Make Ahead Thanksgiving Recipes
Making most of the dishes weeks or months ahead of your Thanksgiving feast ensures that you can truly enjoy that day. Instead of being in the kitchen cooking, you can be visiting with guests. Make ahead Thanksgiving recipes can really take the stress out of the day.
When you think of holiday meals, likely classic dishes such as sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, and mashed potatoes covered in delicious gravy come to mind. Good news… These are exactly the sort of recipes that can be made ahead!
A little bit of prep ahead of time can take so much pressure off for the big day.
Make your dressing ahead with this easy stuffing recipe. Customize it according to your preferences or holiday traditions. What would a Thanksgiving dinner be without mashed potatoes?! One of the most time consuming side dishes to make for your holiday feast is always the mashed potatoes. Being able to make this weeks ahead ensures you'll have more time (and less dishes) on the big day. And what would those mashed potatoes be without being able to smother them in delicious gravy?! I've been making this gravy (based on a Jamie Oliver recipe) for years. It's chock full of flavour. Carrots are an easy side dish to add to your menu. Being able to take these out of your freezer to cook up is an easy addition to your meal. My husband believes that turkey should never be served without cranberry sauce. I know this is a sentiment shared by many. Having this ready to go ensures that you can have the taste of a homemade cranberry sauce with the convenience of it ready-made. The green bean casserole has become synonymous with Thanksgiving for many. Did you know that you can make it ahead and freeze it? Place the fried onions for the topping in a separate bag to add partway through baking to ensure they don't get soggy. When you're cooking a meal for many, one of the things that can become a practical issue is oven space. When you choose a recipe that can be heated in the slow cooker, it frees up the oven for your other dishes. This jalapeño corn casserole is deliciously cheesy. This sweet potato casserole can be made ahead in a foil container. Meringue or marshmallow topping should never be frozen so it can be added on the day of baking. Being from Canada, I hadn't even heard about cornbread stuffing until recently, but from what I hear, it seems like an American Thanksgiving staple that I need to try! This cornbread stuffing recipe can be made ahead and store in the refrigerator for a few days or in the freezer for up to 3 months. While not for the freezer, these vegetables can be prepped ahead and kept in the fridge until ready to roast. This saves valuable time on the day of your holiday meal. Choosing vegetables such as sweet potatoes, fennel, carrots, and red onions also creates those beautiful fall colours that are perfect for the season. You may be relieved to know that pumpkin pies freeze beautifully. This allows you to make your Thanksgiving dessert weeks or months ahead so you will have one less thing to worry about on the day of. The maple syrup in the icing is what makes these cookies the right choice for your festivities. Make Ahead Thanksgiving Recipes
Watch us prepare our entire Thanksgiving dinners (aside from the turkey) for the freezer in the video below. I think my favourite dish of all was the homemade creamed corn. We are working on getting that recipe written up for our Freezer Meals 101 Club members because it was just so good!
How far in advance can you make ahead Thanksgiving side dishes?
Thanksgiving side dishes can be made up to three months in advance and frozen. Not all side dishes freeze well of course. You should never make a lettuce salad ahead for example because under no circumstances does lettuce freeze well. But there are many traditional holiday sides that freeze beautifully.
Can turkey stuffing be frozen?
After extensive testing in our kitchen, we are happy to be able to report that stuffing can be made ahead and frozen. The dressing can then be cooked on the day of in the oven or stuffed in the turkey and cooked.
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