seeds on the last of last autumn’s sweet potatoes. This is my favorite of all the dishes my brother has ever served at the very seasonal Franny’s, the restaurant in Brooklyn where he is the chef. It disappears from his menu the instant the plants that grow from seeds begin to sprout, making it, like the plants themselves, available for only a few months each year.
Sweet Potatoes With Miso-Ginger Sauce
Think of this miso-ginger sauce as a universal sauce, because it’s so good on so many things: tofu, tempeh, winter squash and napa cabbage salads, for starters. This recipe, adapted from "In My Kitchen," by the vegetarian cookbook author Deborah Madison, spoons the dressing over sweet potatoes, and suggests serving them with spicy Asian greens or stir-fried bok choy, and maybe soba noodles or brown or black rice. Not surprisingly, the sauce is good on them, too.