Healthy Side Dishes for the Holidays

While turkey may be the centerpiece of a holiday meal at your house, healthy side dishes can be the spotlight. Selecting vegetables and fruits for the holiday dinner can be a great opportunity to experiment with colorful fall vegetables and salads. Look at your family favorites to see if you can reduce the sugar, fats and salt in the recipes to make them healthier for your family.

Feature Seasonal Foods

Offer a taste of the season with healthy options:

• Limit bacon-wrapped appetizers, and swap them out for a fresh veggie tray, dried fruits or roasted nuts.
• Incorporate fall staples such as nuts and seeds (almonds, pumpkin seeds, pistachios and walnuts).
• Use canola or olive oil to give your health a boost.
• Focus on savory vegetables like roasted or sautéed colorful vegetables such as squash, carrots, Brussels sprouts, and sweet potatoes.
  • High-fiber fall vegetables, such as broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Jicama, red onion, bell peppers, beets, and avocado are especially gut-friendly.
  • A healthy gut is full of microbes that help digest your food and strengthen your immune system.
• A fresh green salad with a sprinkle of sliced apples, dried cranberries and roasted nuts is tasty.

Create Healthy Sides

Build healthy side dishes using whole grains, vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds your family likes.

• Roast a variety of root vegetables with a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of fresh or dried herbs.
• Reduce sodium by using herbs and spices such as oregano, basil, parsley, thyme, rosemary, chervil, tarragon, coriander, cumin, dill, ginger, garlic, lemongrass and curry.
• Limit sugar by using spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves to fruit salads, sweet potatoes, squash or yams.
• Increase the use of whole grains for stuffing, breads, salads and even as a grain bowl.

Make Healthy Family Memories

Your family meal time can be memorable this year by using some conversation starters! Each conversation starter is designed to lead the family to have a great table talk! Children can also write out a question that everyone at the table is encouraged to answer. 

• Example conversation starters:
  • Share something that you enjoy doing with the family.
  • What is something that happened this week that you liked?
  • Tell us about your favorite foods in the meals made at home.
  • Are there other foods or recipes you would like to try?