How Do You Match Side Dishes To A Main Entree?

flyinglentris

flyinglentris

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There are a number of goto solutions to matching side dishes with main entrees. For examples,, 1) try to meet the recommended food group combinations, 2) try to make an artistic impact, 3) try to satisfy palate cleansing scenarios, 4) do the commonly acceptable combination (like fries with a burger) and 5) make use of available resources.

There may be other methods as well.

How do you match your sides with a main entree? Can you provide examples?
 
If I'm cooking for someone other than myself, then I need to have the whole entre in my head, the side dishes, sauces etc can be just about anything and made to work. Personally I don't follow any specific rules. Importantly what's available and fresh is my key necessity. I just need to process in a manner that compliments. Pretty basic really.
 
Whatever I have on hand that sounds good. I usually run it by hubby and if he agrees, that's what we have. Like tonight I am doing some parmesan and panko encrusted chicken thighs, mashed potatoes, and lima beans cooked with bacon and butter. Works for us.
 
rascal said:
I kinda have set stuff that works, and liked. Although I'm always looking for improvement, that's why I'm here and other sites.

Russ
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Yeah I have definitely branched out more on trying new things.

I hate that I have to make brown gravy for hubby for his mashed potatoes. In my opinion, they taste good with butter, salt, and pepper, maybe a little garlic. I am not fond of brown gravy on mashed potatoes and I think it makes no sense with chicken. I would rather make a chicken gravy but nope.
 
I usually tend toward what I believe is normal, e.g. fish, chips and mushy peas, pie and mushy peas, sausage and mash, beans on toast, steak and chips, curry and rice, etc. However, I occasionally attempt something different, e.g.

Pork burger and dry curry:
With curry s.jpg

With curry s.jpg


Sausages and dry curry.
With curry s.jpg

With curry s.jpg


Gammon and dry curry.
Cauliflower and potatoes 2 s.jpg

Cauliflower and potatoes 2 s.jpg


Hassleback and bacon.
With bacon s.jpg

With bacon s.jpg


Duck egg tapas with baked potato.
duck egg tapas 3 s.jpg

duck egg tapas 3 s.jpg


Pork sausage and vegetable bhaji.
With vegetable bhaji s.jpg

With vegetable bhaji s.jpg

 
For my part, I rarely try to use sides to fill out completion of recommended food groups. I may have sides to accommodate palate cleansing. But more often, I use sides that are commonly acceptable combinations or are using available resources. I rarely use sides to fulfill an artistic need.

Some of the post so far, suggest using comfort sides, sides that a member feels comfortable having with a meal,, regardless of the entree. I figure that I also do that.

One other thing that I do when matching sides is thematic, culturally or within the scope of a specific cuisine. Thematic sides are very common, I think. Most often, when we use thematic sides, we may not actually realize it or think that we are doing so. Chips and salsa, for example, with a burrito or enchilada is culturally thematic. There are quite a number of thematic sides which are very commonly used and not recognized for being so. I do a lot of entrees with thematic sides.
 
I google my main dish and look at images of servings done by others. You normally see a pattern as to what is conventional and a number of different combinations. I try out what seems have become convention over time as that's probably what tends to complement it the most. After doing that a few times I might try out some creative variations.
 
This is an excellent topic, because I think so much time is given to considering the main dish, and side dishes are an afterthought.

The way it works in my house is: main, something starch (99% of the time, that means potato), and something green/colorful.

It's getting that last one down to a specific thing that sometimes gets difficult, and I don't like to just steam veg night after night (though I do like them that way).

I'm always baffled by cookbooks, magazines, and cooking show hosts who say things like, "...and the vinegar in this slaw will cut through the richness of the cheese in the main dish," and I don't know how they know that, because sometimes, the advice is contrasting flavors (balancing sweet against sour), and sometimes, it's comparable flavors (as in, "the sweetness of the dried cherries in the salad works well with the honey glaze on the pork roast") - c'mon...it can't be both, or you're just saying everything can go with everything else, right?

I've read/heard that you need something lighter to go with a heavy main dish, and that you also need a substantial side that can stand up and hold its own against a heavy main dish, so it just leaves me confused when it comes to trying to pair sides and main dishes with any kind of educated finesse.

All of that to say...I end up flipping through some cookbooks or online, looking for some new way to treat carrots or broccoli, and I just go with that.
 
For some entrees, I just use whatever sounds good at the time, while with others, I have certain things that are "must have" sides. One good example is Chicken Fried Steak. I must have mashed potatoes and fried okra, with plenty of Southern white gravy.

CD
 
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caseydog said:
m For some entrees, I just use whatever sounds good at the time, while with others, I have certain things that are "must have" sides. One good example is Chicken Fried Steak. I must have mashed potatoes and fried okra, with plenty of Southern white gravy.

CD
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For me, that's an easy one, too - chicken-fried steak, mashed potatoes, but in place of the okra, I always make green beans, boiled and then finished in bacon grease.

Some things are easy like that, but this weekend, I'm planning on a pork loin roast with a cranberry-orange sauce, very Christmassy, and I know I'm going to make mashed potatoes, but I'm struggling with the other side.

Normally, I'd do something like roasted Brussels sprouts, but I want something a little different. I just don't know what. It'll probably be green beans.
 
That´s a very good question flyinglentris.
A lot of food combinations depend on culture: so the Brits would always prefer fish and CHIPS, pork with apple sauce, lamb with mint, and apple pie with custard.
In the US, I cannot imagine anyone eating a burger without fries or biscuits without gravy.
The Italians would probably be horrified to think of macaroni and cheese, especially as a side.
If you don´t have a tortilla with your meal in Mexico, you probably came from another planet; and no rice, lentils or bread in an Indian meal is just un-thought of.
So I´m no Jacques Pepin or Wolfgang Puck - I just try and draw on my "taste" memory when pairing sides with mains. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn´t. When I´m setting up a meal, I often look in the internet for ideas. Ten or twelve different sites, just to see what others might be doing.
If I´m making an Indian meal (which is probably what I´m best at), I look for colour, texture, flavour differences, contrasts and surprises. I´ve made pineapple curry, watermelon curry , egg and mango curry - you´d be amazed how well people reacted.
 
karadekoolaid said:
That´s a very good question flyinglentris.
A lot of food combinations depend on culture: so the Brits would always prefer fish and CHIPS, pork with apple sauce, lamb with mint, and apple pie with custard.
In the US, I cannot imagine anyone eating a burger without fries or biscuits without gravy.
The Italians would probably be horrified to think of macaroni and cheese, especially as a side.
If you don´t have a tortilla with your meal in Mexico, you probably came from another planet; and no rice, lentils or bread in an Indian meal is just un-thought of.
So I´m no Jacques Pepin or Wolfgang Puck - I just try and draw on my "taste" memory when pairing sides with mains. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn´t. When I´m setting up a meal, I often look in the internet for ideas. Ten or twelve different sites, just to see what others might be doing.
If I´m making an Indian meal (which is probably what I´m best at), I look for colour, texture, flavour differences, contrasts and surprises. I´ve made pineapple curry, watermelon curry , egg and mango curry - you´d be amazed how well people reacted.
Click to expand...

Surprisingly, I prefer American biscuits with butter and honey over buscuits and gravy. I also like Wendy's from time to time, because i can get a baked potato instead of fries with my burger from them. It is a little healthier and a nice change of pace.

CD
 
caseydog said:
Surprisingly, I prefer American biscuits with butter and honey over buscuits and gravy. I also like Wendy's from time to time, because i can get a baked potato instead of fries with my burger from them. It is a little healthier and a nice change of pace.

CD
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I used to eat at Wendy's once a week, because it was one of just three or so places within easy walking distance of my office.

I always liked their chili. They just changed their fries (for the second time in a decade), so I need to get back and try them again, although I always preferred them the way they were before they ever started messing with them.
 
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