32 Best Side Dish Recipes To Serve With Baked Ham

With its succulent interior and golden brown, glazed outer crust, baked ham always makes for a show-stopping centerpiece. This dish takes pride of place on dinner tables throughout the holiday season. It's a hearty, crowd-pleasing option for meat lovers, whether it's served as the main event or alongside turkey, chicken, or beef. Baked ham is fantastically versatile, too. When it comes to choosing the perfect selection of sides to enjoy the meat with, there are plenty of delicious options that'll elevate your spread.

Ham's rich, savory flavor means it fits in beautifully with countless savory sides, from classic roasted veggies and satisfying potato-based dishes to fluffy rolls and cozy casseroles. But ham's salty profile also provides a wonderful contrast to sides that feature a hint of sweetness — think tangy fruits and honey glazes. To bring you some inspiration, we scoured the Tasting Table archives to round up the very best picks for pairing with this meat. Next time you're whipping up a ham dinner, consider serving the joint with one of these tempting accompaniments.

Rich, creamy, and decadent, these potatoes au gratin is sure to bring comforting vibes to your dinner table. Here, the potatoes are sliced into thin rounds, then layered up with a garlic-infused cream mixture and plenty of shredded Gruyère cheese, before everything is baked until the potatoes are tender and the sauce has thickened. When fresh out of the oven, it'll be gloriously golden and bubbling, and its rich taste and texture complement the tender sliced ham brilliantly.

Recipe: Potatoes Au Gratin with Gruyère

Brussels sprouts are a somewhat divisive member of the vegetable realm, but pairing them with nutty Parmesan cheese and crunchy seasoned panko breadcrumbs is a surefire way to convert even the biggest sprout skeptic. The oven-baked sprouts take on an amazing caramelized taste and crisp texture, making them unrecognizable from their basic boiled counterparts. The crusted sprouts offer a moreish textural contrast to the sticky, succulent ham. 

Recipe: Parmesan-Crusted Brussels Sprouts

This elegant take on mac and cheese features the sweet, aromatic flavors of classic French onion soup. First, onions are slowly caramelized to perfection with a hint of balsamic vinegar and brown sugar, before they're stirred with the al dente macaroni and a silky cheese sauce. Beef stock amps up the savory depth, while thyme brings its earthy freshness, and Gruyère gives the sauce a sophisticated edge. Baked with a crispy breadcrumb topping, this dish simply couldn't get any more satisfying.

Recipe: Decadent French Onion Mac and Cheese

Honey-glazed carrots have long been a classic accompaniment to ham, and this fuss-free recipe offers the perfect balance of flavors. There's just the right amount of sweetness, a good dose of garlicky goodness, and a little richness from the butter, too. The carrots become delightfully caramelized as they bake, and their flavor is enhanced by the sticky honey coating. If your ham also features a honey glaze, this is an especially great option to tie those sweet flavors together.

Recipe: Honey-Glazed Carrots

We know just how versatile potatoes can be, but smashed and baked is truly a top-tier way to enjoy them. Leaving the skins on creates the perfect crispy edges and keeps more nutrients intact, so with this method, it's really a win-win. To ensure the middles are tender and fluffy, the potatoes are first boiled until fork-tender. Then, it's a simple case of smashing the spuds flat, coating them with a little oil, salt, and pepper, and baking them to achieve that moreish crunch.

Recipe: Crispy-Edged Smashed Potatoes

Switching your normal mashed potatoes to a sweet variety is a fantastic way to bring some color and flavor to your table. This flavorful side is super easy to whip up, as the peeled and diced sweet potatoes are simply boiled and mashed with garlic, milk, butter, salt, and pepper. The naturally sweet, earthy flavors of this dish contrast the saltiness of the ham incredibly well, all while making your meal feel a bit more wholesome.

Recipe: Garlic-Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Sharp cheese and aromatic onions are two ingredients well known for complementing ham, and in this classic Southern recipe, they come together in the most delicious way. You'll toss the onions and shallots with garlic, oil, and seasonings, spread everything into a baking dish, and dot the mixture with a generous helping of butter. Bake everything until tender, scatter plenty of cheddar cheese on top, and give everything a final broil to make the top lovely and browned.

Recipe: Tennessee Onions Medley

A batch of soft, fluffy rolls is a must-have addition to a holiday spread. If you want the freshest flavor and texture, you'll have to try making them from scratch. This straightforward five-ingredient recipe involves mixing up a yeasted dough with flour, water, sugar, and salt, and undergoing two rounds of proofing to ensure a wonderfully light and airy crumb. Don't forget to brush the rolls with melted butter before serving for the ultimate rich finish.

Recipe: 5-Ingredient Yeast Rolls

Another flavor-packed, potato-based side that'll help your baked ham shine is this herby, buttery fingerling potato recipe. The prep is nice and easy, as the skin-on potatoes are just halved and boiled until fork-tender. But it's the rich garlic and parsley coating that makes these spuds extra special. With a quick toss, they're ready to serve. They taste great alongside other veggies like steamed greens and roasted carrots.

Recipe: The Best Parsley Potatoes

The mild, slightly sweet flavor of green beans makes them the perfect canvas for soaking up bright, fragrant flavors. Here, they're paired with the classic duo of lemon and garlic to create a vibrant, nutritious side dish that only further enhances the salty, smoky taste of the ham. After a quick blanch, the beans are sauteed in butter with the other ingredients — a technique that yields the ultimate tender-crisp finish.

Recipe: Lemon Garlic Green Beans

Not every baked ham side dish has to be served warm. In fact, picking one or two chilled sides, like this creamy macaroni salad, can help you streamline your prep. Make it in advance and pop it in the fridge until you're ready to serve, and you'll leave yourself more oven space for the meaty main event, roasted veggies, or potatoes. This recipe is packed with creamy, tangy flavors and contrasting textures, thanks to the rich honey-Dijon dressing and medley of colorful salad veggies.

Recipe: Creamy Macaroni Salad

Corn is another veggie that's loaded with natural sweetness, so it's no wonder it pairs so well with slices of smoky-sweet glazed ham. The veggie becomes all the more irresistible when baked into a creamy cornbread casserole. 

In this recipe, both creamed corn and corn kernels bring their sunny taste to the batter, fitting in beautifully alongside salty bacon bits and rich sour cream. Finished with a layer of cheddar cheese and baked until golden, this casserole is sure to have you reaching for seconds.

Recipe: Loaded Cornbread Casserole

This dish proves broccoli is far from boring. With a few simple additions, this humble veggie can be a standout addition to a ham dinner. Step one is roasting garlic until the cloves are tender, sweet, and fragrant. Then, you'll mash them with oil, Parmesan, salt, and pepper to create a mouthwatering coating for the broccoli. With everything tossed together, the florets are roasted until just starting to brown around the edges, and finished with a final sprinkling of Parmesan.

Recipe: Roasted Garlic Parmesan Broccoli

Despite looking remarkably fancy, fondant potatoes are surprisingly easy to prepare, and they'll look oh-so elegant as part of your ham spread. The peeled russet potatoes are sliced to create a flat top and bottom, then pan-fried with butter, garlic, and herbs until well-browned on both sides. Next comes a generous glug of chicken broth, which the potatoes simmer in as they bake in the skillet, to melt-in-the-mouth perfection.

Recipe: Easy Fondant Potatoes

Creamed spinach is a classic meat pairing for good reason. Served with baked ham, it'll continue the comforting vibes, all while bringing a welcome dose of nutrients and color. Cream cheese and heavy cream make this version feel ultra decadent, and it's packed with bold flavors, too. There's lemon, aromatic garlic, and shallots, all of which are sauteed and simmered with the wilted spinach. 

Recipe: Classic Creamed Spinach

Butternut squash is a fall favorite and the perfect candidate for roasting. It's beloved for its sweet, earthy flavor profile. This recipe packs all of the gorgeous, caramelized flavor you could ever wish for. We love tossing the cubed squash with olive oil, maple syrup, cinnamon, salt, and pepper before popping it in the oven. The resulting roasted morsels are amazingly tender, with a hint of spicy warmth and a perfectly balanced level of sweetness.

Recipe: Maple-Roasted Butternut Squash

Need a dish that'll have even the pickiest of eaters wolfing down their veggies? This wholesome side elegantly combines sliced zucchini with Italian-inspired flavors and a satisfying breadcrumb topping. Sauteed onion and garlic enhance the tender zucchini rounds, and the veggies are layered with a decadent mixture of heavy cream, Parmesan, and herbs. The resulting dish has plenty of textural contrast and aromatic depth, and it's sure to be a hit on your dinner table.

Recipe: Simple Zucchini Gratin

There's always room for something fresh and crunchy on the dinner table, and this sweet and tangy slaw will fit in brilliantly alongside ham. It's a vibrant mixture of grated carrot, cabbage, and red onion, coated in a light yet flavorful mustard, lemon, and honey dressing. You can top everything off with some sliced green onions for a little color contrast. This dish will take just 10 minutes to whip up, and it's the perfect choice when you're looking to balance the richness of more indulgent sides with something refreshing.

Recipe: Carrot Slaw

If you usually serve mashed or roasted potatoes with your baked ham, consider switching things up and opting for this herb-loaded French potato salad instead. It's full of rich, savory flavors, including mustard, garlic, and scallions, with parsley and dill bringing plenty of brightness. To make it, you'll simply boil Yukon Gold or red potatoes, then cool, chop, and toss them with that delicious dressing. This one's best served chilled or at room temperature.

Recipe: French Potato Salad

Corn truly shines when paired with creamy ingredients, and it serves as the sweet, sunny base of this warming Crockpot dish. Drained canned corn gets added to the pot along with milk, cream cheese, butter, salt, and pepper, before everything is left to slow-cook for around three hours, yielding a seriously comforting side dish that's both nutritious and indulgent. It's a wonderfully hands-off approach, so you'll be left with plenty of time to prep your ham and other sides.

Recipe: Easy Crockpot Cream Corn

There's something rather elegant about rainbow carrots, and turning them into a tasty side dish is a great way to level up your spread. We love tossing the vibrant veggies with fresh orange segments and juice, plus grated ginger, ground coriander, and sesame seeds, then roasting everything until tender and slightly charred. This creates a delightfully zesty, sweet, and warming array of flavors, which is ideal for topping with a sprinkling of fresh cilantro.

Recipe: Roasted Rainbow Carrots with Ginger and Orange

Green bean casserole is a nostalgic favorite for many, and a classic for serving with roasted meats. To keep things convenient, you can use frozen green beans in this recipe, give them a quick boil, and combine them with cream of mushroom soup, milk, Worcestershire sauce, and crispy fried onions. Everything is oven-baked to allow those creamy, savory flavors to meld, and the casserole is finished with a scattering of extra crispy onions for the ultimate crunchy texture.

Recipe: Classic Green Bean Casserole

Chewy and bursting with garlicky goodness, these classic buttery garlic knots are a side that the whole family will love. Made with a simple yeasted bread dough infused with olive oil for extra richness, the knots are shaped and brushed with a herby garlic butter mixture before baking. Don't forget to finish them off with a sprinkle of Parmesan, which complements the garlic beautifully with its nutty tang.

Recipe: Classic Buttery Garlic Knots

Add some pops of juicy sweetness to a batch of flaky biscuits with the help of fresh or frozen corn. It's a great way to introduce a new flavor element to the buttery base with minimal fuss, and this corn-studded version of the classic is an especially fitting accompaniment to ham. As well as the corn, you'll add sharp shredded cheddar and aromatic thyme into the buttermilk-cornmeal batter, bringing everything together and baking dollops of the dough until fragrant and golden.

Recipe: Buttermilk Sweet Corn Biscuits

Cauliflower and cheese are a match made in heaven, with those tender florets being the perfect canvas for soaking up those rich, creamy flavors. In this decadent gratin, we opt for nutty Gruyère, which adds plenty of depth and complexity to the silky sauce. This gets poured over par-boiled cauliflower in a baking dish, before the gratin is finished with a layer of grated Parmesan, and is baked until bubbling.

Recipe: Cauliflower Au Gratin

This dish might sound a little unconventional, but it's a combination of ingredients that quite simply, just work. With its natural tangy sweetness, pineapple is perfect for pairing with salty, savory ingredients like cheese, and fans of the ever-divisive Hawaiian pizza will know how well this fruit fits alongside ham.

This easy casserole begins with canned pineapple chunks, sugar, flour, and shredded sharp cheddar, which are baked with a layer of buttery, crushed Ritz crackers on top until gloriously crisp.

Recipe: Pineapple Cheese Casserole

Roasted root veggies are another classic side dish, and one way to make them extra special is with the addition of a cider glaze. Here, we roast up a colorful medley of sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips, and onions. Apple cider, vinegar, and sugar are then simmered and reduced on the stovetop until thick and sticky, with the glaze spooned all over the warm veggies to inject them with heaps of sweet and tangy flavor.

Recipe: Cider-Glazed Root Vegetables

There's no questioning the versatility of a casserole, and here's another take on the beloved side dish that'll taste exceptional with ham. In this hearty dish, thinly sliced yellow squash is combined with a herby sour cream and cheese mixture, then layered into a baking dish. What makes this dish a real standout is that crispy panko topping, made even tastier with the addition of melted butter, garlic salt, and Parmesan, to give the creamy baked squash a mouthwatering golden crust.

Recipe: Fabulous Yellow Squash Casserole

Stuffed with crispy bacon, green onions, and lashings of cheese, these mouthwateringly melty twice baked potatoes will leave you craving more. After being baked whole, the potatoes are halved, with the flesh scooped out and mixed with sour cream, milk, butter, and the other savory add-ins. Return this mixture to the crispy skins, and you can pile each half with more bacon, onions, and cheese for that all-important gooey finish.

Recipe: Ultimate Twice-Baked Potatoes

Colcannon is a traditional Irish dish that takes classic mashed potatoes and elevates them with vibrant greens. This version sees sauteed kale and green onions mixed into the buttery mashed potato mixture, offering a dose of earthy, savory flavor. Served with extra melted butter on top, colcannon is the epitome of simple comfort food, and is fantastic for packing some extra veggies onto your plate.

Recipe: Easy Irish Colcannon

Okra is an often overlooked, but brilliantly versatile ingredient. One of the tastiest ways to enjoy it is roasted in a crispy coating. These little green pods have a mild, grassy flavor, which becomes wonderfully tender when baked. To prep the okra, start by tossing it with spices, aromatics, and lemon juice. Spread the pieces out on a baking sheet, and sprinkle them with potato starch. This is the key to getting that crispy, golden exterior during baking, that'll make the okra shine alongside succulent ham slices.

Recipe: Crispy Roasted Okra

No Thanksgiving feast is complete without a hearty baked dressing, and this recipe certainly delivers the wholesome vibes. Celery and shallots form the aromatic base of the dressing, with broth and poultry seasoning amping up the savory depth, and eggs helping to bind everything together. With the crumbled cornbread and other ingredients combined, everything is simply baked until that irresistible golden crust forms. The warm dressing will go down a treat topped with a handful of fresh chopped herbs, such as parsley, basil, or thyme.

Recipe: From-Scratch Cornbread Dressing