43 Essential Christmas Dinner Side Dishes

Fragrant vanilla-bean butter does double duty here—it both flavors the squash and softens the skin during roasting. The greater the variety of winter squash you use, the more interesting the dish will be. Top it all off with fried sage leaves for a simple and easy side dish.

Tyler Florence uses beets and their greens to make this fresh and vibrant side dish. If you can’t find beets with beautiful greens, Swiss chard or curly spinach leaves can be used instead.

Wrapped in salty speck and glazed with date molasses, these bundles of crisp, tender haricots verts are the perfect pairing for beef or duck. Date molasses is thinner than standard molasses, so it needs to be cooked down to reach a glaze consistency; if it sets up too much, gently reheat it.

This salad celebrates the often-underrated vegetable sides that accompany a Sunday roast.

Japanese white hakurei turnips (also called salad turnips) are much sweeter than regular purple and white turnips and taste great served with their greens—a perfect side for roast chicken or turkey. Start the turnips in a cold pan; letting them slowly heat helps bring them to perfect tenderness without browning too quickly.

This simple roasted vegetable side dish tastes rich and complex thanks to mustard-spiced butter.

This gratin from Kay Chun features long spears of squash topped with panko and cheese and baked until tender and crisp.

Star chef Geoffrey Zakarian's herb-packed salad dressing is brightly flavored, sweet and tangy; it's like green goddess dressing but without the mayonnaise or sour cream.

Instead of cooking mushrooms in a skillet, chef Geoffrey Zakarian roasts them in the oven until tender before tossing them in a buttery red wine sauce with garlic and fresh herbs.

Chef Gavin Kaysen of Spoon and Stable in Minneapolis has a version of this incredibly decadent creamed spinach on his menu. Just how much do Minnesotans love cheese curds? The restaurant sold 8,459 orders of the dish in its first 10 months.

Super-thin slices of sweet potato are key to the finished texture and shape of these crispy bites. Use a mandoline for the best results, stabbing the last bit of potato with a fork to keep fingers safe.

Properly cooked wild rice retains a pleasant crunch that adds satisfying texture to this fried rice. Paired with lightly spicy mustard greens, sweet celery, and tender, meaty mushrooms, it’s an earthy, savory side dish that could be a meal on its own.

Mashed parsnips might be even better than mashed potatoes. They have the same creamy, luscious texture, with the addition of a distinctly nutty, slightly sweet flavor. Once topped with crispy brussels sprout leaves, this dish becomes 100 percent irresistible.

Chef Dan Holzman crushes his skin-on potatoes right in the saucepan and adds lemon and parsley for terrific flavor.

Collards are often paired with bacon, but our new favorite twist is to flavor the greens with spicy pepperoni.

This recipe is Nadine Levy Redzepi’s riff on traditional Danish red cabbage, a very popular dish eaten throughout the year, especially at Christmas. It’s a lovely balance of sweet and tangy, with some richness from the addition of duck fat.

This luscious side dish can be prepared up to three days ahead. The duo of sweet parsnip and creamy spinach is unbeatable.

Holiday Make-Ahead Tip: The potatoes can be baked up to 5 hours ahead; let stand at room temperature. Rewarm in the oven before serving.

Suggested wine pairing: The best bet for this salad is a Sauvignon Blanc with herbal and grapefruit hints, such as those from South Africa or New Zealand.

The genius idea here is pulsing sliced pepperoni with bread crumbs to add a ton of extra flavor and a great crunch to broccoli.

This recipe is as fun to eat as monkey bread (little balls of yeast dough that are baked in a pan together, then pulled apart at the table) but a lot less time-consuming to make. Grace Parisi spreads her buttery biscuit dough with a savory onion-Gruyère mixture, stacks layers of it sideways in a loaf pan, then bakes it until golden and fluffy.

Warm salads used to be common on restaurant menus, but their popularity has waned, for no good reason. This terrific salad is made with warm mushrooms that develop great meaty flavor when cooked with soy sauce.

This quick side comes together in under an hour, and is flavored with ground cumin, ground coriander, and cayenne pepper for a kick.

Inspired by a potato gratin at Restaurant Daniel in New York City, this creamy—but creamless—recipe gets great flavor from thyme and rosemary.

Buying beets with the beet greens still attached is like getting two ingredients in one. To turn them into this fabulous salad, roast the beets until they’re sweet, blanch the greens until they’re tender, then toss both with olive oil, lemon and anchovies.

Blogger Heidi Swanson shares this lightened bread pudding in her cookbook, Super Natural Every Day.

“Blood oranges are part of my Sicily fascination,” Renato Poliafito says. He uses the segments to add color and tang to green beans and reduces the juice with balsamic vinegar to make the dressing.

The combination of pecorino and Parmesan gives these potatoes a great cheesy depth.

This classic is updated with deep-flavored cheddar and a crunchy topping of crumbled crackers and toasted almonds.

Curly leaf spinach has great texture and flavor and holds this mustardy dressing well. For additional color, feel free to use a variety of different colored beets. You can also swap blood oranges for the tangerines.

Adding butternut squash and spices is a lovely way to jazz up rice.

Inspired by the pickled pearl onions that became a family tradition (“Mom just served them straight out of the jar and threw a toothpick at them”), Barbara Lynch bakes fresh pearl onions in a mixture of cream, garlic, shallots and bacon, then tops it all with a crispy panko crust.

The only thing better than a full plate of caramelized brussels sprouts is a plate of brussels sprouts with pancetta.

For this vegetable side, L’Etoile chef Tory Miller's local gin source is Death's Door Spirits in Madison, Wisconsin, a distillery that uses wild juniper berries harvested on Washington Island in Lake Michigan. “I love that they pick all those juniper berries by hand up in Door County,” he says.

This sausage dressing recipe makes enough to stuff a turkey and fill a casserole. Use five cups of stuffing for the cavity and the skin flap at the top of the breast, then cook the rest in an 8-by-11-inch baking dish.

This kale strata pairs a handful of simple ingredients alongside a generous sprinkling of grated Gouda for a deeply satisfying, easy dish.

Nadine Levy Redzepi combines sweet and savory with these caramel potatoes, which are topped with a healthy sprinkling of crunchy salt.

Chef JJ Johnson spices up roasted broccoli by tossing the vegetables in a coriander-cumin-garlic oil.

Made with sweet squash, hearty kale, juicy pomegranate seeds, and creamy feta, Ellen Bennett’s wheat berry salad is the ultimate winter side dish.

Gail Simmons’ extra-large potato pancake can be topped with anything from meat to cheese to eggs, but it’s also delicious served on its own.

Chef Traci Des Jardins’ chicory salad has just the right amount of sweetness from the kumquats and dates, and it makes for a fantastically light addition to any heavy Christmas dinner.

Chhundo, a green mango-derived sour-sweet condiment from Gujarat, India, makes for an excellent pairing with goat cheese and toasted baguette slices. A dash of Kashmiri chili powder pulls this easy side or appetizer together.

Inspired by the macaroni and cheese dish made by Alpine farmers in Switzerland, this dish cuts the richness of cheese with pickled shallots. It makes for an opulent side, or it's hearty enough to serve as a vegetarian main, as well.