Our Best Easter Recipes

Here’s what to cook when you’ve had your fill of chocolate bunnies.

Dorie Greenspan’s carrot cake.Scott Loitsch and Vaughn Vreeland/The New York Times

By Margaux Laskey

Published April 7, 2020Updated April 16, 2025

One cannot live on jelly beans alone. Here are our best Easter recipes, including holiday ham and ways to use all of those leftover hard-boiled eggs.

Once the eggs are dyed, hidden, then found, enlist the kids to peel them so you can throw together a platter of deviled eggs. This recipe, which is adapted from “U.S.A. Cookbook,” by Sheila Lukins, has more than 2,400 five-star ratings, so you’ll be in good company.

Recipe: Deviled Eggs

From Genevieve Ko comes a smart technique for guaranteeing a not-dry-at-all, salty-sweet baked ham: Buy a presliced ham, let it warm over a simmering mixture of wine, juniper berries, peppercorns, cloves and honey, then slather it with a mixture of brown sugar, mustard and honey, and let it cook in the oven until the edges are crackling and caramelized.

Recipe: Honey Ham

Martha Rose Shulman’s roasted carrots are a simple, colorful side dish for the Easter table. Just toss peeled carrots with olive oil, salt, pepper, thyme and oregano, roast everything until tender, then stir in chopped fresh parsley for a little springy color.

Recipe: Roasted Carrots

If you’re short on time, this barely-a-recipe recipe from Nicola Lamb has five ingredients, not including the candy-coated chocolate eggs, and it doesn’t require an oven. It’s a great way for kids to participate in the Easter cooking, and the end result is guaranteed to delight.

Recipe: Chocolate Easter Egg Nests

Hetty Lui McKinnon is a vegetable magician. Case in point: This warm roasted salad of carrots, barley and arugula tossed with a spiced tahini dressing is beautiful enough to stand on its own or as a side dish to roast lamb or chicken.

Recipe: Warm Roasted Carrot and Barley Salad

Make this recipe for pizza rustica, or Easter pie, from Carlo’s Bakery of “Cake Boss” fame. It’s loaded with prosciutto, pepperoni, soppressata, mozzarella and provolone, so you won’t be hungry until Monday night.

Recipe: Pizza Rustica (Easter Pie)

Genevieve Ko created the perfect hot cross bun: not too sweet, light and fluffy, and studded with plump raisins and candied orange peel. Eat them hot, and, maybe it’s not traditional, but torn open and slathered with butter.

Recipe: Hot Cross Buns

It’s asparagus season, and Melissa Clark’s recipe is a straightforward though flavorful way to prepare it. Pair spears and leeks with capers and olive oil, then roast until crisp-edged and serve with a caper-dotted mustard sauce.

Recipe: Roasted Asparagus With Crispy Leeks and Capers

Julia Moskin’s recipe is the only one you’ll ever need for roast lamb. The gist is this: Coat the meat with plenty of butter, anchovies (or mustard), fresh rosemary and garlic, then roast until done. Serve with potatoes of some sort and snappy spring vegetables.

Recipe: Roast Lamb

For a vegetarian main dish, try Kay Chun’s baked risotto with greens and peas. That it’s baked means there’s none of that constant stirring typical of most risotto recipes.

Recipe: Baked Risotto With Greens and Peas

This Swedish dessert’s cheerful color and light, airy layers make fit for royalty, and a welcome addition to any spring celebration. It might look intimidating, but Nicola Lamb’s recipe is full of tips and smart substitutions that will help you pull it off.

Recipe: Princess Cake

If lamb or ham isn’t your jam (you’re welcome), this blissfully simple roasted salmon from Genevieve Ko will do beautifully. Before it’s slid into the oven, it’s glossed with a tangy blend of honey and lemon, which caramelizes at the edges, while keeping the interior fall-apart tender.

Recipe: Lemon Butter Salmon With Dill

This simple but impressive gratin from Mark Bittman is a classic, no-fail potato side dish. If you’d like, play with sprinkling fresh herbs between the slices.

Recipe: Potatoes au Gratin

For the ideal version of carrot cake, look no further than Dorie Greenspan. Her recipe yields a tender, moist cake frosted with a tangy cream cheese icing.

Recipe: Carrot Cake

This traditional Scottish potato mash, which is named for the sound a spoon makes as it rattles along the sides of the pot, is the perfect side, but you’ll love it enough to be a main. In this version, Ali Stoner replaces the traditional cabbage with brussels sprouts and adds a crunchy panko topping.

Recipe: Rumbledethumps (Potato Mash With Cabbage and Cheddar)

Keep dessert simple with this homey rhubarb crumble from Melissa Clark. Just mix together rhubarb (toss in some apple or raspberries, if you’re feeling it) with a little sugar and flour, then top with a combination of flour, butter, sugar, baking powder, spices and pistachios. Bake until the juices bubble and peek through.

Recipe: Rhubarb Crumble

A spring garden party on a plate, Ali Slagle’s ginger-dill salmon with citrus and avocado is a happy meeting of colors, flavors and textures. Add baby greens, thinly sliced cucumbers or fennel, roasted beets, soba noodles, tostadas, furikake or chile oil.

Recipe: Ginger-Dill Salmon

Creamy and tart, sweet and light, this lemon meringue pie from Alice Waters is everything you want in a dessert. Alice calls for Meyer lemons, but if you can’t find them, regular lemons will work just fine.

Recipe: Lemon Meringue Pie

Ashley Lonsdale’s easy-to-make muffins are inspired by spice bun, a traditional Jamaican Lenten treat. They’re full of warming spices like cardamom, allspice, cinnamon and ginger (crystallized and ground), as well as stout to impart a deep flavor.

Recipe: Spice Muffins

Melissa Clark’s pork roast has all of the best characteristics of Italian porchetta — a rich, crackling crust and intense garlic, lemon and herb flavors — but it’s far less work. This recipe feeds many, so wrap up leftovers for guests to take home or for sandwiches the next day.

Recipe: Porchetta Pork Roast

This dessert from Nigella Lawson gets an A-plus for cuteness, but its lighthearted exterior belies the sophisticated textures beneath: fudginess from a flourless chocolate cake and airiness from a whipped cream mousse.

Recipe: Easter Egg Nest Cake

Christian Reynoso’s genius recipe is as convenient as it is impressive. All you have to do is bake a sheet of store-bought puff pastry, then top with fixings reminiscent of your favorite bagel: smoked salmon, sour cream or crème fraîche, capers, cucumbers, onions and dill.

Recipe: Quick Smoked Salmon Tart

Delight everyone at the table with individual ramekins of Mark Bittman’s crème brûlée. With just five ingredients — heavy cream, vanilla, salt, eggs and sugar — it comes together quickly and without a lot of fuss. If you don’t have a culinary blowtorch to crisp the top, the broiler of your oven will work just as well.

Recipe: Vanilla Crème Brûlée

Never wonder what to do with your leftover hard-boiled eggs again with these bright pink, beet-pickled eggs from Melissa Knific, which can be made with canned or fresh beets. They’re deliciously tangy and fresh, in addition to being very pretty to look at.

Recipe: Pickled Eggs

David Tanis tops fresh egg noodles with chicken thighs in a lively sauce made of button mushrooms, white wine and crème fraîche. Finish with fresh herbs and plenty of lemon zest.

Recipe: Spring Chicken With Mushroom and Lemon

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