29 Healthy Thanksgiving Sides That Everyone Will Enjoy

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Johhny Miller

Thanksgiving dinner isn’t typically about wellness, and that’s okay. But with a few easy swaps and modifications, it can also still be a balanced meal. These easy Thanksgiving side dishes, from roasted brussels sprouts with pancetta to green Thanksgiving salads, are all healthy while still being delicious.

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Beet-and-Apple Salad

For his salad, George Mendes uses fresh horseradish and Gegenbauer cider vinegar, a rare Austrian import. This version calls for jarred horseradish and supermarket apple-cider vinegar.

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Sweet Potato Spoon Bread

Spoon bread, a cross between corn bread and soufflé, is a Southern classic. Robert Stehling likes to add cooked spinach or fresh corn and chopped and sautéed bacon or ham to his plain sweet potato version.

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Broccoli, Shiitake and Red Onion Roast

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Healthy Potato Gratin with Herbs

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

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Caramelized Brussels Sprouts with Pancetta

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Sweet Potatoes with Apple Butter

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Leek Salad with Persimmons and Almonds

Here, Hugh Acheson creates a salad based on butter-braised leeks, a French favorite.

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Farro with Butternut Squash and Pickled Chanterelles

Jeff Cerciello pickles his mushrooms in a horseradish-and-juniper brine—flavors that are especially nice in winter with nutty farro and sweet butternut squash. The salad, however, is also delicious on its own and would be a great side dish for a simple roast chicken.

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Chunky Cranberry Sauce

Gary Vaynerchuk prefers “real cranberry sauce” with chunks of whole fruit over the smooth canned-and-jellied kind.

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Gingered Green Beans

Scott Conant makes his crisp-tender beans with ground ginger, since freshly grated ginger invariably creates unappealing little chunks.

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Tricolor Roasted Carrots and Parsnips

This gorgeous, lightly sweet salad is terrific with roasted chicken and great for a buffet.

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Potato-Leek Focaccia

This perfect savory focaccia is delicious with or without a light brushing of white truffle oil.

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Kale & Apple Salad with Pancetta and Candied Pecans

Kale is a marvelous green for salads because it’s hearty enough to handle hefty ingredients like nuts and meat, plus it doesn’t wilt as it sits on the table. When chef Ryan Hardy makes this kale salad for Thanksgiving dinner at Montagna at the Little Nell in Aspen, Colorado, he deep-fries the pecans, but it’s quicker (and less messy) to toast them in the oven.

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Mashed Winter Squash with Indian Spices

Fragrant Indian spices—coriander, turmeric and black mustard seeds—are a wonderful accent for creamy mashed butternut squash. The squash can be roughly smashed until chunky, or thoroughly mashed until smooth.

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Mixed Green Salad with Fig-Yogurt Dressing

Tossed with a healthy mix of lettuces such as arugula and watercress, this tangy-sweet dressing combines low-fat yogurt with vitamin K–rich figs.

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Maple-Ginger-Roasted Vegetables with Pecans

When roasting winter vegetables, Melissa Rubel Jacobson says be sure to chop them about the same size, so they cook at the same rate. And toss them at least once while they’re in the oven, so they brown evenly.

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Carrots with Tahini Dressing

“I like the clean flavors in this dish,” says Sam Mogannam of this incredibly simple side, which is as good with turkey as it is with steamed fish, roast chicken or pork.

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Ginger-Roasted Winter Squash

For winter squash that is crispy on the outside and moist within, Melissa Perello halves each one, roasts it until soft, then cuts it into wedges and roasts it some more.

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Squash Gratin with Poblanos & Cream

At Suzanne Goin and Caroline Styne’s Tavern in Los Angeles, chef Julie Robles makes this vegetarian gratin in individual dishes with a topping of candied pepitas (pumpkin seeds). This version is for one big gratin garnished with plain toasted pumpkin seeds.

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Roasted Cauliflower with Green Olives and Pine Nuts

Roasting cauliflower caramelizes the florets, making them supersweet. Tossed with crunchy pine nuts and salty olives and capers, this dish is perfect with roasted chicken or steamed fish.

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Gingery Sweet Potato Soup

Sweet potatoes are a great source of beta-carotene, essential for vision. The soup uses only one cup of the ginger broth; the rest makes a terrific cooking liquid for grains like quinoa.

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Green Bean-and-Blood Orange Salad

“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.

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Balsamic-Glazed Cipollini with Lemon and Bay Leaves

Called cipollini agrodólce in Italian for their sweet-and-sour vinegar glaze (agro means sour; dólce, sweet), these soft and tangy onions are a fantastic accompaniment to any rich roast meat.

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Cranberry, Ginger and Orange Chutney

This chunky cranberry chutney is super-fresh-tasting because the cranberries are simmered briefly and the orange sections are added near the end of cooking.

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Roasted Beets and Charred Green Beans

Eva Kolenko

Chef Kristen Kish’s beets and haricot verts salad offers acid, char, and crunch. It’s a well-balanced addition to any heavy Thanksgiving meal feast.

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Savory Kale Salad 

Abby Hocking

This salad has all the best elements of fall: hearty greens, sweet pumpkin, crunchy pepitas, crumbly blue cheese, and a spicy chipotle-yogurt dressing.

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Celery Root, Apple and Fennel Slaw 

Abby Hocking

Made with ingredients including apples, capers, horseradish, and mustard, this refreshing slaw is sweet with a bit of heat.

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Brussels Sprouts and Arugula Salad with Buttermilk Dressing

Johhny Miller

Make like Food & Wine Culinary Director Justin Chapple and do something new with Brussels sprouts this year.

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29 Healthy Thanksgiving Sides

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Beet-and-Apple Salad

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Sweet Potato Spoon Bread

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Broccoli, Shiitake and Red Onion Roast

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Healthy Potato Gratin with Herbs

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Caramelized Brussels Sprouts with Pancetta

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Sweet Potatoes with Apple Butter

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Leek Salad with Persimmons and Almonds

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Farro with Butternut Squash and Pickled Chanterelles

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Chunky Cranberry Sauce

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Gingered Green Beans

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Tricolor Roasted Carrots and Parsnips

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Potato-Leek Focaccia

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Kale & Apple Salad with Pancetta and Candied Pecans

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Mashed Winter Squash with Indian Spices

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Mixed Green Salad with Fig-Yogurt Dressing

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Maple-Ginger-Roasted Vegetables with Pecans

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Carrots with Tahini Dressing

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Ginger-Roasted Winter Squash

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Squash Gratin with Poblanos & Cream

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Roasted Cauliflower with Green Olives and Pine Nuts

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Gingery Sweet Potato Soup

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Green Bean-and-Blood Orange Salad

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Balsamic-Glazed Cipollini with Lemon and Bay Leaves

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Cranberry, Ginger and Orange Chutney

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Roasted Beets and Charred Green Beans

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Savory Kale Salad

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Savory Kale Salad 

Celery Root, Apple and Fennel Slaw 