Ethical Easter Food Ideas
My inbox is suddenly full of emails from supermarkets offering roast dinner ideas and tempting images of chocolate treats. It must be Easter!
Whether you celebrate or not, the UK’s four-day Easter bank holiday weekend is a fantastic opportunity to spend some quality time with friends and family - and enjoy some traditional Easter dishes.
I’ll be hosting a houseful of people this year, so I’ve been busy researching Easter recipes, writing shopping lists and browsing supermarket shelves for ideas.
Easter Meal Planning
Like lots of people I’ve cut down on the number of meat, fish and dairy products I buy in recent years, and (unsurprisingly as I work for RSPCA Assured!) when I do buy them I make sure my food comes from farms with higher animal welfare standards.
So, as always, I’ll be buying and sharing as much higher-welfare food as possible with my guests this Easter.
It’s not always easy to know what to buy - and it can feel overwhelming when I’m in the supermarket faced with a shelf full of products.
Choosing Higher Welfare Food
I know I’m biased, but I’ve found it helps to keep an eye out for the RSPCA Assured label which means the product has come from a farm which has met the RSPCA’s strict welfare standards.
So with Easter fast approaching, I’ve been spending far too much time in the shops, on the lookout for RSPCA Assured Easter food inspiration.
I’ve been delighted to see there are loads to choose from, and with the current pressure on finances, it’s been good to find some budget-friendly options too.
The Easter Roast Dinner
The classic roast chicken dinner is a favourite for many at Easter and when I was in M&S the other day, I spotted an RSPCA Assured Oakham Gold large whole chicken for £8.75 (exact price depends on weight).
It can be enjoyed simply roasted by itself or with added flavour like lemon or homemade anchovy butter.
Everyone’s so busy at the moment and I have a few friends who can’t make it to my Easter dinner, and as a result, I’m also hosting an Easter breakfast!
So I popped into Co-op on the hunt for RSPCA Assured breakfast ingredients and found a pack of their Irresistible dry cured smoked back bacon rashers for £3.70.
I also went to Lidl, and they had a variety of RSPCA Assured sausages to choose from - I chose a pack of six RSPCA Assured Deluxe outdoor bred pork sausages for £2.49. So I’m all set for my Easter brekkie!
Breakfast is usually the most rushed meal in my household, so it feels like a real treat to indulge in a fry-up with all the trimmings…and I may even add a stack of American pancakes to the menu!
If you’ve never whisked them up at home, it’s well worth a try - they’re loads of fun to make, and you can use RSPCA Assured milk from M&S, which is 90p for a pint.
Easter Lunch Ideas
I’m going to have a lot of cooking and hosting to do, so I’m preparing and freezing as much food as I can in advance, including some wholesome homemade soups which my guests can have for lunch.
Pea and ham soup is easy to make - and I found RSPCA Assured Morrisons The Best thickly sliced dry-cured honey roast ham for £2.25, which I think will complement the soup perfectly.
Fish is traditionally eaten at Easter, so for a tea-time Easter centrepiece, I’m planning an RSPCA Assured side of salmon. Sainsbury’s has one available for £22.50, which can be cooked whole and eaten cold with a favourite salad.
Salmon Recipes for Easter
For a lighter Easter dinner, I might use it in one of the salmon recipes from the RSPCA Assured website - I’ve been wanting to try the salmon with spinach and dill sauce and baked salmon with cucumber, dill and yoghurt recipes for ages.
Alternatively, there’s RSPCA Assured trout - I found a pack of two Specially Selected Scottish Loch Trout fillets for £3.99. Trout cooked with lemon caper butter is one of our family favourites.
I’m also planning on making some smoked salmon canapés, which I’ll have on hand for my friends and family to enjoy with pre-dinner drinks.
My local Tesco Express has packs of RSPCA Assured Scottish smoked salmon for £4.90, so I’ll pick up a few of those in the run-up to the long weekend!
If you’d like to buy higher welfare products but can’t find them in the shops, you can lobby your supermarket via the RSPCA Assured website to let them know.
I hope my research saves you some time with your Easter meal planning and makes it easier to find higher-welfare food. Enjoy the long weekend!
RSPCA Assured-labelled products are available from Aldi, Asda, Co-op, Lidl, M&S, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose & Partners.
Prices and information are correct at the time of writing (15.3.24) but are subject to change. Stock in individual stores may vary.
About the author
Helen Briggs - Communications Lead
Helen Briggs loves cooking and sharing good food with her friends and family. She cares about the environment and where food comes from, particularly when it comes to animal welfare.