22 Side Dish Recipes Perfect for Christmas Dinner (2024)

FAQs

What do most people serve for Christmas dinner? ›

Traditional Christmas dinner features turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, and vegetables. Other types of poultry, roast beef, or ham, are also used.

For a slightly larger party, you will want at least four sides, but the same rules above apply, and make sure to keep things balanced. One starch, one vegetable dish and one salad is a good base. Use the fourth side as your wild card and try something new like sweet potato chaat.

Discover the perfect amounts of potatoes, carrots, parsnips, sprouts, peas and red cabbage to serve with your roast turkey. Need help planning your Christmas dinner?

I've learned, over the years, to make and freeze most of the trimmings in advance – stuffing, pigs in blankets, cranberry sauce, even parboiled potatoes."

Use a whole grain such as quinoa, bulgur, couscous or brown rice in place of your potato. You can also add a whole grain roll where your potato would normally be. Whole grains contain fiber, which can help you feel full, lower blood sugar levels and may help lower cholesterol.

How many people does a 9x13 side dish feed? ›

Starchy side dishes and casseroles: a 9 X 13 pan makes about 12 one cup servings. A 2 quart casserole will make 6 to 8 cups. A typical serving size for potatoes, stuffing, and yams is 1 cup.

Roast turkey and ham are popular for Christmas dinner throughout the country, but depending on the region, so are tamales, roast goose with red cabbage, crawfish jambalaya, roast pork or “seven fishes” seafood salad.

A survey of more than 2,500 British people by the Midland Hotel in Manchester found that the majority of people get the turkey on the table mid afternoon. The most popular time is 2pm with 28 per cent of people sitting down to eat, followed by 23 per cent who tuck into the main meal an hour later at 3pm.