Best Light Side Dish Recipes (2024)

Mexican Quinoa Salad with jalapeño, corn and avocado for a spicy and smooth twist, plus a delicious lemony parsley garlic dressing you’ll want to use all summer.

These tasty fritters can easily be enhanced with protein, chick peas, lentils, cashews and more! Delicious over a salad with avocado and white beans.

Hummus is rich in healthy fats, fiber, potassium, small amounts of iron and heart healthy benefits from the garlic.

Try this recipe for Crispy Breaded Cauliflower as a side dish, or make large pieces for an entree with your favorite dip.

Sliced and roasted sweet potatoes stand in for bread for the simple snacks of “veggie toast”. Enjoy for any meal!

Twice Baked Cheesy Stuffed Potatoes add to your protein intake, and make use of lower fat cheeses to have a rich side dish wish doesn’t sabotage your meal.

This recipe for Cilantro Lime Cauliflower Rice is ideal as a side dish for both paleo friendly menus and low-carb entrees as well. It combines riced cauliflower in place of the grain, ghee, broth, and zesty flavors.

This lighter version of a popular spicy and creamy corn recipe is terrific as a salads, vegetarian entree or side dish.

Hilton Head Health teaches guests how to makeover popular recipes, like this Loaded Baked Potato Salad which is now only 150 calories per serving.

Fresh baby spinach leaves sauteed with roasted tomatoes and garlic is a delicious savory summer side dish.

Imbued with the fresh zest of oranges and the earthy flavor of fresh beets and a tangy splash of vinegar, this recipe for Orange Marinated Beetsrecipe is a colorful and vibrant side dish for your spa lunch. Shared by Chef and Recipe Developer Lia Huber, guest Chef at Rancho La Puerta Spa and author of Nourished: A Memoir of Food, Faith and Enduring Love.

This potato salad adds garden vegetables and skips fatty mayonnaise. It was a Most Filling Dish winner in Pritikin’s Cooking School Recipe Contest.

Skip ordinary cheese and crackers and use crisp, leafy endives for a plant-based pre-meal platter instead. This delicious appetizer is courtesy of Skyterra Wellness Retreat.

One of the guest favorite recipes served at Hilton Head Health is this side dish of Thai Braised Brussels Sprouts. This side dish ispacked with tantalizing Thai flavors; creamy coconut and zesty curry.

A reduced fat creamy and cheesy stuffed potato side dish, great with your dinner, soup or salad

The potato side dish you’ve been waiting for! This updated version of an old time favorite is just as good but is much lower in carbohydrates . Serve as a meal with a side salad or make as an appetizer.

One crispy (or rather, greasy) potato skin at a restaurant is often 400 calories and more (and who stops at just one?) These yummy Pritikin Crispy Potato Skins are only about 120 calories – for 4 skins!

Try these Sauteed Peaches with Pumpkin Seeds as a side dish for seafood or poultry, or, serve atop your favorite greens for a Warm Fruit and Greens Salad.

This recipe for roasted tomatoes and chard is easy, delicious and nutritious. Serve it as a side dish. Makes store-bought tomatoes taste wonderful!

By adding a can of white water-packed tuna to a Pritikin approved bean salad, we’ve got a winning complete entree with this Summer Bean and Tuna Salad.

Sometimes you just want and need that crunchy, salty, savory mouth feel — you want chips!This is a nutritious option.

This Tropical Salsa recipe has Spice, Sweet and Heat but nothing bad for you – no salt, no added sugar, no waist-expanding oil or other fats.

This usually high fat appetizer reduces calories by using only a few avocados, but adding the characteristic bright green color with the addition of fresh peas. No flavor is sacrificed, but a few calories are!

Grilled Turkey Burgers are a terrific departure from beef, and Broccoli Slaws are popular in our home and office. They tote well, last a long time and improve with a day or two in the fridge.

Roasted cauliflower is the perfect comfort food for a cold weather meal. Served with a tangy Aioli.

Serve this savory side dish of brown rice pilaf with your favorite fish, poultry or pork, or use it as a stuffing.

The Healthy Chef, Teresa Cutter, one of Australia’s leading authorities on healthy cooking, has some great Skinny Dips for spa parties and holiday meals.

Who needs traditional stuffing packed with artery busters like sausage and butter when you can enjoy all the savory richness and warmth of healthy Pritikin Savory Sage Dressing?

Mashed Potatoes With Corn and Fat-Free Sour Cream, perfect for holiday meals or just nights when you’re craving a little comfort food but want to be good to your heart and waistline.

This recipe for lighter cornbread is veggie rich, but free of oil, sugar, and cholesterol (what you’d find in many cornbread recipes), and still offers that classic, delicious cornbread flavor.

This simple comfort food recipe for Mashed Potatoes and Turnips with Caramelized Onions is filled with complex carbohydrates and many nutrients. Why mess up your arteries with all the butter and cream of regular mashed potatoes when you can enjoy the rich piquant flavors of this recipe?

This quick and flexible vegetarian Spicy Kale with White Beans and Garlic serves just you or entire family! Garlic and Parmesan cheese provide savory flavors and balance the bitterness of Kale. Beans provide a source of protein. Vinegar, kale, and red pepper flakes all help in to digest the heaviness of beans.

This healthy recipe for Pritikin Pumpkin Wedges is vegetable-rich, only takes 3 ingredients, and can be a tasty vegetable and dessert, all in one. Plus, pumpkins are a bonafide super-food, so it’s a triple duty recipe — easy, delicious and nutritious.

This lighter but full-flavored version of hummus, a traditional Mediterranean dip, is a great source of of heart healthy mono-unsaturated fat and lean protein.

This Fat Free Potato Salad, created by the chefs at the Pritikin Longevity Center in Florida, is light on calories but full of rich, zesty flavor thanks to fat-free sour cream, Greek yogurt, and herbs.

This recipe is a tasty side dish with fruit, grains and arugula and topped with pumpkin seeds

It wouldn’t be a southern table without delicious collard greens on the side. Try this healthy vegetarian version for Thanksgiving this year.

Corn, beans and squash are the principal foods of many Native American tribes. They’re called “the three sisters” because they support one another as they grow. The corn grows tall, allowing the bean vine to twine around her stalk. The bean fixes the nitrogen in the soil, and the squash has big leaves that hold in moisture.

Serve this delicious, low-carb and low-fat version of “Fried Zucchini” with your favorite burger or sandwich. Here, it is served with lite Sour Cream. This will surely become a family favorite in your home just as it is in ours.

Greens are an excellent source of iron, calcium and vitamins. Instead of a kettle of greens simmered in pork fat all day, which can be high fat and high sodium, try this spa-style light version.

This colorful creamy casserole pairs nicely with many of our Mexican spa cuisine dishes. Serve with black beans and our spa Southern Style Greens for a striking combination of colors and flavors. Great for the holiday table, too.

This recipe for Crostini with Lima Bean and Pecorino Puree is courtesy of Cowgirl Chef Paula Disbrowe. We love the green vibrant color, crunchy toast, and find it a nice change from pesto.

Vermont Maple Sweet Potatoes spotlight wonderful ingredients from Vermont, but can easily be made wherever you are from, as well!

Red Mountain Spa serves this Chicken Hummus as a starter with fresh vegetables for dipping. We enjoyed it stuffed into a tomato half and a bell pepper half, as a “take away salad.”

A light, simple, and fast side dish of Asparagus, Soy Sauce, and Sesame Seeds, perfect for your Asian inspired entrees.

This creamy, garlicky Avocado Aioli is a topping for a delicious Grilled Prawn Salad, but is a wonderful dip for appetizers, salad dressing, or, as a topping for some of our light taco recipes, and even as a spread on sandwiches. Try it on a BLAT!

This light dish is sweet, savory, and tangy, and so easy to pull together. Enjoy it with fresh peaches during the summer, but you can also used frozen if that’s what you have.