Easter Recipes You Need to Try

Easter Recipes are plenty, but these are the simple, easy,
make-ahead recipes you need to plan an effortless Easter dinner!

Here are five Easy Easter recipes with make-ahead instructions, serving suggestions, and easy to follow tips & tricks.

While you are quarantined at home for Easter this year, you can still have a delightful meal with your family gathered around the (virtual?) table.

Easter Dinner Menu:

• Pimento Cheese
• Baked Ham with Brown Sugar Glaze
• Broccoli Salad
• Deviled Potato Salad
• Cream Roasted Pears

This is a super simple menu, and along the way, I’ll suggest a couple of other recipes for either alternatives or additions.

Let’s talk Appetizers for Easter

I love pimento cheese with crackers on the table, ready for whenever you need a nibble.

You can make this a couple of days ahead of time, and it ‘holds’ perfectly. 

What you’ll need to make Pimento Cheese

• Hand grated Cheddar Cheese
• Duke’s Mayo
• Mt. Olive Roasted Red Peppers
• Sliced Green Onion
• Worcestershire Sauce
• Cream Cheese
• Cayenne Pepper
• Salt & Pepper

Make-Ahead Tip: Make this a couple of days ahead of time. It’s best when made the night before so the flavors can really marry, so making this Friday for serving on Sunday is perfect.

What do you serve Pimento Cheese with?

Crackers or French Rounds (those crispy baguette slices) are the yummiest.

How to serve Pimento Cheese

You can serve using a big platter with lots of crackers piled around a smaller dish of pimento cheese.

Appetizer Alternative or Addition:

If you need something light (and extra delicious) try this Tomato Bruschetta recipe!

Main Dish Recipe: Baked Ham with Brown Sugar Glaze

Easter isn’t Easter without an Easter Ham, right?!

This recipe is incredibly easy — and you can even make the glaze ahead of time.

What do you need to make Baked Ham with Brown Sugar Glaze?

• Spiral-Sliced Ham
• Orange Juice
• Brown Sugar
• Whole-Grain Mustard

Make-Ahead Tip: Make the glaze the morning before, and keep in a glass jar that has been sprayed with cooking spray.

How do you make the ham?

You’ll add your precooked spiral-sliced ham to a baking dish and tightly cover with foil.

Put it in a 325˚ oven for 10-14 minutes per pound. You want to heat the precooked ham to 145˚ internally — I love this instant-read thermometer!

During the last half hour, you can baste the ham with the juices + glaze it often while uncovered.

Be sure to keep an eye out for burning sugar! In the last few minutes, it goes fast.

How do you serve this ham recipe?

Get out a big platter, and pile it high! I love these platters — the sizes are perfect. 

Main Dish Alternative or Addition:

Greek Grilled Chicken would be a great addition of alternative, that pairs perfectly with the sides below.

You can even grill extra of this chicken to enjoy for the week following Easter.

Now, let’s chat about side dishes.

Easy Broccoli Salad is such an easy recipe to make for Easter Menus. 

You can make most of it the day before, or several days before.

Make-Ahead Tips:

1. Make the dressing a few days ahead of Easter Sunday.
2. Chop the broccoli into bite-sized florets and store in an air-tight container in the fridge.
3. Chop the onion and store in an air-tight container in the fridge.
4. Grate the cheese and store it in an air-tight container in the fridge.
5. Roast your bacon with this method and TRY to keep enough around for the salad on Sunday. 
6. Easter morning, toss all the ingredients into a glass nesting bowl and let it hang out in the fridge for an hour or two.

You can serve the broccoli salad right out of the glass nesting bowl, or transfer to a festive Spring Fresh bowl!

How do you store leftovers?

This salad really holds up well — since the hearty broccoli keeps sturdy for a couple of days. 

Side Dish Alternative or Addition:

Chopped Iceberg Salad is just sensational with this meal. Most of it can be made ahead of time and assembled just before serving. 

Deviled (egg) Potato Salad is so so delicious!

If egg salad and traditional potato salad had a baby, it would be this salad.

It’s filled with the deviled eggs you want on Easter, and the impossibly creamy potato salad you crave as well. 

Make-Ahead Tips:

1. Hard-boil your eggs a few days before — store them peeled in an air-tight container in the fridge.
2. Whisk the dressing together a few days before Easter Sunday.
3. You can even boil your potatoes and chop your onion the day before.
4. The night before Easter Sunday, combine the potato salad in a glass nesting bowl and store in the fridge with an air-tight cover. ((Have you used these silicone toppers?? They’re great!))

Serve this potato salad recipe out of the glass nesting bowl, or transfer to a Spring-Fresh bowl.

This salad stores well for leftovers for up to 5 days in the fridge, in an air-tight container.

Side Dish Alternative or Addition:

Bacon-Wrapped Green Bean Bundles are very elegant and can be made in advance.

It’s dessert time! What are you going to serve?

You could be easy and order a Junior’s Cheesecake — they really are something else!

Or, you could make some Cream Roasted Pears — which are incredibly decadent.

How do you make Cream Roasted Pears?

1. Peel and half pears, removing the stem. 
2. In a buttered baking dish, place the pears flat side up, and sprinkle a teaspoon of sugar over each one.
3. Place in a 350˚ for 12 minutes.
4. After 12 minutes, remove from the oven, flip the pears so the flat side is down, and sprinkle more sugar on top.
5. Pour the cream + vanilla bean mixture over the pears, and place back in the oven for 10 minutes.
6. Once the pears are impossibly tender and the cream has turned into a sauce, dish each pear out onto a dessert place and top with extra sauce.

Dessert Alternative or Addition:

Apple Galette is just sublime, y’all. 

Make this the day before, and gently warm in the oven while you eat. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

What are some Easter recipes that are a must-have on your table? 

I’d love to know how you are spending the Easter holiday this year — are you hosting a FaceTime with family near and far?

If you need help filling that craving for community, join Virtual Supper Clubs today! ((If you subscribe to Simple Supper Clubs, you get Virtual Supper Clubs for FREE!))

Okay, y’all! Let’s celebrate life amidst the hardship.