26 Uncomplicated Thanksgiving Recipes That Only Need Five Ingredients Each (2024)

FAQs

What are 5 traditional Thanksgiving foods? ›

Southern-cuisine expert and cookbook author Diana Rattray has created more than 5,000 recipes and articles in her 20 years as a food writer. The classic Thanksgiving dinner includes old-time favorites that never change: turkey, gravy, stuffing, potatoes, veggies, and pie.

Turkey, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce and potatoes, of course. But no less necessary, if slightly less obvious, is something orange (yams, squash or even mac and cheese). A green and snappy vegetable. And pie — at least two.

Many Americans would regard Thanksgiving dinner as "incomplete" without stuffing, mashed potatoes with gravy, and cranberry sauce. A recipe for cranberry sauce to be served with turkey appeared in the first American cookbook, American Cookery (1796) by Amelia Simmons.

Worst: Sausage Stuffing

It's often made with fatty processed meat, butter or margarine, and refined bread or rice. It's a high-calorie food that packs a load of fat, carbs, and nitrates, which are cancer-causing. If you add dried cranberries, there's a good chance they're sweetened and add sugar to your stuffing.

While turkey is a staple on most Thanksgiving tables across America, Californians often opt for fresh, locally sourced turkeys or even try alternative proteins like roasted duck or quail. In addition to the main protein, Californians love to incorporate seasonal vegetables into their Thanksgiving feasts.

Turkey. Some would say a turkey is the most important food item at the table. A turkey is the center of the traditional Thanksgiving dinner. In fact, 88 percent of Americans eat Turkey on Thanksgiving, with 46 million Turkeys eaten on the holiday.

We know that the turkey is the showstopper on the table, but we're mostly here for the stuffing. Check out all of our favorite stuffing recipes; our classic stuffing is the undisputed champ of the bunch.

What are the 5 most common sides served on Thanksgiving Day? ›

Traditional Thanksgiving dinner includes Roast turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, stuffing (or “dressing”), and some kind of pie for dessert, typically pumpkin, apple, or pecan. Common sides are green bean casserole, scalloped corn, and roasted sweet potatoes.

But according to the two only remaining historical records of the first Thanksgiving menu, that meal consisted of freshly killed deer, assorted wildfowl, cod, bass, and flint, and a native variety of corn harvested by the Native Americans, which was eaten as corn bread and porridge.

Most Traditional Thanksgiving Foods. A traditional Thanksgiving meal consists of roast turkey and many sides including stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, green beans and cranberry sauce, with pumpkin pie as dessert.