Easy Make Ahead Thanksgiving Sides
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
These Thanksgiving sides and our make ahead tips can help you plan your holiday meal with ease. Find delicious, mouthwatering recipes for the best Thanksgiving sides and vegetables, including a few family favorites!
Thanksgiving Sides
Thanksgiving is one of our family’s absolute favorite holidays! Planning the menu with recipes everyone will love is so much fun.
Everyone loves the Thanksgiving turkey, but there are plenty of amazing side dishes to serve with it.
We wanted to share some of our best sides for Thanksgiving, including classic recipes and family favorites. And the best part? They can all be made ahead of time!
Though these easy Thanksgiving side dishes are just one part of the full menu, I think we can all agree that it’s the part we look forward to the most.
And when you’re ready to plan dessert, be sure to check out our collection of Thanksgiving dessert recipes!
SCROLL DOWN for the complete list, then click the link under each image to be taken to the recipe!
Make Ahead Tips
Don’t let planning dinner for a crowd stress you out — make it fun! Here are a few time-saving tips:
- Print each recipe. Don’t rely on using a mobile version of a recipe or risk spilling something on your favorite cookbook.
Print out or make a copy of each of the Thanksgiving sides you’ll be making. - Organize and schedule your time. Go a step further, jotting down notes for when to start prepping each dish and what can be done days in advance (like bread cubes).
It also helps to plan out specific times to start and finish recipes, plus which you can work on at the same time. - Use slow cookers and food warmers. Plan to have several slow cookers available to transfer most of the food into after it’s been prepared.
This way, you can keep these easy Thanksgiving sides warm without using oven space.
Best Thanksgiving Sides to Make Ahead
Cooking on Thanksgiving day will be so much less stressful when you have your sides prepared in advance.
That could mean fully cooked dishes that just need to be warmed or simply having all the prep work done so you can toss things in the crockpot.
- Mashed Potatoes – Making mashed potatoes the day before serving will save you a LOT of counter space!
About 3 hours before the meal, transfer them from the fridge to a slow cooker so they can warm through on Low. - Sweet Potato Casserole – Make the base for the sweet potato casserole ahead too. On the day, warm it in the oven and add the topping.
- Cranberry Sauce – This is one of the best Thanksgiving sides to make ahead of time, even though it’s so easy to make in the first place.
The longer it sits in the fridge, the better the flavor will be! - Stuffing – You can prep all of the stuffing ingredients the day before. Chop the vegetables, cook the sausage and the bacon, and toast the bread too.
Then, refrigerate everything separately in plastic storage bags or covered containers. NOTE: Keep the bread in a bag on the counter, not in the fridge.
Best Sides for Thanksgiving
These are the best of the best — the ones we make every year because they’re so darn delicious!
To see the ingredients and get a printable version of any of these recipes, just click on the title of the recipe!
My Sausage Cranberry and Apple Stuffing is a MUST-make for Thanksgiving. Whether you call it stuffing or dressing, it always disappears first around here! We love it so much that we have 5 different recipes, this one is our absolute favorite.
These are the Best Mashed Potatoes you’ll ever try — perfect fluffy, creamy, and buttery when made with milk, butter, AND cream cheese! There’s also just enough garlic flavor to keep things interesting. You’ll love them!
Make Sweet Potato Casserole just like Boston Market! Creamy sweet potatoes topped with gooey marshmallows and a crunchy streusel topping… it’s one of the best sides for Thanksgiving because it just screams fall flavor.
Speaking of easy Thanksgiving sides, this Homemade Cranberry Sauce is the one to beat. It’s super simple to make with just 3 ingredients, and it tastes even better if you make it ahead of time. If your family is used to sauce from a can, consider serving both versions this year and see which they prefer!
Slow Cooker Mac and Cheese is the creamiest, cheesiest mac and cheese you’ll ever eat! One of our favorite Thanksgiving sides, it’s made with THREE types of cheese right in the crock pot so you don’t have to worry about another pot on the stove.
Slow Cooker Creamed Corn is rich, creamy, and perfectly sweet — so much better than flavorless and watery canned cream corn. This recipe is super easy to make and we never have leftovers. Try it yourself and see!
Cheesy Potato Casserole is fully loaded and kicked up about 12 notches, with 3 types of cheese, sour cream, and bacon! It may not be very traditional, but it’s one of those easy Thanksgiving side dishes that my family asks for every year.
Easy Thanksgiving Sides with Vegetables
Keep things extra simple with a few roasted veggie options, perfect for little ones or pickier eaters.
Plus, I’m sharing my favorite version of the most controversial of Thanksgiving sides… green bean casserole!
Garlic Roasted Broccoli may be simple, but it certainly isn’t lacking in flavor! Perfectly tender with caramelized bits of roasted garlic and onions, it’s your favorite veggie taken up a few notches!
Air Fried Cauliflower is deliciously crispy on the outside but perfectly tender in the middle. Plus, it’s one more way to free up oven space! The mild flavor won’t compete with the other dishes on your plate, and kids will love dipping it in all kinds of sauces.
Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Garlic are tender, crispy, and flavorful — not like the boiled sprouts we grew up with. It’s one of the best Thanksgiving sides for picky eaters. Between the roasted garlic and the perfectly cooked sprouts, they will gobble this side dish up!
Cheesy Bacon Green Bean Casserole ain’t your grandma’s recipe! This modern take on the classic recipe features green beans in a rich and creamy bacon mushroom cheese sauce that will change Thanksgiving forever!
Did we leave anything out? If you have a favorite holiday side dish that you think we should make, use the comments below to let us know about it!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
Enjoy!
With love, from our simple kitchen to yours.
Don’t miss a thing! Follow us on
Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Instagram
Originally published November 2014, updated and republished November 2024
Disclosure: Posts may contain affiliate links. If you purchase a product through an affiliate link your price will remain the same and The Slow Roasted Italian will automatically receive a small commission. Thank you for supporting us, it helps us keep creating new recipes.
Excellent list of DELICIOUS foods!! I've pinned so many of your recipes!! THANK YOU!!!
THANK YOU!!! Last Thanksgiving I made your "best ever stuffing recipe", "best ever mashed potato recipe", "best ever slow cooker creamed corn recipe", "Best Ever Sweet Potato Casserole (Boston Market Copycat)" and my entire family went nuts for them and are begging me to bring them again this Thanksgiving! I can't thank you enough for your delicious recipes that are so easy – even I can do them!
I would be thrilled with just these rolls and a bowl of gravy. O.K.a bit of honey butter, too!!
I could never stand the creamed corn from a can that I was served in childhood. Fast forward about fifty years and I was served some at a restaurant that amazed me. Your recipe is as close as I've come to what I had that night and yours is even better and SO EASY! It's so easy to adjust for just a few people or a big crowd. I prefer to omit the sugar and nobody notices amid the sounds of noshing. Thank you for this gem of a recipe.