Get ready for CrockPot Magic with these 28 Slow Cooker Side Dishes to Complement Any Meal! The perfect way to save oven space for the holidays.
Like your favorite superhero needs their trusty sidekick to fight off evil forces threatening the land and its good people, side dishes and entrees go together like peas in a pod, elevating each other and making a balanced meal for you and your loved ones to enjoy.
Easy CrockPot Side Dishes
It’s far from a secret that we love our CrockPot! We’ve grown our collection to include three slow cookers to make mealtime effortless. Who doesn’t love a recipe that only takes tossing ingredients into a slow cooker and walking away for a few hours?
I loved making CrockPot recipes while working from home, and John was away at work for the day. If he ever got delayed in coming home, it was no big deal to leave dinner in the slow cooker for a bit longer so that we could both sit down to a hot supper when he arrived.
Today, we have a roundup of side dishes that come together in your CrockPot and pair with various entrees and your favorite main dish. From veggies to starch, we’ve got you covered! Happy cooking!
These Crockpot Side Dishes work great for special occasions, holidays, or family dinners. They are even great the next day for leftovers.
CrockPot Stuffing
Whether you call it stuffing or dressing, this CrockPot recipe is a quick way to lessen the stress during one of the busiest times of the year. Better yet, you can leave the slow cooker on during your Thanksgiving dinner so that guests can help themselves to seconds.
This is one of our favorite holiday slow cooker side dish recipes. It tastes great and is so easy to make.
Crock Pot Parmesan Potatoes
These slow-cooker potatoes are rich with Parmesan flavor and would be fantastic with an Italian night dinner of pasta, Zuppa Toscana, and tiramisu for dessert. You can use shaved or grated Parmesan, depending on how well you like the cheese blended into the potatoes. We used the shaved kind because it was all we had when we made this recipe.
CrockPot Sweet Potato Casserole
Whether your home is a ham or turkey household during the holidays, this slow-cooker sweet potato casserole is the perfect classic side dish for any protein you plan to serve! We’ve included tips in the recipe post for making it vegetarian and vegan so everyone at the table can enjoy it.
Top with marshmallows or toasted pecans to finish this delicious Thanksgiving side dish. We serve it for Christmas dinner, too. It is one of my favorite side dish recipes.
Crock Pot Bacon Wrapped Potatoes
We keep hearing everything is better with bacon, which inspired these Crock Pot bacon-wrapped fingerling potatoes! We love the way the potatoes take on the rich flavor of the bacon as they cook in the broth. You can use turkey bacon for a lighter version or meatless bacon if you’re making it for any vegetarians or vegans in your household.
Slow Cooker Sweet Potatoes and Apples
Even those who don’t usually like eating their veggies will enjoy these layers of brown sugar-infused sweet potatoes and apples. We made ours in medallions to make them easy to pick up with a fork, but we’ve also seen people mash them together for a version that eats like mashed potatoes. This side dish is one of our favorite pairings with pork!
CrockPot Corn Pudding
You only need six pantry staples, including fresh, canned, or frozen corn, to make this easy yet yummy side dish that’s just as at home for a holiday meal as it is for a busy weeknight dinner. Enjoy it as-is, or add a layer of shredded cheese for rich and cheesy corn.
Loaded CrockPot Mashed Potatoes
Loaded mashed potatoes are one of those side dishes we crave when the weather gets cold and dreary and we want a stick-to-your-ribs meal. This slow cooker recipe is easy-peasy and lends itself well to many substitutions to suit everyone’s taste, so feel free to get creative to find the perfect combination that your family will want on rotation.
Crock Pot Cornbread
This easy recipe is a fantastic reminder that your Crock Pot can prepare much more than entrees, making it one of the best multi-use kitchen gadgets and a must-have for our household. Pair this cornbread with our Crock-Pot Beef Stroganoff and Crock-Pot Caramel Sauce and Apples for a complete meal!
CrockPot Creamed Corn
This side dish recipe for classic creamed corn lets you skip the canned stuff and save valuable oven real estate, which is handy during the busy Thanksgiving and holiday rush when you want something more homemade but need to make multiple dishes come together quickly.
CrockPot Glazed Carrots
These CrockPot Glazed Carrots that begin with two bags of baby carrots are a winner for even the pickiest eaters who don’t typically enjoy their veggies! The orange juice, brown sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla give these carrots a dessert-like quality that even kids will gobble up.
CrockPot Scalloped Potatoes and Ham
Do you have mounds of leftover holiday ham in your fridge and can’t face yet another ham sandwich or omelet? This slow cooker scalloped potatoes and ham recipe will give you a welcome diversion, not to mention a soon-to-be weekend brunch favorite!
Crock Pot Chili Mac and Cheese
One of the best things about CrockPot cooking is being tempted by the aroma of tonight’s dinner as it cooks throughout the day, and this comfort food classic is no exception. You can easily swap the ground beef with ground turkey or meatless crumbles, depending on your dietary needs.
This crockpot side dish is perfect for potlucks!
CrockPot Mushrooms
We know not everyone is a fan of mushrooms, but this recipe is for you if you’re a mushroom lover! These Italian-style mushrooms pair well with an Italian dinner or as appetizers for a cocktail party.
CrockPot Bourbon Baked Beans
This slow cooker recipe combines everyone’s three favorite B’s - bourbon, bacon, and belly-filling beans - for a baked bean recipe you’ll enjoy any time of year! We love serving it for summer barbecues and cookouts, knowing we can leave the slow cooker on low for guests to help themselves as the party goes on.
CrockPot Refried Beans
Here’s another recipe favorite that lets you skip the canned stuff and make yummy refried beans at home for a fraction of the cost. You can use black beans instead of pinto for a different flavor. These refried beans are perfect for Mexican night or Taco Tuesday!
CrockPot Green Bean Casserole
We love that this slow cooker recipe uses frozen green beans that we can easily stock up on when we find them on sale at the supermarket. If you stock up on other Thanksgiving staples, like ham, turkey, and corn, during the off-season when they’re at their lowest prices, you can cook from your freezer and save trips to the grocery store once the holidays roll around.
Crock Pot Vegetarian Chili
I may never figure out how to chop onions without crying. However, this plant-powered chili has all the goodness of a hearty chili without any meat, making it a fantastic alternative for vegetarians and vegans. Feel free to add cooked meatless crumbles if you miss meat, want to keep it vegetarian, and like a heavier chili.
Slow Cooker Candied Sweet Potatoes
Sweet potatoes are naturally sweet, but the addition of sugar substitute, vanilla extract, and nutmeg makes these candied sweet potatoes even more delicious! You’ll love this CrockPot recipe if you love our CrockPot Sweet Potato Casserole and CrockPot Glazed carrots.
CrockPot Applesauce
This slow cooker recipe lets you turn a sack of apples from the grocery store (any variety works!) into a yummy cinnamon applesauce that you can enjoy for breakfast, snack time, and beyond. The scent the applesauce develops as it comes together in your CrockPot is a huge plus!
Crock Pot Rice
Rice is one of the simplest yet trickiest foods to cook to perfection. If you don’t have a slow cooker or want to bother with fussy water-to-rice measurements and getting the cooking temperature right, you can use this easy go-to guide for perfectly fluffy rice every time.
CrockPot Garlic Potatoes
Thanksgiving and the holidays are our favorite times to serve these garlicky potatoes; we love serving them alongside a spread of CrockPot Turkey or Ham and everyone’s favorite sides, like stuffing. However, they’re so easy to make that you can quickly whip them up for family dinners throughout the year.
Add a bit of cheddar cheese to make cheesy potatoes. I have even thrown in a packet of dry ranch seasoning mix to add even more flavor.
Loaded Mashed Slow Cooker Cauliflower
The holidays may be about indulgence, but we like offering healthy alternatives so our more health-conscious friends can still feel welcome at the dinner table and enjoy yummy food with us. This loaded mashed cauliflower made in your slow cooker replaces potatoes with cauliflower to give you a guilt-free side dish with the goodness of the “real” thing.
Slow Cooker Mac and Cheese
The only thing better than this scratch-made recipe for slow cooker Macaroni and cheese - an all-time comfort food favorite - is the smell it leaves behind that makes you go for that second helping. Check out the recipe post for some fun Mac and cheese facts!
Crock Pot Fried Apples
If you love Cracker Barrel as much as we do, you’ll enjoy our homemade and slow cooker-made take on Cracker Barrel’s fried apples. Don’t forget the Pecan Pancakes and Chicken & Dumplings for the complete experience from home.
CrockPot Stuffed Peppers
Depending on your desire to eat, you can have these stuffed peppers as an appetizer before a larger meal or as an entree. We like to use individual rice cups that heat up in the microwave since we don’t cook rice often, but any cooked rice, including white, brown, and Mexican, would be delicious.
CrockPot Cheesy Hashbrowns
Meet these nearly prep-free Cheesy Hash Browns that use only pantry ingredients and don’t require peeling, dicing, chopping, slicing, marinating, squeezing, or other random kitchen exercises! They’re so easy to make that you can enjoy them for weekend brunches and busy weekday breakfasts.
Crock Pot Quinoa
Although quinoa has existed for some time, it is popular today as a super grain that pairs well with salads or as a healthy, nutrient-packed rice replacement for meat entrees. Check out the recipe post for set-it-and-forget-it quinoa that always cooks to fluffy perfection, and feel free to use vegetable broth instead of chicken stock if you’re serving any vegetarians.
CrockPot Cabbage Rolls
We love easy, fuss-free recipes that make everyone’s lives easier, but we’ll always have room in our hearts and stomachs for a scratch-made meal made with love. Cue these slow cooker cabbage rolls that take a little more work than our usual recipe posts but are still 100 percent doable. We promise the result is worth it!
Favorite kitchen tools
Crockpot - We suggest using a crockpot that has a digital timer that automatically switches the slow cooker to warm after a set amount of time. This helps make sure your dinner cooks perfectly, and you don't have to stress about what time it is going to be done.
I love that using the slow cooker helps save stove space during the holidays. Slow cooking makes it easy to plan out your menu and schedule everything to be done when you need it.
Mix n Chop - We use the mix n chop to break up the sausage or ground beef and love it.
Baking Sheet - We are huge fans of this sheet pan with sides. You don't have to worry; you will remove the cookies from the oven and have them slide right off.
Microwave Silicone cover - I swear by these lid covers to help prevent butter splatters when melting butter in the microwave. I have had way too many butter explosions while baking. These lid covers help keep the butter in the bowl and not on the roof of your microwave.
Heat-resistant potholders - A couple of years ago, we had a fire scare when we didn't realize we had turned a burner on, and a cloth potholder caught fire. Thankfully we walked by the kitchen and saw the smoke and were able to get it out ourselves. Since then, we have only used these heat-resistant potholders.
Great Recipe Collections
Recipes with Sour Cream - Our favorite Sour Cream Recipes, including dips, desserts, appetizers, baked goods, entrees, and soups starring this versatile dairy product.
What to make with carrots - You will be amazed at all of the ways you can use carrots
Celery Recipes that taste great - Are you wondering what to make with the celery that has been in your fridge? These are our favorite recipes with celery in them.
Lemon Desserts - Pucker Up for These Delicious Lemon Desserts! They are the perfect spring and summer sweet treat.
Vegetarian Air fryer Recipes - Epic easy vegetarian recipes you can make in the air fryer.
Cool Whip Recipes - You will love how many ways you can use Cool Whip in Recipes.
Cream Cheese Recipes - Check out how you can turn a block of cream cheese into something epic!
Do you love recipes? Check out our copycat recipes, dessert recipes, and our CrockPot Recipes.
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