When you’re new to cooking, you may have your main dish all planned out. But those sides might be stumping you. How do you know which side will pair well with what you make?
Some things might be easier than others. You probably throw a salad together and some garlic bread to flank your spaghetti dinner. But what if you make a stir-fry? And what about Mexican meals? Casseroles?
If you’re a new home cook, there’s no need to get intimidated, for these tips will help you pair those side dishes with your main dishes with absolute ease!
Top Tips for Pairing Sides
While a lot of cooking is trial and error, these tips will help guide you along until you feel completely at ease in your own kitchen.
– Complete the Nutritional Value
Generally, your main dish will contain the protein, so to pair your sides, think about what nutrients you’re missing. Vegetables most often come to mind here but don’t forget about grains. If you think about balancing your meals, it will be easier to find a side dish that goes great with whatever you’re serving.
– Bring Balance to the Main Flavors
In romance, opposites might not always attract. But when it comes to foods, that is very often the case. If your main dish is something spicy, having milder sides will keep it pleasurable for the palate.
A great example of this is when you order Mexican food. With a spicy main dish, you’re usually given refried beans and rice, and perhaps a light and refreshing side of greens. Conversely, when you have something that is rich and heavy such as that homemade mac and cheese, brightening it up with something lighter is the way to go.
– Take Textures into Consideration
Have you ever wondered why your weekly spaghetti dinner goes so well with a crispy salad? It’s that contrast in textures. Unless you’ve just had a tooth removed, you don’t want everything on your plate to be soft. Think of those opposites when pairing and you’ll know what to serve.
It’s why you see soup served with crackers or a rustic hunk of crunchy bread. Even in something like spring rolls, you’ve got an array of crunchy and soft textures melded together. It makes eating more enjoyable when there is a balance of soft with crunchy foods.
– Go Off the Richness
When you have hearty and rich sauces, the sides should all be light. And if your main dish is something lighter, feel free to add heavier sides. Think of the plate like a scale and every part of the meal is creating the balance.
– Make It Colorful
Some foods taste amazing but look dull. This is particularly true with soul foods since they are usually cooked slower over a longer period. Perking things up with some color will improve your meal overall. You see this with chicken and dumplings, a tasty dish that is often served with green beans. You could even liven that plate up with a baked sweet potato and sauteed turnip greens instead.
As for casseroles, roasted meats, or even that classic mac and cheese everyone loves, you can also tie it into your brighter side dishes by sprinkling a bit of parsley onto them. Try it and you’ll see how those colors all pop!
– Choose Something Different from Your Main Dish
If you’re still not sure what to pair with your main dish, you can’t go wrong by going in a different direction. Pasta dishes, even ones with veggies in them, can always be matched with a simple vegetable like broccoli or sauteed spinach. Grilling some steaks? Choose light sides. Rich and rustic short ribs? A salad with a light and acidic dressing will do the trick. And for light items like a salad topped with fruits and cheeses, a hearty whole-grain dinner roll or loaded baked potato is a match.
– Themes Are Good Too
There are times when keeping a consistent theme will also work well for pairing your sides to your main dish. In the case of lemon chicken, serving it with a lemony risotto, and a salad with a hint of lemon in the dressing, it makes for an excellent pairing, especially with a lovely Chardonnay.
– Focus on the Seasons
One of the easiest ways for new cooks to come up with side dishes to pair with mains is to simply see what’s fresh. The freshest ingredients are the easiest to work with since they don’t need much to taste good. You can simply roast or sauté them with flavors that balance your meal.
This was how many soul food meals were created as it was necessary to cook foods that were in season. Ever wonder why pinto beans and greens were often cooked together? While they taste delicious, greens grow in colder months after a harvest of beans would have been plentiful.
– Look to the Cooking Method
Once you’ve selected a main dish to prepare, you should look at how it is prepared from start to finish. It only makes sense that, with the exception of major holiday feasts, you shouldn’t choose a main and sides that all need to go into the oven at once. You can choose things that can be made ahead of time or some that go on the stove. Some, like salads, need no cooking time at all.
As one of the biggest troubles to befall new cooks in the kitchen is timing the sides, this is something to think about. You don’t want your main dish getting cold, or worse, overcooking because you’re trying to keep it warm, all while you run yourself ragged trying to make those side dishes.
– Be Practical and Realistic
It is easy to feel overwhelmed in the kitchen when you’re just starting to get into cooking. Take it easy though because the most important element of your meal is who you’re dining with. Whether it’s your family or you have company joining you, there is nothing wrong with choosing easy sides.
This is especially true with serving dinner guests. Everyone is coming over to enjoy your company, and by taking on too much in the kitchen, you’ll miss out on your visitors.
– Salads Always Work
Any time you have doubts or you simply are pressed for time, a salad will always be a welcome side to just about any meal. It’s great with pasta, meats, soups, and stews. You can add contrast, flavor, and colors to that salad bowl. Plus, you can choose a dressing that works with the meal.
And think outside of the box here too, green salads are always a plus, but don’t forget about potato salad, pasta salads, and pea salad too!
– Let Go of Perfection
While it is nice to have that picture-perfect meal, you’ll effortlessly create them on your own after you’ve spent more time in the kitchen. Even the most adept cooks will have an off night. Perfection is hard to live up to, especially on busy nights. When you’ve had to run one child to soccer practice and pick the other one from across the other side of town, all that matters is getting dinner on the table.
Building Your Menu
Now, with these tips, you’ve learned many different ways to pair your side dishes to your main dish. Practice will ensure that these all become fluid for you in that you will know what to do every time.
Until then, there is nothing wrong with getting ahead of the curve and looking up recipes for side dishes like the ones we share here. Mark them for what you think your family will enjoy on a weeknight, or what might be good to spend more time on for holidays or special gatherings.
To help you get the hang of it, let’s cover some popular main dishes and how you can expertly pair sides with them.
What Sides to Pair with Pasta
Pasta dinners are popular with everyone because they’re an easy and many times inexpensive main dish. There are so many different style of dishes too. Of course, you’ve probably got spaghetti down pat, but what do you serve with baked ziti, manicotti, lasagna, creamy fettucine alfredo, or even a white chicken and spinach lasagna?
All of these and many more hearty Italian pasta-based dishes can go well with a fresh tomato caprese salad, breadsticks, roasted asparagus, sauteed green beans, steamed veggies, or a simple spinach salad with strawberries.
What Sides to Pair with Asian or Indian Rice and Noodle Dishes
Exotic cuisine tends to throw everyone through a loop. Since they are usually served atop rice or as a cooked noodle dish, it may be difficult to figure out what sides will pair best. For Asian chicken lettuce wraps, beef and broccoli, coconut curry chicken, butter chicken, or even sweet and sour pork or chicken, you still need a side dish to flank the main. After all, there is nothing worse than putting down your main dish and having your family look at you expectantly. That’s it? We all have to fight over just this?
Keep them full with steamed veggies, buttery peas with thyme, a green bean salad, or even a kale salad topped with fresh seasonal fruits. Depending on which of these dishes you make, you will want either rice, noodles, or even a pillowy piece of naan to go with it. Adding these sides is sure to make the entire meal satisfying.
What Sides to Serve with Those Popular Favorites
Everyone loves wraps and sandwiches. And they love when you do Mexican foods like burritos too. But all of these things can really stump you when you’re trying to find sides to cook and serve with them. What do you do with BBQ pulled pork sandwiches, chicken fajitas, tacos, southwest chicken wraps, enchiladas, meatball subs, or sloppy joes?
Thankfully, there are a number of sides that will fit these popular meals. You can try a broccoli salad, cilantro lime rice, coleslaw, corn on the cob, cornbread muffins, baked beans, steamed vegetables, or even a couscous salad.
What Sides to Serve with Soul Food
Think simple, in season, and comforting. Our grandparents never made of fuss about what to put on the table. It was usually whatever they had on hand however there are several side dishes that are most popularly paired with soul food main dishes. Greens, cabbage, green beans, corn, and potatoes (sweet or otherwise) for vegetables. Pinto beans, black eyed peas, lima beans for legumes. And the ever present soul food macaroni and cheese.
But don’t forget several not as popular dishes such as okra or mashed rutabaga!
What Sides to Serve with Meats
Main dishes of meat can be heavy, which means those sides should lighten things up. If you have meatloaf, pork loin, grilled chicken, ham, or pot roast, you need sides that bring out the best in balance.
While cheesy au gratin potatoes are a great match for heavier sides (think of that Christmas ham), you should bring that balance back with the other sides. Corn on the cob, broccoli salad, roasted asparagus, and a spinach salad are all great examples.
What Sides to Serve with Seafood
Fish and shellfish are much lighter in comparison to other types of meats. As such, when make salmon, flounder, cod, shrimp, scallops, or mussels, you can put heartier sides out to fill up your family. Great options here would be brown rice, quinoa salad, cheesy broccoli and rice casserole, pesto bowties, sweet potato fries, or twice baked potatoes.
A Final Word on Sides and Main Dishes
These tips will certainly help you get a feel for moving around your kitchen. The trick is to get comfortable in there by cooking. You’re going to make mistakes and that’s just fine because even the world’s best chefs have fumbled plenty of meals in their lifetime.
Try to enjoy the process and taste along the way. As you get used to cooking, you will soon have more intuition about what flavors will pair the best with your main dishes. Each time you make them, you’ll fine tune your process and become more fluent with the way your appliances work to master any kind of meal.