Easy Thanksgiving Menu

Slofoodgroup Team November 20, 2021

Simple Menu for Thanksgiving Dinner (with recipes)

Everyone loves a good Thanksgiving dinner, but with the traditional Thanksgiving dinner requiring hours of preparation in advance and can become quite stressful. We are not here to advise you on time management of your holiday meal but we can help with a few recipes to tweak this years’ Thanksgiving dinner so you can avoid excessive pressure and enjoy your time with your friends and family instead of experiencing culinary anxiety.

The idea this year is to keep the menu simple. Go with the basics: roasted turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, and sautéed beans. To which you can add a warm salad as a comforting side dish if you want. If you're hosting the dinner, ask the guests to bring extra side dishes to round the menu out. Although we firmly believe in everything being homemade, you should feel comfortable knowing nobody will judge you for substituting a few store-bought options when needed. In the end, Thanksgiving Dinner is all about togetherness, slowing down, and being appreciative of what we have.

The recipes suggested are straightforward and easy to make. Each feeds about 4 people, but can easily be multiplied with minimal additional prep work and no added cooking time if you have a larger group to feed.

The prep can be done a day ahead if you desire, but we promise there really is no need, as most of the preparation and cooking can be done while the turkey is in the oven. From start to finish, this meal can be prepped, cooked, and on the table in under two hours!

Easy Thanksgiving Menu with Recipes

Roasted Turkey Leg

Taking just minutes to prep, few ingredients, and an hour to an hour and a half of cooking time, turkey legs might just become your new Thanksgiving tradition. The meat always comes out juicy, tender, and flavorful, and you can avoid the dispute over both brining (there's no need), and who will get the legs (because everyone will)!

Find the recipe for this mouth-watering roasted turkey leg here!

Truffle Butter Aligot

Of course, we love mashed potatoes; I mean who doesn't?!?! But, we like to offer something a bit more impressive and flavorful as a starchy side on special occasions. Aligot is the perfect stand-in—it still satisfies the cravings from those whose favorite part of the meal is the potatoes, but it incorporates much more flavor. 

Aligot is the French version of a mashed potato dish, it's creamy and comforting and incorporates cheese for an additional element of depth of flavor and texture. Of course, we always like to add a little something special to our dishes, so we topped our aligot with a bit of truffle butter!

Learn how to make Truffle Butter Aligot here. 

Quick and easy Sautéed Green Beans

Skip the overcooked green bean casserole this year and save oven space with this replacement. Canned and overcooked green beans are far inferior in nutritional value and flavor than their fresh counterpart, a quick sauté in garlic, and your guests will be add this healthy alternative to their typical green bean dish to their list of things to be grateful for this year. 

Learn how to make these nutritious Sautéed Green Beans with Garlic!

Warm pumpkin salad

No Thanksgiving meal would be complete without a pumpkin dish, but don't you want to give your guests a pleasant surprise by switching it up this year? A simple combination of roasted pumpkin and Brussels sprouts will do the trick and it couldn't be easier to prepare. 

This warm pumpkin and Brussels Sprout salad with a dijon & cider vinaigrette might just become the star of the table!

Happy Thanksgiving from Slofoodgroup!