Thanksgiving food ideas include apple-feta salad, garlic-chili green beans and olive oil mashed potatoes for sides, plus pumpkin cookies, a roulade and a layer cake for dessert. Turkey shepherd's pie and cranberry sauce grilled cheese use up leftovers, and Melissa Clark's five-recipe menu for two at NYT Cooking includes turkey thighs with pickled cranberries and onions.
Thanksgiving 2026 is Thursday, November 26.
Thanksgiving food ideas at a glance
| Task | Guide or recipe | Recipe details |
|---|---|---|
| Bringing a side | 3 Thanksgiving sides to bring | Tieghan Gerard's apple-feta salad serves 6, and its prosciutto, nuts and pumpkin seeds can be baked a day ahead. Daniel Bui's green beans and the Williams Sonoma Test Kitchen's mashed potatoes are cooked on the stove. |
| Bringing dessert | Thanksgiving desserts that aren't pie | Amanda Mack's recipe makes 20 to 24 pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, and the shaped dough can be frozen for up to 3 months. Ina Garten's roulade serves 8. Casey Colodny's layer cake makes 8 slices. |
| Using up leftovers | Thanksgiving leftover recipes | Kathryn Kellogg's six ideas use turkey and mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, roasted vegetables, dinner rolls, mashed sweet potatoes and an open bottle of wine. |
| Cooking for two | Melissa Clark's turkey thighs for two at NYT Cooking, with four more recipes | NYT Cooking lists 1 hour, plus at least 2 hours' marinating, for Melissa Clark's turkey thighs. As of October 2026, its recipe pages say full access is for subscribers. |
Recipe details and food-safety guidance checked October 11, 2026.
Thanksgiving side dishes to bring
3 Thanksgiving sides to bring compares three recipes by what each needs from the host's kitchen.
Tieghan Gerard's autumn harvest Honeycrisp apple and feta salad at Half Baked Harvest serves 6 and has one oven step: the pecans, pumpkin seeds and prosciutto bake at 350°F for 10 to 15 minutes. The rest is assembled in a large bowl. In a November 2025 reply to a reader on the recipe page, Tieghan Gerard said baking the prosciutto, nuts and pumpkin seeds a day ahead and keeping them in an airtight container would be fine.
Daniel Bui's green beans with garlic, chili and crispy shallots and the Williams Sonoma Test Kitchen's olive oil-whipped garlicky mashed potatoes are both cooked on the stove. The potatoes serve 8 and use no butter, milk or cream, and the recipe says to serve them immediately. As of October 2026, none of the three recipes gives instructions for transporting or reheating the finished dish.
Thanksgiving desserts beyond pie
Thanksgiving desserts that aren't pie compares three pumpkin desserts by recipe yield, equipment and make-ahead notes.
Amanda Mack's pumpkin chocolate chip cookies at Bon Appétit make 20 to 24 cookies per batch, and the recipe says shaped dough can be frozen for up to 3 months. Ina Garten's pumpkin roulade with ginger buttercream bakes in one 13×18×1-inch sheet pan and serves 8. Casey Colodny's pumpkin layer cake at The Mindful Hapa makes 8 slices, and its two layers have to cool completely before the cream cheese frosting goes on.
The roulade is filled with mascarpone and cream, and the layer cake is frosted with cream cheese and butter. FDA buffet guidance says to keep cold food at 40°F or colder and to discard perishable food left at room temperature for more than 2 hours, or 1 hour above 90°F.
Thanksgiving leftover ideas by ingredient
Thanksgiving leftover recipes groups six ideas from Kathryn Kellogg of Going Zero Waste by the leftover you have. Turkey and mashed potatoes go into a shepherd's pie with roasted vegetables, or peas and carrots. Cranberry sauce goes into a grilled cheese with mild cheddar and brie. Roasted vegetables become a skillet hash with an egg, and dinner rolls become sandwiches. Mashed sweet potatoes are blended and frozen into a chocolate ice cream, and an open bottle of wine is turned into red wine vinegar.
As of October 2026, USDA's Thanksgiving guide says to refrigerate leftovers within two hours and to use or freeze them within four days of when they were first cooked. For food first cooked on Thanksgiving Day, that four-day window ends Monday, November 30, 2026. USDA's Leftovers and Food Safety page says that when leftovers are reheated, they should reach 165°F, measured with a food thermometer.
Thanksgiving dinner for two: Melissa Clark's menu
For a table of two, NYT Cooking has five Thanksgiving recipes by Melissa Clark, published in November 2020 and each written for two servings. The times below are the total times NYT Cooking lists, and the descriptions come from its summary of each recipe:
- Turkey thighs with pickled cranberries and onions: 1 hour, plus at least 2 hours' marinating. The main course is roasted turkey thighs, which the summary describes as quicker and easier than a whole bird. It says the recipe can be scaled up to feed more people or to leave leftovers.
- Herby bread-and-butter stuffing: 45 minutes. A fairly classic stuffing with sautéed shallots and herbs, scaled down to feed two.
- Maple-roasted squash with sage and lime: 35 minutes. Winter squash is cut into chunks, roasted in a mildly spicy maple glaze and finished with lime and fresh sage. The summary says the squash doesn't need peeling unless its rind is especially thick.
- Sautéed greens with smoked paprika: 10 to 20 minutes, depending on the greens. The greens are made with garlic, shallots and smoked paprika, and the summary says the recipe works with whatever greens you have.
- Pumpkin sticky toffee puddings: 45 minutes. Date and pumpkin puddings with a brown sugar toffee sauce. The summary says not to leave out the crème fraîche or yogurt.
NYT Cooking is a subscription service. As of October 2026, its recipe pages say full access is for subscribers, so you may need a subscription to read the ingredient lists and steps.
Common questions
What food can I bring to Thanksgiving dinner?
For a side, Tieghan Gerard's apple-feta salad at Half Baked Harvest serves 6. For dessert, Amanda Mack's pumpkin chocolate chip cookies at Bon Appétit make 20 to 24 cookies. 3 Thanksgiving sides to bring compares the salad with green beans and mashed potatoes, and Thanksgiving desserts that aren't pie compares the cookies with a pumpkin roulade and a layer cake.
What Thanksgiving food can I prepare ahead?
Amanda Mack's recipe at Bon Appétit says shaped pumpkin chocolate chip cookie dough can be frozen for up to 3 months. In a November 2025 reply on the Half Baked Harvest salad recipe page, Tieghan Gerard said baking the prosciutto, nuts and pumpkin seeds a day ahead and keeping them in an airtight container would be fine.
What can I cook for Thanksgiving dinner for two?
Melissa Clark's menu at NYT Cooking has five recipes, each written for two servings: turkey thighs with pickled cranberries and onions, herby bread-and-butter stuffing, maple-roasted squash, sautéed greens and pumpkin sticky toffee puddings. As of October 2026, NYT Cooking's recipe pages say full access is for subscribers.
Creators and sources
- Apple and feta salad: Tieghan Gerard at Half Baked Harvest
- Garlic-chili green beans: Daniel Bui at Daniel's Substack
- Olive oil mashed potatoes: Williams Sonoma Test Kitchen
- Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies: Amanda Mack for Bon Appétit
- Pumpkin roulade: Ina Garten at Barefoot Contessa
- Pumpkin layer cake: Casey Colodny at The Mindful Hapa
- Leftover ideas: Kathryn Kellogg, 6 Zero Waste Thanksgiving Leftover Recipes at Going Zero Waste. Kellogg discloses that the post was sponsored by Morton Salt.
- Menu for two: Melissa Clark for NYT Cooking: turkey thighs, stuffing, squash, greens and puddings. NYT Cooking lists all five as featured in the New York Times article A Sweet, Simple Menu of Thanksgiving Recipes for Two.
- Holding and storage rules: FDA, Serving Up Safe Buffets; USDA, Your Safe Thanksgiving Guide; USDA, Leftovers and Food Safety
- Cover photos: pumpkin chocolate chip cookies from Bon Appétit's Instagram post, photograph by Alex Lau; leftovers from Kathryn Kellogg's Instagram reel; apple and feta salad from Half Baked Harvest's Instagram video
Full recipes and methods are on the authors' pages.
Related Stasht guides
- 3 Thanksgiving Sides to Bring: Apple Salad, Green Beans and Mashed Potatoes
- Thanksgiving Desserts That Aren't Pie: Pumpkin Cookies, Roulade or Layer Cake
- Thanksgiving Leftover Recipes: 6 Ideas by Ingredient
- Stasht's Guide to Fall: Days Out and Halloween
- How to save recipes from Instagram so you can actually cook them
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