Recipe Archive

Side Dishes

Side dishes should earn their place at the table. These recipes focus on contrast, seasoning, and supporting flavors that make the whole meal better.

1006 recipes

Culinary Explorer

A cooking platform built around craft, culture, and the stories behind what we eat.

Discover Culinary Explorer

Recipes

Brezenknödel

Chef Klaus

Brezenknödel

A Bavarian Knödel, dumpling, built from yesterday's pretzels: the lye crust brings salt and depth, and the texture lives or dies by the soaking.

British Yorkshire Pudding

Chef Dean

British Yorkshire Pudding

Towering golden popovers with shatteringly crisp shells and tender, custardy interiors, baked in smoking-hot beef drippings until they puff into edible vessels worthy of your finest gravy.

Broccoli Cheese

Chef Thomas

Broccoli Cheese

Broccoli baked under a thick, savoury cheese sauce until the top blisters gold and the kitchen smells like the kind of evening you want to stay in for.

Broccoli Rice Casserole

Chef Dean

Broccoli Rice Casserole

Tender rice and bright broccoli florets bound in a silky from-scratch cheese sauce, crowned with buttery cracker crumbs and baked until golden and bubbling. This is the casserole that disappears first at every church supper.

Bruine Bonen met Spek en Stroop

Chef Joost

Bruine Bonen met Spek en Stroop

Brown beans, smoky spek, and dark stroop: the Dutch cupboard doing its quiet work, turning a cheap pot of legumes into sweet-salt winter fare with nothing to prove.

Brunede Kartofler

Chef Freja

Brunede Kartofler

Small cold-boiled potatoes turned slowly through golden caramelized sugar and butter until every surface is sticky and glossy. The side dish that no Danish Christmas table can do without.

Brussels Sprouts with Chestnuts

Chef Dean

Brussels Sprouts with Chestnuts

Caramelized Brussels sprouts paired with sweet roasted chestnuts and salty bacon lardons, the dish that has graced British Christmas tables for generations and turned countless skeptics into believers.

Brussels Sprouts with Hazelnuts

Chef Ally

Brussels Sprouts with Hazelnuts

Brussels sprouts roasted until their outer leaves shatter and their hearts turn sweet, scattered with toasted hazelnuts and brightened with sherry vinegar. The kind of dish that makes people reach for seconds before they have finished firsts.

Budín de Elote Oaxaqueño

Chef Lupita

Budín de Elote Oaxaqueño

A Oaxacan rainy-season corn pudding built on fresh white corn ground coarse, layered with charred poblano rajas and quesillo, and baked in clay until the top cracks golden and the cheese pulls in long strands.

Budín de Elote y Rajas Norteño

Chef Lupita

Budín de Elote y Rajas Norteño

Northern Mexico's corn pudding, sweet field corn blended with crema and eggs, layered with charred poblano rajas and melted queso Chihuahua, baked in a wide cazuela until golden and set.

Fresh-Corn Tamal Gratin (Budín de Uchepos)

Chef Lupita

Fresh-Corn Tamal Gratin (Budín de Uchepos)

Michoacán's fresh-corn uchepos sliced and baked with poblano rajas, crema, and cotija, a sweet corn tamal casserole that belongs to the Purépecha table.

Budín de Verduras con Hierba Santa

Chef Lupita

Budín de Verduras con Hierba Santa

Oaxaca's baked vegetable custard, lined with hierba santa and bound with eggs and crema. The kind of side dish a senora in the Valles Centrales builds when the mercado has been generous and the table needs something honest.

Bugeopo-gochujang-muchim (Spicy Dried Pollack)

Chef Jeong-sun

Bugeopo-gochujang-muchim (Spicy Dried Pollack)

A no-cook keeping banchan from dried pollack, softened just enough to chew, then dressed in a restrained gochujang seasoning that deepens in the refrigerator.

Bulgur Pilaf with Toasted Almonds

Chef Ally

Bulgur Pilaf with Toasted Almonds

An ancient grain cooked the simplest way: toasted in butter, simmered in honest stock, and finished with crunchy almonds and bright parsley. The kind of side dish that quietly steals the show.

Buttered Broad Beans with Summer Savory

Chef Thomas

Buttered Broad Beans with Summer Savory

Fresh broad beans turned through foaming butter with summer savory picked from the garden, the kind of side dish that arrives in July and is gone before you've had your fill.

Buttered Garden Peas with Mint

Chef Thomas

Buttered Garden Peas with Mint

Fresh peas from the pod, turned quickly in butter with torn mint leaves, the kind of side dish that tastes like the garden in June and needs nothing more than it already has.

Buttered Savoy Cabbage with Caraway

Chef Thomas

Buttered Savoy Cabbage with Caraway

Savoy cabbage wilted fast in foaming butter with toasted caraway seeds, the kind of side dish that quietly steals the meal from whatever it was supposed to accompany.

Buttered Spring Greens

Chef Thomas

Buttered Spring Greens

Spring greens shredded fine and turned through foaming butter until they go vivid and glossy and taste like the season finally arriving on the plate.

Cajun Andouille Rice Pilaf

Chef Remy

Cajun Andouille Rice Pilaf

Each grain of rice infused with rendered andouille fat, the holy trinity, and rich stock, cooked until tender and separate, the kind of side dish that steals the show from whatever it was meant to accompany.

Cajun Dirty Rice

Chef Dean

Cajun Dirty Rice

The soul of Louisiana in a single pot: long-grain rice stained gloriously with chicken livers, seasoned pork, and the holy trinity, every forkful carrying generations of Cajun kitchen wisdom.

Cajun Fried Eggplant Medallions

Chef Remy

Cajun Fried Eggplant Medallions

Thick-cut eggplant rounds coated in cayenne-kissed cornmeal and fried in cast iron until the crust shatters against your teeth while the flesh inside goes silky and sweet, finished with a lazy drizzle of Louisiana cane syrup.

Cajun Honey-Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Chef Remy

Cajun Honey-Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Louisiana sweet potatoes kissed with cane honey and Cajun spice, roasted until their edges caramelize into something crispy and their centers turn soft as butter, finished with toasted pecans and a whisper of sea salt.

Cajun Potato Salad with Creole Mustard

Chef Remy

Cajun Potato Salad with Creole Mustard

Creamy, tangy, and kissed with Cajun heat, this potato salad brings Louisiana soul to every potluck table with tender red potatoes, grainy Creole mustard, and enough personality to steal the show from the main course.

Cajun Smothered Cabbage with Bacon

Chef Remy

Cajun Smothered Cabbage with Bacon

Humble cabbage transformed into something magnificent: slow-braised until silky with smoky bacon, the holy trinity, and Cajun spices that make you wonder why you ever ignored this vegetable.

Where cooking meets culture.

Culinary guides, cultural storytelling, and the editorial depth that makes cooking meaningful.

Discover Culinary Explorer