If you want to ensure that your side dishes are eco-friendly, start with buying all your produce locally and in season when you can. It may help you to determine what to serve by looking at what is available and in season at that time. Then plan your meal. Here are some other tips to ensure that what you make is eco-friendly for Thanksgiving.

1. Roast Them – If you are cooking something else like a turkey in the oven, go ahead and use the oven at the same time to roast some veggies. Any fall veggies will roast well while the turkey is cooking. Try parsnips, winter squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, onions, potatoes, and other root veggies.

2. Less Is More – Instead of having a lot of sides, choosing exactly what you will have and making it extra special will save time, money and be eco-friendlier due to using less energy. Try to make the sides that your family loves but don’t make something just because it’s tradition if no one likes it.

3. Highlight One Item – Thanksgiving is often known for its overly flavored and rich food, but you can make things very special by keeping them limited. For example, if you find some snap beans, you can cook them in less than 30 minutes simply with few ingredients. Just beans, salt, garlic, a little lemon, and butter will taste divine and look good too if you cook them fast and take them out while they’re bright green.

4. Heat in Microwave – Some veggies that you aren’t going to do much seasoning to and don’t need to brown, you can cook in the microwave very quickly and easily. The microwave saves energy, but studies show that it also keeps the vitamins in your food.

5. Use the Grill – Another way to cook some veggies is on the grill. For example, grilled asparagus is a wonderful side that will fit right in at Thanksgiving dinner. You don’t even need much to make it - just a little oil, lemon, salt, and garlic and then grill for just a few minutes.

6. Mashed Potatoes – If you’re making gravy of any kind, you need a place to put the gravy. What could be better than mashed potatoes - the perfect easy-to-make Thanksgiving side dish? You can even roast the potatoes first in the oven instead of boiling.

7. Use Your Instant Pot or Slow Cooker – Depending on the time factor, both these appliances use less energy than your stove and oven. Consider cooking a few of your sides in small slow cookers or larger servings in the instant pot. For example, you can cook potatoes for mashed potatoes fast in the instant pot.

The main thing to know about eco-friendly side dishes for your Thanksgiving dinner is to keep it simple. The fewer ingredients that you use in your side dishes, the better for you and the better for the environment. The less time something takes to cook is also better, so easy and simple is the name of the game on Thanksgiving.

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