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These traditional Easter dinner ideas are sure to make your family Easter dinner a big success. You can’t go wrong with any of these tried-and-true classics. A traditional Easter dinner includes ham, side dishes, salads, and, of course, desserts.
As an added bonus, check out our sample Easter menu plan below (including recipes).
Traditional Easter Dinner
Every year our family gathers together on Easter Sunday to enjoy a traditional ham dinner. On the side, we serve a potato dish, a hot vegetable, and hot homemade rolls. We have our traditional menu plan below, or you can mix and match the recipes below to create your own special Easter dinner.
Easter Appetizers
As family and friends start to gather, we like to set out an appetizer or two. We’ve handpicked four fantastic recipes to elevate your Easter gathering.
Easter Main Dish Recipes
According to marthastewart.com, ham became the meat of choice for Easter dinner because it was more readily available than lamb. However, if ham isn’t your main dish of choice, a roast lamb, pork roast, or a roast beef can also be served for your Easter feast.
As mentioned above, our go-to Easter main-dish is ham. However, we have enjoyed other main dishes as well. If you are looking for a less traditional Easter meal, try one of these recipes using chicken, fish, beef, or pork.
Easter Side Dishes
Hot Potato Side Dishes
You can’t serve a ham dinner without a good hot potato side dish. Typically Easter potatoes are served “casserole-style” in a casserole dish with some kind of sauce and cheese. Some examples of this are funeral potatoes or potatoes au gratin. Our readers have commented saying that they have loved serving our creamy potatoes with peas or our parmesan crusted potato halves with their ham dinners as well. Check them all out and decide for yourself what suits your family best! Any of these Easter dinner ideas will be a winner!
Hot Vegetable Side Dishes
A hot vegetable side dish adds variety, color, and nutrition to an Easter dinner spread. Choose a hot vegetable that will complement the other side dishes on your Easter menu.
Easter Salads
The possibilities are endless when it comes to Easter salads. It’s fun to incorporate hard boiled eggs and spring flavors, like strawberry and lemon. We find ourselves using the following salads time and time again.
Easter Breads
Nothing quite compares to the aroma and taste of freshly baked bread. Homemade rolls are always a good idea. Make extra so you can have ham sandwiches for leftovers! Our classic Easter bread also looks beautiful on the table.
Easter Desserts
When it comes to Easter Desserts and Treats, we don’t mess around. In fact, we love Easter desserts and treats so much, we created an entire, separate post dedicated to them. These tasty treats can be served along with Easter dinner or even as surprises in Easter baskets. They are as fun to make as they are to eat! We featured our Chessmen Banana Pudding with our menu plan below. Here are a few more of our favorites.
Cakes
Pies
Bars and Cookies
Bonus: Leftover Ham Recipes
I don’t know about you, but we ALWAYS seem to have leftovers from Easter dinner. Here are some ideas to help you use up that delicious leftover ham:
Easy Easter Dinner Menu with Recipes
Here is a sample menu plan for a delicious and easy traditional Easter dinner. It features Slow Cooker Ham, Cheesy Potato Casserole, Sautéed Sweet Asparagus, and a Chessman Banana Pudding for dessert. See the recipe notes for tips on timing it all out perfectly. We are taking all of the stress out of it just for you! Please enjoy your beautiful, well-planned Easter dinner!
How to Make a Traditional Easter Dinner
Traditional Easter Dinner Menu
Video
Ingredients
Slow Cooker Spiral Ham
- 8 pound spiral- cut ham (cooked)
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 2/3 cup maple syrup
- 1 cup canned pineapple juice (do not use fresh)
Cheesy Potato Casserole
- 2 pounds hash browns shredded or cubed
- 3 teaspoons salt
- pepper to taste
- 1/2 cup butter melted
- 10 ounces condensed cream of chicken soup
- 2 cups sour cream
- 1/2 cup milk
- 2 cups corn flakes (optional)
- 2 tablespoons butter (optional)
- 1 1/2 cups shredded cheese (optional)
Sweet Asparagus
- 2-3 pounds asparagus
- 6 tablespoons butter
- 4 tablespoons sugar
Four Layer Banana Pudding
- 2 bags Pepperidge Farms Chessman Cookies
- 6 bananas sliced
- 2 cups milk
- 5 ounces instant vanilla pudding
- 8 ounces cream cheese
- 14 ounces sweetened condensed milk
- 12 ounces frozen whipped topping thawed
Instructions
Slow Cooker Spiral Ham
- Remove the ham from packaging and place ham, flat-side down, in a large slow cooker (7 quarts or larger).
- Generously rub brown sugar all over the ham.
- Pour maple syrup and pineapple juice over the ham.
- Place lid on slow cooker and cook for 2-3 hours on low heat.
- 30 minutes prior to serving, remove lid and spoon the juices over the ham. Cover and cook for 30 more minutes.
- Remove ham from slow cooker and serve.
Cheesy Potato Casserole
- Mix all ingredients, except optional toppings, in a large bowl. Spread mixture evenly into a 9×13 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.
- Optional toppings: Corn flake crumb topping: BEFORE baking Sprinkle corn flake crumbs over casserole. Drizzle 2 tablespoons of melted better over the corn flake crumbs. Bake.Melted cheese topping: Prepare casserole and bake for 50 minutes. Remove casserole from oven and evenly disperse 1 ½ cups of shredded cheese over the casserole. Return the casserole to the oven and bake for 10 more minutes.
Sautéed Sweet Asparagus
- Rinse asparagus. Snap off the bottoms of each stalk and discard the bottoms.
- Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add asparagus to the skillet and sprinkle sugar over the stalks.
- Sauté asparagus over medium-high for 5-7 minutes or to your preferred doneness. Serve immediately.
Four Layer Banana Pudding
- Line the bottom of a 9×13 pan with one layer of Chessmen cookies.
- Place sliced bananas on top of the cookie layer.
- In a large bowl, combine milk and pudding mix. Stir until smooth. Set aside.
- In a separate bowl, combine cream cheese and sweetened condensed milk. Stir until smooth. Fold in whipped topping.
- Add the two mixtures together and stir until well combined. Pour mixture over the banana layer.
- Top with another layer of Chessmen cookies (the picture side up) and refrigerate until ready to serve.
Notes
- Prepare the Four Layer Banana Pudding. This can be made the morning of, or the day ahead. It can also be made just after starting the Slow Cooker Ham and still have time to refrigerate so it can be served nice and cold.
- Prepare the Slow Cooker Ham and take a break for an hour. Set the table, clean the kitchen, or watch a show on Netflix. 🙂
- After the ham has been cooking for about an hour, prepare the Cheesy Potato Casserole. Once it’s in the oven, you can take another 45 minute break. If you are making a green salad or other sides, now is a good time to do it.
- At this point the ham has been cooking for about 2 hours. Take it out of the slow cooker and cut it into slices. Place the slices back in the juices in the slow cooker to keep them warm while you sauté the asparagus.
- Sauté the asparagus.
- Dinner is ready to go! Place the asparagus in a pretty serving dish with a spoon or tongs, place the sliced ham on a nice platter with a serving fork, remove the potatoes from the oven and set on the table with a serving spoon.
- When you are ready, cut the Four Layer Banana Pudding into slices and serve.
Going to make this for our Easter brunch! Looks delicious.
The spiral slow cooker ham recipe. I love the idea of cooking in a slow cooker especially for a spiral because they can dry out in the oven. Love the ingredients.
The creamed peas and potatoes is my favorite! My dad did the cooking in our house and he always made me creamed peas…this brings back so many memories that I hold dear. He passed away in Jan 2011 and I miss him so, but this warms my heart!
Hello! Happy Easter!!! We are making the oven roast beef, cheesy potato casserole ,Ericas roasted potatoes with brussels sprouts, for our dinner. We are entertaining the new in-laws and I have tried all of these recipes, so my confidence level is very high! I love your web site. I also have 2 sisters and we are spread across the country. Reading your girls stories makes me feel closer to them. Thank you!!!
Sisters are the best! ❤️ Thank you, Susie! Happy Easter to you! Thank you for your comment. I’m so happy you enjoy our recipes!
I love the Easter Bread Recipe. Reminds me of growing up.
Great recipes! Love the way there is ideas for the leftovers too. The ham was amazing, along with everything else we made. Thanks
Thank you! I’m glad you liked the ham!
The Easter bread recipe will be a family treat to try this Easter. It looks so delicious and I know I will have to make many.
That Easter Bunny cake has to be my choice for favourite! It reminds me of a birthday cake my twin sister and I had for like 3 years running when we were younger. It brings back all the feels so I think I’ll tackle it this Easter to share with my family!
The Funeral Potatoes are the best!! I make them for Easter and Christmas Eve and the pan is always scraped clean! Thanks for sharing your great recipes!
My kids love the funeral potatoes too. It’s one of their most requested sides at Easter. Thank you!
I always love the Strawberry pretzel salad recipe a family favorite highly recommend trying it you’ll be hooked. Thanks for the recipes they are always great.
Thank you, Ginger! The strawberry pretzel salad is always a hit! Have you ever tried it with raspberries? It’s a great substitute if strawberries aren’t in season yet.
I love the slow cooker ham recipe. Cooking a ham in the slow cooker leaves the oven for other sides. A great time saver when planning your Easter Meal. You can also have easy clean up if you use a slow cooker liner!
The creamy potatoes and peas is my favorite. My dad made something similar, but with the addition of carrots.
Good to know! I’ve never tried it with carrots. That would make it such a colorful dish. Thank you for sharing!
I love the Easter bread recipe. My grandma used to make something similar to this when I was growing up. I can’t wait to try it out!
Made the Banana Pudding Dessert and it was great.
I love the honey baked ham for Easter. We usually have ham for Easter. It just would not seem like Easter without a ham.
Agreed! Thank you!
I love the Baked Salmon with Lemon. So delicious!!
I’m so glad you like the recipe. I love salmon as well. Thank you!
honey slow cooker ham and cheesy potato casserole looks amazing and if it is like your other recipes it will be! Thank you for sharing.
Thank you, Pam!
The spiral crockpot ham would be my favorite. Love to make pea soup with leftovers. Woud put the lemon pie with it for dessert.
Thank you, Linda! I buy a big ham just so I can have leftovers for the pea soup.
The coconut cream pie reminds me of my grandmas recipe, I am excited to try it out for Easter!
You are going to love it!
I’m torn between the honey baked ham and the salmon with lemon sauce. The ham is a traditional favorite and the salmon is light and fresh. Luckily, the family is coming for Easter dinner!
Both great choices! Enjoy Easter and your family! 🙂