Ham gets all the attention on Easter, and the truth is the table around it does most of the work. These Easter dinner recipes cover that whole table: a glazed ham and a prime rib for the middle of it, roasted carrots and garlic potatoes and asparagus for the sides, a make-ahead french toast casserole for the morning, and a strawberry cake for the end. I spent years fiddling with my scone recipe and finally finished the job during COVID, so I have real sympathy for anyone trying a new bake two hours before guests arrive. Pick one dish to fuss over and let the rest be easy. Everything here is written for a real kitchen with one oven, a fridge that is already full and people who will show up early!
1. How to Make a Deviled Egg Bouquet
Twelve hard boiled eggs, cut with an X across the top about halfway down, filled with a cream cheese and Dijon mixture piped through a straw, and laid on a plate with green onion stems so the whole plate reads as a bunch of tulips. It is my tutorial and my video, and the honest part is the cutting: boil an extra egg or two the first time, because it took me practicing on one before I got the knack. Ten minutes once the eggs are boiled.
Get the full tutorial at DIY JOY (original, tag 383).
2. Bacon Wrapped Pork Tenderloin for Easter Dinner
A one pound tenderloin wrapped in five slices of bacon, roasted at 400F, then brushed with a glaze of brown sugar, apple juice, Dijon and a dash of nutmeg and sent back in for ten more minutes. Total time is 50 minutes and it feeds six, which makes it the quietest way to put a real main on an Easter table. Broil it for a minute or two at the end if you want the bacon crisp, and let it rest five minutes before slicing.
Get the full tutorial at Finding Zest.
3. Herb Roasted Tri Colored Carrots
Two pounds of carrots, olive oil, fresh rosemary and thyme, and a 450F oven for 30 to 35 minutes. That high heat is the whole recipe, because it caramelizes the edges while the middles stay crisp tender. Flip them halfway so every side browns. Fresh parsley goes on after they come out, never before, and a couple of teaspoons of lemon juice at the end wakes the whole plate up. Purple and yellow carrots hold their color beautifully and cost about the same as orange in spring.
Get the full tutorial at Averie Cooks.
4. Strawberry Caprese Stuffed Avocados
Avocado halves filled with strawberries, mozzarella pearls and basil, dressed with white balsamic. I was skeptical of the strawberry and avocado combination until a friend served it to me, and it works better than it sounds: the strawberries are more flavorful than tomato and the avocado gives you the texture caprese never had. No cooking, no skill, and they hold their shape on a platter. A genuinely good light starter before a heavy Easter main.
Get the full tutorial at DIY JOY (original).
5. Brown Sugar Honey Glazed Ham
A six to eight pound spiral ham, covered in foil and heated at 350F for 45 minutes while a glaze of butter, half a cup of honey, a third of a cup of brown sugar, three quarters of a cup of pineapple juice, Dijon and a cornstarch slurry cooks down on the stove. Half the glaze goes on, back in for 15 minutes, then the rest and another 15. Basting in two rounds is what builds the lacquer instead of a puddle in the pan.
Get the full tutorial at DIY JOY.
6. Beef Tenderloin With Cognac Cream Sauce
This is the splurge on the list and it earns the space. A four and a half pound tenderloin, seared then roasted at 475F, sliced into ten servings and spooned over with a sauce built from shallots, half a cup of Cognac, three cups of heavy cream, Dijon and Parmigiano Reggiano. The part people skip is the first instruction: pull the meat out an hour before it goes anywhere near heat. Roast cold beef and the outside overcooks while the middle argues with you.
Get the full tutorial at Striped Spatula.
7. Easter Fruit Pizza
A lemon sugar cookie crust cut into one giant Easter egg, spread with strawberry jam cream cheese frosting, then covered in banded stripes of fruit so the whole thing reads as a decorated egg. It serves 16 and takes about 65 minutes plus chilling time for the dough. The finishing trick is a brush of warmed apple jelly thinned with a tablespoon of water over the fruit, which keeps cut berries from weeping and going dull before dinner is served.
Get the full tutorial at SugarHero.
8. Crustless Quiche With Spinach And Bacon
No crust, which removes the only difficult part of a quiche. Ten ounces of diced bacon, an onion cooked slowly in the bacon fat for 15 to 30 minutes until soft and light brown, chard or spinach wilted in, then six eggs and two cups of heavy cream with gruyere and parmesan poured over the top. It bakes at 350F for 45 to 55 minutes until the middle sets. Serve it warm or at room temperature, which makes it a genuinely good make ahead for Easter brunch.
Get the full tutorial at Jo-Lynne Shane.
9. Loaded Mashed Potato Casserole
Four pounds of russets, mashed and turned into a casserole so the whole side dish is finished before anyone arrives. That is the real argument for it: mashed potatoes want to be made at the last minute and this version does not. Bake it the day of, or assemble it the day before and let it come to room temperature on the counter while the oven does something else. Bacon and green onion go over the top, and it is the dish the kids will go back to.
Get the full tutorial at Chef in Training.
10. Extremely Strawberry Cake
A from scratch strawberry cake that gets its flavor three ways, from two thirds of a cup of strawberry puree, three tablespoons of strawberry jello mix and fresh sliced berries between the layers. I have made this one many times and it stays moist for several days, although it has never lasted past day two at my house. Two nine inch pans lined with parchment circles, a 350F oven, and a strawberry cream cheese frosting that does not require any piping skill at all.
Get the full tutorial at DIY JOY (original).
11. Chipotle Honey Lime Pork Tenderloin
Half a cup of lime juice, a quarter cup of honey and one chipotle in adobo, and the tenderloin sits in it for six to 24 hours. Then it grills fast over medium high heat, about 12 to 15 minutes, turning every few minutes, and comes off at 140F. The honey is what makes it char nicely and also what makes it burn if you walk away. Slice it thin across the grain and scatter the chopped cilantro over the top.
Get the full tutorial at Tide & Thyme.
12. Asparagus Casserole
Two and a half pounds of fresh asparagus, mushrooms and sweet onion cooked in butter, then bound in a sauce of flour, milk, mayonnaise, sour cream, cheddar and swiss. It serves eight and bakes at 350F for about 30 minutes. The smart bit is what happens to the can of french fried onions: a third of it gets crushed and mixed into the asparagus, and the rest goes on top. That way the crunch is in the dish and not just sitting on it.
Get the full tutorial at Spicy Southern Kitchen.
13. Cucumber Tomato Salad
Fifteen minutes, no cooking, and it is the one thing on a heavy Easter table that tastes light. Sliced cucumber, roma tomatoes, thin red onion, torn basil and fresh dill in a dressing of olive oil, apple cider vinegar, a little red wine vinegar and a teaspoon of sugar. The sugar is not optional, it is what keeps three quarters of a cup of cider vinegar from taking over. Dress it close to serving or the cucumbers go limp in the bowl.
Get the full tutorial at The Blond Cook.
14. Ham And Cheese Scones
Eight scones in 35 minutes, made with four ounces of cheddar, four ounces of diced ham and a third of a cup of chopped scallions folded through a yogurt dough. The one rule that decides whether a scone is flaky or sad is the butter: it goes in very cold, cut into small cubes, and you stop working the dough the second it holds. Shape it into an eight inch circle, cut eight wedges, bake at 400F for 18 to 20 minutes.
Get the full tutorial at Baker by Nature.
15. Homemade Strawberry Pie
Three pounds of fresh strawberries and 25 minutes of work, most of which is waiting. A cup and a half of the berries goes into a blender, gets cooked with sugar, cornstarch and low sugar Sure-Jell until it boils and clears, then cools with lemon juice and zest stirred in. The rest of the berries stay whole in the shell. Use a premade eight inch crust and nobody will know or care. This is spring produce doing almost all of the work for you.
Get the full tutorial at Cooking With Ruthie.
16. One Pot Creamy Lemon Chicken With Baby Kale
One pound of chicken, two and a half cups of dry penne, two cups of broth and a quarter cup of water all cook in the same 12 inch pan, and three heaping cups of baby kale wilt in at the end. Cream cheese, mozzarella and parmesan make it creamy without a roux. Three tablespoons of lemon juice plus the zest of a whole lemon is what keeps all that cheese from sitting heavy. Forty minutes, four large servings, one pan to wash.
Get the full tutorial at Spoonful of Flavor.
17. Perfect Garlic Roasted Potatoes
Two and a half to three pounds of red or white potatoes, a quarter cup of olive oil, five or six cloves of minced garlic, salt, pepper and dried parsley, roasted at 400F for 40 to 45 minutes. Turn them twice while they bake. The note worth following is about the parsley: dried goes in before roasting, fresh goes on after, because fresh parsley in a hot oven turns black and tastes like nothing. Minced fresh rosemary is a very good addition, added before.
Get the full tutorial at Sweet Little Bluebird.
18. Creamy Deviled Egg Layered Pasta Salad
Twelve hard boiled eggs, bow tie pasta and a full trifle bowl of layers: spinach, red and yellow pepper, cucumber, red onion, snap peas, cheese, green onion and bacon. The dressing is the clever part, an avocado whipped with six of the egg yolks, red wine vinegar, horseradish sauce, brown mustard and mayo. It serves ten and takes about an hour and five minutes. Build it in glass so the layers show, because half the appeal is that nobody expects a pasta salad to look like that.
Get the full tutorial at A Dish of Daily Life.
19. Garlic Herb Roasted Potatoes
These are hasselback potatoes, not cubes, and the fanned slits are the entire point because they catch the oil, butter and thyme. A pound and a half of baby potatoes, two whole heads of garlic with the tops trimmed off and tucked between them, and an hour at 350F with a baste every 30 minutes. Cut the slits most of the way down but never through, and if that makes you nervous, lay a wooden spoon alongside the potato and cut until the knife stops.
Get the full tutorial at Rasa Malaysia.
20. Pull Apart Dinner Rolls
Gluten free rolls that genuinely pull apart, which is the part most gluten free bread cannot do. Nine mounds of a wet, scoopable dough go into an eight or nine inch round pan, rise for 45 minutes to an hour, then bake 25 minutes. There is no kneading and no shaping. The trick that makes them look like rolls instead of blobs is dipping your fingertips in warm water and smoothing each top, wetting your fingers again as you go.
Get the full tutorial at My Gluten-Free Kitchen.
21. Garlic Butter Sauteed Asparagus
Eight minutes, six ingredients, and the fastest green thing you can put on an Easter table. Ten ounces of young asparagus, two tablespoons of melted butter, three cloves of garlic, salt, pepper and an optional squeeze of lemon. Brown the garlic in the butter first, then the asparagus goes in for three to five minutes. Trim one to two inches off the tough ends and do not cook it past tender, because sad grey asparagus is a crime committed almost entirely at holidays.
Get the full tutorial at Rasa Malaysia.
22. Maple Cinnamon Roasted Butternut Squash
A three pound squash, peeled and cut into one inch cubes, tossed with avocado or olive oil, a teaspoon or two of maple syrup, half a teaspoon of cinnamon, salt and pepper, and roasted at 400F for 30 to 35 minutes. Even cubes matter more than the maple does, because ragged pieces burn at the thin ends while the thick ones stay hard. Skip the syrup entirely and it is still excellent, which is useful if the rest of the menu is already sweet.
Get the full tutorial at Life Made Sweeter.
23. Salmon Tacos With Fresh Salsa And Avocado Sauce
A pound and a half of salmon marinated in olive oil, lemon and lime, baked at 350F for 25 to 30 minutes, then broken into 24 tacos. Two sauces do the heavy lifting: an avocado sauce blended with Greek yogurt, cilantro and lime, and a fresh salsa of tomato, red onion and cilantro. Let the salmon cool five minutes before you flake it or it falls apart into paste. Good for the crowd who would rather not face another plate of ham.
Get the full tutorial at Life's Little Sweets.
24. Blueberry & Cream Cheese French Toast Casserole
This is the one to make the night before. A large loaf of day old french bread cubed into a nine by thirteen, layered with cubed cream cheese and a cup of blueberries, and soaked in eight eggs and two and a half cups of half and half. It bakes an hour and serves eight. There is a separate blueberry syrup, made from two more cups of berries with sugar, water and cornstarch, and it is the difference between good and the thing people talk about later.
Get the full tutorial at Laughing Spatula.
25. Garlic Crusted Prime Rib Roast
The garlic paste goes on the day before, not the day of. Two tablespoons of minced garlic, two of olive oil, two teaspoons of kosher salt, a teaspoon of black pepper and two teaspoons of fresh thyme, slathered over the whole roast, wrapped tight in a cross of plastic wrap and left in the fridge overnight. Then it comes out an hour before roasting to lose its chill. Those two waits are all the technique there is, and skipping either one is what goes wrong.
Get the full tutorial at Our Life Tastes Good.
26. Bacon-Wrapped Balsamic and Rosemary Beef Tenderloin
A marinade of half a cup of balsamic, a quarter cup of melted butter, five cloves of garlic, whole grain mustard, rosemary and sage goes on the tenderloin the day before. Then it roasts at 425F for about 40 minutes wrapped in bacon. The maker’s own note is worth following: wrap the bacon on from the very beginning and it comes out crisper. Rest it under foil for ten to 15 minutes before slicing, which is not optional on a roast this size.
Get the full tutorial at The Cookie Writer.
27. Blueberry Feta Salad
Ten minutes, eight servings, and it looks like far more effort than it is. Six cups of mixed greens, a cup of blueberries, four ounces of crumbled feta, almonds and slivers of red onion, under a lemon poppy seed dressing shaken up from olive oil, golden balsamic, lemon juice, honey and poppy seeds. Golden balsamic instead of dark is what keeps the whole salad looking bright rather than muddy, and it is the one ingredient worth hunting for.
Get the full tutorial at Lemon Tree Dwelling.
