Healthy Thanksgiving Recipes

With this luscious take on an all-time favorite, you can fit this low-sugar cake into a diabetic meal plan with style.

Fancy up regular mashed potatoes with a layer of mushroom duxelle--a sauté of finely chopped mushrooms and shallots. We omitted the traditional butter in the duxelle and added chard for a nutritional boost. Serve this hearty side in place of mashed potatoes at any holiday feast or enjoy it as a vegetarian main dish.

This creamy peanut soup lets the flavor of the peanuts truly shine, and fresh sage adds a nice autumnal flavor. While we often call for natural peanut butters in our recipes, they're not recommended here, as they can make the soup gritty and oily.

Sweet pear, salty Cheddar cheese and crunchy nuts make this healthy cheese ball recipe an alluring holiday treat. Serve with an array of crudités and crisp party crackers.

Set the tone for the big Thanksgiving dinner with easy, delicious hors d'oeuvres. These healthy bites will keep guests out of the kitchen and give them something light to munch on throughout the day.

The deep flavors of molasses, cinnamon, ginger, allspice and nutmeg make these wholesome pumpkin cookies delicious without the addition of butter--and they lend themselves beautifully to the inclusion of whole-wheat flour. They are also the perfect texture for a sandwich cookie--fill them with a slightly sweetened cream cheese frosting.

Who says spinach salads are only for spring? Use autumn's tender crop of fresh spinach and other seasonal vegetables to make this fall salad with roasted butternut squash, apples, cheddar and pecans. This colorful and healthy salad would be a wonderful addition to your Thanksgiving menu, but there's no reason to save it for holidays--serve it along with chicken or pork for a healthy weeknight dinner, or turn it into a main course by adding some chickpeas or chopped chicken or turkey.

The genius hack in this recipe: topping sweet potatoes with marshmallows while they're still piping hot from the slow cooker yields a baked marshmallow topping that's typical with baked sweet potato casseroles.

While every bit as delish as the classic pie, this one has less sugar. Cane syrup, a toasty alternative to corn syrup or molasses, sweetens the pie along with brown sugar. Because the filling for the pie is wet, we brush the crust with egg white and par-bake it to create a barrier to prevent sogginess.

Many of these healthy and flavorful recipes can be made in advance so that you can save oven space and prep time on that day.

Most cranberry sauce recipes add tons of sugar to mask the tart taste of the cranberries. In this simple cranberry sauce, we lighten things up by skipping the sugar and opting for a healthier combination of dates and apple cider which adds just enough sweetness without overpowering the cranberry flavor.

Thanks to fresh green beans, an easy homemade cream sauce and crispy onion topping, this green bean casserole recipe is healthier and more delicious than traditional recipes that use canned soup, beans and onions. Plus, the slow cooker saves you time cooking at the stove. Make sure to use fresh green beans, as frozen green beans will become mushy.

Typical green bean casseroles bathe ingredients in a heavy cream sauce and top them with buttered breadcrumbs or cheese. Our healthier version saves about 160 calories and 12 grams of saturated fat compared to a traditional recipe.

Butternut squash steams quickly, making this a great cooking technique to enjoy this fall vegetable as a weeknight side dish. For extra flavor, toss the steamed butternut squash with salt, pepper and a little bit of olive oil, butter or Parmesan cheese after cooking.

Some sweet potato pies call for boiling these root vegetables, but here they're roasted to concentrate their flavor. This helps the earthiness come through, which we enhance with the nuttiness of browned butter. The overall effect is a sweet potato pie that's more complex and a little less sweet.

Pure maple syrup adds body and rich flavor to the dressing, providing a perfect counterpoint to the smoked cheese.

Try these light and flavorful appetizers to help kick off the holiday fun without ruining the main event.

Call on these hearty cornmeal muffins to help boost a soup, stew, chili, or salad into a filling meal.

Skip the roasting in this butternut squash soup recipe and let your slow cooker do the work instead. Just load up all the ingredients into the crock pot, set it and forget it for an easy, healthy dinner or packable lunches.

From roast chicken to plant-based alternatives like cauliflower steaks, these main dishes will pair perfectly with your favorite traditional sides.

Make cooking Thanksgiving a little easier with these make-ahead casserole recipes. You can easily prep parts of the casserole, if not the whole thing, a few days ahead of the big meal. Whether it's riffs on the classic side dishes like Vegan Scalloped Potatoes or Cornbread & Oyster Mushroom Stuffing, these casseroles are healthy, seasonal and delicious.

Caramelized onions are a sweet and savory addition to this healthy stuffing recipe. Choose an apple that becomes tender yet holds its shape when cooked--try Jonagold or Cortland.

One batch of dough does double duty as both the crust and streusel topping to make one of the easiest desserts around.

This dessert recipe is incredibly simple and adaptable—you can use just about any fruit you have on hand. The combination of pears and ginger is lovely in the wintertime. Come springtime try rhubarb or strawberries. Peaches or blueberries shine in the summer, and apples in the fall. If you don't love the taste of ginger, substitute an equal amount of cinnamon or 1/2 teaspoon of cardamom. When serving the cake, you can flip it over to show off the fruit or keep it right-side up so the fruit at the bottom is a surprise.