Thanksgiving
2220 recipes found
Venetian Spritz
In its glory days, Venice sent out its fearsome fleet to conquer international trade. Today, a gentler envoy has conquered international cocktail menus: the spritz. The fizzy aperitif is made with a choice of Aperol, Campari or Cynar along with white wine and sparkling mineral water.
Cheddar-Walnut Gougères
Gougères, small cheese puffs made from the same neither-sweet-nor-savory dough you’d use for cream puffs or éclairs, are my favorite pre-dinner nibble with wine. They’re slightly crusty on the outside, custardy on the inside and, because I add mustard and chopped nuts, surprising. The traditional cheese for these is French Comté or Swiss Gruyère, but lately I’ve been using shredded sharp American Cheddar, which makes them a tad more tender and gives them a little edge, nice in a morsel that’s meant to whet your appetite. I like these a few minutes out of the oven, but room temperature puffs have legions of fans as well. It’s good to know that raw puffs freeze perfectly (pack them into an airtight container as soon as they’re solidly frozen) and bake perfectly from the freezer. Arrange them on a lined baking sheet and leave them on the counter while you preheat the oven.
Teff Carrot Cake
This deeply spiced carrot cake is studded with toasted walnuts and coconut, and sandwiched with a tangy mix of cream cheese and butter. It's also gluten-free, and festive enough to prepare for a special occasion. The cake comes from the San Francisco pastry chef Elisabeth Prueitt, whose interest in baking with alternative flours has led to many exceptional wheat-free creations. Made with teff flour and sweetened with a mix of coconut sugar and granulated sugar, it results in a tender, moist crumb and irresistible texture.
Pomegranate Spritz
A cocktail featuring prosecco with pomegranate juice.
Potato, Salmon and Spinach Patties With Garlicky Dill Cream
These patties were inspired by a trip to a Southern diner with a memorable salmon patty on the menu. The secret to their soft and creamy texture? Mashed potatoes, of course. So here is a graceful dish that gives you a way to use leftover mashed potatoes by combining them with salmon and spinach and giving them a bread-crumb coating. They end up golden and crunchy and absolutely bursting with salmon.
Mushroom, White Sausage And Prosciutto Stuffing
Turkey Soup With Lime and Chile
After the overindulgence that comes with Thanksgiving, you might want to try something a little lighter and brighter with your leftover meat. This is a version of sopa de lima, the restorative and delicious Mexican soup popular in the Yucatán. It is usually made with chicken and a local lime, but turkey and supermarket lime are a magical, timely substitute.
Butternut Squash, Pecans and Currants
This recipe, from the restaurant Balaboosta in New York, came to The Times in 2010 as part of a roundup of restaurant Thanksgiving dinners, but it can be served any time, even as a weeknight main alongside a hearty salad or starch. The currants and candied pecans play off the butternut squash’s sweetness, while a vinaigrette stops it all from being too cloying. It’s a delightful vegetarian main for when you want the essence of the restaurant meal, without too much work.
Turkey Hash With Brussels Sprouts and Parsnips
Though it’s derived from a French word that means chopped, hash is quintessentially American. It’s most often made with roasted or boiled meat (sometimes corned beef) and potatoes, cut into cubes and fried into a crisp-bottomed cake. Invariably, it’s then topped with an egg, poached or fried. This one, made with roast turkey, makes good use of holiday leftovers. Scallions and jalapeño lend it brightness.
Chestnut Sausage Stuffing
Cranberry Sauce With Chiles
In the Southwest, local chiles of all kinds accent the flavor of Thanksgiving. Cooks put them in everything from Hatch turkey rubs to chipotle mashed potatoes to chiltepin cranberry sauce, which uses the small, round, fiery hot chiles that are native to Arizona and northern Mexico. You can make this sauce a day ahead and chill it; if it's too stiff for your tastes when you remove it from the fridge, add a little water and sugar, reheat until simmering and then cool once more. (And for everything you need to know about cranberry sauce, check out our cranberry sauce guide.)
Roasted Winter Squash With Miso Glaze
Winter squash, already sweet and caramelized from roasting, makes as delicious a partner for miso glaze as eggplant.
Turnip, Leek and Potato Soup
A simple French soup that works well regardless of which vegetable gets the emphasis. This is a simple French soup. If you want to vary the proportions of vegetables you can; it works well whether you emphasize the turnips, as I do here, the leeks or the potatoes. Turnips have a slightly bitter edge, and tarragon makes a lovely sweet garnish. Chives would also work.
Celeriac, Potato, Leek and Apple Soup
A sweet and savory mixture that works well as a soup. I’ve always loved the combination of celeriac, potatoes and apples, which I first tasted in France as a celeriac, potato and apple purée. The sweet and savory mixture works very nicely as a soup. I like to strain this soup after I purée it to get a velvety texture.
Mashed Celeriac And Potatoes
Amaro Spritz
This simple recipe takes the 3-2-1 spritz formula to heart, relying on just three quality ingredients. Amari styles vary wildly in viscosity and flavor, from intensely bitter to lightly sweet and floral, which means different bottles match different moods. To make sure you’re always prepared, stock a few of the bitter liqueurs and start drinking. Current favorites include French China-China (spiced, earthy and orange-based), Sicilian Averna (sweet, citrusy), Californian Lo-Fi Gentian Amaro (juicy, floral) and Brooklyn-based Forthave Spirits Marseille Amaro (herbal, with warm spices). To these, add any hyper-regional bottles you’ve tucked into a suitcase. All spritz nicely, especially when paired with a lime wheel.
Bison Pot Roast With Hominy
The American bison that once roamed the Great Plains were considered sacred animals by the Lakota and other people of the region, and served as a critical food source that was celebrated in ceremonies and honored in prayers. According to numbers published by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, there were 30 million to 60 million bison in North America in the 1500s. By the end of the 1800s, settlers had decimated the population. In the late 1990s, the number of bison in North America had grown again, to nearly 300,000 animals in public herds and on ranches. It’s exciting we now have access to this vitally important meat. When it’s slowly braised, the lean, mild bison becomes fork tender; hominy brings substance and a subtly sweet, nutty corn flavor. Serve this dish alone or pair it with roasted turnips and winter squash. Soaking the hominy overnight before adding it to the pot helps it cook faster, so the dried corn kernels are ready in the same amount of time as the bison. Leftovers are terrific served over corn cakes or folded into tortillas. A small branch of foraged white cedar adds a woodsy note, but juniper berries achieve a similar effect.
Turkey and Wild Rice Salad
I often make a wild rice salad for Thanksgiving; with leftover turkey, it lasts for several days afterward. It’s one of my favorite post-Thanksgiving meals. If you have other vegetables on hand, add them to the salad, too.
Rice Flour Poundcake
Rice flour makes this poundcake melt-in-your-mouth tender, and gives it a mild and delicate flavor that’s spiced with a touch of black pepper. It keeps well, so feel free to bake it a day or two ahead of serving, or eat any leftovers for breakfast. This recipe was created by Zachary Golper of Bien Cuit bakery in Brooklyn, who prefers Japanese rice flour for its consistently fine particle size, but any white rice flour will work. (Note: If you don't have an 8-inch loaf pan, you can use a 9-inch pan but the baking time will be about 5 to 10 minutes shorter, and the loaf will be flatter in appearance.)
Spicy Cranberry-Apple Relish
Turkey Pita With Cabbage, Cucumbers and Tahini Dressing
This shawarma-like pulled turkey sandwich, using Thanksgiving leftovers, is a great alternative to the mayo-and-cranberry-sauce fallback. Or it can be made any time of year with roast turkey, chicken or lamb.
Pecan Pie
Pecan pie is to the Southern Thanksgiving table what pumpkin, mince and apple pies are to the Northern version of the meal. Pecan trees can be found in back and front yards in Georgia, Texas and states in between, and pecan pie is a year-round dessert. The classic rendition is cloyingly sweet, because of the cup or cup and a half of corn syrup that most recipes call for. But you can dispense with the corn syrup and use a combination of mild honey (like clover or acacia) and Lyle’s Golden Syrup, which has a wonderful flavor that is almost like light molasses. It’s not the standard corn syrup, but you’ll end up with a pie that’s lighter but still sweet, true to Southern style.
Mashed Butternut Squash
Mashed squash makes a versatile side dish throughout the fall and winter, since it goes with just about everything. It’s perfect with roasted meats like duck, chicken or pork loin. Don’t mash too much though — leave it on the chunky side.
Savory Butternut Squash and Parmesan Bread Pudding
This hearty casserole from Cooking Light magazine is a light yet comforting autumn bread pudding.