Our suggestions for what to cook this weekend include recipes for Easter – it’s never too late to bake hot cross buns! – including recipes for eggs of the chicken kind if you prefer your eggs savoury to sweet. I’m also sharing seafood recipes if you’re looking for more than fish for Good Friday or you’re in Australia where Easter means a lovely long weekend.
For this week’s edition of what to cook this weekend, I’m sharing more recipes for Easter if you observe the Christian holiday – even if you’re not a Christian and Easter means hot cross buns, chocolate eggs and bunnies, and feasts of seafood in the sunshine if you’re an Australian able to get away to the beach for the long weekend.
I know I shared a couple of these Easter recipes in our post on 30 recipes to cook in April, but they were so good I didn’t want you to miss out if you missed that post. And if you did, that’s the link to recipes for 30 delicious dishes to cook this month, for spring, autumn, Easter, and Ramadan.
If you’re observing the Orthodox Easter next week, then you might like to check out our compilation of my family’s traditional Russian-Ukrainian recipes, which my baboushka cooked every Orthodox Easter. I can often be found making the same dishes in our Siem Reap kitchen, including baking the Easter cake called kulich, preparing cabbage rolls, and rolling out dough for pelmeni and vareniki.
If the dishes below don’t inspire you as much as they inspire me, then do browse last month’s collection of 28 recipes to cook in February; our compilation of the most popular recipes of March, which are the recipes our readers searched for, spent time on, and (we hope!) cooked; or peruse our What to Cook this Weekend recipe archives.
Now before I share my ideas for what to cook this weekend, I have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is partly funded by its readers. If you’ve enjoyed our recipes, please consider supporting Grantourismo by supporting our Cambodian cuisine history and cookbook on Patreon, which you can do for as little as the price of a coffee.
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Now let me share my suggestions for what to cook this weekend.
What to Cook this Weekend – Hot Cross Buns, Seafood and Easter Eggs of the Savoury Kind
Here are our What to Cook this Weekend suggestions for meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner for Saturday and Sunday.
Saturday Breakfast – Home Cooked Hot Cross Buns Recipe for Easter with a Spicy Fruity Southeast Asian Twist
One of my top picks for you for what to cook this weekend is this hot cross buns recipe. I know that traditionally hot cross buns were intended to be eaten on Good Friday, but we ate them all during Easter when we were kids. And let’s face it: these days they start selling hot cross buns after Christmas!
Terence’s hot cross buns recipe for Easter makes a delightful dough that’s rich, spicy and fruity. As he’s been baking these hot cross buns for Easter in our Cambodian kitchen for years he’s given this Easter treat a Southeast Asian twist yet still kept the traditional taste.
Instead of adding allspice to the dough mix, Terence has been using five-spice in its place. He’s also added dried ground cardamom as well for its camphor and lemony notes.
An English or Australian hot cross buns recipe would call for dried fruit, such as currants and orange peel, but Terence uses raisins (easier to get here than currants) and adds candied ginger and tamarind.
Easy Home Cooked Hot Cross Buns Recipe for Easter with a Spicy Fruity Southeast Asian Twist
Saturday Lunch – Australian Style Prawn Cocktail Recipe
This classic prawn cocktail recipe is my next suggestion for what to cook this weekend. It makes my take on the retro appetiser popularised in the 1970s that will never go out of style as far as we’re concerned.
Tiger prawns boiled quickly in their shells so they’re just done are peeled, tossed in a creamy tangy seafood sauce, and served on a bed of lettuce salad, dressed with the same sauce.
In Australia, prawn cocktails featured on our table over the Easter long weekend, Christmas Day, and other holiday meals when my parents indulged in a bounty of fresh seafood, at home or away, on road trips up the east coast, staying in beachside caravan parks.
Classic Prawn Cocktail Recipe for the Retro Seventies Starter that Never Goes Out of Style
Saturday Dinner – Easy Salmon Tray Bake Recipe for Crispy Skinned Salmon with Spring Vegetables
If you’re still looking for fish recipes for Easter, try my easy salmon tray bake recipe, another of my top picks for you for what to cook this weekend.I know I shared this one in my post on 30 recipes to cook in April but it’s so good.
It’s one of our best salmon recipes and is perfect for Easter lunch or dinner. My recipe makes crispy skinned salmon fillets baked so that the skin crackles but flesh remains moist, with roasted spring vegetables that are still crunchy.
Sprinkled with spring onions and fresh fragrant dill and served with lemon slices, it makes the lightest of roasts, perfect for an Easter dinner. If you’re in the southern hemisphere, you can use autumn veggies. Roast beetroot, Brussels sprouts and cauliflower florets all work. If your autumn is feeling like winter, try Terence’s crispy skin salmon fillet with colcannon with prawns or creamy mashed potatoes.
Easy Salmon Tray Bake Recipe for Crispy Skinned Salmon with Spring Vegetables
Sunday Breakfast – Easter Eggs Recipes If You Prefer Chicken Eggs to Chocolate Eggs
You’ll find loads of ideas for what to cook this weekend for Sunday breakfast in the collection below of our best egg dishes for Easter if you prefer your Easter eggs to come from a chicken rather than a chocolate bunny.
The recipes in this round-up include everything from an omelette or frittata with herbs to poached eggs with crunchy asparagus, crispy fried pancetta and fresh parmesan, a perfect Spring dish.
Best Egg Dishes for Easter – Easter Eggs Recipes If You Prefer Chicken Eggs to Chocolate Eggs
Sunday Lunch – Salmon Potato Salad Recipe with Soft-Boiled Eggs, Gherkins, Capers and Dill
My Russian salmon potato salad recipe with soft-boiled eggs, capers, gherkins and dill makes a filling salad that you can eat year-round and is another of my top picks for what to cook this weekend for the Easter holidays.
If you’re celebrating Easter in autumn and it’s already chilly, you can serve it with warm potatoes and seared salmon straight from the pan, while it can be refrigerated for warm weather meals, if you’re enjoyed the northern hemisphere spring.
Pan-sear the salmon to your liking. We like our salmon just done if we’re eating this immediately but I’d recommend cooking it right through if you’re making it ahead and even refrigerating it for the next day.
You can add dollops of caviar for a special meal and replace the fresh salmon with smoked salmon. For the soft-boiled eggs, Terence has an excellent guide to boiling perfect eggs every time.
Russian Salmon Potato Salad Recipe with Soft-Boiled Eggs, Gherkins, Capers and Dill
Sunday Dinner – Smoked Salmon Pasta Recipe for Spaghetti with Smoked Salmon, Dill Pickles, Capers and Fresh Dill
My last suggestion for what to cook this weekend is our smoked salmon pasta recipe which makes spaghetti with smoked salmon, dill pickles, capers and fresh dill. Sour cream and lemon juice make this a pasta that’s quintessentially Eastern European.
It’s versatile – add more sour cream for a creamier texture or a dollop of caviar for a special occasion – and comes together quickly, in less than half an hour. Use the best quality smoked salmon you can afford.
The best capers are sourced from the Mediterranean and I love these capers from Pantelleria, which are considered some of the finest. I’ve used extra virgin olive oil from Valencia but if we were in Australia we’d probably use gorgeous Australian virgin olive oil.
We have a recipe for homemade dill pickles or gherkins, however, you can certainly use store-bought.
Please let us know in the comments below if you cook any of our recommendations for what to cook this weekend as we love to hear how our dishes turn out for you.
