15 Easy Sides Our Readers Love for Weeknight Dinners

I almost always have fish fillets, chicken, or tofu on hand—ready to turn into a simple main course on the fly with little more than salt and oil. But since I only occasionally want to make a whole meal of roast chicken or a slab of salmon, I like to keep a few go-to sides in my back pocket. In spring and summer, a simple salad and a hunk of bread do the trick, but in the cooler months, I want something heartier. I love gratins and elaborately dressed sides, but on workdays, I won't even look at a recipe if it calls for more than a handful of ingredients or takes more than about 30 minutes—ideally, mostly unattended. I'm not cracking open a pomegranate or breaking out a mandoline on a Tuesday.

To find myself—and you!—some new ideas for quick, easy, and satisfying weeknight sides, I pored over data from MyRecipes, our tool for saving and organizing recipes from Serious Eats and beyond. Scroll through some of our most-saved, easy, cool-weather sides below—you might just discover a new go-to that makes weeknight dinners feel more chill and appealing.