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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 recipes. A traditional Easter dinner includes ham, side dishes, salads, and, of course, desserts.
As an added bonus, check out our sample Easter dinner menu plan below (including recipes).
Our 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 salad, and hot homemade rolls. 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, lamb, pork, or a roast beef can also be served.
Easter Main Dish Recipes
As mentioned above, our go-to Easter main-dish is ham. However, we have enjoyed other main dishes as well. Check out all of our favorite Easter main dish ideas:
- Honey Baked Ham Recipe
- Slow Cooker Ham with Maple and Brown Sugar
- Herb Crusted Salmon
- Baked Salmon with Lemon
- Instant Pot Pork Chops with Gravy
- Crock Pot Pork Roast
- Crock Pot Pork Chops
- Sunday Pot Roast (Instant Pot Recipe)
- Oven Roast Beef
Easter Potatoes
You can’t serve a ham dinner without a good 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 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!
- Funeral Potatoes (aka “Cheesy Potato Casserole)
- Parmesan Baked Potato Halves
- Creamy Potatoes and Peas
- Potatoes Au Gratin
- Crock Pot Potatoes Au Gratin
- Perfect Mashed Potatoes
Easter Side Dish Ideas
The possibilities are endless when it comes to Easter side dishes. You can’t go wrong with just about any kind of salad. It was very tough narrowing down these side dishes to the few that we thought would complement a traditional Easter dinner the most. These are the ones we find ourselves using time and time again for our own Easter dinner:
- Homemade Dinner Rolls
- Homemade Crescent Rolls
- Easter Bread
- Oven Roasted Asparagus
- Sautéed Sweet Asparagus
- Strawberry Pretzel Salad
- Blueberry Jell-O Salad
- Frozen Peas (The RIGHT way)
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! Here are a few more of our favorites:
- Lemon Bundt Cake
- Coconut Cream Cake
- Easter Bunny Cake
- Coconut Cream Pie
- Key Lime Pie
- Lemon Meringue Pie
- Four Layer Banana Pudding
- Lemon Bars
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:
- Ham and Bean Soup
- Homemade Macaroni and Cheese with Ham and Peas
- Ham Fried Rice
- Slow Cooker Split Pea Soup
- Apple, Ham, and Cheddar Sandwiches
- Slow Cooker Red Beans and Rice
Easy Easter Dinner Menu with Recipes
Here is a sample menu plan for a delicious and easy Easter dinner. It features Slow Cooker Ham, Cheesy Potato Casserole, Sautéed Sweet Asparagus, and a Four Layer Banana Pudding for dessert. See the Recipe Notes for 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!
Easter Dinner Menu and Recipes
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 topping 1
- 2 tablespoons butter optional topping 1
- 1 1/2 cups shredded cheese optional topping 2
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: 1. Corn flake crumb topping: BEFORE baking Sprinkle corn flake crumbs over casserole. Drizzle 2 tablespoons of melted better over the corn flake crumbs. Bake.2. 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.
Both the crockpot ham and cheesy potatoes are my go to Easter. You just can’t wrong with this delicious food.
I just went through every recipe.
I can’t wait to make the 4 layer banana pudding. It’s my husband ‘s favorite and this version will have him smiling all day!!