Green Bean and Lemon Casserole
Strictly speaking, I don't think of this as a casserole, but I know that this is the traditional nomenclature; and, besides, I do sometimes serve the beans in one so it seems silly to quibble.
View recipeEaster
There are not many recipes I absolutely have to make, year in, year out, at Easter, but my Easter Egg Nest Cake, is absolutely non-negotiable. Think damp, dark, flourless fallen chocolate cake (incidentally, gluten-free) with the dip filled, once the cake has cooled, with whipped cream that has had melted chocolate folded into it, and then dotted with those sweet little pastel-toned, sugar-coated easter eggs. Just thinking about it lifts my heart.
I've also made a happy habit of baking my Lemon Meringue Cake at this time of year too. If, like me, you love lemon meringue pie, but want to make something altogether easier and less challenging, this cake is for you. It just sings of Spring!
There is nothing that says you must make my Kedgeree Risotto at Easter, but I like to, not least because the halved, hard-boiled quails eggs that adorn it give it charm, and are a savoury take on the Easter egg.
But there are some obviously seasonal recipes, and foremost is the Simnel Cake, a light fruit cake, covered in marzipan and decorated with marzipan balls. If you have people staying with you over the Easter weekend, this is the cake to have in a tin or under a glass dome, looking welcoming in your kitchen, as it keeps well, in the tradition of the cut-and-come-again cake.
Hot Cross Buns are the obvious other trad offering, and although you may never have considered baking your own, it is wonderfully gratifying to do, and they are really not difficult to make. If making your own Hot Cross Buns is not going to happen this year, do not worry. Buy shop-made ones, and use them to replace the gingerbread in my Gingerbread Stuffing or the panettone in my Panettone Stuffing Squares to accompany an Easter Roast. And of course, the Easter Roast is lamb. You can go as old-school as you want here, but I also recommend a light, bright, quick and easy take in the form of a Butterflied Leg of Lamb with Bay Leaves and Balsamic Vinegar. This is quite a new recipe of mine, but I never forget the old faves, and I will certainly be making my Warm Shredded Salad with Mint and Pomegranates this year - again!
Hot Cross Buns
I make my hot cross buns slightly smaller than is traditional. Don't know why, just like them that way, but you form them the size you want, please. Just one thing I must be strict about: you do need…
View recipe
Little Lemon Puddings
These uplifting, citrusy beauties are a quick-time, short-cut version of the traditional English canary pudding: instead of being steamed, these are baked in the oven, and the fact that you use shop-b…
View recipe
Apple and Almond Cake
It's astonishing how buttery this cake tastes, given that there is not a gram of butter in it. The flour is replaced with ground almonds — and cooked, cooled, pureed fruit provides moistness and flavo…
View recipe
Easter Egg Nest Cake
This has been my Easter stalwart for years and years and I don't see that changing — ever. Make this just once, and you will be similarly convinced. Even if I wanted to stop making this, I wouldn't be…
View recipe
Lemon Meringue Cake
In all honesty, the origin of this cake is simply that I cannot make a go of a lemon meringue pie. I've tried, and I've tried, and it's not that I've utterly failed, but I haven't completely delighted…
View recipe
Lamb With Rosemary and Port
I love the sort of dinner that you cook without any special effort but without sacrificing gratification. That's the thing really: cooking is simple; you can choose to complicate it, but there's no ne…
View recipe
Pappardelle With Lamb Ragu
‘Ragout’ is French, ‘ragù’ Italian, and this meat sauce is certainly inspired by the Sicilian combination of sweet lamb, dried wild mint and crushed chilli flakes, though I’ve added an Anglo note with…
View recipe
Warm Shredded Lamb Salad With Mint and Pomegranate
You do need to serve this lamb salad warm rather than cold (a bit of fat provides flavoursome lubrication at anything above room temperature; once cold we're talking congealed, waxy whiteness — not su…
View recipe
Aromatic Lamb Shank Stew
As with all stews, this is even better made in advance and reheated; for me, this only makes things easier.
View recipe
Butterflied Leg of Lamb With Bay Leaves and Balsamic Vinegar
A roast, boned, butterflied leg of lamb is just about the easiest, speediest way to cook a joint of meat. Plus, you dispense with all the difficult carving (I am an embarrassingly inept carver myself)…
View recipeBeautifully simple and exceptionally flavoursome recipe, a real winner with a nice glass of wine.
Crispy Lamb Chops
The joy of these, particularly, is that they are wonderful eaten cold as well, their pink juiciness trapped within their eggy parmesan coating. If you don't have any stale bread to hand for making the…
View recipe
Hummus With Seared Lamb and Toasted Pinenuts
I love this combination of cool hummus, hot, lemony-sweet shards of meat and the waxy, resiny nuts.
View recipe
Lamb Cutlets With Chilli and Black Olives
No one does lamb cutlets better than the Italians and this recipe, which comes to me by way of the great Anna Del Conte, is a case in point. The nuggets of pink meat are so tender and flavourful that…
View recipe
Lamb Patties With Hummus and Pitta
Think hamburger, Middle-Eastern style. And if this isn't enough of a come-on, think again. I am mad for these pitta-sandwiches smeared with hummus and stuffed with red onion, mint, shredded lettuce an…
View recipe
Roast Lamb for One
I know that I am often regarded as somewhat odd for cooking entire meals just for myself, alone. I wouldn't think of apologising. On the whole I am not someone either good with her own company or with…
View recipe
Spring Chicken
This is really a tweaking of a fairly traditional rabbit recipe. The chicken is easier to come by in a supermarket, though, and more likely to please generally. You can leave the skin on or off the th…
View recipe
Lemon Polenta Cake
This cake is a sort of Anglo-Italian amalgam. The flat, plain disc is reminiscent of the confections that sit geometrically arranged in patisserie windows in Italy; the sharp, syrupy sogginess borrows…
View recipe
Kedgeree Risotto
This is a strange hybrid of a recipe: kedgeree cooked as if it were a risotto, that is to say Anglo-Indian influence, Italian method. I admit, however, that Italians may look askance at this recipe: a…
View recipe
Bulgur Wheat Salad with Pink-Seared Lamb
This bulgur wheat salad is loosely based on tabbouleh, only using coriander in place of the parsley, lime in place of the lemon and omitting the tomatoes and adding the chilli and some raw, diced cour…
View recipe
Anglo-Asian Lamb Salad
I love the tangy fire of Thai cooking; I love equally the traditional English partnership of lamb with redcurrant and mint. I just happened, one day, because of what I had in the kitchen, to bring the…
View recipe
Simnel Cake
Originally, this cake was made for Mothering Sunday, but it has for a long, long time been an essential Easter confection, the marzipan balls on top representing the apostles: eleven in total as, for…
View recipeBrowse the rest of the Easter Recipes on nigella.com.