Can Americans (or people who live there) tell me what sides you have at thanksgiving?

[cactusdog]

In particular, is sweet potato casserole a side or a dessert?
The recipe I'm looking at has candied pecans and marshmallows on top!
Looks delicious but I can't find if it's a side.

Do you just serve everything up together? Like I keep seeing pumpkin pie and pecan pie as "sides" for thanksgiving dinner?

Loving this thread - and have just looked up green bean casserole. Do most people make a fancy version or the campbells soup style one?

I’d love to do a “swap” go to a thanksgiving dinner and be shocked my marshmallows on Potato and then bring them back here for Christmas dinner so they can be shocked by a yoke shire pudding!

@cactusdog

White sausage gravy and biscuits is something I really want to try one day

Absolute heaven!

@something2say

Oh biscuits are so yummy! Had them in Georgia by the Mississippi with butter on. I'd be so fat if I lived in America!

Yes, sweet potato casserole is a side dish. We don't put marshmallows on top.

We have a traditional Southern Thanksgiving: turkey, cornbread dressing (called dressing, not stuffing as it's cooked outside the bird), green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, cranberry sauce or sometimes cranberry chutney, yeast rolls, pecan pie, pumpkin pie, and apple pie.

Mac and cheese is a very Southern thing with Thanksgiving dinner. Mashed potatoes are not traditional for Southerners, but since I married a Yankee, we have those as well.

Very easy biscuits feastgloriousfeast.com/breakfast-biscuits/
which I actually have with apricot jam heathen

Turkey
Stuffing
Gravy
Cranberry sauce (sometimes a raw cranberry relish instead of/in addition to)
Mash
Something green, depends on what we feel like
Pumpkin pie for dessert
These are the non-negotiables, other dishes come and go.

HawthornLantern that's my neck of the woods!

'I'm pretty controlling about Thanksgiving food' Xiaoxiong me too, I don't want a free for all.

Do most people make a fancy version or the campbells soup style one?

I make the soup one. It was my Dad's favorite side dish and I do it just the way he liked it as a small memorial for him. Plus I like it too, especially the fried onions that go on top.

@Xiaoxiong your cranberry sauce sounds amazing!

This thread has made me so hungry and so jealous of those of you who eat this food every year!

Oh, I forgot Kentucky Derby pie, basically pecan pie but with chocolate and Bourbon added.

@SenecaFallsRedux are the fried onions like the crispy salad onions you’d get here? Am considering trying it

Ah, you've reminded me I need to get some pumpkin filling and condensed milk. Pretty sure we've got spices already, think this is all I use ground cloves for ever

For several Christmases I made American sides instead of our usual ones. My favourite was green bean casserole.
It all tasted really delicious and made a nice change.

@Jinglebellissimo Yes, these ones

Are green beans the only non root veg you have with a roast then?

DH's family have dinner rolls, gravy, mashed potato, sweet potato casserole, stuffing, green bean casserole and ambrosia.

The sweet potato casserole and ambrosia both contain marshmallows and make zero sense to be serving with the mains!

Last year my MIL did 5 kinds of pies for after- chocolate, banoffee, pumpkin, pecan, and apple. You do have to have pie for dessert.

And they don't serve wine with this- it's all soda!

Oh and they have 2 kinds of turkey- deep fried and smoked. Smoked turkey is amazing.

we also often had buttered rolls but these are hard to explain and I don’t know how you’d make them (I think we would get them in one of those tins that explodes when you open it).

These are the traditional ones that we eat at Thanksgiving.

Green bean casserole is the BEST thing about thanksgivinf

I would love to experience a traditional American thanksgiving (although I didn't realise there were regional aspects so that's interesting to know!).
Not just regional but cultural/ethnic differences as well. The USA is a very big and diverse place

My family is Mexican and I grew up on the Mexico/ US border in Texas and we had a pretty traditional American Thanksgiving but with a few differences...

We had turkey on Thanksgiving with all the trimmings but the next day, we would eat turkey mole.

We had green bean casserole but our topping would have fried onions and fried jalapeños.

Corn is super important to Mexican Americans so it would be one of the few non-root vegetable side dishes but If you didn't eat corn, jalapeño cornbread was an accompaniment to pinto beans.

You can bet there's always some kind of spicy salsa to accompany it all!

Because we are Texan, we had pecan pie and pumpkin empanadas for dessert.

I currently live in Houston and there's a great deal of Cajun influence in the food. Many people deep fry the turkey outside!

The stuffing/ dressing usually has oysters and crab in it.

There's sweet potato pie for dessert.

It's amazing the difference within one end of the state to the other.

In the south we have:
roast turkey with dressing (not stuffing)
baked ham
cranberry sauce
bread and butter pickles
Dressing and gravy
mashed potatoes and gravy
biscuits
sweet potato casserole
green beans
mac and cheese
baked corn casserole
Sweetened ice tea

For dessert: apple pie, pumpkin pie, sweet potato pie, pecan pie
coconut cake with lemon cheese layers
silk chocolate pie (not traditional but kids love chocolate)

Our menu this year
Turkey
Cornbread mushroom stuffing
Mashed potatoes
Gravy!!!! This is the key to thanksgiving
Green beans in cream sauce
Glazed carrots
Waldorf salad (apples, grapes, celery, and nuts in a whipped cream sauce)
Rolls
Cranberry sauce

Dessert will be pumpkin pie, chocolate pie, and maybe an apple pie.

I’ve made sweet potatoes a few years but I don’t love them. They have big kid appeal.

If I had to strip it to the bare minimum it would be turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, and stuffing. Pumpkin pie for dessert.

Sweet potatoes with marshmallows
Candied sweet potatoes
Mashed potato cups
Homemade stuffing
Stove Top stuffing
Cranberry jello mold
Ocean spray cranberry sauce from a tin
Green bean casserole made with cream of mushroom soup and those crunchy onion things

For dessert pecan pie, apple pie, and pumpkin chiffon pie with homemade ice cream

Basically a heart attack on a plate.

I just looked up Ambrosia, mentioned as a side dish above.

Does that go on the plate alongside the turkey, gravy etc?