10 Fresh Thanksgiving Salads You Can Make Ahead

Marinating radicchio infuses it with flavor, and a turn on the grill lends smokiness and char. After transferring the vegetables to a serving platter, top with goat cheese and grapes, which pair well with the balsamic marinade. Garnish the salad with fresh thyme for color and an extra pop of flavor. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Between basting the turkey and mashing the potatoes, you’ll be thankful for a salad that’s this easy to whip up. Simply toss sliced red apples with watercress, olive oil, lemon juice, and tarragon for a surprisingly flavorful (and crowd-pleasing!) side. Watercress is similar to arugula, and gives the salad a nice peppery kick.

This crunchy, vegetarian-friendly raw salad is a welcome way to round out an otherwise rich meal. Bonus: It won’t hog oven time. Have some travel time ahead of you? Toss the Brussels sprouts with the dressing up to an hour in advance. The fibers will soften and the flavors will intensify.

For a modern version of the classic dinner salad, start with your favorite Cobb salad recipe—but nix the pork bacon. This vegetarian, healthy-alternative version of cholesterol packed bacon is actually just shiitake mushrooms. Shiitake caps packed with delicious meaty umami flavor on their own. Then they’re tossed in brown sugar, olive oil, and a smattering of spices—cumin, chili powder, and cayenne—that add even more savory flavor. Finally, they’re roasted so they caramelize just like pan-cooked bacon. One of the best parts? They won’t spatter your entire stove (or oven for that matter) with grease.

They add a pop of red color and a bit of tartness to your salad, just like pomegranate seeds. In this recipe, cranberries are coated in a bit of maple syrup to balance out their sour bite. And this is genius: the maple syrup caramelizes around the berries during roasting, sealing their juices inside so they remain plump—and so the juice doesn’t stain the sweet potatoes bright red. You can make most components of the salad ahead of time, including roasting the cranberries and sweet potatoes, chopping the kale, and whisking together the dressing (it’ll keep for one day in advance).

In the colder seasons, it’s hard to make a colorful, fresh salad with seasonal ingredients. This dish, made with Belgian endive, grapefruit, and red onion does it all. Even though there’s a tablespoon of honey mixed into the salad dressing, the starter is more bitter and citrusy than sweet. It goes fantastically with rich Thanksgiving meals. Think of it like a palate cleanser. Cut the endive right before serving, but it’s entirely possible to segment the citrus the day before. Here’s how: with a sharp chef’s knife, cut the top and bottom off the grapefruit. Resting the grapefruit on one of the flat ends, slice down with the chefs knife to remove the peel of the grapefruit in strips. When you’re finished, cut along both sides of each grapefruit segment along the membrane. The segments can be stored in their juice overnight in an airtight container.

Pomegranate seeds—which are at their prime from September to January—add a pop of color and flavor to this hearty vegetarian main. When picking the pomegranate, it should feel heavy in your hand, since its seeds are loaded with juice. The leathery skin should be firm and taut, with a light pink to deep red color.

Full of contrasting flavors and textures, this salad combines sweet roasted butternut squash with chickpeas, crunchy apples, briny olives, and salty feta cheese. The whole thing is finished with a drizzle of dill dressing. Hoping to incorporate sweet potatoes into the menu? Simply substitute them for the butternut squash.

Each bite of this wholesome salad is packed with good-for-you ingredients, like broccoli, mushrooms, and barley. To create, prepare barley according to package instructions, roast the vegetables, and then toss it all with a tangy and slightly salty anchovy dressing. Finish the dish with a sprinkle of feta and fresh dill.

The juicy, tart pomegranate seeds complement the crisp fennel and slightly bitter watercress in this gorgeous salad, which takes just 10 minutes to prepare. Adding the vibrant lemon vinaigrette to the serving bowl first ensures the entire salad is evenly coated—but won’t drip onto the rest of your sides.