You should not minimize the importance of Easter side dishes on your festive table because their abundance and tasty flavor will ensure the success of your holiday meal.
In the United States, the perfect meal on Easter Sunday is the classic Easter ham, often served with pineapples and cherries. In other countries, lamb is the festive dish that’s in the center of the table.
Whether you’re making ham, lamb, or something less traditional for Easter dinner, you’ll need some sides that help the main dishes shine. We think that Easter sides have a supporting role on the table and that they can make the meal a success.
Use bright-colored and fresh ingredients inspired by the season, and make different types of Easter dishes. That way, everybody will pick what they most like from all the delicious options you provide them.
Easter side dishes to pair with ham or lamb
Roasted vegetables
When we think of Easter side dishes, the first thing that comes to our mind is glazed carrots. You can make them many ways: with honey, fresh clementines, balsamic vinegar, maple syrup, or the classic granulated sugar. The glaze in glazed carrots is from a sweetener that gets added about halfway through the cooking process. Even the pickiest of eaters will love glazed carrots, which goes very well with any meat. If you want, you can skip the glaze and just roast the carrots with butter, garlic, and herbs.
Asparagus, which is a spring vegetable, is another great option for Easter side dishes. You can roast it the easy-way: toss the asparagus spears with olive oil and season them generously with salt and pepper, then roast them until they’re tender and slightly charred, for about 25 minutes. You can serve them as is, with a sauce (Hollandaise, cilantro, yogurt, avocado sauce), or make a Caprese salad, pairing roasted tomatoes and mozzarella with a balsamic glaze. The combos are unlimited!
Other vegetables you can roast by experimenting with many spices and toppings are potatoes. Choose basil, thyme, garlic, rosemary, parsley, dill, marjoram, or oregano. You can also roast new potatoes, make delicious Hasselback potatoes, or use your stove instead of the oven and cook up fondant potatoes. Mashed potatoes are one of the classics Easter side dishes, and you can also cook them many ways.
Pasta, rice, and couscous
Starchy foods include bread, pasta, rice, couscous, oats, and other grains like rye and barley.
Couscous goes excellent with ham and lamb, and you can use it in many Easter side dishes. Maybe a cold couscous salad, with cucumbers, tomatoes, red bell peppers, and mint. You could go for a warm dish, made with couscous, sautéed carrots, asparagus, and peas, plus some ricotta cheese. Or this amazing couscous dish, with spinach and mushrooms. You can add whatever vegetables you desire. The couscous is incredibly simple to cook.
If you choose a wild rice dish, just cook it according to the instructions on the package, then combine the rice with all the vegetables that go through your mind. If you want to cook them together, follow the recipe. Wild rice makes a great combo with mushrooms, peas, cilantro, almonds, pecan nuts, cranberries, pomegranate, chickpea, green beans, and so on.
You can make pasta with spring vegetables as a side dish for Easter. Just imagine how many pasta salad recipes you can find! We think you should look into a deviled egg macaroni salad recipe!
Cold and warm salads
There are unlimited combos of veggie salads! If you can’t decide between a cold and a warm salad, make both types! We still suggest you use mostly spring vegetables, but you can pair them with all-season veggies.
For warm salads, you can use roasted beets and sweet potatoes, sautéed peas, roasted snap peas, canned bean, or fried mushrooms. Add toasted nuts, crumbled cheese, or crispy fried bacon, and you’ll be just fine!
For cold salads, use fresh greens like arugula, baby spinach, lettuce, cucumber, radishes, strawberries, avocado, spring onion, and olives. Make a light dressing for your spring salad and grate some parmesan on top! You can also make Tabbouleh, which is a Lebanese salad made of parsley, tomato, and bulgur.
