Ukrainian Easter Recipes

Growing up, Easter Sunday at Baba's was always a special time. In addition to the Easter chocolate we got at home Easter morning, we were also treated to a special Ukrainian feast! It was indeed, a great day. For Ukrainians, Easter is a time filled with rich traditions and delicious food. If you're looking to celebrate Ukrainian Easter in style, I've got you covered. I have rounded up a great selection of Ukrainian Easter recipes from my own recipe collection and from my fellow food bloggers.

I have many popular dishes, including traditional Ukrainian bread, other traditional Ukrainian Easter foods, as well as new favorites. There are recipes for cottage cheese Perogies, sweet yeast bread (paska and babka), kovbasa (Ukrainian sausage), and holubtsi (cabbage rolls) as well.

Appetizers

Beef Borscht (with canned beets) Recipe

This homemade Ukrainian Beef Borscht soup is a shortcut recipe using canned beets with no chopping required. It's easy, quick (cook time of 15 minutes), healthy, low fat, WW friendly and delicious!

Check out this Borscht recipe!

Easter eggs symbolize integrity. They are the basis of everything, the symbol of the Universe, spiritual fullness, prosperity, and movement.

Dill Deviled Eggs recipe

These Dill Deviled Eggs are a special family recipe and a family favorite! They are a simple, yet different devilled egg recipe made with hard-boiled eggs, dill, mayonnaise and a secret ingredient. They are both gluten-free, Weight Watchers friendly and the perfect appetizer or snack.

Check out this Dill Deviled Eggs Recipe

Main Dishes

Ham and sausage symbolize a fattened-up calf, which the father ordered to be slaughtered after his prodigal son returned home. It’s a symbol of forgiveness.

📋 Picnic Ham (with Orange Glaze) Recipe

This Picnic Ham with Orange Glaze is the perfect Easter ham or dinner any time of the year. Includes simple directions on how to score, baste and cook a picnic shoulder.

Check out this ham recipe!

📋 Air Fryer Kielbasa (Kovbasa) Recipe

This air fryer kielbasa (kovbasa) recipe is a quick and easy way to enjoy Ukrainian kubasa. You don't have to heat up your house with the oven or stovetop and the air fryer saves electricity.

Check out this Kovbasa recipe!

Buzhenina (Herb Roasted Pork Tenderloin)

Succulent, Herb Roasted Pork Tenderloin (Buzhenina) that hardly takes any effort to make. It's a traditional Ukrainian recipe that uses 4 ingredients and never disappoints.

Check out this Ukrainian Roast Pork (Buzhenina) recipe!

Side Dishes

📋Potato and Cottage Cheese Perogies Recipe

This Potato and Cottage Cheese Perogies recipe is from the master perogy maker, Grandma Mary Rudy! Made with dry cottage cheese, potatoes and a simple perogy dough, boiled, fried in butter and smothered with onions, bacon and sour cream, these homemade, traditional perogies are both delicious and authentic.

Check out this Perogy recipe!

Garlic Mushrooms in Sour Cream

Garlic Mushrooms in Sour Cream ~ perfect easy to make side dish or topper - a winner for all garlic & mushroom lovers.

Check out this Mushroom recipe!

📋 Healthy Potato Salad Recipe

This Healthy Potato Salad is easy to make and chock-full of healthy ingredients like potatoes, eggs and vegetables. It's made with light/low-fat mayonnaise to lower the calories.

Check out this recipe

📋 Ukrainian Cabbage Rolls Recipe (with ground beef and rice)

These hearty, meaty cabbage rolls (holubtsi is the Ukrainian word) are Scottish -style Ukrainian Cabbage Rolls stuffed with ground beef, rice, mushrooms, and smothered in tomato sauce! The cabbage is cooked in the microwave so these stuffed cabbage rolls quicker and easier!

Check out this Cabbage Roll recipe!

Ukrainian Beet Salad (Vinegret)

Learn how to make this vibrant and nutritious Ukrainian beet salad. It is is made with boiled vegetables, pickles, onions and olive oil.

Check out this Ukrainian Beet Salad recipe!

Ukrainian Egg Noodle Casserole

Ukrainian Baked Egg Noodle Casserole
Baked Egg Noodle Casserole is a recipe from my childhood. Egg noodles baked with milk and eggs produce a custard like centre with a crunchy top. This was my favourite after school snack.

Check out this Baked Egg Noodle Casserole recipe!

📋 Lazy Slow Cooker Cabbage Rolls Recipe

These Lazy Slow Cooker Cabbage Rolls taste exactly like regular meat and rice cabbage rolls, but in cabbage roll casserole form and without all the work. They are also Weight Watchers friendly!

Check out this Lazy Cabbage Rolls recipe!

Ukrainians regard bread as one of the holiest of foods- it is a symbol of life. Not only is it brought to church on Easter Sunday as an offering, but bread is also used to greet honored guests at home; sweet breads are an Easter tradition.

📋 Ukrainian Babka Recipe (Bread Machine)

This tender, cakelike Ukrainian Babka is a traditional Ukrainian Easter bread recipe, made with golden raisins. The dough for this sweet bread is made right in your bread machine, then baked to perfection in the traditional way (in coffee cans or tin cans)

Check out this Babka recipe!

📋 Paska Bread Recipe (Bread Machine)

This traditional Paska bread is made the easy way - in the bread machine! This traditional Easter bread is then decorated with simple decorations and baked for a short time.

Check out this Paska recipe!

Candles symbolize light and God's grace and doves are a symbolic celebration of spring!

🕊️Ukrainian Easter Bread Doves Recipe (Holuby)

Learn how to make Ukrainian Easter Bread Doves (Holuby) with this easy to follow tutorial (with recipe) ! These cute edible ornamental doves are used to decorate the Ukrainian Easter Basket, Ukrainian Easter bread, Korovai (wedding bread) and symbolize spring.

Check out this Holuby recipe!

Desserts

📋Lemon Poppy seed Torte (with Raspberry Curd filling) Recipe

This Lemon Poppy Seed torte is a traditional Ukrainian cake with poppy seeds, filled with a tangy raspberry curd and a creamy white chocolate whipped cream frosting. It's easy to decorate, but looks elegant and is perfect for any special occasion!

Check out this Poppy Seed Torte recipe!

Ukrainian Cheesecake (Easter Syrnyk)

A traditional Easter dessert made with dry curd cottage cheese instead of the typical cream cheese. Also called Ukrainian sweet cheese or Syrnyk.

Check out this Ukrainian Cheesecake recipe!

🍩 Pampushky - Ukrainian Doughnuts

This Pampushky (Ukrainian Doughnut) recipe is a light and airy raised doughnut without filling. These traditional Ukrainian donuts are made into modern mini (Stampede-style) doughnuts and sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar just the way my Baba used to make them when I was a kid. 

Check out this Pampushky recipe!

📋 Ukrainian Walnut Torte Recipe

Step-by-step photo instructions for making a traditional Ukrainian Walnut Torte (flourless) with a coffee whipped cream frosting and filling.

Check out this Ukrainian Walnut Torte Recipe!

🥘Ingredients

In addition to the Ukrainian foods above, here are a few other foods that have significant symbolic meaning for Ukrainian people at Easter dinner:

Butter and cheese symbolize the connection between people and Jesus Christ. As a child receives life, strength, and energy from the mother’s milk, so Christians are enriched by Jesus with sacred energy.

Butter, often shaped into a lamb or a cross, is a symbol of Christ and reminds us of the goodness of Christ, and the importance of sharing with others.

My friend Susan has been carving these amazing butter lambs for Easter for years and hers are the best I have ever come across!

If you want to make your own butter lamb, check out this How to make a butter lamb video!

Salt is a symbol of the bitterness that every Christian should experience in cleansing themselves from sin. Salt consecrated at Easter is a protector from evil. It is believed that if the threshold is sprinkled with holy salt, no evil person will be able to enter the house.

Horseradish is a symbol of strength and health. It symbolizes a strong root that gives faith in the resurrection.

🌡️Storage

See each recipe for specific storage instructions.

🍽Equipment

If there is only one tool I can recommend and can't live without, it's an instant-read thermometer!

Did you know that temperature is the BEST way to check for doneness? This thermometer (affiliate link) is a game-changer!

• It's more than just a meat thermometer! I use my Thermapen for everything from baking pie and bread to eggs, casseroles, candy making, and more! It's ideal for baking babka.
• This amazing little tool instantly and accurately measures temperature with a quick poke. And it's not just for the grill, it's the go-to kitchen instrument trusted by the world's most acclaimed chefs and BBQ champions (it's one of Alton Brown's 'favorite things')!
• And it comes with a handy little chart that gives you chef-recommended temperatures and the minimum done temps for food safety. 

👪 Serving Size

The serving sizes are listed in each recipe, but with my recipes, you can half, double, or triple the recipe by clicking on the blue serving number and selecting the number of servings you'd like. The ingredient quantities will automatically adjust.

🦺Food safety

• Do not use the same utensils on cooked food, that previously touched raw meat
• Wash hands after touching raw meat
• Don't leave food sitting out at room temperature for extended periods
• Always have good ventilation when using a gas stove
• Never leave cooking food unattended

  See more guidelines at USDA.gov 

So if you're looking for the perfect recipes for your Easter table, you'll love this Easter meal recipe roundup!

And if you love Ukrainian food, be sure to check out my 25 Delicious Modern Twists on Traditional Ukrainian Recipes!

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