Have you ever made yourself a meal without side dishes? It feels empty and lonely when you don’t have more on your plate. But cooking the side dish means standing in the kitchen until it is ready. Luckily, there are some fantastic slow cooker side dish recipes that can help.

The best slow cooker side dish recipes can help elevate your family dinner recipes into a family meal they love. Side dishes bring a meal together. You can make a fantastic steak, but without potatoes, you just have a slab of meat on a plate.

But cooking side dishes is never as simple as tossing something in the oven. You may not even be able to cook the main dish in the oven, which means standing over a stove for a while. We can make life easier by using a slow cooker.

Slow cookers will allow you to cook your side dish, maybe even while you’re at work, and then serve directly from the slow cooker. This means you will not need to stand over the stove cooking the main course and the side dishes.

You can also just toss what you’re cooking in the oven, start the side dish in the slow cooker, and relax around the house until it’s ready. A bit of planning goes into this method, but it’s not much more than what we already deal with planning dinner in the first place.

Crockpot Macaroni and Cheese Recipe

Baked Potatoes | Eating on a Dime

Harvest Veggies | Fit Slow Cooker Queen

Best Slow Cooker Side Dish Recipes

Slow cookers cook food slowly, hence the name. It is important to pay attention to how long each recipe you want to use takes and plan accordingly. But that means you may need to plan a bit when using the slow cooker to make side dishes.

For example, a side dish may take 3 hours to cook, which means you will want to start it 3 hours before dinner is to be served. But then some side dish recipes take all day long to cook, and they are more straightforward.

Cheesy Jalapeno Corn | The Magical Slow Cooker

Loaded Mashed Potatoes | Real Housemoms

Creamed Corn | Love from the Oven

Picking Side Dishes

The best slow cooker side dish recipes vary greatly, so how do you choose? The answer is always waiting for you in the main dish. Steak gets potatoes, and veggies fit with just about anything. But there are a few different routes you can go.

The goal should always be to complement the main course. But you will also want a complete meal. Ask yourself if you have enough veggies, enough starches, and enough variety in flavor.

Boston Baked Beans | Don’t Sweat the Recipe

Creamy Macaroni and Cheese | Wishes, and Dishes

Southern Green Beans | Key to My Lime

Funeral Potatoes | Crock-Pot Ladies

More Crockpot Recipes

Easy Crockpot Chicken Fajitas with Frozen Corn | Fajitas are almost like an entire meal in one recipe. You will need to heat up some tortillas, but that’s simple.

How to Make Crockpot Hawaiian Chicken | Hawaiian chicken is another recipe that could almost be considered an entire meal, but you will need some rice or a salad.

Healthy Crockpot Pizza Casserole | Casseroles are entire meals in one recipe, and there is nothing better than pizza for dinner.

Easy Slow Cooker Chicken and Rice | Chicken and rice is an interesting one because the rice is the side dish, but it is also part of the main course.

Slow Cooker Beef Stroganoff with French Onion Soup | Stroganoff is a delicious pasta recipe that can be made with ease in a slow cooker.