DO YOU REALLY NEED STUFFING AND MASHED POTATOES with your turkey? Well, maybe. But here are six ways to update—or ditch—one holiday tradition. As a bonus, all these dishes can be made ahead and gently reheated.
Swap parsnips for potatoes.
Parsnips are rich in dietary fiber and contain many anti-oxidants as well as vitamins and minerals. Some of these nutrients have been linked to protecting the human body from cancers and other diseases. Of course, when you cook them in butter, milk and cream as Marion does with the Puréed Parsnips shown above, they’re more healthyish than healthy. Doesn’t matter. They are lusciously silky with a hint of sweetness, perfect for the holiday table.
Add parsnips to potatoes.
Team your mashed potatoes with parsnips, sweet potatoes and a little garlic for a colorful, healthy change of pace. This Potato Root Vegetable Mash-up also plays nicely with turkey gravy.
Go even healthyisher, with cauliflower.
Puréed Cauliflower brings loads of nutritional goodness to the table. It also plays well with gravy and, as Marion notes in her recipe, you can add richness with butter and milk or cream while still keeping it good for you.
Spice, smoke, sweeten things up.
My office does a company Thanksgiving a week before the official one. The company supplies the turkeys, and everyone brings sides—it is always a wonderful time. These Chipotle Mashed Sweet Potatoes have become my traditional contribution to the meal. Canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce add heat and smokiness to the natural sweetness of this dish.
Start an Italian tradition
Rosemary, garlic, lemon juice and zest, and mirepoix—a sautéed mix of onion, carrots and celery—are at the heart of rustic, delicious Tuscan Beans. And canned beans make it simple. Maybe don’t forgo the mashed potatoes yet, but don’t be surprised when this gets eaten up.
Adopt a Blue Kitchen tradition.
We love potatoes in all forms. Especially mashed. But on our Thanksgiving table, the absence of mashed potatoes can be forgiven, as long as there is Marion’s kasha. This sturdy yet fluffy, nutty, toasty dish was a part of her childhood, brought over by her immigrant parents. For decades, it has been the one required dish of our holiday meal.
Those chipotle sweet potatoes sound extaordinary! I will try them later, though. Nothing goes with turkey gravy better than old-fashioned mashed potatoes, though, so they are keeping their place at the T-day table.
This year’s feast also features Indian-spiced roast turkey, chinese broccoli, garlicy cranberry chutney, & sweet potato pull-apart rolls. For dessert there will be the sweet potato pie from the book Comfort Me With Apples.
What time should we come by, Eeka? What a delicious feast you have planned!
🙂