Side Dish
4106 recipes found
Brown Butter Skillet Cornbread
This lightly sweet cornbread has a crunchy, buttery crust, which comes from baking it in a hot skillet. If you have a cast-iron pan, this is the time to use it. The heavy, heat-retaining material will give you the darkest color (which equals the most flavor). But any large ovenproof skillet will work. And if you don’t have a skillet big enough to hold all the batter, you can either halve the recipe or bake the cornbread in 9-by-13-inch pan. (Brown the butter first in a saucepan.) Your bread won’t have the same dark crust, but the moist crumb flavored with brown butter and maple syrup is ample recompense.
Brussels Sprouts With Walnuts and Pomegranate
Roasting brussels sprouts brings out their nutty sweetness and keeps them crisp-crunchy around the edges. Tossing them with walnuts and tangy, jewel-like pomegranate seeds adds texture and brightness. It’s worth seeking out pomegranate molasses (widely available in most large grocery stores) to finish this dish. But if you can't find it, don’t let it stop you from make this celebration-worthy side.
Roasted New Potatoes With Garlic and Tamarind
In this recipe, roasted potatoes are paired with classic flavors used in Western and Indian cooking: butter and garlic, the fruity acidity of tamarind and lime juice, and the sweetness of date syrup. The potatoes are sliced and cooked in a pot of salted water, which helps them develop a thin crust and creamy interior when roasted. They make a great side to almost any meal, and can easily take the place of a breakfast hash. The shallots here carry a milder bite, but a red onion can be substituted for a stronger taste. Do stick to tamarind paste, and avoid using thick, syrupy tamarind concentrates. They lack tamarind’s fruitiness and carry a noticeable artificial aftertaste.
Vermont Cheddar Mashed Potatoes
To some, Cheddar is synonymous with Vermont, even if it is produced in several other states, too. For most, mashed potatoes are an absolute essential for a proper Thanksgiving table. Combining them seems natural, whether customary or not. Using two-year-old aged Vermont Cheddar, which is deeply flavored but not too sharp, gives these creamy mashed potatoes a subtle Cheddar presence, neither overwhelmingly cheesy nor gooey. (For everything you need to know to make perfect potatoes, visit our potato guide.)
Maple Pecan Monkey Bread
Maple syrup gives an autumnal feel and subtler sweetness to traditionally sugary monkey bread. Any grade of maple syrup works: B and C will give you a more robust maple flavor, while Grade A will deliver a more delicate, refined sweetness. Here, the syrup is mixed with brown butter and used to glaze extra-rich brioche dough rounds and toasted pecans. It all caramelizes together into a fluffy yet chewy pull-apart bread punctuated with the crunch of nuts. If you prefer a rustic look, you don’t have to roll the pieces of dough into balls. Just cut them into even pieces and coat with the cinnamon sugar. This recipe is at its soft and gooey best the day it’s made, but it can be kept at room temperature overnight and reheated in a 350-degree oven for 10 minutes.
Home Fries
The great thing about this recipe is that it can be cooked in just one skillet — and it eliminates the time-consuming task of blanching your potatoes first. Water, oil and salt are combined in one pan. Once the potatoes enter the skillet, the lid is added and the potatoes steam, cooking evenly and absorbing the flavors of the salt and oil. Once the lid comes off, the water evaporates yet the oil remains, so the potatoes pan-fry until crispy. The results? Crunchy home fries with pillowy centers. If cooking for a crowd, double or triple the recipe, but do cook in batches, to avoid crowding the pan.
Sour-Cream Coffee Cake
Here is a classic coffee cake with a tender crumb and a crunchy streusel topping that comes together in about an hour. It's quite rich, so your serving sizes don't need to be large.
Ham and Cheese Quick Bread
This is the kind of savory cake that you make once and then play around with for years to come. In this version, there are chopped roasted red peppers, small chunks of ham, some herbs and three cheeses (mozzarella, Parmesan and fontina). The cheeses could be Cheddar and Gruyère and a semisoft, easily meltable cheese of your choice. The batter could have chopped Calabrian chiles or pepperoncini (go easy on these hot peppers), a different mix of herbs, scallions or shallots for the chives and pancetta or bacon bits for the meat (or you can skip the meat). Cut the cake into fingers to have with wine or serve it alongside soup or salad. And if it goes a little stale, simply toast it.
Fluffy Cheddar Biscuits
These biscuits are golden and crisp outside, light and fluffy inside, and wonderfully cheesy inside and out. They come together in minutes, and triple basting them in butter (before baking, halfway through baking and once more when they come out of the oven) really takes them over the top. You may be tempted to skip the 3 tablespoons of sugar in this otherwise savory biscuit, but don’t: It’s the secret to the biscuit’s tender interior. Inspired by Red Lobster’s buttery biscuits, these are drop-style, which means you just scoop up the batter and gently plop it onto baking sheets. Try to handle the dough gently to avoid compressing it, which can result in a less-than-fluffy biscuit.
Cheese Grits
There’s very little simpler than cooking grits. A few ingredients come together into something comforting, good for a cold morning and just as good for Sunday dinner. Use the best ingredients, pull out that pepper mill and season well. Make sure you pay attention to the details. The trick to good grits is cooking out the grittiness. The extra cream and frequent stirring here give it a consistency that’s not too dense and not too liquidy. Don’t leave it alone too long: If you stir it frequently, giving it love, it will love you back.
Tepary Bean Salad
Indigenous communities in the Sonoran Desert have cultivated the tiny, drought-tolerant tepary bean for millennia. This recipe, adapted from “From I’Itoi’s Garden: Tohono O’odham Food Traditions” by Tohono O’odham Community Action (TOCA), a grassroots food and health community organization, reimagines a traditional tepary bean dish by adding venerable corn, colorful peppers and rich aromatics. The white beans have a sweet finish, while the brown variety showcases an uncommon nuttiness. Navy or Great Northern beans may be substituted for the white tepary beans, but there is no equivalent for the unparalleled tepary brown. Combined with an assertive cumin vinaigrette, this robust salad manifests a rich blend of old and new indigenous foodways.
Garlicky Mashed Potato Cake
If you like the creaminess of mashed potatoes but not the uniform texture, try this potato cake, which is like a cross between hash browns and a classic mash. Made with fluffy baked russet potatoes and flavored with garlic, browned butter and tangy sour cream, the cake is cooked on the stovetop, then transferred to the oven, where it takes on a crispy, golden brown crust. Make sure your nonstick skillet is oven-safe, or use a very well-seasoned cast-iron skillet.
Vegetarian Swedish Meatballs
Cremini mushrooms, chickpeas and bulgur wheat mimic the texture of ground meat in this vegetarian version of the classic Swedish meatball dish. Seasoned generously with allspice and nutmeg and blanketed in a velvety mushroom gravy, they are excellent served over egg noodles or mashed potatoes — or spooned onto a toasted hero (add sliced tangy pickles to balance out the richness). Leftover cooked meatballs can be frozen and reheated in a 425-degree oven until warmed through, about 15 minutes.
Tahini-Parmesan Pasta Salad
Many traditional pasta salad recipes call for a heavy mayonnaise-based dressing, but this one combines tahini and Parmesan for a lighter, umami-packed dressing that can be used on noodles, salad greens, asparagus, grilled chicken or grains. Tahini and Parmesan may be a surprising duo, but they naturally work well together because tahini, which is made from sesame seeds, amplifies the cheese’s rich, nutty flavor. To add even more complexity, cherry tomatoes are blistered in a skillet to concentrate their sweetness and acidity. As with any good pasta salad, this one benefits from adding fresh scallions and mint right before serving, plus toasted sesame seeds and shards of Parmesan.
Smashed Pickle Salad
Many cucumber salads are dressed with some combination of salt, acidity (such as vinegar or lemon juice) and something tangy and creamy. (Sour cream is commonly used in Germany, Scandinavia and the Midwest; buttermilk in the South; and yogurt in the Mediterranean, Southwest Asia and South Asia.) This recipe skips the first step of salting by instead substituting pickles — cucumbers fermented in salt and vinegar — in place of raw cucumbers. They’re still crunchy, but also pack a fierce punch. Eat this salad alongside something rich, like grilled meats or schnitzel, or in a sandwich with deli meats, tinned fish or boiled eggs. While most pickles work, half-sour pickles are especially refreshing. (Avoid bread and butter pickles, which are too sweet.) Smashing the pickles opens them up to absorb dressing, and the act of doing so is just plain fun.
Cherry Tomato and White Bean Salad
This simple salad makes a bright, tangy companion to grilled meat or fish. Marinating the red onions and garlic in the vinaigrette for 15 minutes not only diffuses their flavor but also softens their bite. This salad travels well and would be an excellent choice for a potluck or picnic. It’s also supremely versatile, and can be dressed up with any soft herb like basil, tarragon or mint, and chile, in almost any form.
Greek Salad
While diner-style Greek salads made with chopped romaine, crumbled feta and often grilled chicken have become ubiquitous in American restaurants, a traditional Greek salad, or horiatiki salata, is a simpler affair. An assembled salad of large-diced vegetables with Kalamata olives and sometimes capers, this salad has no greens at all, and the feta is served sliced on top of the salad rather than crumbled and tossed into it. A traditional Greek salad dressing usually consists of olive oil and red wine vinegar; this recipe adds garlic and oregano. To make the salad into a satisfying vegetarian main course, throw in a can of drained and rinsed chickpeas.
Broccoli Salad
It is easy to understand why broccoli salad is a mainstay of potluck dinners and community gatherings. Not only is it a crowd-pleaser, but also raw broccoli is a clever make-ahead ingredient because, even when coated in dressing, it maintains its hardy texture and crunch over time. (This Southern-inspired recipe can be made up to 24 hours ahead, then stored in the fridge.) While most traditional Southern broccoli salads feature a creamy mayonnaise dressing and are finished with bacon bits and grated cheese, this vegan riff offers a punchy vinegar mixture that serves as a quick pickling liquid for the onions and raisins before it’s used as the final dressing. If you are making this salad in advance, leave the toasted almonds out until you are ready to eat.
Orzo Salad With Peppers and Feta
Piperade, a classic Basque dish of stewed peppers, onions and tomatoes, becomes a flavorful sauce for this pasta. Colorful bell peppers simmer in olive oil and aromatics until meltingly soft, and juicy tomatoes simmer alongside until they burst, lending both tangy and sweet notes. Briny feta adds salty bites to complement the sweet pepper sauce, but tart aged goat cheese makes a good alternative. This side is even better at room temperature, making it the perfect make-ahead dish for summer picnics or potlucks.
Salsa Tatemada Norteña (Fire-Roasted Salsa)
Every region of Mexico has its way of making a chunky, fire-roasted salsa, with the classic tomato, onion and chile trio; it goes by tatemada, if charred, or martajada, if mashed. With only three ingredients, regional variations taste radically different based on the chile of choice, which becomes the soul of the salsa, defining its personality. In the Yucatan, the feisty habanero rules, but in Mexico’s north (as well as Arizona and New Mexico), the king is Anaheim chile, whose crisp bite and mild, peppery taste embody this salsa tatemada norteña, a favorite for carne asada cookouts. The secret to making this salsa shine is to be generous with the salt; the charred juicy ingredients will appreciate it. Dip your chips in it, top your quesadillas with it or ladle it on sunny-side-up eggs sitting on refried beans for a northern style variation of huevos rancheros.
Tzatziki Potato Salad
Tzatziki, the classic Greek combination of garlic, yogurt and cucumber, is incredibly versatile and often served with grilled meat, gyros, roasted vegetables or simply flatbread. Here, it is the sauce for a fresh potato salad. Opt for a waxy potato, such as red, new or fingerlings, as these varieties contain the least starch and will retain their shape when boiled. (All-purpose Yukon Golds work, too.) The potatoes are left unpeeled for texture, but peel them if you prefer, and make sure they are roughly the same size to ensure even cooking. The tzatziki benefits from resting for at least 10 to 15 minutes before being added to the potatoes, so prepare it before you start the potatoes, or better yet, make it the night before and let it hang out in the fridge so the flavors can get to know one another. A little honey lends a floral, subtle sweetness, but omit it if you want this dish to be purely savory.
Roasted Potato Salad With Jalapeño-Avocado Dressing
As one of the most adaptable dishes, potato salad has withstood countless reimaginings. In this version, roasted potatoes are paired with two types of beans: Cannellini beans offer a hearty creaminess, while green beans add a welcome crisp-tenderness. If you have garlic or onion powder in your spice rack, use it to add some umami to the roasted potatoes. The avocado dressing is zingy and full of lively flavors; make it as spicy as you can handle, and if you are looking for more tanginess, substitute the mayonnaise with sour cream or crème fraîche.
Classic Carrot Salad
Maybe your family has made carrot salad forever, or maybe you’ve seen it at potlucks, but if you’re not familiar with this Southern classic, your inner voice might be screaming, “Raisins don’t belong in salad!” But relax: This just might be the only time they do. The soft, sweet raisins complement the crunchy carrots, which are finished with a tangy dressing. Soak the raisins in hot water to give them a different, more plump texture. If you aren’t a fan of mayonnaise or yogurt, use 2 tablespoons avocado oil or olive oil, plus 1 tablespoon lemon or lime juice, and add some chopped fresh parsley. Let the crunchy-sweet flavors roll over your tastebuds as you realize you’ve made a simple, and delicious, dish in less than 15 minutes.
Gajjara Kosambari (Carrot Salad)
There are countless variations of this style of salad from Karnataka, but my favorite is a simple version made with crunchy raw carrots, dressed with a little tempered fat, coconut, citrus and chopped herbs. If fresh coconut isn’t available, keep a bag of frozen grated coconut in the freezer. It’s easy to find at most Indian grocery stores and, when you have it on hand, you can bring this salad together in less than five minutes.