Friendsgiving Food Ideas We Love The Most
What makes for a great Friendsgiving party? Is it the food, location, or unparalleled company? Or is it a combination of all three? While we can’t help with the last two, we certainly can create a killer Friendsgiving food ideas list to help you plan, prep, and make an unforgettable culinary experience for everyone. Get a notepad and a serviette handy (you might drool while going through the list!), and let’s start planning a fantastic Friendsgiving party!
Friendsgiving Appetizers
1. Boozy Cherry Log
The cherry cheese log can work perfectly as a dessert or appetizer. This delicious cheese roll perfectly combines sweet and a little naughty. The rum helps to balance out the sweetness of the cherries and vanilla extract. The log goes excellent with Carr’s water crackers for appetizers and graham crackers for dessert.
2. Sausage Cranberry Brie Bites
Serving Sausage, Cranberry, and Brie bites at your Friendsgiving party will be sure to add some flavourful notes to your party. The pairing of the salty sausage and brie, mixed with the sweetness of the cranberry, creates a wonderfully varied appetizer, sure to satisfy even your most demanding foodie friend. This great little appetizer is quick to make and will be a great addition to your food table.
Related: 20 Insanely Stylish Thanksgiving Paper Plates
3. Lasagna Stuffed Mushrooms
The lasagna stuffed mushrooms are a fun Italian appetizer that can easily be added to your Friendsgiving party list. It helps to give your Friendsgiving a non-traditional feel, allowing a less strict event that you and your friends can enjoy. The lasagne filling helps keep the mushroom from feeling like a bland appetizer. It also ensures that the mushroom does not taste overpowering for those who want a more subtle taste.
4. Pumpkin Whipped Feta Dip
Pairing the pumpkin-whipped feta with walnuts, fresh thyme, and honey makes this dip a culinary experience. This dip can be an excellent addition to your crunchy crudité board made of fresh vegetables. It can also be served with crackers or toasted bread. I like making dips with blenders like this Ninja blender from Amazon, which makes this a lot easier, and the texture you get is much smoother and fun to eat.
5. Spicy Tuna and Avocado Cucumber Sushi Bites
Sushi is always a favorite, and including the spicy tuna and avocado cucumber sushi bites at your party table will be no different. This recipe is truly versatile and offers different spice combinations. You can even make two or three different variations for your party if you want to, enabling you to serve a very spicey or less so option. This appetizer is really quick and easy to make, all you need is to toss the tuna with a mixture of soy sauce (I like this Kikkoman – great taste), sriracha (this is a good option from Amazon), mirin (get it here), green onions, sesame oil (get this #1 Best Seller) and sesame seeds and place on the cumber slices and avocado and enjoy!
Related: 20 Insanely Good Pumpkin Dessert Recipes We Absolutely Love
6. Crudité Board
The crudité board is a welcome addition to your Friendsgiving party. As a variation of the popular charcuterie board, the crudité board is made of only raw elements, like fruits, vegetables, and nuts. You can add raw meats like smoked salmon or jerky to make it even more enjoyable. Add a variety of dips to keep it appealing.
7. Grilled Tuscan Prosciutto Wrapped Shrimp
Just like its name, this appetizer is quite a mouthful. The grilled Tuscan prosciutto-wrapped shrimp is a mouth-watering appetizer that can be made on the grill or pan-fried. It can also be made in an air fryer for a less fatty option. The recipe also gives instructions on making a Calabrian chili aioli sauce. Still, you can use creamy Italian sauce if you prefer a sauce with less bite.
Related: 15 Insanely Fun and Healthy Edible Thanksgiving Centerpieces
Friendsgiving Mains / Side Dishes
8. Air Fryer Rotisserie Chicken
This air fryer rotisserie chicken recipe makes for a deliciously crispy chicken with juicy meat. With a prep time of only 5 minutes, this recipe will ensure that your hands are free to start with other dishes while the chicken cooks on its own in the air fryer. Ideally based and expertly spiced, this chicken will be a winner at any party.
Related: 17 Best Thanksgiving Turkey Recipes That Everyone Will Love
9. The Best Stuffing
A classic but dependable option is always the stuffing. This stuffing is a fan favorite; made from scratch; it is perfected with the best combination of herbs and vegetables. The chicken broth is perfectly seasoned to add extra goodness to the whole dish. An excellent baking dish for this recipe would be OXO’s baking dish which is also #1 Best Seller on Amazon – It’s made from strong, borosilicate glass that allows you to use it in the oven and it comes with a lid so you can easily store it in the fridge later. It’s definitely one of the most useful baking dishes I bought!
10. Apricot Glazed Bacon Wrapped Cajun Pork Tenderloin
This sweet and salty recipe combines all the necessary ingredients to ensure a delightfully varied palette experience. The apricot glazed bacon-wrapped Cajun pork tenderloin is an easy and quick recipe, making it worth a mention on the Friendsgiving food ideas list.
11. Roasted Butternut Squash With Goat Cheese And Pomegranates
The roasted butternut squash with goat cheese and pomegranates is a wonderful dish that is varied in flavor and texture. This great dish is not only simple to make, but it is healthy and gluten-free too!
Related: Low Carb Stuffed Bell Peppers Recipe
12. Garlic Parmesan Roasted Green Beans
The garlic parmesan roasted green beans are a sublime side dish. Tender on the inside but crispy on the outside, the roasted green beans make for a satisfyingly textured mouthful with every bite. The dish not only stimulates the taste buds but also creates a visual distraction with the roasted golden green colors.
13. Twice Baked Potato Casserole
The twice-baked potato casserole is another traditional dish that can quickly edge onto the Friendsgiving party list due to the sheer, creamy flavor satisfaction it creates. This fantastic dish is decadent and can be addictive, so use the recipe with great care! The twice-baked potato casserole is a variation of the regular twice-baked potatoes, just a lot easier to make.
14. Jalapeño Cheddar Buttermilk Biscuits
This great recipe will give you amazingly soft fluffy jalapeño cheddar buttermilk biscuits, filled with incredible cheezy flavors with the added bite of the jalapeño peppers. It is always a bit more labor intensive when you need to make your biscuits from scratch, but the taste explosion, when done, will be well worth it.
15. Maple-Herb Roasted Turkey Legs
The delectable maple-herb roasted turkey legs recipe is perfect to have some deliciously juicy turkey still. It might not feel like it is genuinely part of the season without some turkey, but it isn’t necessary to make the full one. Prep time is a quick ten minutes; your oven does most of the heavy lifting on this recipe. Get #1 Amazon Best Seller maple syrup for this recipe from here.
16. Brussels Sprout Mushroom Pizza with Crispy Prosciutto and Sage
The brussel sprout mushroom pizza is another other than an average dish to be served at your Friendsgiving party. Sure to delight your pizza-loving friends, this pizza has been created with a fall season in mind. The sweet and salty combination will win you some praise for your culinary skills.
17. Stuffed Mini Pumpkins
This is definitely a mouthwatering recipe! It just looks so good! These cute pumpkins are stuffed with wild rice and a mix of fall vegetables, pecans, and cranberries. Easy to make and looks amazing, this recipe can perfectly work as a vegetarian dish or with any stuffed meat to add more flavors.
Friendsgiving Desserts
18. Amazing Pumpkin Cakes
These mini pumpkin cakes are amazing. Delicious, delightful, and filled with favorite fall spices, and cream cheese frosting – they just look amazing. Make sure to save this recipe that your guests will love!
19. Pumpkin Cream Cheese Streusel Muffins
Not to be left off the list is the pumpkin cream cheese streusel muffins (we do need some pumpkin, after all!) The muffins are not easy to make, with extra steps to create a perfectly balanced culinary experience. One might want to have it more frequently if it was any easier! In the end, it might not be such bad that they are more complicated to make than standard muffins, as they are seriously addictive.
20. Fall Acorn Oreo Balls
The fall acorn oreo balls are an adorable dessert but don’t worry; they don’t contain actual acorns; they are only shaped like them to add some extra festivity to your party. Like most worthwhile things, making these oreo balls will take about two hours. The oreo balls also have to be refrigerated, so ensure that this will not be a dessert you can prepare once your guests have already arrived.
21. Mini Pie Charcuterie Recipe Round-Up
The mini pie charcuterie recipe round-up is another fun addition to the Friendsgiving food ideas list. The board can be made up of any mini pies that you and your friends prefer; consider having at least three to four types of mini pies available, giving your friends a choice from a variety of bite-size goodness.
22. Mississippi Mud Cake
Last but not least on the list is the Mississippi mud cake. A genuinely decadent cake made with marshmallow and chocolate-y goodness. Not necessarily a dessert specifically made for Thanksgiving, this treat still deserves mention due to its unparalleled deliciousness.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a Friendsgiving party have to be traditional?
As shown in this list, you do not need to keep things formal and traditional if you don’t want to. A Friendsgiving party is a great place to experiment with new and fun recipes and decor! That being said, you can also keep it traditional and formal if you want to.
Do I have to prepare all the food myself?
No, just like a typical Thanksgiving, it is perfectly acceptable to ask each guest to bring a dish of their own. It might be easier if the host provides what type of dish each person has to get, ensuring that everyone does not show up with an appetizer and no other food.
Final Thoughts
A Friendsgiving party is a great way to celebrate Thanksgiving with some friends. Let’s face it, spending time with loved ones is a big part of Thanksgiving. A great way to accomplish that you see all the people you love, not just family, is with a Friendsgiving party. Good food and company are a big part of a great party, and it is therefore vital that your Friendsgiving food ideas are of excellent quality.
