Roasted Beets with Orange

TG Side Dishes

For November 17, 2011

Everyone knows turkey’s for dinner on Thanksgiving. But that’s just the entrée. What about the “trimmings?”

It’s what we’ll serve with that big, golden brown bird that we think about most in the week before the holiday.

Judging by the photos in the food media most of us cook our hearts out for this particular meal. We prepare a feast big enough to assure plenty of leftovers, including the turkey, plus an amazing display of stuffing, cranberry sauce and several colorful, vegetable side dishes. Desserts too, of course.

That’s a lot of hard, labor-intensive work, difficult enough if we have time off to cook, and almost overwhelming for those who work. But it doesn’t have to be that way, even if you make all the side dishes yourself. If you plan well and stick to foods you can cook ahead and reheat you won’t have much to do on Thanksgiving Day except find someone to carve the bird. Here are some ideas to help with your “trimmings” menu.

Pre-cook root vegetables so that they can be ready for any number of recipes:

Roast beets 2-3 days ahead (scrub the beets, rub them with vegetable oil and wrap them tightly in aluminum foil), reheat them in a hot oven (400-450 degrees) wrapped in the foil. Serve the beets plain, with butter or a pre-made sauce. Or offer them at room temperature doused with vinaigrette and sprinkled with crumbled goat cheese or with fresh dill and chopped toasted almonds.

Peel and cut butternut (or other winter) squash into chunks, then rub the pieces with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and bake until tender (400 degrees, about 20 minutes). Baked squash is delicious at room temperature, but if you prefer to reheat (in a hot oven, about 8-10 minutes), sprinkle the pieces with fresh thyme or rosemary first. Or, for a more elaborate side dish, combine the chunks with roasted Brussels sprouts (maybe adding a sprinkling of dried cranberries and chopped toasted hazelnuts or chestnuts) before reheating. Or garnish the chunks with cranberry sauce or chutney.

Peel parsnips and/or carrots, cut them into strips, rub the pieces with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and roast for 15-20 minutes in a hot oven until the strips are tender and browned, like veggie “French fries.” Serve reheated or at room temperature, plain or with mustard or horseradish sauce.

Gratins are amazingly handy make-ahead dishes that work with practically any vegetable. Gratin sounds like something fancy but it just means a casserole made with vegetables (or another ingredient) topped with a crust and baked until hot and crispy. You can make gratin using raw or cooked vegetables. Those parsnip and carrot strips for example: sprinkle them with Mozzarella and Parmesan cheese and broil the dish for a few minutes until the cheese is hot and bubbly. Or the butternut squash chunks: sprinkle them with crumbled blue cheese and plain breadcrumbs and bake for 8 or so minutes until the cheese bubbles and the vegetables are hot.

Gratin crusts can be as simple as grated cheese (Swiss, Parmesan, Fontina, Mozzarella, blue, Jack and so on) or a more involved “streusel” made with breadcrumbs, nuts, herbs and cheese. Either way, you can prepare the dish 2 days ahead and pop it into the oven to reheat just before serving.

Think about purees too. These should be a must on Thanksgiving. You can make them 1-2 days ahead, including Mashed Potatoes (one day). Some folks will tell you not to reheat mashed potatoes, but yes, you can. The trick is to make sure the potatoes are soft and fluffy enough when you mash them, which means mixing in enough liquid.

Sweet Potato Casserole holds for 2 days and needs only reheating (if you use a marshmallow topping though, add that after the dish is already heated through and continue to cook the casserole until the marshmallows have melted and browned).

In either case mix in whatever other ingredients you wish: mashed potatoes are fine plain but you can include a variety of ingredients such as roasted garlic, cooked kale, chopped spinach or fresh basil. For a tasty change, mix mashed potatoes with equal amounts of mashed, cooked parsnip or cauliflower.

For mashed sweet potatoes, all you really need are some seasonings, a liquid to make the texture fluffy and perhaps some enrichment with butter. Sweet potatoes have plenty of natural sugars and don’t need extra sweetening, but it’s okay to include maple syrup, honey or brown sugar. To avoid those calories though, mash the vegetable with ingredients such as orange juice and cinnamon or sautéed apples, fresh ginger and apple cider. Classic marshmallow crust is a must-have in some families but you can also switch to a crunchy crust by scattering ground, roasted chestnuts, chopped almonds or shredded coconut scattered on top.

Stuffed vegetables are another make-ahead possibility that works well with the Thanksgiving turkey. Bake acorn squash halves until they are tender, reheat them and serve them hot or warm, stuffed with cranberry sauce or a cooked vegetable such as lima beans or peas or with cooked bulgur wheat or farro (plain or mixed with chopped nuts and dried cranberries or chopped dried figs or dates).

Give yourself a break this holiday. Think ahead, cook ahead and enjoy the dinner without the stress.