It can be a challenge to stay on track with your health goals during the holidays. But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to have a keto Thanksgiving feast that will satisfy your cravings and keep you in ketosis.
While most traditional staples like mac and cheese, sweet potato pie with marshmallows, and grandma’s green bean casserole are off the table, you can still enjoy the flavors of this holiday on a ketogenic diet. You just need the right recipes.
Whether you’re hosting a party at your place or bringing food as a guest, this recipe roundup has everything you need for the best keto Thanksgiving ever.
10 Keto Thanksgiving Appetizers
Appetizers are meant for guests to snack on while everyone arrives, the turkey cooks, and drinks begin to circulate. Avoid an appetizer table with potato chips and fried foods and think about creating some of these flavorful options.
#1. Low-Carb Antipasto Platter
Every keto Thanksgiving needs a cheese board or charcuterie platter. Loaded with delicious keto-friendly foods like deli meat, cheese, nuts, and more, you can whip one up in less than 15 minutes.
Combine cured meats, creamy and hard cheeses, and nuts into this low-carb and gluten-free antipasto platter.
#2. Marinated Mozzarella
You don’t have to spring for the pricey mozzarella marinated in garlic and spices to add flair to your charcuterie board. Save the cash and make your own marinated mozzarella instead. This recipe combines olive oil, garlic, parsley, oregano, red pepper, and balsamic vinegar as a marinade. It’s quick, delicious, and makes a big impression.
#3. Toasted Pecans With Bacon and Black Pepper
Toasting your own pecans brings out their sweetness and you don’t have to buy a bag of pre-roasted nuts in unhealthy vegetable oils. For maximum flavor, cook up some bacon and remove from the pan. Toss the pecans in the bacon grease, and toast in the skillet until they smell nutty. Season with freshly cracked black pepper and sea salt or pink Himalayan salt.
#4. Crunchy Keto Rosemary Crackers
Give yourself and your guests a crunchy and creamy combo with these flavorful keto rosemary crackers. For crunch, you’ll use pumpkin seeds, almonds, and pecans. Mix with flax meal and spices to form your cracker dough. Then roll it out, slice into crackers, and bake until perfectly crispy.
#5. Baked Brie, Pecan, and Prosciutto Savory Fat Bombs
It’s not every day you find a fat bomb on an appetizer platter, but these baked brie and pecan fat bombs wrapped in prosciutto are the exception. These savory fat bombs pack 16 grams of healthy fats and almost 9 grams of protein — for less than 1 grams of net carbs each.
#6. Veggie Dip
This veggie dip recipe is so quick and simple your kids can help out while you’re busy working on the turkey. With mayo, sour cream, dill, parsley, and seasoning, this veggie dip goes well with pork rinds, keto crackers, and raw low-carb veggies like cucumber, broccoli, radishes, and celery.
#7. Creamy Keto Spinach Artichoke Dip
Everyone loves a creamy spinach artichoke dip, but not every recipe is keto-friendly. This spinach artichoke dip only requires a handful of ingredients (many of which you probably already have) and not much effort. Just toss everything together in a bowl and mix well. Then pour into a baking dish, top with cheese, and bake.
#8. Crunchy Chia Seed Crackers
All you need for the dough of these chia seed crackers is almond flour, chia seeds, egg, salt, and freshly cracked black pepper. Roll out the dough, slice, bake, and cool. Before you know it, you’ll have perfectly seasoned crackers for all your Thanksgiving dips.
#9. Jalapeno Popper Deviled Eggs With Bacon
Take two party staples — jalapeno poppers and deviled eggs — and combine them to make this spicy, smoky, and creamy recipe that could easily snag the best appetizer award. Even your non-keto family and friends will love it.
#10. Low-Carb Stuffed Mushrooms With Bacon
Popable, cheesy, and flavorful, this recipe for low-carb stuffed mushrooms is also a cinch to prepare. Just cook off bacon, then mix it in a bowl with spinach, garlic, cream cheese, egg, mozzarella, and coconut flour. Add the ingredients to baby bella mushroom caps and bake. Each serving delivers 6 grams of fat, 6 grams of protein, and just 1gram of net carbs.
5 Keto Breads and Biscuits
Whether you like making open-face turkey sandwiches or love a biscuit slathered in grass-fed butter, you don’t have to give up the bread basket this Thanksgiving when you follow these keto-friendly recipes.
#1. Keto Almond Flour Bread
You can probably make a loaf of this keto almond flour bread right now since it only requires four keto pantry staples: butter, coconut oil, eggs, and almond flour. Just combine together in a loaf pan and bake for less than an hour to have fresh bread on your Thanksgiving table without the carbs.
#2. Keto Jalapeño “Cornbread”
You don’t need sweet corn to make this keto “cornbread” recipe that looks and tastes like the real thing without the carb crash. Using almond flour, shredded cheddar, jalapenos, eggs, butter, and sour cream, you can bake up to 12 servings of cornbread and each is only 4 grams of net carbs.
#3. Fluffy, Low-Carb Keto Biscuits
The secret to making fluffy keto biscuits just as tasty as traditional biscuits comes down to the swaps you make. Unlike regular biscuits, this keto biscuit recipe uses a combination of almond flour, eggs, baking powder, heavy whipping cream, and mozzarella cheese. The combination of whipping cream and eggs keeps these biscuits light, making them reminiscent of fluffy biscuits from your non-keto days.
#4. Keto Cheese and Bacon Rolls
These keto cheese and bacon rolls are perfect for staying in ketosis because they have zero net carbs. All you need is bacon, cream cheese, cheddar cheese, mozzarella, eggs, and psyllium husk (which you can find on Amazon if it’s not at your local grocery store). They’re easy to make and can be made ahead of time during the busy holiday season.
#5. Cheesy Garlic Keto Breadsticks
The main ingredients in these cheesy garlic keto breadsticks include almond meal, coconut flour, shredded mozzarella cheese, eggs, coconut oil (or grass-fed butter), olive oil, and your favorite spices. Though you’ll want to, try not to eat all of them as two breadsticks will set you back 5 grams of net carbs.
4 Keto Thanksgiving Casseroles
Casseroles are a smart and easy addition to any Thanksgiving meal, especially if you’re heading to someone else’s house and need an easy-to-transport dish. These keto casseroles are foodie-worthy and live up to the Thanksgiving classics you love.
#1. Green Bean Casserole
No, you won’t find any cream of mushroom soup or fried onions in this low-carb green bean casserole, but you will find all the same flavors. Combine green beans and your sauce made of grass fed butter, garlic, heavy cream, parmesan, and chicken stock in a casserole dish. Crumble homemade fried onions over the top and bake for a keto-friendly version of the classic side dish.
#2. Loaded Creamy Cauliflower Casserole
Satisfy cravings for loaded baked potatoes with this loaded cauliflower casserole. Substituting cauliflower for potatoes, you’ll then add cheddar cheese, bacon, sour cream, grass-fed butter, and mascarpone cheese to a cauliflower gratin dish and bake for just 10 minutes. Each serving packs 20 grams of fat and 8 grams of protein for just 3 grams of net carbs.
#3. Creamy Shredded Zucchini Casserole
This simple, creamy zucchini casserole only requires a few basic ingredients — zucchini, grass-fed butter, cream cheese, and parmesan cheese — to become a perfect companion for every other dish on your Thanksgiving table. And at just 2 grams of net carbs per serving, it may also become your new favorite.
#4. Cheesy Low-Carb Yellow Squash Casserole
This yellow squash casserole works as a low-carb, keto friendly, gluten-free side dish or as a stand-alone vegetarian main dish. Unlike other casseroles, this one’s topped with low-carb biscuits so it’s more like a yellow squash pot pie. It calls for both mozzarella and cheddar cheese, but you can also try shredded gouda.
8 Keto Thanksgiving Side Dishes
For a side dish, you can always keep things simple by roasting green beans, spaghetti squash, or butternut squash and sprinkling with a bit of salt and pepper. Try not to let these keto Thanksgiving side dishes steal all the glory from your amazing main course.
#1. Cranberry Sauce
You’ll have to ditch that canned cranberry sauce log loaded with sugar, but making your own sugar-free cranberry sauce is easier than you may think.
First, you add fresh cranberries, filtered water, the zest of one orange, stevia, and vanilla extract to a pot on the stove.
Bring the mix to a boil then reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes while it thickens up. Voila! Delicious and good-for-you cranberry sauce.
#2. Crunchy Broccoli Slaw
If your oven, toaster oven, and slow cooker are all occupied on Thanksgiving, serve up this cold broccoli slaw full of veggies and crunchy nut clusters and you’ll be good to go in less than 30 minutes.
This colorful slaw is made with red cabbage, broccoli florets, scallions, and leafy greens like spinach, kale, and lettuce and tossed with a homemade dressing recipe to match.
#3. Deliciously Perfect Keto Creamed Spinach
You’ll be amazed by how quickly everyone eats their veggies when this keto creamed spinach hits the table. Loaded with garlic, parmesan, heavy whipping cream, and cream cheese, this is one dish made better with extra fat.
#4. Creamy Cauliflower Mashed “Potatoes”
Cauliflower mash is the real hero when you want creamy mashed potatoes without all the carbs. In this recipe, you just need cauliflower, grass-fed butter, parmesan cheese, and almond milk or heavy cream to bring healthy, creamy “mashed potatoes” to your keto Thanksgiving dinner.
#5. Crispy Keto Bacon Wrapped Asparagus
While this recipe calls for bundling stalks of asparagus together and wrapping them in bacon, you can easily swap out the asparagus for green beans. Either way you’ll have a low-carb veggie side dish full of flavor and fat that’s also quick and easy to make. Your kids can even help out bundling and wrapping the veggies while you’re working on other dishes.
#6. Sauteed Radishes with Bacon and Rosemary
If you want a unique recipe to impress your Thanksgiving guests, this one for sauteed radishes with bacon and rosemary delivers. When you saute radishes in bacon grease, they become crispy on the outside, tender on the inside, and smoky all over.
Cook them up, add rosemary and garlic, and you’ll have a one-of-a-kind side sure to please.
#7. Sheet Pan Brussels Sprouts With Bacon
If you want a delicious low-key keto side dish you don’t have to think about, this easy sheet pan Brussels sprouts dish is everything you need.
Simply halve your Brussels sprouts, chop your bacon into bite-sized bits, mix together with salt and pepper on a baking sheet, and toss in the oven for 35-40 minutes. That’s it.
#8. Low-Carb Cauliflower Mac and Cheese
If your Thanksgiving table isn’t complete without a bowl of creamy macaroni and cheese, you can keep your tradition strong without ruining your ketosis goals.
The cheese sauce in this recipe needs heavy cream, sharp cheddar, fontina, cream cheese, and paprika, served over baked cauliflower.
When this dish bakes in the oven, the top comes out golden brown and bubbly just like those old-school mac and cheese recipes.
4 Low-Carb Turkey and Gravy Recipes
Roasting a turkey is probably the easiest part about going keto on Thanksgiving because there’s not much you’ll need to change. You will, however, want to skip your standard stuffing for a low-carb option (see next section), and make your own gravy.
#1. Low-Carb Roasted Turkey and Pan Gravy
This low-carb roasted turkey and pan gravy recipe doesn’t get any simpler. Plus, the whole turkey is just 5 grams of net carbs and the entire gravy recipe is 3 grams. All you need is lemon, garlic, celery, one carrot, half an onion, chicken broth, and a few seasonings to make this healthy classic.
#2. Easy Garlic Butter Herb Roasted Turkey
This garlic butter recipe starts with a 10-12-hour brine (which is just a saltwater bath for your turkey). Then you can combine sage, rosemary, thyme, minced garlic, lemon zest, sea salt, and black pepper with grass-fed butter to smear underneath and on top of the turkey skin. The end game is delicious and zero carbs per serving.
#3. Keto Giblet Gravy
What do you do with the giblets that are removed from your turkey? Answer: Turn them into gravy. Cook your giblets in a pan with turkey broth and veggies, then add heavy cream. Then blend the gravy with an immersion blender to make a smooth, velvety consistency without the need for flour.
#4. Cauliflower Gravy
This gravy comes together with cauliflower, bone broth, garlic, and salt. Just cook this mix, add to a blender, and you’ll have creamy keto gravy to smother on everything.
2 Keto-Friendly Stuffing Recipes
You can use these recipes as stuffing inside your turkey or as dressing right next to it.
#1. Low-Carb Stuffing
You won’t ever miss the stale bread in stuffing when you swap it out for nutrient-dense veggies in this keto stuffing recipe.
Onions, carrots, celery, cauliflower, and mushrooms are flavored with garlic, sage, parsley, and rosemary and cooked in bone broth or chicken stock.
It’s warm and satiating and will still keep you keto.
#2. Cranberry Pecan Cauliflower Rice Stuffing
This cauliflower stuffing has a base of riced cauliflower with additions like toasted pecans, shallots, thyme, bay leaf, parsley, and parmesan cheese, along with sugar-free dried cranberries.
You’ll want to make this stuffing year-round with macros like these: 10 grams of fat, 4.4 grams of protein, and 3.2 grams of net carbs.
10 Keto Desserts With a Thanksgiving Twist
Since you’ll typically find a sweet pumpkin pie at the end of every Thanksgiving meal, this dessert section is full of pumpkin recipes to help you stay in ketosis.
Remember that when you’re making keto dessert, always stick to keto-friendly sweeteners like stevia, monk fruit, or erythritol.
#1. Velvety Keto Pumpkin Pie
This recipe for keto pumpkin pie has two parts: First, you’ll make a keto pie crust using almond flour, monk fruit, eggs, butter, and MCT oil powder in vanilla that will be healthier than any pie crust you’ve ever had.
For the filling, you’ll use vanilla MCT oil powder again along with pumpkin puree, egg yolks, coconut cream, monk fruit, vanilla, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice. After baking, top it with keto whipped cream for the ultimate Thanksgiving treat.
#2. Keto Vanilla Chai Roasted Almonds
Almonds are one of the healthiest keto nuts because they contain fiber and protein, despite being just a few more carbs than other all-stars like macadamias and pecans.
This recipe takes raw, unsalted almonds and transforms them into sweet and spicy specialty nuts your guests will devour by the handful.
To make these, combine almonds with vanilla extract, keto-friendly sweetener like monk fruit, and chai spice. Then bake until deliciously crunchy and sweet.
#3. Super Fluffy Low-Carb Pumpkin Mousse
This may be the most helpful caramel pumpkin mousse you’ll ever give your body. That’s because the MCT oil powder in this fluffy, decadent recipe delivers a huge energy boost for your brain and body after all your hard work prepping and cooking your Thanksgiving meal.
#4. Low-Carb Chocolate Pecan Pie
Pecan pie may be a runner-up in popularity to pumpkin pies during Thanksgiving, but that may not be the case when you try this recipe.
This keto chocolate pecan pie is free of sugar and syrups, which typically make up half the ingredients in a traditional pecan pie. It’s also grain-free, dairy-free, and manages to cleverly hide shredded zucchini.
#5. Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins
These pumpkin cream cheese muffins aren’t just easy to make, they’re also easy to transport and feed a crowd since they’re already portioned.
The best part is you probably have all the ingredients on hand so you can make them the morning after Thanksgiving for brunch before you go out shopping on Black Friday.
#6. Low-Carb Pumpkin Loaf With Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
If you don’t have time to make a bunch of muffins, this moist low-carb pumpkin loaf is as low maintenance as it gets.
While the almond flour and coconut flour will give this loaf substance, the cream cheese, butter, and pumpkin will keep it rich and decadent. And that’s all before you add the cinnamon and vanilla-flavored cream cheese frosting on top.
#7. Pumpkin Spice Fat Bombs
If you wanted to cross pumpkin pie with pecan pie, you’d probably wind up with this fat bomb. These portable pumpkin and pecan fat bombs combine coconut oil, cream cheese, pecans, pumpkin puree, sweetener, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice for 24 servings of Thanksgiving dessert greatness.
#8. Keto Pecan Pie Clusters
These keto pecan pie clusters are like a deconstructed pecan pie you don’t have to sit down for. All it takes is pecans, sugar-free chocolate, butter, heavy cream, vanilla, and your sweetener of choice to whip up these candy-shop worthy nut clusters. And since they’re only a single gram of carbs per serving, you might want to double the recipe.
#9. Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars
This Thanksgiving dessert combines the best parts of pumpkin pie and cheesecake to create delicious fall-flavored cheesecake bars. At just 2.7 grams of net carbs per serving, these sugar-free and nut-free treats will go fast.
#10. Vanilla Keto Butter Fudge
This basic recipe for keto butter fudge can be doctored up to fit any holiday. This one makes 36 pieces of crave-worthy vanilla fudge and only requires cream cheese, butter, vanilla protein powder, and nut butter.
You can add cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, or a blend of chai spices to bring in that fall season warmth.
3 Festive Fall Drinks
Pair your keto desserts with one of these low-carb drinks to finish your Thanksgiving dinner on a high note.
#1. Pumpkin Spice Hot Buttered Coffee
This keto-friendly hot buttered coffee could rival any coffee shop’s version of a pumpkin spice latte.
Simply add hot coffee, pumpkin puree, grass-fed butter, vanilla stevia, and pumpkin pie spice in a blender. Blend until it’s just as frothy as an expensive latte and you’ll never buy one of those sugar-packed PSLs again.
#2. Rich and Creamy Pumpkin Spice Keto Mocha
This coffee recipe is as easy as it gets because you don’t have to brew coffee beforehand. Using a packet of mocha-flavored Perfect Keto Instant Keto Coffee, just add hot water, pumpkin spice, cocoa powder, and heavy cream to a blender and whirr until frothy.
For one net carb you’ll have 20 grams of healthy fats — and lots of comforting fall flavor.
#3. Almond Milk Eggnog
This zero-carb almond milk eggnog recipe will forever be on your list of go-to holiday drinks from Halloween to Christmas. The rich and creamy texture is similar to the thick, custard-like feel of traditional eggnog, but without any of the sugar.
Just combine eggs, almond milk, keto-friendly sweetener, vanilla bean seeds, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a blender, and you’re set.
It’s Easy to Create Your Keto Thanksgiving Meal Plan
With dozens of keto Thanksgiving recipes in this guide — almost enough for a cookbook — it’s time to create your Turkey Day game plan and pick out the recipes that will appeal most to you, your family, and friends.
Even though these keto Thanksgiving recipes are low-carb, you’ll still need to watch your portions if you want to keep your macros on track. If you have any questions, simply use the Perfect Keto calculator.
Remember not to beat yourself up if you indulge a little more than usual. After all, Thanksgiving is a holiday about sharing food with those you’re thankful for and you can always get back on your keto diet after the celebrations.
This may also be the perfect time to try using exogenous ketones if you haven’t already. They’ll help to provide your body with ketones if holiday carbs slow you down.