What to Eat on Easter
If you are wondering what to eat on Easter, the classic American answer is a glazed ham or roast leg of lamb with spring sides, followed by carrot cake or another sweet treat. Many families skip the big dinner and host a brunch instead, built around eggs, quiche, and sweet breads. Below you will find both options, plus traditional Easter foods from around the world and a sample menu you can copy.
Want someone else to make the main-dish call? Spin the random dinner generator and build the rest of your Easter table around whatever it lands on.
What to Eat for Easter Dinner: The Classic Mains
Easter dinner in the US usually centers on one big roast. The two traditional choices are ham and lamb, and each has a long history at the holiday table.
Glazed ham
Ham is the most familiar Easter main in many American homes. It is easy to scale, mostly hands-off, and a spiral-cut ham comes already cooked, so you are really just warming and glazing it.
Popular glazes include:
- Brown sugar and Dijon mustard
- Honey and orange
- Pineapple with cloves
- Maple and bourbon
A ham also leaves you with leftovers for sandwiches, split pea soup, and breakfast hash. If you go this route, our guide on what to eat with ham has a long list of sides that pair well with it.
Roast leg of lamb
Lamb has deep roots in Easter traditions, partly because of its link to the Passover lamb and the Christian image of Jesus as the “Lamb of God.” A leg of lamb rubbed with garlic, rosemary, lemon, and olive oil is the classic preparation.
If a whole leg feels like too much, rack of lamb or lamb chops cook faster and suit a smaller group.
Other good Easter mains
Not everyone wants ham or lamb. These options still feel special enough for the holiday:
- Roast chicken with lemon and herbs
- Pork loin with an apricot or mustard glaze
- Baked salmon with dill
- Beef tenderloin for a more formal dinner
- Spring vegetable lasagna or a spinach and ricotta pie for vegetarians
Easter Brunch Ideas
A brunch is often easier than a full dinner, especially if you have kids hunting eggs in the morning. Eggs naturally take center stage.
- Quiche — ham and Swiss, spinach and feta, or asparagus and goat cheese
- Breakfast strata — bread, eggs, cheese, and ham baked together, assembled the night before
- Frittata — a quick option loaded with spring vegetables
- Deviled eggs — a smart use for the eggs you dyed earlier in the week
- French toast bake — another make-ahead dish that feeds a crowd
- Biscuits with ham — easy and filling
- Bagel and smoked salmon board — cream cheese, capers, red onion, and cucumber
- Fruit salad — berries, citrus, and melon to balance the rich dishes
- Hot cross buns — spiced sweet buns that bridge breakfast and dessert
For more morning ideas, the random breakfast generator can suggest dishes you might not have considered.
Easter Side Dishes
Spring produce makes Easter sides a little lighter than winter holiday sides. Aim for one starch, one or two vegetables, and bread.
- Potatoes: scalloped potatoes, potatoes au gratin, or roasted baby potatoes with herbs
- Green vegetables: roasted asparagus, green beans almondine, or sugar snap peas
- Carrots: honey-glazed or roasted carrots, a nice nod to the Easter Bunny
- Salads: a spring green salad with strawberries, or a pea and mint salad
- Comfort sides: baked macaroni and cheese, which is a staple at many Southern Easter dinners
- Bread: soft dinner rolls, buttermilk biscuits, or cornbread
Deviled eggs work as both a starter and a side, so they show up at brunch and dinner alike.
Still can’t decide? Spin the Random Dinner Generator →
Easter Desserts
Easter desserts lean toward bright, springy flavors like lemon, coconut, and carrot, plus plenty of chocolate from the baskets.
Carrot cake
Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting is the unofficial Easter cake in many American homes. Some bakers decorate it with small piped carrots on top.
Hot cross buns
These yeasted buns are flavored with spices like cinnamon and nutmeg, studded with currants or raisins, and marked with a cross on top. They are traditionally eaten on Good Friday in the UK and many other countries, but they fit just as well on the Easter table.
Other Easter dessert ideas
- Coconut cake, sometimes baked in a lamb-shaped mold
- Lemon bars or lemon meringue pie
- Strawberry shortcake
- Bird’s nest cookies made with chow mein noodles and candy eggs
- Chocolate eggs and other candy from the Easter baskets
If you want something different this year, the dessert generator can give you a random pick.
Easter Foods Around the World
Easter traditions vary a lot by country. Here are a few well-known ones if you want to borrow an idea or honor your family’s background.
Italy
Italian families often buy or bake a colomba di Pasqua, a sweet yeasted bread shaped like a dove. It is similar to panettone, usually with candied orange peel and a topping of pearl sugar and almonds.
In Naples, pastiera is the signature Easter dessert, a pie filled with ricotta, cooked wheat berries, and orange blossom water. Liguria is known for torta pasqualina, a savory pie of greens and ricotta with whole eggs baked inside.
Greece
Greek Orthodox Easter often falls on a different date than Western Easter. After the midnight Resurrection service, many families break the Lenten fast with magiritsa, a soup made from lamb offal and greens, thickened with an egg-lemon (avgolemono) sauce.
On Easter Sunday, roast lamb, often cooked whole on a spit, is the main event. The table also includes tsoureki, a braided sweet bread flavored with mahlab and mastic, and eggs dyed deep red. Families crack the red eggs against each other in a game called tsougrisma.
Poland
On Holy Saturday, Polish families bring a small basket called święconka to church to be blessed. It typically holds dyed eggs, bread, salt, pepper, sausage or ham, horseradish, butter, and a piece of cake. Those foods are then shared at Easter Sunday breakfast.
The meal often includes żurek, a sour rye soup with sausage and egg, along with a tall babka cake.
Mexico
Capirotada is a Mexican bread pudding made with bolillo bread soaked in a piloncillo syrup spiced with cinnamon and cloves, layered with cheese, raisins, and nuts. It is mainly a Lenten dish, especially popular on Fridays and during Holy Week, so it often appears in the days leading up to Easter.
The Philippines
Holy Week, or Semana Santa, is widely observed in the Philippines. Many Catholic families avoid meat on Good Friday and eat fish and vegetable dishes instead. Easter Sunday begins with the dawn Salubong procession and is often followed by a family meal with festive dishes common at Filipino celebrations, such as pancit and, for larger gatherings, lechon.
Sample Easter Brunch and Dinner Menu
Use this as a starting point. Swap any dish for one your family already loves.
| Course | Easter brunch | Easter dinner |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | Deviled eggs, fruit salad | Deviled eggs, spring green salad |
| Main | Ham and cheese strata or spinach quiche | Glazed spiral ham or roast leg of lamb |
| Sides | Bacon, roasted baby potatoes, biscuits | Scalloped potatoes, roasted asparagus, honey-glazed carrots |
| Bread | Hot cross buns | Soft dinner rolls |
| Dessert | Lemon bars | Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting |
| Drinks | Coffee, orange juice, mimosas | Iced tea, sparkling water, white wine |
A brunch menu like this can be mostly prepped the day before. The dinner menu takes more oven time, so plan the ham or lamb first and fit the sides around it.
How to Decide What to Eat on Easter
If you are still torn, these quick questions narrow things down fast.
- How many people are coming? A whole ham or leg of lamb makes sense for eight or more. For two to four, try lamb chops, a small boneless ham, or a roast chicken.
- Brunch or dinner? Brunch is easier with kids, early church services, or egg hunts. Dinner suits a slower, more formal day.
- How much oven space do you have? Pick sides that use the stovetop, slow cooker, or no heat at all if the main is hogging the oven.
- What can you make ahead? Stratas, deviled eggs, desserts, and salads can all be prepped a day early.
- Tradition or something new? Keep one family classic and try one new dish, maybe borrowed from another country’s Easter table.
The same planning approach works for other big holidays too. Our guide on what to eat on Christmas covers the winter version.
Plan the Main Dish, Then Build Around It
The simplest way to plan Easter food is to pick the main first: ham, lamb, or one of the alternatives above. Then add a potato, a green vegetable, bread, and one dessert. That covers dinner, and the brunch version follows the same pattern with eggs in the center.
If you cannot settle on the main, let the random dinner generator choose one for you, then fill in the rest from the menu table above.