Planning a holiday menu when you’re trying to follow a specific health plan isn’t always easy. Let us help you plan your keto Thanksgiving menu or holiday dinner with our favorite low carb and keto-friendly holiday recipes!
We have 25+ of the best keto Thanksgiving recipes from your appetizers, main dishes, side dishes, sauces, and desserts! Most are from our website, a handful are from other low carb food blogs. It’s a Whole Lotta Yum!
Some of the dishes are low carb and might not be true keto. We have a wide variety of readers and some try to follow strict keto during the holidays, and others are just trying to keep their carbs down but want to still enjoy their favorite holiday. Just do what’s best for you and your health program when planning out your keto Thanksgiving recipes!
Keto Thanksgiving Menu
Hosting Thanksgiving dinner is always one of my favorite family celebrations. For the most part, we stick to the same core dishes but it’s always nice to add in a few new surprises each year.
As a general rule of thumb, here’s what I serve as our Keto Thanksgiving Menu. If you can get your guests to help bring some of the dishes, even better!
My go-to holiday appetizer is putting together a simple meat and cheese board, with the addition of low carb vegetables. No one would guess it’s low carb and it’s ALWAYS an impressive crowd-pleaser. Even better? This is an easy dish for older kids to assemble for you. Here’s what we suggest for an entire menu of keto Thanksgiving recipes:
- 2-3 appetizers
- turkey
- 2-4 hot side dishes (depending on your party size)
- salad
- bread (whether it be keto or just bread for your non-keto guests)
- 1-2 desserts
Holiday Meal Planning Tips
Wondering how to juggle it all and not end up stressed and frazzled by the time dinner is served? Here are my top tips after serving large holiday meals for the past 20+ years:
- Get your guests to help! Trust me, they WANT to! Whether it be to bring a dish or help with prep, let them assist.
- Assemble the baked dishes and desserts 2-3 days in advance.
- Set the table the day before.
- Don’t make everything from scratch, some store-bought items like a meat and cheese tray or olives for an appetizer are just fine.
- Make some dishes in a crockpot, Instant Pot, or air fryer to free up oven space.
- Put older kids (and spouses!) to work. Don’t try to do it all.
- Scared of a big turkey? Cook turkey breasts instead.
Main Dish Ideas
Herb Roast Turkey Breast
If you’re cooking for a small group, our roast turkey breast recipe in the oven is the way to go. You’ll love the herb butter that coats the entire breast while baking. Dare I say you won’t even need gravy?
For baking an entire bird, we recommend this recipe by Half Baked Harvest.
Air Fryer Turkey Breast
Do you have an air fryer yet?? Thanksgiving might just be the best time to go out and get one if it’s been on your wish list! Here’s our recipe for yummy crisy air-fried turkey breast that cooks in under an hour.
More of Our Air Fryer Turkey Recipes
- turkey cutlets
- Air fryer boneless turkey breast (from frozen)
- turkey thighs
- turkey legs
- turkey tenderloin
Air Fryer Cornish Hens
If you aren’t a turkey lover, making air fryer Cornish game hens is a great alternative for Thanksgiving. Allow 1/2-1 hen per person. For a small group use your air fryer, otherwise, you can bake this entire recipe in the oven too.
Hot Side Dishes
Loaded Cauliflower Mashed Potatoes
You have to have mashed potatoes at your Thanksgiving meal but don’t want the carbs. You won’t believe how creamy and addictive our keto cauliflower mashed potato recipe is, the consistency is similar to mashed potatoes since we mix in cream cheese, cheese, and garlic. Make ultimate potatoes or top with keto gravy.
Keto Sausage Stuffing
Our keto stuffing recipe with sausage hits it out of the ballpark! No one will ever know this is a keto dish. We show you how to make your own dried bread cubes with keto bread. It takes a bit of time, but it’s totally worth it and all of the steps are super easy.
Low Carb Green Bean Casserole
Casseroles were popular in my house growing up. But a low carb, gluten-free, keto green bean casserole?! Count me in.
It’s rich, creamy, and perfect for the holidays, made with a cream cheese sauce instead of canned mushroom soup. Serve fried onions on the side or make our keto fried onions.
Pureed Butternut Squash
You’ll seriously love our low carb mashed butternut squash. So creamy and flavorful, you won’t even miss sweet potatoes. This is not a strict keto recipe, but is low carb. To reduce the carbs puree half squash and cauliflower together.
Keto Baked Mac N Cheese
In some parts of the country, having Mac N Cheese on the holiday table is the norm, if you’re missing it from your Thanksgiving table this year, make a lower carb version with our keto friendly mac n cheese recipe using cauliflower. The cheese sauce is amazing!
Keto Roasted Radishes
Before you turn up your nose at the thought of roasted radishes, you’ll be surprised to hear that radishes are actually the closest-tasting cooked vegetable to our dear old friend the potato! Even our kids loved these low carb baked radishes.
Brussel Sprouts with Cream Sauce & Bacon
This simple Brussel sprouts casserole is made with roasted Brussels sprouts combined with a creamy cheeese sauce and bacon. I promise, even Brussels sprouts haters will love this casserole.
More Low Carb Hot Sides
- Asparagus with brown butter hollandaise sauce – Low Carb Maven
- Low carb “sweet potato” casserole – Wholesome Yum
- Our original 2018 post had cauliflower mash recipes from Evolving Table and Keto Connect.
Holiday Salads
While the hot veggie dishes are often prominent during the holidays when you’re looking for keto Thanksgiving recipes, we suggest serving a cold salad on the side too. Here’s a handful of the best everyone will love and no one would ever guess they are low carb.
Spinach Salad with Hot Bacon Dressing
A spinach salad with hot bacon dressing was always one of our favorite holiday salads, we’ve adapted our family recipe to make it keto friendly.
Keto Broccoli Salad
Here’s another keto take on the traditional raw broccoli salad, which is a holiday classic for many families. Don’t be put off by the raw broccoli, it’s seriously amazing. It’s also the most popular salad on our website with over 500K reshares.One of the most popular recipes on our site!
Shaved Brussel Sprouts Salad
If you didn’t realize you can eat Brussels sprouts raw, you can! The best way to serve them is thinly sliced and tossed with flavorful ingredients such as bacon, blue cheese, and our apple cider vinaigrette like we did in our shaved Brussel sprouts salad.
Holiday Sauces
The only two keto Thanksgiving recipes you need as far as holiday sauces go are cranberry sauce and gravy. We’ve included our two favorite recipes for both.
Low Carb Cranberry Sauce
If you thought you had to skip the cranberry sauce for a keto Thanksgiving, have no fear, keto friendly cranberry sauce is easy to make and cooks in just 15 minutes.
It’s very yummy on turkey, chicken, keto biscuits, and more. This is definitely something you should add to your keto Thanksgiving menu.
10 Min Make Ahead Keto Gravy
If you can’t live without gravy, and I feel ya there, we created a fantastic easy keto gravy you can make ahead that just takes 10 minutes. It’s rich and thick, just the way you’ll like it. We show you how add a touch of drippings on turkey day if preferred.
Thanksgiving Desserts
To plan an entire low carb holiday meal, don’t forget the keto Thanksgiving recipes like a dessert or two that no one will even know is sugar free. While pumpkin is traditional, there’s multiple other options if you want a variety.
Keto Crustless Pumpkin Pie
If you’re looking for an AMAZING keto pumpkin pie recipe, be sure to try our crustless recipe, it’s highly rated. You can either bake it in a pie pan, bake it in individual muffin tins to make mini desserts, or bake them in ramekins.
Keto Pumpkin Cheesecake Mousse
More Low Carb Dessert Ideas
- low carb pumpkin cheesecake – Foodie Affair
- low carb pumpkin pie with an almond flour crust – Briana Thomas
- low carb pecan pie bites – Joy Filled Eats
Appetizers
You’ll just need a couple of keto Thanksgiving recipes that are appetizers for your low carb holiday. Two hot dishes and something simple like veggies and cheese are great options. You don’t want to stuff the guests before dinner even starts.
Hot Artichoke Green Chili Dip
4 ingredients, 15 minutes, and one happy chef. This mild artichoke green chili dip puts a kick in your guests’ steps and a smile on their faces.
Antipasto Skewers
Boursin Stuffed Mini Bell Peppers
Stuffed Mushrooms with Bacon and Cream Cheese
Keto Charcuterie Board
Our favorite holiday appetizer is just putting together a meat and cheese board. All of the ingredient ideas for our low carb charcuterie board are keto friendly, other than the sliced apples (our son’s favorites).
We love to shop at Trader Joe’s when making a charcuterie board, they’re hands-down the cheapest plus have a fantastic variety.
More Appetizer Ideas
- BBQ Bacon Wrapped Smokies – Ruled.me
- Buffalo Chicken Stuffed Mushrooms – Snappy Gourmet
Low Carb Breads
Low Carb & Keto Dinner Rolls
What’s a holiday meal without the dinner rolls and butter? You don’t have to skip out just because you’re on a health mission for yourself. This recipe uses almond flour and the bread-like texture turns out beautifully.
Find the recipe on Low Carb Maven
Low Carb Biscuits
Also made with almond flour, these biscuits work wonders with keto gravy, or honestly a little Thanksgiving biscuit sandwich.
Keep in mind this recipe is low carb, wheat and grain-free only.
Find the recipe on Heart of a Country Home
Cheesy Cauliflower Muffins
These little cauliflower muffins are adorable and so tasty! You can alter the amount of cheese you use, depending on how much you love cheesy foods. They make for a great appetizer, snack, bread-like side dish, and anything else you can think of, really!
Find the recipe on Kirbie’s Cravings
More Keto Holiday Recipes
- 18 Keto Side Dishes
- 25 Days of the Best Keto Christmas Cookies
- 12 Keto Fat Bombs & Candies You Can’t Resist
- 12 Low Carb Cocktails to Make Your Holidays Merry and Bright
Be sure to save the keto Thanksgiving recipes pin to Pinterest for later!
Jillian says
Your Thanksgiving menu looks delicious! I may use some of these recipes myself. Thanks for including my grain-free, wheat-free, gluten-free almond biscuit recipe! 🙂
WholeLottaYum says
Thank you, Jillian! You’re welcome! And I can’t wait to try your biscuits!!