Easter is upon us! This is a special time of year for many, requiring equally special meals to mark the occasion. Whether your family does Easter brunch, lunch or dinner, here are my picks for dishes to make your Easter memorable while stress free!
Lamb, Lamb, Lamb!
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Here in Australia, Easter Sunday is all about lamb. If you’re after a classic to be your centrepiece, try this Classic Roast Lamb Leg cooked perfectly so the inside is pink, juicy perfection. Served with gravy, of course!
Or enjoy the fall apart goodness of this super easy Oven Slow Roasted Lamb Leg, this even easier Slow Cooker Roast Lamb, or this very forgiving Slow Cooked Lamb Shoulder. All these have gravies too!
For something a little different, try this ever popular Greek Sow Roasted Lamb Leg, cooked to tearable goodness in loads of garlic and lemon, or this ultra tender Slow Cooked Lamb Shawarma – it looks so spectacular piled high on a platter over couscous!
Baked Glazed Ham
I was interested to learn that in the States (and Canada??), Easter is all about the great baked ham! Australia’s ham season is Christmas, when half the meat section of supermarkets becomes loaded with giant ham legs.
Over the years, I’ve tried a handful of baked ham glazes but I always default back to my favourite, this Maple Glazed Ham. The subtle fragrance of maple syrup with all that caramelised sticky goodness is just da bomb! I also love how the ham juices make a perfect sauce to drizzle over the sliced ham.
The Chook
Roast Chicken remains as a firm favourite in Australia for Easter Sunday. As I started pulling this list together, it dawned on me that my selection of recipes made using a whole chicken is sadly lacking. I should have more. I will have more!
Here’s what I do have: Classic Roast Chicken and Easy Lemon Garlic SLOW COOKER Roast Chicken. For something a little different, try this Coconut Lemongrass Whole Roast Chicken (the coconut broth is incredible!) or Jamie Oliver’s famous Chicken in Milk (sounds weird, reads weird, tastes incredible).
Or if you’re after recipes for chicken pieces rather than a whole chicken, browse all my chicken recipes here.
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SEAFOOD / FISH
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I was going to call this section “Seafood”, then I realised I don’t have spectacular giant seafood platters or similar to be the centrepiece of your Easter table. MUST FIX!!!!
But I do have a handful of great fish centrepieces. My firm favourite that I keep pulling out time and time again for gatherings is this Parmesan Crusted Salmon with a Lemon Cream Sauce. Easy, can be made ahead, transports well, is even great served at room temp and that cream sauce is crazy good!
Also for Easter: Fish Pie (published last week, thumbs up from readers who have tried it), a big pile of freshly cooked prawns with a selection of Seafood Sauces, try this Salmon Gravlax for something real fancy at a fraction of the cost of buying (and it’s crazy easy!), or how about a warm and cosy Seafood Gratin Pasta Bake? Cost effective seafood option if you use a premixed seafood marinara mix.
Carby Sides
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Classic Favourites – Baked Mac and Cheese (be still my beating heart!), Julia Child’s Potato Dauphinois (better than scalloped potatoes because the sauce doesn’t go gluggy), Truly Crunchy Roast Potatoes (thank you Nigella), Garlic Bread (be extra generous with butter!) and the unexpectedly extremely popular Mushroom Rice. Oh! And I can’t forget these No Knead Dinner Rolls!
Effortless – Easy Creamy Cheesy Potato Bake, Baked Mushroom Rice
Wow Factor – Crispy Smashed Potatoes, Mini Potato Gratin Stacks, Roasted Sweet Potato Stacks, Crispy Parmesan Crusted Potatoes
Room Temp Sides – Mrs Brodie’s Famous Potato Salad, Macaroni Pasta Salad, Italian Pasta Salad.
Click here to browse my entire Sides recipe collection.
Salads
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Firm Favourites – Roast Pumpkin Salad with Feta, Brussels Sprout Salad (this converted haters!) Roasted Sweet Potato Salad, Iceberg Lettuce Dill Salad (iceberg lettuce never tasted so good), Coleslaw.
Wow Factor – Strawberry Spinach Salad with Strawberry Vinaigrette, San Fran Salad with Yoghurt Ranch Dressing (skip the chicken), Pig Out Salsa (named as such for obvious reasons).
Effortless – 12 minute Sun Dried Tomato Couscous Salad, Throw Together Rocket Beetroot Walnut Salad, any of these dressings with your salad of choice: Fresh Lemon Dressing (in the Couscous Salad), Honey Lemon Dressing, Honey Mustard, Italian Dressing, French Vinaigrette, Poppyseed, Maple Syrup Dressing.
All my salads here!
The Grande Finale
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Pictured above is my new “go to” Chocolate Cake which my friend Jo from Jo Cooks calls a “lazy a** cake” because it’s so crazy easy! It’s beautifully moist with a soft crumb, it truly tastes of chocolate (it’s surprising how many chocolate cakes don’t actually taste of chocolate) and there’s every possibility you have everything you need to make it right now.
Here is the Chocolate Cake recipe! PS I got the cute little furry chooks and speckled eggs to decorate the cake from Woolies.🐣🐣🐣
More recently, I’ve done a variation of this Easter cake using my Vanilla Cake, that has a charming pastel blue icing and coconut nest for the eggs!
Here are some more suggestions for dessert – or browse my entire Dessert / Sweet Treats collection.
Things I have a soft spot for – Red Velvet Cake (it’s sooooo velvety!) Pavlova (so very Aussie!), Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, Apple Crumble (always and forever), Apple Cake (the fragrance of the spices kills me every time), Salted Caramel Tart (the caramel filling is epic).
Show Stoppers – This Never Ending Meringue Tart is guaranteed to draw a round of applause when you present it (and unlike Pavs, you can make ahead), a Trifle is always a stunning looking centrepiece. My friends are obsessed with this Classic Baked Cheesecake with its high wall of biscuit crust, and if mangoes are in season where you are, try this stunning No Bake Mango Cheesecake! Also worthy of mention: Chocolate Cream Pie.
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And let’s not forget….HOT CROSS BUNS!!! Psst – I’ve included the classic kneaded recipe AND a no knead recipe, and yes there is a recipe video. 👍🏼
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Phew! That is a LOT of food. Hope there are some Easter recipes here to inspire you – it’s certainly given me some ideas for my own Easter Feasting menus which I hadn’t starting thinking about until right now, as I’m writing up this post.
Wishing you a Happy Easter filled with family, friends, laughter and lots of delicious food! – Nagi x
LIFE OF DOZER
Multiple choice – Dozer looks:
a) like he’s about to march in the Mardi Gras;
b) thoroughly in the spirit of Easter; or
c) completely humiliated.
PS Don’t worry, that’s a doggy friendly Easter Egg!
Hi Nagi, I have just discovered your website and i love it. I was just wondering if there was any way that these collections of recipes can be saved to my computer as an ebook or pdf file so i can access them altogether? I can’t stop cooking your meals, they are lovely. Thank you.
Hi Tina, you can save the recipes to your personal “My RecipeTin” folder, alternatively you can select “print” and save that file to your local computer. N x
Egggsalent recipes. I’ve had to start a new folder. Great tip for Yorkshire puds. Use twice as many eggs, but be prepared to hold oven top down! Try ‘butterfly lamb chops’ instead of sausages. (rather fattening) GREAT.
😂😂
great recipes