5 Easter Menu Ideas
Updated: May 02, 2023Take the pressure off of planning the perfect holiday celebration with these Easter menu ideas. We've crafted recipe spreads for brunch, lunch, dinner and more.
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In this list
- Traditional Easter Dinner: The Best Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes
- Traditional Easter Dinner: Traditional Hot Cross Buns
- Traditional Easter Dinner: Easy and Elegant Ham
- Traditional Easter Dinner: Best Deviled Eggs
- Traditional Easter Dinner: Old-Fashioned Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
- Traditional Easter Dinner: Parmesan Asparagus
- Traditional Easter Dinner: Orange Spice Carrots
- Traditional Easter Dinner: Italian Ricotta Easter Bread
- Traditional Easter Dinner: Creamed Peas
- Traditional Easter Dinner: Easter Meringue Cups
- Lemonade Icebox Pie
- Party-Ready Easter Buffet: Baked Ham with Pineapple
- Party-Ready Easter Buffet: Asiago Mashed Cauliflower
- Party-Ready Easter Buffet: Carrot Spice Thumbprint Cookies
- Party-Ready Easter Buffet: Crispy Smashed Herbed Potatoes
- Party-Ready Easter Buffet: Nut-Topped Strawberry Rhubarb Muffins
- Party-Ready Easter Buffet: Strawberry Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing
- Party-Ready Easter Buffet: Pink Rhubarb Punch
- Party-Ready Easter Buffet: Mushroom & Smoked Salmon Tarts
- Party-Ready Easter Buffet: Five-Cheese Spinach & Artichoke Dip
- Bright Easter Brunch: Asparagus Frittata
- Bright Easter Brunch: Overnight Cherry Danish
- Bright Easter Brunch: Strawberry Rhubarb Coffee Cake
- Bright Easter Brunch: Mixed Berry Sangria
- Bright Easter Brunch: Zippy Praline Bacon
- Bright Easter Brunch: Hash Brown Nests with Portobellos and Eggs
- Bright Easter Brunch: Overnight Asparagus Strata
- Bright Easter Brunch: Bacon Quiche Tarts
- Bright Easter Brunch: Rhubread
- Bright Easter Brunch: Maple-Peach Glazed Ham
- Kid-Friendly Easter Spread: Marshmallow Easter Eggs
- Kid-Friendly Easter Spread: Cream Cheese Fruit Dip
- Kid-Friendly Easter Spread: Mini Ham & Cheese Quiches
- Kid-Friendly Easter Spread: Potluck Macaroni and Cheese
- Kid-Friendly Easter Spread: Meringue Bunnies
- Kid-Friendly Easter Spread: Broccoli Potato Supreme
- Kid-Friendly Easter Spread: Strawberry Melon Fizz
- Kid-Friendly Easter Spread: Cinnamon Monkey Bread
- Kid-Friendly Easter Spread: Twice-Baked Red Potatoes
- Kid-Friendly Easter Spread: Slow-Cooker Barbecue Pulled Pork Sandwiches
- Spring Easter Lunch: Green Onion Rolls
- Spring Easter Lunch: Fontina Asparagus Tart
- Spring Easter Lunch: Peeps Sunflower Cake
- Spring Easter Lunch: Balsamic Green Bean Salad
- Spring Easter Lunch: Bourbon-Spiced Glazed Ham
- Spring Easter Lunch: Marmalade Candied Carrots
- Spring Easter Lunch: Lemon Red Potatoes
- Spring Easter Lunch: Sweet Onion Pimiento Cheese Deviled Eggs
- Spring Easter Lunch: Herbed Feta Dip
- Spring Easter Lunch: Yogurt-Ricotta Cheesecake
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Traditional Easter Dinner: The Best Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes
Potatoes are one of the most versatile foods around. Baked, scalloped, fried, the list goes on. But these cheesy scalloped potatoes are called the best for a reason. Make them for your Easter menu—and be prepared for your family and friends to ask for them every year.
Got your hands full with Easter preparations? These Easter dinner delivery services are a huge help.
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Traditional Easter Dinner: Traditional Hot Cross Buns
Hot cross buns are eaten on Easter to symbolize the cross. This might be obvious given the name, but with the recorder song and other associations, it might be an easy connection to miss. This Easter recipe is timeless and a great tradition to pass on to loved ones.
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Traditional Easter Dinner: Easy and Elegant Ham
Ham and lamb are the most common meats on an Easter menu. While lamb is more religiously significant, ham is a classic when it comes to Easter dinner. We love this traditional ham recipe.
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Traditional Easter Dinner: Best Deviled Eggs
Nothing says Easter like deviled eggs. This unforgettable recipe includes tasty variations that feature bacon, chipotle peppers and crab.
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Traditional Easter Dinner: Old-Fashioned Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
This is the carrot cake for those who don’t like any common additions like pineapple, coconut or raisins. Walnuts are stirred into the frosting for some crunch but otherwise nutmeg and cinnamon carry the flavor of this cake. It can be made for birthdays, too.
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Traditional Easter Dinner: Parmesan Asparagus
Nothing could be more simple than this four ingredient side dish. It’s ready in just 20 minutes and is great for a crowd. Many people substitute the butter for olive oil, and some add garlic powder.
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Traditional Easter Dinner: Orange Spice Carrots
It’s hard to get kids to eat their veggies, especially around the holidays. But if your kid is a carrot cake enjoyer, maybe it’s worth giving these sweet slow-cooker carrots a try. Brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg make them taste almost dessert-like with the secret ingredient of orange juice.
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Traditional Easter Dinner: Italian Ricotta Easter Bread
This take on traditional Italian Easter bread includes ricotta and almond extract. This makes for an extra moist and sweet bread. Your kids can help make it, too, for a fun family ritual!
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Traditional Easter Dinner: Creamed Peas
You’ve heard of creamed corn but what about creamed peas? This is a simple recipe that can accompany more side dishes like mashed potatoes or a main course like roasted chicken.
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Traditional Easter Dinner: Easter Meringue Cups
These colorful and fruity desserts are perfect for an Easter potluck. They look floral and somehow taste even better than they smell. Make sure to be careful when sizing your meringues!
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Lemonade Icebox Pie
You will detect a definite lemonade flavor in this refreshing lemon icebox pie. High and fluffy, this dessert has a creamy smooth consistency that we really appreciate. It’s the dessert that came to mind immediately when I put together my favorite summer meal. —Cheryl Wilt, Eglon, West Virginia
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Party-Ready Easter Buffet: Baked Ham with Pineapple
This ham is a hit at any table. It has pineapples and cherries but some have tried apples with good results. You can serve this dish with something sweet like sweet potato casserole or something savory like Brussels sprouts.
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Party-Ready Easter Buffet: Asiago Mashed Cauliflower
This mashed potato alternative is a game changer. This side dish is creamy, rich and easy to make. But the best news? It’s ready to serve in just 30 minutes.
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Party-Ready Easter Buffet: Carrot Spice Thumbprint Cookies
These carrot cake cookies are great for a party or outing where the dessert needs to hold up on the go. If you give out Easter cookies or are just tired of the same cakes, these will blow you away. They have walnuts and dried cranberries for extra flavor.
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Party-Ready Easter Buffet: Crispy Smashed Herbed Potatoes
Smashed potatoes are all the craze, and for good reason. These buttery and crispy potatoes combine everything you love about baked potatoes and roasted potatoes. There are many flavor alterations you can make in this recipe to create lemon-rosemary smashed potatoes, dill smashed potatoes and artichoke smashed potatoes.
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Party-Ready Easter Buffet: Nut-Topped Strawberry Rhubarb Muffins
These breakfast muffins are crunchy on the outside and moist on the inside. With pecans, strawberries and rhubarb you know it’s going to be good, but these muffins really elevate the rhubarb flavor. Walnuts are a great alternative to pecans in this recipe.
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Party-Ready Easter Buffet: Strawberry Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing
Similar to the strawberry poppyseed chicken salad at Panera, this recipe omits the chicken and blueberries. But they can make excellent additions if you’re looking for a copycat recipe. Otherwise, this picture-ready salad will stand out wonderfully on an Easter lunch menu.
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Party-Ready Easter Buffet: Pink Rhubarb Punch
This refreshing punch will become your new favorite rhubarb recipe. With fresh or frozen rhubarb, pineapple juice, lemon juice, ginger ale and strawberry gelatin powder, it’s great for the whole family. And even better, it’s a pretty pink color that matches the Easter color palate.
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Party-Ready Easter Buffet: Mushroom & Smoked Salmon Tarts
You might already have most of the ingredients for this breakfast tart in your refrigerator already! With smoked salmon, mushrooms and capers this meal is bursting with flavor.
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Party-Ready Easter Buffet: Five-Cheese Spinach & Artichoke Dip
With mozzarella, asiago, cream cheese, feta and provolone, this dip will clean house. Serve it straight out of the slow cooker for easy cleanup!
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Bright Easter Brunch: Asparagus Frittata
It won’t feel like spring until you’ve had asparagus in the morning. You can choose to use an egg substitute or regular eggs in this quick frittata recipe.
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Bright Easter Brunch: Overnight Cherry Danish
These cherry danishes can be easily stored unfrosted in the freezer for a quick brunch bake. The ingredients are easy to purchase and the time spent on them really shows.
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Bright Easter Brunch: Strawberry Rhubarb Coffee Cake
‘Tis the season for rhubarb! This coffee cake is a nice pivot from traditional coffee cakes. The crumbly topping with the moist filling are divine.
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Bright Easter Brunch: Mixed Berry Sangria
This recipe works equally as well with cranberry juice as it does with white cranberry juice. However, seeing the berries float around in the drinks creates such a nice snow globe effect that you won’t want to miss out.
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Bright Easter Brunch: Zippy Praline Bacon
This sweet and spicy bacon will add some pep to your step on Easter morning. It’s really easy to assemble and stands out against your main breakfast dish. The pecans add an additional crunch layer that’s as satisfying to listen to as it is to taste.
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Bright Easter Brunch: Hash Brown Nests with Portobellos and Eggs
These little egg nests are adorably themed for Easter brunch. With hash browns, eggs and bacon there’s a lot of breakfast in these tiny packages.
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Bright Easter Brunch: Overnight Asparagus Strata
Red pepper, asparagus, English muffins and ham are the stars of this filling overnight strata. The flavors are strong and dynamic.
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Bright Easter Brunch: Bacon Quiche Tarts
There’s something about an Easter menu that begs for tiny hand held breakfasts. These bacon quiche tarts have the cuteness factor and the taste. They don’t skimp on the cheese either!
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Bright Easter Brunch: Rhubread
Sweet, crunchy and moist, this rhubarb bread really has it all. It’d be a nice addition to your Easter brunch menu.
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Bright Easter Brunch: Maple-Peach Glazed Ham
You can substitute the peach preserves for orange marmalade in this sweet and smokey ham recipe. Whichever you choose is sure to make a wonderful addition to your Easter menu. The glaze is so delightful that you can even put it on chicken or shrimp!
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Kid-Friendly Easter Spread: Marshmallow Easter Eggs
Marshmallow lovers will go crazy over these chocolate eggs. They’re super cute, and people will appreciate the thought that went into these homemade treats.
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Kid-Friendly Easter Spread: Cream Cheese Fruit Dip
Dips are so fun. You can theme your platter based on what fruits are in season and what holiday color palate you’re trying to match. In this case, we’d recommend strawberries, kiwi and pineapple! You can even serve the dip with graham crackers or wafers.
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Kid-Friendly Easter Spread: Mini Ham & Cheese Quiches
These breakfast quiches are perfect for little hands. The salad croutons add an extra pop of flavor and a hint of crunch.
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Kid-Friendly Easter Spread: Potluck Macaroni and Cheese
Nothing says love like mac and cheese. It’s the ultimate comfort food and the best way to spend time with friends and family. This slow cooker recipe is extra creamy for an extra special dinner.
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Kid-Friendly Easter Spread: Meringue Bunnies
These adorable bunnies are less dessert and more centerpiece. Your kids will especially love them in their baskets. A craft you can eat? Sign us up!
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Kid-Friendly Easter Spread: Broccoli Potato Supreme
This broccoli casserole will sway your pickiest eaters. And who doesn’t love mashed potatoes? This simple side dish bakes in just 30 minutes.
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Kid-Friendly Easter Spread: Strawberry Melon Fizz
Honeydew and cantaloupe are the stars of the show here. These melons, with some strawberry and mint, create a fizzy sweet drink that’ll be a hit at your next get together.
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Kid-Friendly Easter Spread: Cinnamon Monkey Bread
This recipe is great for kids. They can help you bake without a lot of mess or fuss. You can even make this delicious pull-apart sweet bread a day in advance and heat it when ready.
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Kid-Friendly Easter Spread: Twice-Baked Red Potatoes
This freezable recipe is amazing for the holidays, especially as an Easter dinner side. They’re the golden trio of buttery, garlic-y and cheesy. You’ll find yourself craving these before you know it!
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Kid-Friendly Easter Spread: Slow-Cooker Barbecue Pulled Pork Sandwiches
These foolproof dump and go sliders are the perfect Easter lunch to have simmering in the background during the inevitably hectic morning.
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Spring Easter Lunch: Green Onion Rolls
These butter, garlic, onion and cheese rolls are going to disappear the second you put them on the table. The muffin sized rolls are the perfect appetizer for a nice, sweeter dinner like a ham.
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Spring Easter Lunch: Fontina Asparagus Tart
This cheese and asparagus tart is lemony and delicious. Ready in under an hour, you’ll easily finish off the sheet.
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Spring Easter Lunch: Peeps Sunflower Cake
This peep cake is an absolutely adorable way to end a themed Easter party or day out with your family. Easily assembled with box cake mix, the only thing you have to do is decorate.
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Spring Easter Lunch: Balsamic Green Bean Salad
Can assembled vegetables in a bowl be called a side salad? With this dressing they sure can! These tangy green beans will soon sneak their way onto every holiday table you’re in charge of.
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Spring Easter Lunch: Bourbon-Spiced Glazed Ham
This simple orange juice, bourbon, clove and brown sugar glaze will be the talk of the dinner table.
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Spring Easter Lunch: Marmalade Candied Carrots
These baby carrots are just so pretty to look at. To contrast all the savory dinner and side dish options, why not give these orange glazed carrots a shot? The sweet and citrus combination makes them addicting.
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Spring Easter Lunch: Lemon Red Potatoes
Lemon and chives are the main characters of this potato play. You can make this recipe your own with any spices you have on hand but you might be surprised to find that you keep going back to the original.
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Spring Easter Lunch: Sweet Onion Pimiento Cheese Deviled Eggs
Get ready to meet your new favorite appetizer! These pimento cheese and sweet onion deviled eggs capture the flavor of the cheese dip in a new form.
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Spring Easter Lunch: Herbed Feta Dip
This Mediterranean dip is great for carrots, chips or whatever dippable foods you have on hand. We think that this would make a lovely Easter centerpiece as it gives the illusion of carrots in a field.
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Spring Easter Lunch: Yogurt-Ricotta Cheesecake
After a refreshing Easter lunch, it’s time to cap it off with an Easter dessert. Topped with fresh strawberries, this rich cheesecake is the perfect way to end the meal.
Originally Published: February 18, 2019
