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Ostara Recipes: 15 Spring Equinox Foods and Meals

I look forward to the Spring Equinox every year. And so did the ancestors in centuries past. Depending on the culture, they might have called it something different. But most ancient cultures honored the changing of the seasons. Even in modern times, we feel the turning of the Wheel in our blood and in our bones. Some of us yearn for the Spring season. And all of the delicious bounty that comes along with it. So what better way to celebrate Winter’s end than to feast on fresh Spring fare? Here we gift you our favorite Ostara recipes and Spring Equinox meal ideas for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert.

First, What is Ostara?

Ostara is an ancient Germanic festival marking the Spring Equinox and the first official day of Spring. This day also marks a liminal time – when the day’s length is equal to the night’s. And it means the sun is making its triumphant return to ruling the sky. We are headed for warm days and shorter, milder nights, lovelies! Flowers will start to bloom, if they haven’t already, and baby animals are emerging from all corners of the earth. The forest is alive, as are the fields. Our ancient Germanic ancestors celebrated Ostara, first and foremost by honoring the Earth’s awakening. And how did they celebrate? By giving offerings, performing ritual, partying and FEASTING.

15+ Ostara Recipes & Meal Ideas that Celebrate the Spring Equinox

Traditionally, the Spring season is all about fresh greens, grains, eggs and dairy. But don’t be afraid to incorporate Ostara recipes that you feel represent the joy and vitality of the new Spring season. Here’s a few of our favorite Ostara recipes and meal ideas to try:

1. Cheesy Asparagus Tart

Dairy is a traditional food for the Spring sabbats, namely for Imbolc and Ostara, and as such we recommend making this cheesy asparagus tart by Tasty. The cheese makes the asparagus flavor more mild and the premade tart part? Even though it might not be “traditional”, reminds us of centuries past. This Ostara recipe is super easy to make, because you’re using a premade puff pastry. Substitute the asiago cheese for almost any cheese you’d like! We utilize many a-Tasty recipe at this hearth and have never had a disappointing experience.

2. Avocado Egg Salad (An Original Otherworldly Oracle Ostara Recipe)

Because we love you all so very much, Mr. Kobold actually encouraged me to give you our staple egg salad recipe for Ostara. Isn’t he the most generous hearth spirit you know?

Ingredients:

  • 6-8 hardboiled eggs (de-shelled and chopped)
  • 1 avocado (peeled and chopped)
  • 4 tbsp mayonnaise
  • 1 tbsp yellow mustard
  • Salt and Pepper to taste

Instructions:

  1. Mix all ingredients together in large bowl.
  2. Taste and add more salt, pepper, mayo, mustard as needed (we know this isn’t a hard-set recipe to follow, but I promise you if you taste your creation, you’ll know what to add. Or you might just leave it be!)
  3. Spread on toast, buns, or over a bed of fresh greens like spinach or romaine.

3. Quiche Lorraine

A traditional French food, quiche lorraine is a scrumptious way to start your Ostara festivities. Sounds like a quiche, but quiche lorraine is a bit different. It’s made with a heavy cream and egg base, rather than just eggs in the center like your traditional quiche. Bacon and artisanal French cheeses make up the “meat” of this dish and will make your sabbat guests’ precious mouths drool. Add your favorite herbs and spices for your own twist on this classic dish.

Spring onions are a traditional Ostara food

4. A Bright Spring Salad: The Perfect Lunch for Ostara

Ostara = the first official day of Spring. We are basically required as seasonal eating individuals to partake in a lively, fresh Spring salad of some sort. Correct? Decorate with greens, eat the greens, roll in the greens. And throw together this fun bright Spring Salad by Love and Lemons. We are suckers for avocadoes and peas in salads. Serve with lunch on the veranda, at your picnic, or with dinner at the formal dining table. Pairs perfectly with cucumber sandwiches or a light vegetable soup.

5. Butter Braised Spring Onions

When I was a little girl, my grandmother’s yard was bursting full of spring onion come Ostara. I remember laying in the grass, plucking the onions up, and popping them right into our mouths! Today, I’m a little more refined with this ingredient (when people are watching, at least.) If you have access to your own fresh spring onions, all the better! But you can find these babies in your local grocery store typically. Butter-braised spring onions makes for a lovely side dish to the leg of lamb Ostara recipe (below).

6. Lemon Lavender Bars

Who doesn’t want to bake with flowers? And if you’ve never tried it, now’s your chance. Lavender is a fae-favorite and screams Spring Equinox. (Truly it’s a flower worth using year-round in your fodder and magick). If you’d like a dainty, joyful treat as an Ostara recipe, here’s it is, folks. Check out these lemon lavender bars and enjoy!

7. Rosemary Garlic Dutch Oven Bread

One of our most cherished traditions in the Kobold Kitchen, year after year, is baking fresh bread to celebrate the sabbats. Ostara is no exception to our crusty rule. And if you keep rosemary growing by the garden gate (as we do), what better way to usher in Spring than to grab a few clippings and incorporate them into your loaf? We’ve used this Tasty rosemary herb bread as an Ostara recipe for a few years in a row. If you have a dutch oven (or what we prefer to call a cauldron), you’ll need it for this delectable Spring bread.

8. Split Pea Soup With the Yule Hambone for Ostara

This is a tradition we’ve kept in the castle for many centuries – saving the hambone from our Christmas Yule ham. We freeze the bone along with the remains of the pig (chopped ham bits) then pull it out to craft a cozy Split Pea Soup as an Ostara meal. Our Germanic ancestors traditionally feasted on wild boar for Yuletide. When we save the remains of our Yule pig to be the base for an Ostara meal, it’s a sympathetic form of renewal magick. We’re taking the dead, and bringing it to life again! Isn’t that was the Spring Equinox is all about? This split pea soup is perfect as a lunch or dinner. And if you’re only making for a small family, you’ll have leftovers all week! Just add a slice of buttered, crusty rosemary bread. Here’s a tried-and-true from Mama Bear’s Cooking: Split Pea Soup with Hambone.

Split pea soup (a favorite Ostara recipe) made from the frozen hambone leftover from Yule
Here is my Ostara split pea soup made with the hambone from Yuletide

9. Pork Roast, Sauer Kraut, and Red Potatoes

Another Kobold Kitchen family tradition for Ostara is cooking a pork roast with sauer kraut and red potatoes. This tradition originates in our family via our Pennsylvania Dutch ancestors who were wont to enjoy Pork Roast with Sauer kraut at any time during the Winter or Spring. It makes for a delicious, heart-warming meal in the Winter but is also perfect for Ostara. Here’s a Pork Roast and Kraut recipe for you to try. Boil or roast red potatoes to go with it. The only difference between this pork and kraut recipe and ours is that we add a bit more brown sugar.

10. Hot Cross Buns: A Traditional Spring Equinox Recipe

Technically, the hot cross bun is Christian in origin. However, because it’s a traditional food for Easter, we decided we’d include it here for Ostara too. Plus, the symbol of the cross isn’t solely Christian, it predates the Church by thousands of years. The cross on hot cross buns represents the split between day and night, liminal space, and the crossroads. Whether you eat them or hang them from the rafters (as one source suggests), they bring good luck and ward off evil. Plus they smell delightful when baking in the kitchen.

11. Leg of Lamb

It seems a little ironic that leg of lamb would be a traditional Ostara recipe. But here we are listing it for our kitchen magicians and hearth fae to try. Mr. Kobold recommends making the butter-braised spring onions alongside the leg of lamb, and he says not to forget your pint of beer this Ostara! We think you’ll enjoy the hearty flavor in this Ostara meal which includes red wine, sea salt and garlic.

12. Simnel Cake

Simnel cake is an historic English fruitcake decorated with balls of marzipan that dates back to the Medieval Times. Sources say it was particularly popular in Shropshire and Herefordshire and was a customary dessert to make on Mothering Sunday. Today it’s widely known as an Easter and Lent dessert. We’re not sure why the English enjoy putting dried fruits in their cakes so much, but if you’d like to try your hand at this almond-flavored fruit cake, here’s the recipe. The cake is rather cute when topped with yellow Easter peeps.

13. Seven Herb Soup (Sieben Kräutersuppe): A German Ostara Recipe

In Germany, seven herb soup (called Sieben Kräutersuppe) is traditional for Holy (Green) Thursday and has long been a customary dish. It’s flavor is bold, yet light and has all the herby aromas of Spring. While this too has a tie to Christianity’s Easter holiday, we can always adapt it for our pagan sabbat Ostara. It is GREEN, after all…and what does green mean? Spring – renewal – rebirth – fertility…and the faeries favorite color! Pair with a crusty bread and cheese slices.

14. Easter Bunny Brioche

Bread. And bunnies. What about a little bunny-shaped bread? The Easter bunny is not a modern invention. No, he is ancient and represents the fertility and life bursting forth from Mother Earth on the Spring Equinox. And bread represents the bounty of the earth and all that is to come in the harvest season. Combine the two and you have an adorably, modern yet pagan-friendly Ostara recipe: Easter Bunny Brioche.

15. Pizza Rustica: An Italian Easter Savory Pie / Ancestral Ostara Recipe

Okay lovelies, the last suggestion for an Ostara meal is this Italian Easter dish called Pizza Rustica. Have you feasted your eyes on this beautiful, savory beast? A pastry filled with eggs, ham, bacon, herbs, cheese, etc. makes for a hearty Ostara breakfast. But could be eaten any time of day it’s that delicious. And if you’re Italian, offer a bit of your pizza rustica to your ancestors before partaking yourself.

How to Celebrate Ostara Today

The days of yore seem like a long time ago, don’t they? And it may seem our ancestors’ Ostara customs and traditions are rather dated. So how do we celebrate Ostara in modern times? Truly any way you feel drawn to! But here’s a few ideas:

  • Feasting (what is this article truly about anyway but OSTARA Recipes!)
  • Spending time with family
  • Painting, hiding, and collecting eggs and having large egg hunts
  • Easter baskets
  • The Easter Bunny tradition
  • Decorating the Easter tree
  • Cooking Ostara recipes
  • Baking with flowers, eggs, and dairy (signs of Spring!)
  • Giving offerings to elementals in the woods, Mother Earth, ancestors, etc.
  • Saving your eggshells and spreading them in the garden to ensure a bountiful Summer harvest
  • Easter crafts with the kids
  • Spring scavenger hunt
  • Nature walks
  • Cleansing your home and starting your Spring Cleaning (we like to clean the ENTIRE castle beginning a few weeks before Ostara. And commence with a cleansing ritual the day before)
  • Cleansing your altar
  • Redecorating your altar for Spring
  • Decorating your home for Spring: flowers, greenery, eggs, bird’s nests, Spring animals like rabbits, birds, sheep, and snakes
  • Honoring the goddess Eostre and other Spring deities
  • Doing an egg cleansing ritual
Ostara Recipes

3 Comments

  1. Ginger Foranyic

    March 20, 2024 at 12:34 pm

    I just made yellow split pea & ham soup! Thinking about growing crocuses in honor of Ostera, because..crocus produce saffron too! What better way to welcome spring up north ? DONE

  2. Jamie Rodriguez

    March 19, 2024 at 8:20 pm

    Thank you for all of the Ostara recipes. With it being the first day of spring I couldn’t think of ideas for dinner and now know what to make for dinner and dessert tonight 🙂

    1. kitty fields

      March 20, 2024 at 8:45 am

      Yay! That’s awesome!

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