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5 Thanksgiving side dishes that do not belong on the dinner table

By Brian Miller

Clockwise from top left, pumpkin pie with almond crust, dry-brined turkey with Keto gravy, creamy Keto cauliflower, Keto Green Bean Casserole Supreme and kale, fennel and butternut squash salad.Keto 10291818 63
Clockwise from top left, pumpkin pie with almond crust, dry-brined turkey with Keto gravy, creamy Keto cauliflower, Keto Green Bean Casserole Supreme and kale, fennel and butternut squash salad.Keto 10291818 63 /
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Thanksgiving is around the corner but these five Thanksgiving side dishes don’t need to be on the table.

From the east coast to the west coast, Thanksgiving brings regional traditions, and with those traditions come Thanksgiving side dishes that don’t steal the show.

For the last six years I have taken on the role of the chef in our home and whether we are keeping Thanksgiving to just our own immediate family or hosting our extended family members, trying to satisfy everyone’s tastes on Thanksgiving can be difficult.

Thanksgiving can sometimes remind us of that Friends episode where Monica was tasked with making 10 different sides to placate each of their own traditions. Needless to say, at some point, you have to say enough and that starts with these five side dishes that honestly, don’t belong on Thanksgiving, sorry.

Mac and cheese
A worker prepares “The Best of Both Worlds,” a baked mac & cheese sandwich featuring slow cooked short rib, BBQ sauce, white and cheddar cheeses, $11.95, at I Heart Mac & Cheese, located at 637 E. St. Highway 32, Westfield, Ind., Monday, June 1, 2020.I Heart Mac & Cheese Westfield /

Macaroni and Cheese is not a side dish for Thanksgiving!

Somewhere one of my neighbors is going to try and take my “Southern residency card” but I will stand by this one until the day I die. Mac and cheese has no business showing up as a side dish on Thanksgiving. None, zero, nada, never!

In the southeastern United States, M&C tends to be a staple of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner but here is what is wrong with that. Something you can eat seven days of the week, 365 days of the year, is not something to sink your teeth into on Thanksgiving, or for that matter Christmas or any other holiday.

Now, if you are taking leftover turkey and mixing it into M&C afterward, you get props. I can say this because mac and cheese is my absolute favorite food. It is my last meal before a big diet and the one side I order at every restaurant so that I can personally critique it. But it still has no place for the holidays when I can eat it every other day of the year!