Thanksgiving
2220 recipes found
Broccoli Cheese Casserole
In this casserole, a homemade cheese sauce that’s good enough to toss with pasta replaces the canned creamed soup. When you mix in broccoli florets and cooked rice, then top the whole thing with crushed crackers and more Cheddar, you get a gooey holiday side with a crisp top. Use white or orange Cheddar or a mix of the 2, aiming for a range of 4 to 5 cups, based on how rich and cheesy you’d like it. And while this does contain a lot of broccoli, you’ll probably want to serve a salad on the side.
Vegan Pumpkin Pie
The secret to this rich, creamy pumpkin pie is aquafaba, or the liquid leftover from cooked chickpeas, which is used in recipes to mimic the thickening, binding and foaming properties of egg whites. (For ease, we recommend using the liquid from canned chickpeas in this recipe.) This pie could not be simpler: Just toss everything into a blender for three minutes until it increases in volume, pour it into a prepared, unbaked pie crust, then bake until the top is crackly and ever-so-slightly jiggly in the center. Because this pie doesn't contain any eggs or dairy, once the pie is chilled and set, you can let it sit out at room temperature overnight. For longer-term storage, keep it in the refrigerator for up to a week. Serve with a dollop of vegan whipped cream.
Sweet Potatoes With Tsimmes Glaze
Traditional tsimmes is a stew of sorts that includes sweet potatoes, carrots, one or two kinds of dried fruits, and spices. It’s usually served as a side dish at Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, but it also makes frequent appearances on the Passover Seder table. The word “tsimmes” sometimes means a fuss or commotion, or even a muddle. This version is anything but fussy and definitely not muddled. Here, halved sweet potatoes are simply roasted and served with a scrumptious glaze that includes prunes, orange juice, fresh ginger and a hit of lemon.
Vegan Green Bean Casserole
The classic Thanksgiving side dish becomes instantly more flavorful with the use of fresh green beans, shallots and mushrooms. This recipe is also vegan, owing to a quick, creamy sauce made with non-dairy milk and thickened with flour. You can save yourself the trouble of deep-frying onions by using store-bought French fried onions. They’re usually vegan, but be sure to double check the ingredient label to be sure.
Instant Pot Congee
You can use any leftover roasted meat to flavor this mild, comforting congee, which is delicately seasoned with white pepper. Adapted from Liyan Chen of New Jersey, this recipe is a perfect use for all the bits and pieces of your leftover Thanksgiving turkey (or chicken or duck during the rest of the year). If you’d like to, add the shredded lettuce just before serving so it retains some of its texture. Then garnish the top with any combination of scallions, ginger, soy sauce or chile sauce that pleases you. Note that congee will thicken as it cools, but you can thin it out again with a little water or stock.
Instant Pot Carrot-Saffron Risotto
An electric pressure cooker is so worth the precious counter space it takes up. Not only does food cook in a fraction of the time, but the results are rich and flavorful. Use this recipe as a guide, and sub out whatever vegetables and flavorings you have on hand. Zucchini and mint, mushrooms and thyme, or shredded butternut squash and rosemary would all be lovely in place of the carrots and saffron.
Red Cabbage Glazed With Maple Syrup
This recipe, published in The Times in 1991, was adapted from Yves Labbé, the chef at Le Cheval d’Or, a restaurant in Jeffersonville, Vt., that showcased French country cooking. Mr. Labbé was known to serve this side dish alongside quail in a red-wine sauce, and its simple instructions belie depths of flavor. The cabbage cooks down, braising in its own juices, while the sweetness of the apples and maple syrup, a Vermont staple, tones down the bitterness of the cabbage. The result has broad appeal.
Air-Fryer Potatoes
The air fryer creates crispy, tender potatoes without having to parboil beforehand, cutting much of the cooking time. Thanks to the compact space of the air fryer, the circulated high heat blisters the skins, creating crunchy edges, but also steams the potatoes, resulting in creamy centers. These potatoes taste as if they had been slow roasted over a long period of time, but cook in about 15 minutes. If dried parsley is unavailable, or you prefer fresh herbs, the recipe works just as well by tossing the potatoes with a tablespoon of freshly chopped parsley along with the lemon zest before serving.
Slow-Cooker Corn Pudding
Corn has always been an important crop for Native Americans, who cook it into porridges, breads and puddings. Over generations, various incarnations of corn pudding became especially popular in the South. In this version, fresh corn, scallions and jalapeño are held together by rich cornbread for a savory, sweet and spicy side that’s like a spoonbread crossed with a quick bread. While corn pudding is usually made in the oven, this slow-cooker version frees up your oven for other tasks. As the bread steam-bakes, the edges get caramelized and firm, and the center becomes soft and delicate. It’s spoonable, not sliceable, and its rich texture is best served warm or at room temperature. Jalapeños vary in heat level, so taste a tiny piece before deciding how much to add. To decrease the spice level, use one chile and remove the seeds and ribs before chopping it. To maximize the spice, leave the seeds in and use two.
Slow-Cooker Baked Beans With Chorizo and Lime
Beans stewed with pork, tomato and something sweet is a traditional side dish at potlucks. This easy slow-cooker version is uncommonly kicky and bright, flavored with spiced Mexican-style chorizo, cilantro and lots of lime juice. Use cooked, smoked or cured chorizo, but don’t use dry-cured Spanish-style chorizo, which is a different kind of sausage altogether. There’s flexibility built into this recipe: If you like slightly sweet baked beans, use the larger amount of sugar. If you prefer a result that’s barely sweet, use the smaller amount. Likewise, the lime juice can be assertive or gentle, so use the larger or smaller amount to your taste. You may be tempted to add more liquid to the slow cooker, but resist the urge. The onion and sausage release liquid when cooking, so if you add more you will end up with bean soup instead of baked beans.
Slow Cooker Lentil Soup With Sausage and Greens
The seasonings in Italian sausage — fennel, red pepper, garlic — pair beautifully with lentils, and here, they make for a punchy take on lentil soup. The sausage's flavors are reinforced by adding more garlic and pepper to the soup itself, for pops of flavor. Pleasantly firm but creamy on the inside, Beluga lentils (also known as black lentils) are worth seeking out for this hearty soup because they hold their shape when cooked, adding a lovely texture. But you can absolutely use regular green or brown lentils instead. Just know that they will fall apart, making the soup smoother. This recipe freezes well and is better after it rests in the refrigerator, so make a big batch to eat for days.
Slow Cooker Lentil Soup With Sausage and Apples
This simple slow cooker lentil soup is flavored with tart apple and hearty smoked sausage, and finished with a little sour cream and mustard. If you don’t have time to sauté the onions and apples, you can skip that step, going straight to Step 2 and putting the ingredients directly into the slow cooker. Small green lentils (also called French lentils or lentils du Puy) have a peppery flavor and keep their shape when cooked instead of falling apart, giving the soup an appealing texture. However, you could also use black lentils or easier-to-find brown lentils, but keep in mind that brown lentils will fall apart as they cook, creating a thicker stew. (Here is the stovetop version of this soup.)
Slow Cooker Cranberry Sauce With Port and Orange
This classic, sweet and tangy cranberry sauce tastes complex but is quite easy to make. The slow cooker method saves in-demand stovetop space for other Thanksgiving dishes, and the sauce keeps well in the refrigerator for at least one week.
Slow Cooker Mashed Red Potatoes With Parmesan
When there’s no space on the stovetop to boil and mash potatoes, braise and mash them in a slow cooker — an easy and forgiving one-pot method. This rustic version has big flavors, thanks to the garlic that's cooked and smashed with the potatoes. The five garlic cloves lends a fairly assertive flavor, so decrease it to 2 or 3 cloves if you want a more subtle effect. You can leave the dish on warm for up to 3 hours after you mash the potatoes, just stir in the Parmesan and parsley right before serving.
Slow Cooker Sticky Toffee Pudding
Sticky toffee pudding isn't so much a pudding in the American sense, but an extremely moist baked or steamed British date cake topped with a glossy sauce of brown sugar and cream. Steamed cakes — a genre unto themselves in Britain — are easily made in the slow cooker. This adaptation uses espresso powder in the cake and sauce to balance the honeyed taste of the dates and brown sugar: Nevertheless, it is still quite sweet, as it should be. This recipe can also be made more quickly in the oven, and the resulting cake’s texture will be different than the steamed version — sliceable, like a moist quick bread.
Slow-Cooker Mulled Cider
A slow cooker is an ideal way to make and serve a warm cocktail for a party: Throw the ingredients into the cooker several hours before guests arrive and the cider will bubble away, making the whole house smell wonderful. Reduce the heat before adding the rye whiskey so it maintains its kick. The toasted spices make the flavors so vibrant that the drink is delicious even without the whiskey. No slow cooker? This recipe is your stovetop option.
Slow Cooker Pumpkin-Parmesan Polenta
This tangy polenta, inspired by the flavors of pumpkin ravioli, is as an easy side dish that can be made on the stovetop or in the slow cooker. For something a little lighter, omit the butter that cooks with the polenta and reduce the browned butter to 1/2 stick, or 4 tablespoons, or halve the recipe if you're not serving a crowd. At first, there will seem to be too much liquid, but the nice thing about cooking polenta in the slow cooker is the grain has time to hydrate, plumping and absorbing the water. When you whisk in the cream cheese at the very end, the texture should be glossy and creamy — loose enough to expand slowly when ladled onto a platter but not runny. If it's too liquidy for you, let it sit with the lid off for a few minutes and then whisk it more. If it's too thick, whisk in some boiling water.
Slow Cooker Creamy Kale With Fontina and Bread Crumbs
This recipe, made in a slow cooker or on the stovetop, is a rich, satisfying way to eat hearty winter greens, a dish especially suited to a holiday table. Crunchy, lemony panko lends a crucial counterpoint to the creamy braised kale. Use any variety of kale you like, though collards or mustard greens would also work well. Fontina melts beautifully and is a flavorful but relatively mild cheese, making it ideal here. The cream cheese adds tang while stabilizing the fontina and keeping it creamy even as it sits on the table for a long meal.
Slow Cooker Mashed Potatoes With Sour Cream and Chives
When stovetop and oven space is at a premium, the slow cooker can be a good friend. This hands-off, one-pot recipe makes creamy, slightly tangy mashed potatoes, and, unlike most mashed potato recipes, this one doesn’t call for milk. The potatoes give off enough moisture as they braise, so just some extra butter and sour cream is enough to make them smooth. After mashing, the potatoes hold very well on warm for up to 3 hours: Just add the chives and give the potatoes a quick stir before serving.
World’s Best Chocolate Cake
The recipe for this cake, adapted from "Sweet" by Yotam Ottolenghi and Helen Goh, first appeared in an article written about Ms. Goh when she ran her cafe, the Mortar & Pestle, in Melbourne, Australia. Rather intimidatingly for her, the headline for the article was "World’s Best Chocolate Cake." It could actually be called lots of things: “world’s easiest cake,” possibly, requiring nothing more than one large bowl to make it all in. Or “most versatile cake,” given that it can be served without icing and just a light dusting of cocoa powder, or dressed up to the nines, as it is here, with a thin layer of chocolate ganache and served with espresso cinnamon mascarpone cream. In the Ottolenghi shops in London, it is smaller and goes by the name Take-Home Chocolate Cake, designed to be shared by four people after a meal. This larger version is no less delicious, and keeps well for four to five days. As with any baking project, you should weigh your ingredients in grams for the best results.
Chocolate Cheesecake With Graham Cracker Crunch
It’s worth tasting a few brands of graham crackers to find one you particularly like — preferably one with whole-wheat flour and a good dash of salt and honey or molasses. Try a health-food store or Whole Foods for organic and low-sugar brands. (Graham flour was devised in the 19th century as a healthful alternative to white flour.) Fresh, fluffy cream cheese with a minimum of fillers and stabilizers is also worth seeking out for this recipe. This recipe works fine with supermarket cream cheese and graham cracker crumbs (or dark chocolate cookie crumbs) in the crust, but the filling must be made with top-quality chocolate to get the full effect: milky cream cheese, tangy sour cream and the slight bitterness of chocolate playing against the sweet crunch of the crust. That’s how it’s been made since 1984 at the Saltry restaurant in Halibut Cove, off the southern Alaska coast. All of the ingredients (as well as the equipment, furniture, staff and customers) arrive by boat — except for the magnificent salmon, oysters, halibut, cod and mussels that are caught or harvested nearby.
Kentucky Butter Cake
If you think you don’t need another Bundt cake recipe, this one exists to prove you wrong. Adapted from Nell Lewis of Platte City, Mo., who entered the Pillsbury Bake-Off contest in 1963, it is a favorite of food bloggers and Pinterest lovers alike. On the surface, it’s not that different from your typical pound cake, but what makes it special is a vanilla-scented, buttery sugar glaze that’s poured over the still-warm cake. Left to sit for several hours before unmolding, the glaze soaks into the cake, making it incredibly tender and rich while leaving behind a delightful sugary crust. There are a lot of variations out there — some with bourbon in place of the vanilla, others with sherry — so feel free to play around.
Pumpkin Cheesecake
This dessert delivers all the warm spices of pumpkin pie along with the tangy creaminess of cheesecake. To help the filling come together easily, make sure your ingredients are at room temperature, and refrain from mixing on high, which will incorporate too much air, causing the cheesecake to rise, then fall. The cake is finished in the oven with the heat turned off; that gentle reduction in heat eliminates the need for a water bath and reduces the likelihood of cracks or a grainy texture.
Chocolate Olive Oil Cake
This tender chocolate cake has a deep cocoa flavor that’s intensified by the slight bitterness of olive oil. Cinnamon adds a touch of spice here, and the Earl Grey tea, a mellow citrus perfume. Feel free to play around with the hot liquid used to dissolve the cocoa powder: Coffee, red wine, orange juice or any other flavorful tea will add their own notes to the cake, while water will let the chocolate shine on its own. Serve this as is, or with a dollop of whipped cream or some ice cream on top.