Recipes to Cook this Easter
Easter recipes
After winning MasterChef South Africa, I set out on a mission to create accessible, easy-to-make recipes for every day cooks to elevate their dishes. This round-up includes my favourite Easter recipes to make sure you can make a delicious menu this Easter.
Easter weekend is coming up and it is time to start thinking about what to make over the long weekend! In South Africa, Easter means hot cross buns, pickled fish and a lamb roast. But other than these traditional dishes, there is a lot more you can make that still makes it feel like Easter yet is not as stereotypical as what is the norm. Have a look at the list of recipes I’ve written up and make
Warm pickled fish salad
There is nothing more satisfying than a healthy and delicious salad with complex flavours. With Easter approaching a beautiful tradition of pickled fish has a long standing heritage in the Western Cape. Try this tasty but also easy salad.
Pumpkin & Butternut Salad on Whipped Feta
Easter lamb is traditionally what South Africans serve on the long weekend, but a good host includes some vegetarian dishes as well, to serve as either a side for the meat-eaters in your midst, or for vegetarians to dish up as their main.
This Pumpkin & Butternut Salad on Whipped Feta is a delicious one, you must try it.
Pulled lamb
This pulled lamb dish is a great one to serve on a colder day. It takes a bit of time to cook, but by cooking it slowly on a low heat, you get read tender, fall-off-the-bone lamb without the meat drying out.
I served the pulled lamb on krummel pap with grated parmesan, and topped it with some Greek yoghurt, onions, mint, pomegranate seeds and chickpeas. The side dishes were roasted aubergine, topped with roasted peppers and fresh dill. I also had some more Greek yoghurt and pomegranates on the side to add to the lamb dish.
South African Style Slow-Roast Leg of Lamb with Atchar
It takes a bit of planning and preparation to prepare this dish, as you need to start early in the morning or (even better) the day before, but this really comes out in the flavours!
Caveman Style Open Fire Lamb Roast
I have made many lamb roasts over the years, but this the first time I hung it above an open flame! Slowly roasting this leg of lamb over an open flame, resulted in very tender meat, infused with the smoky aromas of the fire.
I served this Caveman-style lamb roast recipe with tzatziki, beetroot and fig preserve, burnt honey carrots and dukkah.
Hot Cross Bun Bread Pudding
For South Africans, hot cross buns are synonymous with Easter. But once the packet has been left open, they quickly get stale. But why not make a Hot Cross Bun Bread Pudding? It is truly delicious. If you are looking for a yummy dessert to end your Easter celebrations, this is it.
Hot Cross Bun S'Mores
This is a great alternative if you don’t have enough time to make a hot cross bun bread pudding. And who doesn’t love a s’more? Traditionally, s’mores are made by toasting marshmallow s and/or in between two pieces of marie biscuit (or graham crackers, if you’re American). To make an Easter-style s’more though, you can use hot cross buns instead of biscuits, and make them in the oven. This can serve as both a yummy dessert or snack.
Enjoy! Please tag me on Instagram if you make any of my recipes, I love to see it!
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About Shawn Godfrey
Photo credit: Niki M Photography
Shawn Godfrey is an entrepreneur based in Cape Town, South Africa. After the Covid-19 lockdown saw his business in financial distress, cooking was the creative outlet that helped to keep him sane. To keep track of his recipes, and encourage friends and families to join him, he starts his instagram account The Roasted Dad.
Fast-forward to late 2021 - on a whim Shawn (encouraged by his wife Lianne) enters MasterChef South Africa. It is a crazy time of life: running a 200 people business and struggling to keep it profitable, two small children with a third on the way, and about to move into a new house. But when Shawn gets selected to be one of the 20 contestants participating in the fourth season of MasterChef South Africa, he decides to go all in. Leaving his 7-month-pregnant wife to look after their then three and one-year-old children, he battles it out and comes back home five weeks later with the trophy and a million rand prize money in his pocket.
It all started with an Instagram account, but The Roasted Dad is so much more now. Shawn has stayed his entrepreneurial self and whilst he hosts Private Dinner Parties and Cook-with-Me Demos, does Restaurant Take-Overs, he still runs the lighting company and several other businesses.
On his blog, Shawn shares Restaurant Reviews and Accommodation Reviews, and gives an insight into the wild and wonderful life he leads together with his wife Lianne, and their three children Aiden (7), Olivia (5) and Harvey (3).
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