Traditional Easter Dinner Ideas (with Menu Plan)

Erica Walker

5 from 350 votes
369 Comments

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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).

Side view of an Easter Dinner Ideas with cheesy potato casserole, asparagus, eggs and ham. Bowl of rolls on the side.
Traditional Easter Dinner Plate: Crockpot Ham with Homemade Glaze, Cheesy Potato Casserole, Sweet Sautéed Asparagus, Deviled Eggs, and Homemade Dinner Rolls.
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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

Easter Dinner Ideas with Homemade Rolls, crockpot ham, cheesy funeral potato casserole, and asparagus. Side of deviled eggs.

Traditional Easter Dinner Menu

5 from 350 votes
Recipes for a delicious Easter Dinner along with help for timing the preparation (see Recipe Notes).  These recipes will serve a dinner party of up to 12.  
Print Pin Rate
Prep Time 35 minutes
Cook Time 3 hours
Total Time 3 hours 35 minutes
Course Dinner, Main Course
Cuisine American
Servings 12 servings

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).  
    Slow Cooker with a whole Spiral Ham.
  • Generously rub brown sugar all over the ham.
    Slow Cooker with brown sugar on top of a Spiral Ham.
  • Pour maple syrup and pineapple juice over the ham.
    Maple syrup pouring on a Spiral Ham in the Slow Cooker.
  • Place lid on slow cooker and cook for 2-3 hours on low heat.  
    Lid covering a Crockpot with Spiral Ham inside.
  • 30 minutes prior to serving, remove lid and spoon the juices over the ham.  Cover and cook for 30 more minutes.
    Spoon with juices of Spiral Ham in the Crockpot.
  • Remove ham from slow cooker and serve.
    Plated Slow Cooker Spiral Ham with layers cascading forward.

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.  
    Bowl of Cheesy Potato Casserole mixture with a wooden spoon.
  • 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.
    Cheesy Potato Casserole in a baking dish with a wooden spoon for scooping.

Sautéed Sweet Asparagus

  • Rinse asparagus.  Snap off the bottoms of each stalk and discard the bottoms.  
    Cutting off the ends of asparagus with a knife on a cutting board.
  • Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add asparagus to the skillet and sprinkle sugar over the stalks.  
    Tongs holding Sweet Sautéed Asparagus over a skillet.
  • Sauté asparagus over medium-high for 5-7 minutes or to your preferred doneness.  Serve immediately.
    Platter of Sweet Sautéed Asparagus with butter.

Four Layer Banana Pudding

  • Line the bottom of a 9×13 pan with one layer of Chessmen cookies.
    Chessman cookies laid out on the bottom of a glass baking dish
  • Place sliced bananas on top of the cookie layer.
    Chessman cookies and banana slices layered in the bottom of a baking dish
  • In a large bowl, combine milk and pudding mix. Stir until smooth. Set aside.
    Vanilla pudding mix combined with milk in a large bowl
  • In a separate bowl, combine cream cheese and sweetened condensed milk. Stir until smooth. Fold in whipped topping.
    Sweetened condensed milk mixed with cream cheese
  • Add the two mixtures together and stir until well combined. Pour mixture over the banana layer.
    Chessman cookies, banana slices and banana pudding layered in a glass baking dish
  • Top with another layer of Chessmen cookies (the picture side up) and refrigerate until ready to serve.
    Banana pudding topped with Chessman cookies in a baking dish

Notes

Suggested timing for Easter Dinner preparation:
  1. 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.
  2. Prepare the Slow Cooker Ham and take a break for an hour.  Set the table, clean the kitchen, or watch a show on Netflix. 🙂
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. Sauté the asparagus.  
  6. 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.
  7. When you are ready, cut the Four Layer Banana Pudding into slices and serve.
 
 

Nutrition Information

Calories: 1584kcalCarbohydrates: 113gProtein: 80gFat: 91gSaturated Fat: 42gCholesterol: 302mgSodium: 4869mgPotassium: 1858mgFiber: 5gSugar: 80gVitamin A: 2020IUVitamin C: 19.1mgCalcium: 408mgIron: 7.2mg

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About the author

Erica Walker

Erica lives in Boise, Idaho with her husband, Jared, an attorney, and her three beautiful girls. Beyond the world of recipes, she loves adventuring with everything from kayaking, to cruising, to snowboarding and taking the family along for the thrill ride.

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Comments

  1. 5 stars
    I’m a huge fan of the ham, cheesey potatoes. Asparagus and deviled eggs. So yummy.
    I’m also in love with the Panoramic Sugar Easter Eggs. I have made 26 of them in the last two weeks. Some with my Grandkids and some with my Primary Activity Day Girls. Everyone has so much fun making them.

    Reply

  11. 5 stars
    Bunny cake is always a hit with the grandchildren and they love helping make it and adding the decorative details!

    Funeral potatoes are also a 5 star item. Easy to prepare and they feed a crowd!

    Reply

  13. 5 stars
    I think I will go with the traditional Easter dinner as shown this year. I love how you show the whole dinner for us so we don’t have to put more thought into it. The banana pudding and cheesy potato casserole are favorites here. I’ve never tried the ham in the crockpot, so that will be new, along with sweet asparagus. I may also make our favorite honey butter carrots. I would love to try the beautiful Easter bread with the colored eggs and the cute bunny cake; but I have to be realistic about how much I can actually do without exhausting myself before everyone gets here! 😂

    Reply

  17. 5 stars
    I LUV ALLLL THE EASTER FOOD DISHES YOU HAV SHOWN. 😋😋
    I LUV THE HAM & MAC./CHEESE
    WE ALWAYS HAV A BIG CRAWFISH BOIL & ALLLL SIDES THAT GO WITH THE BOIL. —POTATOES, ONIONS, MUSHROOMS,CARROTS, CORN,
    DATS UH MEAL BY ITSELF.
    SOME GRANDKIDS DONT EAT CRAWFISH SO HAM/MAC. R FOR THOSE. 👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻
    THEN ALL DESSERTS 😱😱😱😱
    CANT GO WITHOUT THEM. 😂😂

    Reply

  18. 5 stars
    Love the crock pot brown sugar ham. We look forward to it each Easter the rest is just over the top! Rolls fill the house with an amazing aroma along with the ham. The asparagus is a must for my girls. I’ve always roasted it, but I’m going to try the sweet recipe this time.

    Reply

  20. 5 stars
    All of these sound delicious. My favorite is the brown sugar ham with creamy cheesy potatoes casserole.

    Reply