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These Easter Dinner Ideas Will Instantly Impress Your Guests
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This Easter, make the perfect dinner that will have your guests raving. From the world’s best chefs, we have gathered tantalizing recipes to create the ultimate Easter dinner menu. With these ideas – which include mouth-watering appetizers, spectacular main courses, and decadent desserts – you will learn how to make a memorable holiday feast while at the same time having fun. So let’s go!
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Appetizer: Kwame's Pepper Shrimp
Chef Kwame Obuwahi’s Pepper Shrimp is the perfect starter plate for an Easter Sunday dinner. Pepper shrimp, which is sold as a snack throughout Jamaica and which Kwame used to eat throughout his childhood in the Bronx, is a quick and easy-to-make appetizer that takes just 10 minutes to prepare. It has both a spicy kick and a sweet taste, making it a fun way to begin your Easter meal.
Start the recipe by building a sauce consisting of shrimp stock, a type of chili pepper like scotch bonnet pepper or jalapenos, and annatto seeds ground with allspice. Add all-purpose seasoning, salt, and vinegar and then let the sauce come to a boil. Once the sauce is simmering, add the shrimp, which should be cooked so it’s golden brown on each side. Plate the shrimp and pour the sauce over it. And not only can you enjoy this tasty appetizer on Easter Sunday, but it can be eaten as leftovers for up to five days afterward.
Main Course: Erez's Fish
For an Easter entrée that is healthy, beautifully-presented, and incredibly delicious, we have selected two fish dishes created by the chef Erez Komarovsky: Oven-Baked Fish with Grapes and Tomatoes and Fish Crudo and Chilis. Here is how Erez makes them:
Oven-Baked Fish with Grapes and Tomatoes Erez puts groupers, a local fish, into a pan and cuts them. In the pan with the fish he puts ripe orange cherry tomatoes, orange chilis, a habanero pepper, garlic cloves, and slices of garlic, which he inserts into slits he had made in the fish. He also adds fennel flowers, fennel leaves, mint, lemongrass stalks, sprigs of lemon verbena, and unripe grapes (for some acidity.)
He seasons both sides of the fish with sea salt, crushes white pepper and coriander seeds in a mortar and pestle, then mixes turmeric and olive oil in the mortar bowl. Erez rubs the mixture all over the fish before drizzling additional olive oil over the fish and flowers. “Don’t be shy,” Erez says about using lots of olive oil. The dish finally goes into the oven, where it’s roasted until the fish is soft and caramelized.
Fish Crudo with Berries and Chilis Erez slices a yellowtail fish fillet with a quality knife, arranging the fish pieces side-by-side on a decorative platter. He sprinkles salt on top of the fish as well as chopped tarragon leaves. He adds dried tangerine and fresh, unripe mulberries. He cuts orange cherry tomatoes and squeezes their sides onto the fish. He also adds a hot sliced chili pepper, pitted kalamata olives, and a fresh tarragon stem. With so many flavors and textures all over the plate, Erez says, “every bite will be a surprise.” His final step before serving is to drizzle lemon juice and olive oil on the dish, which is also served with toasted grapes and cherry tomatoes.
Oven-Baked Fish with Grapes and Tomatoes Erez puts groupers, a local fish, into a pan and cuts them. In the pan with the fish he puts ripe orange cherry tomatoes, orange chilis, a habanero pepper, garlic cloves, and slices of garlic, which he inserts into slits he had made in the fish. He also adds fennel flowers, fennel leaves, mint, lemongrass stalks, sprigs of lemon verbena, and unripe grapes (for some acidity.)
He seasons both sides of the fish with sea salt, crushes white pepper and coriander seeds in a mortar and pestle, then mixes turmeric and olive oil in the mortar bowl. Erez rubs the mixture all over the fish before drizzling additional olive oil over the fish and flowers. “Don’t be shy,” Erez says about using lots of olive oil. The dish finally goes into the oven, where it’s roasted until the fish is soft and caramelized.
Fish Crudo with Berries and Chilis Erez slices a yellowtail fish fillet with a quality knife, arranging the fish pieces side-by-side on a decorative platter. He sprinkles salt on top of the fish as well as chopped tarragon leaves. He adds dried tangerine and fresh, unripe mulberries. He cuts orange cherry tomatoes and squeezes their sides onto the fish. He also adds a hot sliced chili pepper, pitted kalamata olives, and a fresh tarragon stem. With so many flavors and textures all over the plate, Erez says, “every bite will be a surprise.” His final step before serving is to drizzle lemon juice and olive oil on the dish, which is also served with toasted grapes and cherry tomatoes.
Side Dish: Francis's Potatoes
Francis Mallmann is a master of potatoes – and his Smashed Potatoes are the perfect side dish to impress your Easter dinner guests. Here is how you can make each of them, according to Francis’ recipes.
Smashed Potatoes Francis’ “Smashed Potatoes,” with their tender inside and thick and crunchy outside, are a fun and creative potato side dish your guests will rave about. Start by boiling a couple of potatoes in a cast iron pan. Once the potatoes are tender, remove them from the pan and press them down with your hands until they have flattened completely. Heat them in the pan with clarified butter, cooking them slowly for about 30 minutes on each side until the potatoes are golden brown.
Patagonian Potato Galette Francis’ Patagonian Potato Galette is another terrific choice for your Easter dinner plate. Cut a potato into very thin slices, cook it in butter, and overlap the slices in a circular pattern. After filling the middle of the potato circle with still more potatoes, cook all of the slices. Wait until the potatoes stick together; once the giant potato mass has formed a crust, flip it over. Whichever potato dish you choose – Francis’ Smashed Potatoes or his Patagonian Potato Galette, your guests will definitely go home happy.
Smashed Potatoes Francis’ “Smashed Potatoes,” with their tender inside and thick and crunchy outside, are a fun and creative potato side dish your guests will rave about. Start by boiling a couple of potatoes in a cast iron pan. Once the potatoes are tender, remove them from the pan and press them down with your hands until they have flattened completely. Heat them in the pan with clarified butter, cooking them slowly for about 30 minutes on each side until the potatoes are golden brown.
Patagonian Potato Galette Francis’ Patagonian Potato Galette is another terrific choice for your Easter dinner plate. Cut a potato into very thin slices, cook it in butter, and overlap the slices in a circular pattern. After filling the middle of the potato circle with still more potatoes, cook all of the slices. Wait until the potatoes stick together; once the giant potato mass has formed a crust, flip it over. Whichever potato dish you choose – Francis’ Smashed Potatoes or his Patagonian Potato Galette, your guests will definitely go home happy.
Side Dish: Francis's Caramelized Carrots
Rounding out our menu for an Easter side dish that will wow your holiday guests is another Francis favorite: his Caramelized Carrots. Begin by cutting three carrots that sit side by side into little rounds. Boil them, dry them, and cook them in a cast iron pan with olive oil. Add cream, letting the dish boil and reduce until it becomes ricotta-like. Feel free to sit down and relax and sip some coffee or wine. The cream should break, with the dish taking on a honey-buttery consistency, and a beautiful crust should develop on the carrots. Throw in some thyme, mix the dish, add sea salt to it, and serve. “Ah, beautiful,” Francis said one day recently after admiring his just-completed Caramelized Carrots dish. He tasted them. “That’s what I want,” he added. “Delicious.”
Dessert: Nancy's Apple Pie
Your holiday guests will be thrilled if you put Nancy Silverton’s special dessert, “Mom’s Apple Pie,” on your Easter table. This homemade pie consists of a perfect golden crust, tasty pie dough, and tart green caramelized apples. To make this mouthwatering sweet, sautee apple slices with butter, half a vanilla bean, cinnamon and sugar, and – once the apples become soft – add whiskey and cream before cooling. Blend the dough – of unbleached all-purpose flour, frozen butter cubes, and kosher salt – at a low speed while adding water and cream. Knead and flatten the dough pieces, which you will put in pie pans along with your sauteed apples, which should be chilled. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in your oven at 400 degrees. When the pies are golden and bubbling, take them out, allow them to cool, and put scoops of vanilla ice cream or gelato on top.
Dessert: Dario’s Olive Oil Cake
For another Easter Sunday dessert that your guests will love, try making the great Italian chef Dario Cecchini’s Olive Oil Cake. The ingredients are simple: olive oil, an orange, and a dessert wine. Just chop the entire orange, using every part of it except the seeds, into little pieces. Put them in a big bowl along with olive oil, Vin Santo (an Italian dessert wine), water, and a mixture of eggs and sugar – and pour the mixture into a cake pan, sprinkling raisins on top. And bake! Easy-to-make and not-too-sweet – and with an intoxicating citrusy scent – this Olive Oil Cake is a no-brainer choice to round out your All-Star Easter menu.
Pepper Shrimp
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Kwame Onwuachi
Kwame Onwuachi started peeling shrimp and stirring roux at 5 years old in his mother’s catering kitchen in the Bronx. The James Beard Award-winning chef has received many accolades since then, including FOOD & WINE’S Best New Chef, Esquire Magazine’s 2019 Chef of the Year, 30 Under 30 honoree by both Forbes and Zagat, and has appeared on Bravo’s Top Chef as both a contestant and judge. In his class, Onwuachi embraces the richness of Afro-Caribbean culture and cuisine, and teaches students how to cook his favorite Jamaican recipes.
