Thanksgiving potluck concepts could make or break the vacation meal, as I realized rising up. My household would collect at my grandparents’ home annually, with everybody pitching in on the edges and desserts. A few of these dishes turned instantaneous favorites, whereas others (like my aunt’s store-bought sugar cookies or one other’s mushy candy potato casserole) had been… much less memorable. Over time, I spotted a fantastic Thanksgiving potluck lineup requires considerate planning to keep away from these lackluster contributions and guarantee a very scrumptious unfold.
36 Thanksgiving Potluck Concepts to Win the Night
Now that I host our household Thanksgiving, I do know firsthand that bringing crowd-pleasing, easy-to-share dishes is essential. To assist everybody keep away from last-minute grocery runs and less-than-ideal decisions, I’ve gathered the most effective Thanksgiving potluck concepts to encourage dishes that may fulfill everybody on the desk.
Spinach Artichoke Tarts
If you happen to love the spinach and artichoke taste pairing, these tarts are a good way to include it with out the messy clean-up and half-eaten dish.
Ricotta Board with Pears and Honey-Toasted Pistachios
Generally, you want a easy charcuterie-style dish to spherical out your unfold. However that doesn’t imply high quality and taste need to be compromised. Enter—the ricotta board.
Smoky Eggplant Unfold
If the dip is within the playing cards on your Thanksgiving potluck, this smoky eggplant dip is a must-make. No extra store-bought hummus or French onion dip—that is one recipe your friends will likely be begging you for on the finish of the night.
Bitter Cream and Onion Biscuits
Who doesn’t love including a biscuit to their plate at Thanksgiving? Gone are the times of dried-out biscuits begging for a dollop of butter. These bitter cream and onion biscuits are next-level all on their very own.
Squash & Farro Salad With Apples, Goat Cheese, & Pecans
This squash and farro salad is virtually made for cozy nights in—or on your Thanksgiving potluck! This hearty bowl packs all of the seasonal components with particular toppings like creamy goat cheese and crunchy pecans.
Vacation Jewels Chopped Kale Salad With Mustard-Shallot French dressing
Assume you’re not a kale salad fan? Assume once more. Once you add pear slices, crumbled gorgonzola, pomegranate, and a mustard-shallot French dressing, it’ll go from bland to the most effective factor you’ve ever eaten. It’s excellent on your vacation occasion.
Cauliflower Tabbouleh
On your gluten-free pals, this salad manages to be concurrently gentle and hearty. It harnesses all the colour and taste of the vacation season and is the proper accompaniment to any festive predominant dish.
Apple Walnut Salad
Whereas apples could also be neglected in favor of the ever present pumpkin, this salad makes a superb case for why we needs to be consuming them by the bushel. It’s fruity, peppery, crunchy, and salty, with a mixture of components that mix for an ideal stability of taste and shade.
Fall Harvest Salad
I like a easy, swoon-worthy salad. Entertaining extraordinaire Sophie Collins created this recipe that provides contemporary taste and gorgeous shade to your entire fall gatherings. Hardy greens and crunchy seeds mix to create a salad that proves it’s not simply concerning the vitamins.
Roasted Delicata Squash With Feta, Almonds, and Herbs
Fall, to me, is about embracing all of the seasonal components I can. There are such a lot of fantastic produce picks to strive, and for those who haven’t jumped on the squash wave, now’s your likelihood.
Pesto Parmesan Potatoes
5-ingredient, flavor-packed potatoes? Music to my ears. Choose quite a lot of small potatoes (Yukon, fingerling, and child potatoes) and toss them in pesto, fruity olive oil, and an enormous pinch of salt and pepper. Add roasted garlic and parmesan for good measure.
Roasted Acorn Squash with Rosemary
Butternut squash is perhaps a crowd-favorite (and I definitely adore it, too), however for me, acorn squash reigns supreme. On this recipe, half moons are tossed with olive oil, brown sugar, rosemary, and crimson pepper flakes and roasted till they’re golden and tender.
Cacio E Pepe Brussels Sprouts
When your favourite pasta dish combines with top-of-the-line fall/winter veggies, a ravishing dish ensues. This recipe comes courtesy of the ever-creative Tieghan Gerard. The Brussels sprouts get crispy and caramelized—and a complete lot of parm positive helps.
Salt & Vinegar Pan-Roasted Potatoes
Have you ever ever met potatoes that claimed to be “earth-shatteringly” crispy? Didn’t suppose so. Let me introduce you to probably the most crave-worthy spuds round. Simply 5 easy components and 40 minutes of mixed prep and prepare dinner time, and also you’ll have these delights able to go.
Creamy Butternut Squash Pasta
This butternut squash pasta is a straightforward dairy-free recipe that doubles as a shocking centerpiece. I’m an enormous fan of pasta for nearly each event, and Thanksgiving isn’t any exception.
Roasted Honeynut Squash with Scorching Honey, Pecans, and Rosemary
These entire roasted squash are merely lovable and make for an easy-to-serve facet. Plus, scorching honey is all the craze proper now—and this recipe is a superb excuse so as to add it to your cart.
Roasted Heirloom Carrots with Wild Rice and Goat Cheese
This recipe comes courtesy of our resident wellness professional, Edie. Not solely is that this dish stuffed with nutrient-packed goodness however it’s additionally stuffed to the brim with taste. The crumbled goat cheese excessive? *Chef’s kiss*
Entire Roasted Butternut Squash
Minimal effort and most taste are the 2 key parts of this butternut squash. Concerning Thanksgiving potluck concepts, this one may take the cake for the best high-protein facet that gained’t preserve you within the kitchen for hours.
Butternut Squash and Ricotta Tart
Come on…have you ever ever seen a extra gorgeous predominant course? I believe not. If you happen to’re searching for a crowd-pleaser, this butternut squash tart does the trick whereas holding issues vegetarian.
Butternut Squash Pizza With Arugula & Almond Ricotta
Pizzas or flatbreads are a fantastic choice to have at a Thanksgiving potluck as a result of you possibly can serve them at room temperature and vegetarians can dig in, too (simply depart off the bacon). And since this recipe requires do-it-yourself almond ricotta, all of your vegan pals could be included.
Brined Turkey
If you happen to’re after a turkey recipe that yields crispy pores and skin and juicy, flavor-packed meat, make this your go-to. Camille known as in Michael Fojtasek, proprietor/chef of the award-winning, Austin-based restaurant Olamaie, to indicate us the way it’s finished.
Roast Hen
This hen is straightforward sufficient to make on a weekly foundation however particular sufficient to wow everybody at any Thanksgiving feast. As Camille writes, eradicating the spine (the key to this recipe) creates “more surface area to come in direct contact with the heat” yielding a crispy, golden brown pores and skin (that cooks means sooner than you’d count on).
Baked Citrus Salmon with Fennel and Herbs
Salmon? For Thanksgiving? Whereas the vacation’s my favourite, I’ve to confess—I’m not an enormous turkey fan (and I do know I’m not alone on this). If you happen to suppose friends is perhaps craving one thing aside from the normal hen, this slow-baked salmon is the reply.
Pumpkin Pie with Gingersnap Crust
This pumpkin pie can’t be beat—it’s a no-fail recipe that’ll be sure to by no means decide up a store-bought crust ever once more. Plus, the gorgeous topping makes it the star of any Thanksgiving desk.
Pumpkin Tiramisu
If you happen to occur to make this fall-inspired tiramisu recipe on your Thanksgiving potluck, make certain to avoid wasting your self one at dwelling earlier than bringing these to your occasion. They’ll be gone earlier than you possibly can say, “dessert is ready!”
Pear Frangipane Tart
Transfer over apple pie—this fruit dessert is the winner of this 12 months’s Thanksgiving dessert contest. If you happen to’re uninterested in the normal pies at all times dropped at the gathering, check out this savory and candy pear tart.
Pumpkin Loaf Cake
I couldn’t shut up about this pumpkin loaf cake recipe for months after first making it. For that purpose, it deserves a spot on the Thanksgiving potluck. The (literal) icing on the cake is made out of cream cheese and sprinkled with crushed walnuts. Merely divine.
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Chewy, melty, and a tiny bit salty—these pumpkin cookies take your typical chocolate chip cookies to the subsequent stage. The important thing right here is chopped darkish chocolate as a substitute of the common semi-sweet chocolate chips. Take my phrase for it.
Dairy and Gluten-Free Pumpkin Pie
Pumpkin pie is a basic—and it’s a vacation dessert that everybody ought to get to get pleasure from. That’s why we tailored our favourite recipe so our gluten-free pals can take part. And don’t fear—these fluted edges are wayyy simpler to create than they appear. Get our step-by-step suggestions within the submit.
Brown Butter Bourbon Apple Crisp
Apple crisp is as simple as, properly… pie. However simply because it’s easy doesn’t imply you possibly can’t do a number of issues to spice up its taste. Enter—browned butter. Marinating the apples in bourbon, brown sugar, cornstarch, and cinnamon definitely doesn’t damage both.
Chewy Pumpkin Spice Cookies
If you happen to’re headed to a extra informal Thanksgiving potluck, these pumpkin spice cookies are required. They completely seize the candy and spicy deliciousness of the season—and for those who want a cookie that leans on the chewier facet—these are exactly what you’re craving.
More healthy Pumpkin Bread
Simply because the recipe contains “healthier” doesn’t imply this pumpkin bread isn’t full-on dessert-worthy. Applesauce, Greek yogurt, coconut oil, and maple syrup naturally sweeten your bread whereas making it clear that you simply’re nonetheless indulging. Might this be the proper Thanksgiving potluck dessert? You determine.
Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie Bars
I’m all for taking a basic, crowd-favorite recipe and switching issues up—and these pecan pie bars do precisely that. Whereas it’s exhausting to enhance upon the unique, including chocolate and bourbon to the combo makes it occur.
Pumpkin Snack Cake
Snack desserts, by our definition, are informal, comforting confections that don’t require an excessive amount of thought or effort in your half. That being mentioned, they’re nonetheless infused with love and care and needs to be eaten with pleasure. This pumpkin model advantages from a espresso cake-like crumble and a moist, spice-laced crumb.
Spiced Candy Potato Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting
Throughout a season when it’s all about pumpkin, it’s a daring transfer to throw a candy potato dessert into the combo. However this spiced candy potato cake is greater than deserving of its spot in your Thanksgiving buffet.
Basic Buttermilk Pie
Buttermilk pie is a southern staple that—as Camille agrees—undoubtedly doesn’t get the eye it deserves. Her mom’s recipe boasts a creamy, custard-like filling that’s gentle, ethereal, and just a little tangy, because of the buttermilk.
