This spring celebration demands fresh, colorful dishes that delight everyone at the table, whether carnivore, vegan, chocolate-obsessed or strictly gluten-free. From an eggy Italian Easter bread to a spectacular leg of lamb, with plenty of green salads and vegetable dishes, plus festive cakes for dessert, all the recipes you need are right here.

What Says Easter Like Eggs?

A silky, smoky, potato- and pimenton-flecked Spanish tortilla is a deeply satisfying way to use up a bumper crop of whole eggs.

Photo: ALEX LAU FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, FOOD STYLING BY PEARL JONES, PROP STYLING BY SOPHIE STRANGIO

The icon of the season is a must for the Easter table. This recipe for pane di pasqua, the Italian Easter bread, produces adorable mini brioche-style loaves studded with eggs dyed in your preferred shades of pastel. Egg whites give a grapefruit gin fizz cocktail a delightful airy consistency. This smoky tortilla with ham can be made before the guests arrive and served at room temperature, a blessing for the host. Begin the meal with a jammy egg and smoked trout salad with spring greens. And end with a gorgeous brown sugar Pavlova with lemon curd and yogurt whipped cream. 

Springtime Salads and Sides

Carrots two ways—roasted and raw—provide surprising depth and textural contrast in this salad.

Photo: JENNY HUANG FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, FOOD STYLING BY TYNA HOANG, PROP STYLING BY BETH PAKRADOONI

Easter is a celebration of rebirth, a feast of spring, and it falls fortuitously at the very moment in the year when markets are beginning to spill over with beautiful seasonal produce. So you really have no choice but to set out an Easter parade of colorful salads and vegetable sides. Start with these bright ideas for using the season’s bounty, all so simple they don’t even require recipes, from a dandelion green salad with hot bacon dressing to a peppery watercress-potato purée.

This spring pea salad with mint, chile and ricotta salata is a particularly fresh option, and in this chilled asparagus salad with bitters vinaigrette, the spears, at the peak of their season now, take a star turn. One vegetable steals the show two ways in this roasted and raw carrot salad with cumin-seed dressing. A side of asparagus, snap peas and fava beans comes with a rich, creamy and fully festive vegan pine nut tofu dressing.

And if you want some satisfying starch for ballast, this colorful tomato rice with favas, chickpeas and fried onions looks like a celebration, and this recipe for spring vegetables with green goddess dressing combines new potatoes with spring onions, peas and a generous scattering of herbs.

The Centerpiece of the Feast

Leg of lamb doesn’t have to be an hours-long commitment. This shortcut version clocks in at 25 minutes.

Photo: JENNY HUANG FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, FOOD STYLING BY TYNA HOANG, PROP STYLING BY SOPHIE STRANGIO

If you’re hosting a gathering or simply feeding your family in grand style this Easter, anchor the meal with one of these recipes for large-format roasts. A leg of lamb roasted over onion gratin is a holiday classic. Pecan glazed ham with drop biscuits and green beans gives the holiday dinner a Southern accent. Chicken baked in a salt crust with jeweled rice makes a spectacular showpiece. And salt-and-pepper prime rib with smashed peas and spicy crème fraîche is equal parts springy and extravagant. The lamb options alone are almost overwhelming. If you want to leave your guests truly wowed, opt for chef Daniel Boulud’s braised leg of lamb Cleopatra.

Anticipating a busy Easter Sunday? For a version ready in about a half hour, try this quick leg of lamb with sautéed shallots, peppers and tomatoes, this grilled leg of lamb with roasted apricots, this grilled leg of lamb with pistou or this radically simple roast lamb with farro salad and eggplant. For a vegetarian main, you certainly can’t do better than the Absolute Best Vegetarian Lasagna. This melted onion and leek lasagna offers a slightly lighter take on the crowd-pleasing dish. Want to keep it vegan? This charred cabbage porterhouse has all the succulence and smoky flavor of a good steak.

Extra-Special Easter Cakes

Sweeten the meal with a gluten-free lemon drizzle cake.

Photo: Ted + Chelsea Cavanaugh FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, FOOD STYLING BY PEARL JONES, PROP STYLING BY BETH PAKRADOONI

Can you imagine a dessert more elegant and spring-forward than a rose cake scattered with candied petals and infused with cardamom and rose water? This ricotta cake is easy to make and adaptable, too: Top it with a riot of macerated berries, a pretty drizzle of raspberry coulis or a simple citrus glaze. Ethereally light, this coconut chiffon cake with coconut glaze uses less than half the sugar of a traditional angel food cake. For a gluten-free sweet anyone would happily devour, try this bright lemon drizzle cake, this orange-chocolate marbled Bundt cake or this flourless chocolate cake featuring really good, really dark chocolate–a grown-up alternative to the ubiquitous foil-wrapped egg.

To explore and search through all our recipes, check out the WSJ Recipes page.