Recommend some good side dishes

werehippy

I tend to find myself cooking a lot (and I enjoy it), but I'm in a bit of a rut. I've got a nice variety of main dishes, and it's easy to find more ideas whenever I feel like something new, but I seem to find myself coming back to the same sides over and over. Mash potatoes, roast potatoes, steamed veggies with a butter, a bit of rice pilaf, and so on.

What are some good, general purpose side dishes people tend to like?

Zonkytonkman

strawberry spinach salad
so easy
so tasty
i just finshed some

Masked_Mullet

Potato skins man.

Zonkytonkman

Masked_Mullet wrote: »

Potato skins man.

details

Masked_Mullet

Potato skins, you basically scrape out the insides of the potato, mash them up, mix them with bacon pieces, then melt cheese on the top of them, and serve with sour creme.

durandal4532

Speaking of potatoes, mashed potatoes are delicious. Just need to slice/peel off the skins, boil until soft(with a whole onion in the water, for flavor), add some butter, a bit of milk, and mash the crap out of them with whatever is handy.

Ain't No Sunshine

Buy fresh round bread and cut a flat cone out of one side with a sharp bread knife, then use it as a bowl for a simple broth soup or your vegetable dish - this covers two sides, more or less.

Augment steamed vegetables with different sauces. A single can of Campbell's cream of mushroom soup can work fairly well to deepen the flavor of greens, as can a white sauce with a sprinkle of cheese added to the pot at the last minute. Adding half of a red pepper (finely sliced) can spice up things like humble broccoli. Also, I can't overrate store-bought spice mixes. They're cheap, and having a large pantry lets you pull up tastes you'd like to experiment with by adding them to what you're cooking at different times.

Research and cook with every odd vegetable you can find in the store. Artichokes are a family favorite for us (boil, melt a little butter or heat a little salsa on the side to use for dipping). Bamboo, even canned, is pretty good stuff.

I know that it's just more potatoes, but this also works - take the tiny white potatoes you may find at the bottom of a bag (no larger than 1 1/2 inches in diameter if you can help it), wash them, boil them until just short of soft, then remove the skins. Fry in butter until golden brown.

Dioltas

Couscous with some curry powder and maybe some veggies thrown in. Raisins too, if you're into that kind of thing. Couscous is delicious and underappreciated.

Also, gnocchi make for some good eatin'. I have only the vaguest idea of how to make them, but I've certainly enjoyed eating them.

malkoth

Broiled asparagus with a little oil, salt, and lemon pepper is pretty easy and good for ya. Sauteed onions and peppers with a balsamic marinade is pretty good too, chop up some garlic for extra flavor.

Snowbird

If you're not looking for something incredibly healthy:

Twice Baked Potatoes... They're amazing.

GrimmyTOA

Easiest recipe ever coming up. It requires a toaster oven (& accessory), some olive oil, some asparagus, and some parmesan cheese.

Take the asparagus. Break off the bits at the bottom (just try and snap off the bottom of the stalk -- anything above the snapping point is good to eat). Rinse the edible bits.

Put them on one of the little trays that comes with the toaster oven (you can also use a cookie sheet & full-sized oven if you want, but the T.O. is quicker).

Drizzle some olive oil over the asparagus.

Sprinkle some cheese over the asparagus.

Preheat the T.O. to the highest setting (broil, usually).

Put the tray into the toaster oven, and wait about five minutes. It'll be done when the cheese looks a bit melted and a bit golden-brown.

Eat.

It seriously took me longer to type this up than it will take you to make. It's delicious.

Blake T

Crush some garlic and throw it in a pan with some of Popeye's woman. Mess around until hot then throw in a bunch of spinich and toss until wilted.

(then serve)

durandal4532

Dioltas wrote: »

Couscous with some curry powder and maybe some veggies thrown in. Raisins too, if you're into that kind of thing. Couscous is delicious and underappreciated.

Also, gnocchi make for some good eatin'. I have only the vaguest idea of how to make them, but I've certainly enjoyed eating them.

I've gotten the impression that gnocchi, at least the Polish type, take a decent amount of preparation since my mom does them for christmas with the family and no other time. There are some halfway decent pre-prepared ones for the Italian type, though, that can be made better with the right sauce.

CyberJackal

I've found green bean casserole to be quick, easy, and delicious. Sweet potatoes are awesome too.

JPArbiter

sauteed onions and pepper will always work, sweet potato chips and or fries, homemade applesauce, cranberry salsa,

the muffin

I second Couscous, some raisins in it to make it less bland, I see some people also put butternut and pumpkin seeds in theirs but I don't like that.

Also I often indulge in sweetpotatoes. Fergalitious.