Low-Calorie Vegetable Side Dish Recipes

This easy Asian green bean salad recipe gets a deeply savory flavor from shallots and fish sauce. Part of the reason is time: after it's made, the dish is left at room temp for 20 minutes to allow the green beans to absorb more flavor. Serve with grilled chicken or shrimp.

This crunchy salad is made with spiralized carrots instead of noodles. Make sure to use unrefined peanut oil, which is way more flavorful than its refined counterpart and is one of the trio of peanutty ingredients that makes this simple salad stand out. Look for it with other specialty oils or in the Asian section of your grocery store.

Our spin on the traditional Venetian risotto swaps in cauliflower rice for arborio rice in this healthy vegetable side dish. Spring peas and Parmesan cheese keep the rest of the dish classic.

This healthy recipe is a savory riff on the traditional brown-sugar-and-pecan-topped sweet potato casserole so often found on Thanksgiving tables. Crispy baby kale leaves make a stunning garnish, but any green or herb that suits you will look great, fried or not.

The cheesy-seedy crust that tops this healthy cauliflower casserole recipe evokes "everything" bagels. Serve for the holidays or as a hearty side dish with roast chicken.

Whole roasted carrots make quite a statement on the dinner table when they're topped with a port wine-and-fig dressing. In this recipe, we like dried Calimyrna figs because they're a tad less sweet than Mission figs and taste slightly nutty as well.

If you find turnips with their greens still attached at your farmers' market, snatch them up for this healthy vegetable recipe. Otherwise, spinach makes a good sub for the turnip greens.

Everyone loves Brussels sprouts when they're drizzled in a tangy-sweet sauce. Plus, bacon! Serve with chicken, pork or steak and roasted potatoes.

Just a touch of butter adds silkiness to the balsamic sauce that coats broccoli and meaty mushrooms in this easy broccoli side dish recipe.

Simple steps give this broccoli salad recipe a more nuanced flavor: soaking the onion tempers its bite and toasting the cumin enhances its aroma. Serve alongside grilled chicken, pork or fish.

Resist the temptation to turn the broccoli over while it roasts in this easy recipe. Leaving it cut-side down means you'll get deliciously caramelized results.

Fish sauce may seem like an unlikely ingredient for a dressing, but these Brussels sprouts are flat-out addictive. Serve with grilled chicken or coconut shrimp and rice for a complete meal.

In this quick vegetable side dish, maple-vinegar-glazed carrots are topped with gomasio, a blend of toasted sesame seeds and salt. Find gomasio in the natural-foods section or Asian-foods section at large supermarkets or at Asian markets. Or substitute 2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds and 1/4 teaspoon salt.

Most of this savory fruit-and-tomato salad recipe can be prepared in advance-just mix the tomatoes with the dressing right before serving. For the most stunning presentation, use a mix of colorful heirloom tomatoes.

No gloppy canned soup in this healthy green bean casserole recipe. Simply give cilantro, parsley or chives (or a mix of all three) a whirl in the food processor to make the pesto-like sauce that ties the casserole together.

If you don't have a spiralizer to make this healthy zucchini noodle casserole (aka zoodles), use a vegetable peeler to make long thin strips of the squash and zucchini, stopping when you reach the seedy center. Just a few minutes under the broiler gives these ricotta-and-basil-filled nests a light golden top.

Padrón peppers have a poblano-like flavor and can be as mild as a bell pepper or as fiery as a habanero (or anywhere in between). Serve the grilled peppers with other tapas, like cheese, salumi, olives and Marcona almonds.

Grilled corn turns up across the globe, from Japan's supernaturally sweet Hokkaido corn to Mexico's elote, grilled corn slathered with mayonnaise and grated Cotija cheese. In this healthy corn on the cob recipe, the corn takes its inspiration from Cambodia's pod oeng, corn grilled with pandan leaf–flavored coconut milk.

Enjoy this healthy and simple grilled vegetable salad recipe alongside anything else you feel like throwing on the grill. Or toss it with pasta and plenty of Parmesan and call it dinner.

Don't skip salting the cucumbers in this quick cucumber salad recipe--just 10 minutes pulls out some of their excess moisture, concentrating the flavor and keeping the salad from being watered down. Serve as a healthy side dish at a summer cookout alongside burgers and hotdogs.