thanksgiving part 2: the side dishes

Just because you’re making a big turkey dinner, doesn’t mean you should put any less thought into your side dishes.  In fact, a good side dish can be just as memorable!  One of the things I was always told by my mother (& grandmother) growing up was that you should always eat something from every colour.  While this may sound very hippy-dippy in theory, it’s actually quite a wise practice.  By serving vegetables from different colour groups you’re getting different vitamins & nutrients in your food.  For Thanksgiving I decided to go with an autumn colour palette of green, red & orange.  Here’s how I did it...

Mashed Sweet Potatoes 

About an hour before you’re ready to serve dinner you should start prepping your sweet potatoes.  They’ll take about a half hour to make, but they do cool quickly, so it’s best not to make them too early.

you will need:

• a large pot
• a colander
• a masher

ingredients:

• 2 good sized sweet potatoes (most places I buy veggies use “yams” and “sweet potatoes” interchangeably, but to be clear I use the ones that are bright orange inside, not yellow.)
• 3 tbsp plain Trader Joe’s goat’s milk yogurt (if you can get your goat’s milk yogurt from Trader Joe’s then use that, if not I find that most others are too thin. Instead try using plain greek-style yogurt, or something like Astro Balkan-Style... basically a thicker yogurt)
• nutmeg 

Peel your sweet potatoes and then chop them in to big chunks.  Rinse them off and put them your big pot, then filling the pot with enough water to cover them.  Set on your stove on medium-high.  Allow them to boil until you can stick a fork in them and they’re soft (about 30 minutes or so).

When they’ve hit the soft-stage, take them off the heat and immediately strain them in your colander (do not rinse, just strain).  Transfer the sweet potatoes back into your pot, and set it on the counter on top of a trivet.  Take your potato masher and basically just mash the crap out of the sweet potatoes just until they’re pretty lumpy.  Then add in your yogurt, and liberally sprinkle the pot with nutmeg.  Using your potato masher, combine all of those together until they’ve reached your desired consistency.

Green Beans & Peppers

For the greens portion of dinner I went with something that takes under 10 minutes to make.  You really don’t want to let these sit around, so it’s best to make them right before serving.

you will need:

• a pot
• a colander
• a frying pan
• a wooden spatula

ingredients:

• green beans (I used 2 big handfuls, but adjust according to how many you’re serving)
• 1 large red bell pepper, cut into strips
• 1/2 yellow onion
• 1 tbsp olive oil

First thing you should do is prep your veggies.  I would recommend doing this while you’re waiting for your sweet potatoes to cook, and before you need to start assembling everything.  Snap the ends off of your green beans & wash them, slice your red pepper into strips & dice up the onion.

When you’re ready to cook fill a pot of water and put it on the stove on high.  As soon as the water boils drop in your green beans and cook them for 5 minutes.  

Next put your frying pan on high heat with the olive oil.  When the pan is warm add in your onion & pepper. Continue to stir the onions & peppers around so they get soft but not too brown.  By now you’ll find that you’re timer is beeping because the green beans are cooked.  Drain them off in your colander and then immediately add them to your frying pan.  Stir it all around until everything is well combined (a minute or so) & voila!, you’re ready to serve them.

Sugar Free Cranberry Sauce

This recipe was a bit of an experiment for me to see if I could make a tasty cranberry sauce without sugar or sugar-substitute.  The result was that I did!  It’s a bit more tart than the jellied stuff in the can, but I really enjoyed the flavour.  I made this right after putting the turkey in the oven in the morning which gave it time to sit in the fridge to cool off & get firm.

ingredients:

• 1 cup natural apple cider (I used Royal Gala Organic Cider Blend, and the only ingredient in it was pure apples, nothing added and not from concentrate)
• 1 bag whole cranberries
• dash of cinnamon

Put a medium sized pot on the stove over medium heat & add 1 cup of apple cider.  I’m sure if you can’t find apple cider, that apple juice is fine, but get something 100% pure and sugar-free.  Heat your apple cider until it starts to bubble, but not boil.

Add in your (washed) cranberries and give it a good stir.  You’ll want to keep a close eye on this and continue to stir it or it will quickly turn a foamy mess and almost boil over. 

After 5 minutes you’ll start to notice the cranberries bursting open, don’t worry you want this to happen.  Keep stirring and within 20 minutes to half an hour you’ll see the whole cranberries turn into a thickened sauce.  Sprinkle a bit of cinnamon over top & give it another stir.  

When it starts to look jammy, take it off the heat.  Transfer it to a glass jar and allow to cool before sticking it in the fridge.  Take it out just before dinner & wow people with how you made it from scratch!