Thanksgiving prep guide: Our best recipes and safety tips

Looking for recipes for your Thanksgiving meal, tips to avoid foodborne illnesses, or advice on how to properly store your leftovers? Our Thanksgiving roundup has all the recipes and resources you’ll need.

Our best Thanksgiving recipes

Want to switch up your menu from previous years? Looking for healthy alternatives or vegetarian swaps? The list below contains recipe ideas for sides, main dishes, and desserts from CSPI’s Healthy Cook Kate Sherwood. Use this list to ensure that your Thanksgiving meal is equal parts nutritious and delicious.

Sweet & Sour Winter Salad

For this Sweet & Sour Winter Salad, any apple will do, but to pump up the sweet and sour, pick a sweet-tart one like Pink Lady or Honeycrisp. For a dazzling mix, use half a sweet apple (Fuji or Gala) plus half a tart Granny Smith.

Citrus & Winter Greens Salad

This Citrus & Winter Greens Salad can hang out in the fridge while you’re putting the finishing touches on the other dishes.

Mushroom Lentil Dressing

This hearty vegetarian Mushroom Lentil Dressing also makes a satisfying main course for the plant-based eaters in your life. Try using a seeded whole-grain bread for extra flavor and texture.

Tip: Don’t overcook your lentils. They should still be intact, not mushy.

Roasted Roots with Spicy Yogurt

The garam masala called for in this Roasted Roots with Spicy Yogurt recipe is a spice blend that typically has fragrant “sweet” spices like cinnamon, cardamom, and ginger but no chili powder. Or you can use a tandoori masala, which is often a mild blend of sweet and savory spices with a hint of chili.

For a simpler dish, skip the yogurt sauce; roast the vegetables then sprinkle with a mixture of the salt and spices while the vegetables are still hot.

Winter Vegetable Mash

No added fat and no browning are the keys to a flavorful yet light-tasting holiday side dish like this Winter Vegetable Mash. It's a perfect contrast to the rich turkey and dressing with gravy on a Thanksgiving table.

Zesty Cranberry-Orange Relish

This no-cook Zesty Cranberry-Orange Relish is zingy and refreshing. You can use any type of orange: Cara Caras are a bit sweeter, while blood oranges are a bit more tart. Or you can substitute two clementines or mandarins.

Prefer a more traditional (yet still zippy) cranberry sauce? Use the second set of instructions.

In either case, if you’re using frozen cranberries, don’t thaw them before making the dish.

Make-Ahead Turkey Gravy

Preparing this Make-Ahead Turkey Gravy ahead of time means you can chill the broth so it’s easy to remove the fat. And it gives you one less thing to do at the last minute for your Thanksgiving prep.

Apple Raspberry Almond Crisp

Honeycrisp or Granny Smith apples are great in this Apple Raspberry Almond Crisp, but feel free to swap in your favorite seasonal fruit. If you need to make your crisp gluten-free, go with the almond flour (and with oats labeled “gluten-free”).

Avoiding food poisoning this Thanksgiving

How you handle food matters—whether it’s meat, poultry, fruits, vegetables, baked goods, or leftovers.

The harmful bugs that cause food poisoning can show up in any of those foods. Here’s how to lower your risk.

How can I keep my produce pathogen-free?

Keep these tips for buying and washing produce in mind:

• Buy fresh-cut produce like bagged salad greens or half a melon only if it is refrigerated or surrounded by ice.
• Separate raw meat, poultry, and seafood from fruits, vegetables, and other foods in your shopping cart and in your refrigerator.
• Wash your hands for 20 seconds with warm water and soap before and after preparing any food.
• Wash fruits and vegetables under running water just before eating, cutting, or cooking, even if you plan to peel them. Don’t use soap (it leaves a residue). Produce washes are okay, but not necessary.
• Scrub firm produce like cucumbers with a clean produce brush. Let them air dry before cutting.
• Don’t rinse bagged, pre-washed salad greens. You’re more likely to contaminate them with bugs from your sink than to make them safer to eat.
• Discard the outer leaves of heads of leafy vegetables like cabbage and lettuce.

Can I leave my pies out?

Can you store homemade pies at room temperature? It depends.

Fruit pies: “There’s a lot of sugar in that pie,” says Benjamin Chapman, professor and director of the Safe Plates Program at NC State University. And the apples, cherries, etc., have a low pH. High sugar levels and acid curb microbial growth. “So if we leave those pies out on the counter, bacteria are unlikely to grow.” (To keep pie fresh for more than a few days, refrigerate it, says the USDA.)

Pumpkin or sweet potato pie: “There’s still a lot of sugar there, but the pH is kind of in a gray area,” says Chapman. “Some pies will be fine at room temperature, but some might not.” To be safe, refrigerate a homemade pumpkin or sweet potato pie. (If a store-bought one was sold at room temperature, you can keep it out.) Also refrigerate bread pudding and any baked goods with cream cheese frosting or cream, custard, or cheese filling.

How to thaw, store, and cook a Thanksgiving turkey (plus sides)

If you're serving turkey this year, we have tips and advice to safely prepare and cook yours.

How should I thaw a frozen turkey?

Turkey, or any other meat, should never be defrosted on the counter. The safest way to thaw your turkey is in the refrigerator, so plan ahead: Turkeys need approximately 24 hours for each four to five pounds of weight. Put the bird on a plate, to catch any liquid as it thaws.

Once thawed, cook your bird within one to two days or refreeze.

Is it safer to rinse off the turkey before cooking?

Nope. Water can splash bacteria from the raw turkey onto countertops, other food, towels, and you. It’s best to transfer the turkey straight from package to pan. The heat from cooking will kill any bugs.

Read more: How to keep your kitchen safe

How should I cook my turkey?

A few tips:

• Only cook a turkey once it's completely thawed.
• Your oven temperature should never be lower than 325°F.
• Use a food thermometer (not just a pop-up thermometer on the turkey) in the innermost part of the thigh and wing, the thickest part of the breast, and in any stuffing. The thermometer should read at least 165°F.
• For a higher-quality roast, let the turkey stand for 20 minutes to allow the juices to set. The bird will also carve more easily.

How can I cook stuffing safely?

The safest way to cook stuffing is on the stove or in the oven—separate from the turkey.

If you cook the stuffing inside the bird, loosely stuff the turkey just before you put it in the oven, with three-quarters of a cup of stuffing per pound of turkey. Use a food thermometer to make sure the center of the stuffing reaches 165°F.

How should I store my Thanksgiving leftovers?

Here are some tips to properly store your Thanksgiving leftovers:

Time and temperature: Although you might not feel like doing much after a big meal, it is very important that you refrigerate or freeze perishable leftovers within two hours of cooking the food. Bacteria multiply fastest at warm temperatures in the range between 40°F and 140°F. Therefore, leaving cooked food at room temperature is an invitation for bacteria like Clostridium perfringens and Staphylococcus aureus to grow in your food.

Dismantling the meal: Food should be chilled as quickly as possible in the refrigerator. Divide the turkey into smaller pieces and store the turkey separately from the stuffing and gravy. To drop the temperature fast, store leftovers at a shallow depth—about two inches. Shallow containers allow food to cool more evenly and quickly in the refrigerator or freezer. This is also useful for later eating in smaller portions.

Using leftovers later: Use leftovers within four days, except stuffing and gravy, which should be used within two days. If that is an impossible feat, freeze the leftovers in shallow containers. If reheating leftovers, heat them to 165°F and bring to a boil any soups, sauces, and gravies.

Read more: Smart storage (and freezing!) can extend the life of your food