Basic rules of nutrition during Lent, what foods can be eaten, recipes for their preparation, forbidden dishes. Lent is a forty-day period that begins immediately after Maslenitsa. During this time, believers follow a strict diet to express their repentance and humility. Food of animal origin is excluded from the menu, and a number of other products are also limited.
Post 2017: what you can eat during Lent
The pacification of the body is considered the first step towards the humility of the spirit, according to Christian beliefs. When you start fasting, you must also abstain spiritually. Thus, a Christian is cleansed of bad emotions, learns to restrain negativity. Without adhering to spiritual rules of conduct, fasting becomes a regular diet.
What to eat in Lent from cereals
Porridge is one of the most important components of the lean table. Of course, cereals should be boiled in water without adding butter. However, such a restriction does not mean at all that the porridge will be tasteless. First, there are many different grains that can add variety to the menu. Take a closer look in the supermarket: on the shelves with cereals you will find much more options than the usual buckwheat, rice, barley. Secondly, during the fast it is allowed to eat many foods that can improve the taste of any porridge. For example, you can add raisins, dried apricots, nuts, carrots, mushrooms. In this matter, you can safely rely on your imagination and experiment with tastes. Also, don't forget about prosers. So called sprouted grains of wheat, oats, corn. These products contain over 30 percent vegetable protein, as well as many macro- and micronutrients. Regular use of prosers, even outside of fasting, will provide the body with the necessary amount of vitamins and nutrients, and prevent the development of a large number of diseases. On the basis of cereals, you can prepare a huge number of delicious lean dishes:
- Vegetable pearl barley porridge … You will need barley, carrots, onions, salt, spices to taste. We wash the groats, fill with water in a ratio of 1: 3 and cook until soft. In the process, add chopped carrots, onions, salt, seasonings.
- Fruit pilaf with nuts … We take two glasses of steamed rice, raisins, dried apricots, dates, prunes, some walnuts, a couple of tablespoons of honey, salt. Cook rice in slightly salted water. In the middle of cooking, add scalded raisins, chopped dried fruits and roasted nuts to the porridge. We cook the porridge and add honey after cooling.
- Semolina porridge with cranberry juice … We take a glass of cranberries and pour 6 glasses of water, bring to a boil and add half a glass of semolina and the same amount of sugar. Cook porridge until tender, cool and serve with honey.
- Smolenskaya porridge with fruit drink … Cooking fruit drinks by analogy with the above recipe. Add half a glass of rice cereal and the same amount of sugar to the finished broth. Cook until tender and serve chilled.
- Pilaf with dried mushrooms … For cooking, you will need several large dried mushrooms (preferably forest), one glass of rice, three onions, one carrot, three tablespoons of sunflower oil, one and a half glasses of mushroom broth, tomato paste, salt. We sort out the mushrooms and soak for three hours in water. We cook them in it until cooked. Cut the boiled mushrooms into strips, fry with carrots and onions, add tomato paste and a little "mushroom water". Put rice in the mixture and cook until tender over low heat.
- Porridge-mash … We mix cereals of two types, for example, millet and barley, rice and wheat, corn and rice, and so on. In this case, one of the cereals should be crushed, and the other whole. We grate a couple of types of any vegetables. We take a glass of vegetable mixture on a glass of a mixture of cereals. We put 1/3 of the vegetables at the bottom of the pan, a cereal layer on top, then vegetables again and so on all the products in layers. Fill with hot brackish water so as to cover the entire mixture. We put in the oven for 10 minutes.
What can you eat in Lent from vegetables
During Great Lent, it is allowed to eat various vegetables and root vegetables. They can be either raw or thermally processed. Do not get carried away with heat treatment: the less vegetables are boiled, stewed, fried, the more nutrients are retained in them. Various varieties of cabbage (white cabbage, Peking cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts), potatoes, celery, pumpkin, bell peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs (parsley, dill, basil, cilantro, sorrel) should take a worthy place on your lean table.
You can prepare salads from fresh vegetables, as well as eat pickled and pickled foods. Consider a few popular lean vegetable dishes:
- Cabbage salad with prunes … We take a quarter of a small head of cabbage, a handful of prunes and half a lemon, one carrot and salt, sugar to taste. Shred vegetables and pour with lemon juice, season with salt and spices to taste.
- Salad with carrots and pickled cucumber … You will need 800 grams of carrots, a couple of pickled cucumbers and 200 grams of tomato juice. Cut the cucumber into small cubes, fill with juice, black pepper can be added to taste. Rub the carrots on a coarse grater and add to the cucumber mass. Stir and serve.
- Potato salad with pomegranate and walnuts … Boil a couple of potatoes in the skins. We clean and cut into cubes. Prepare the dressing: chopped nut kernels, pound together with garlic in a mortar, add salt, pomegranate juice. Pour the resulting mixture over potatoes and sprinkle with herbs.
- Vinaigrette with champignons … We take about 300 grams of mushrooms, 4 tomatoes, one apple, a few tablespoons of vegetable oil, a tablespoon of mushroom broth, lemon juice from half of the fruit, a tablespoon of apple juice, onion, mustard seeds, salt, sugar, spices, herbs. Chop the mushrooms, simmer in oil until tender. Cut tomatoes and apples and mix with mushrooms. Add the grated carrot and onion to the broth remaining after cooking the mushrooms. Pour the finished vinaigrette with this dressing and sprinkle with herbs.
- Lean cabbage soup … To prepare this dish, we need 50 grams of white cabbage, three onions, one carrot, a couple of potatoes, parsley and celery roots, spices, herbs, and garlic. Finely chop the potatoes and roots. Shred cabbage with herbs. Pour vegetables with water, add spices. Cook for about 15 minutes. We grate the carrots, mix with chopped garlic, add to the semi-prepared cabbage soup. We bring it to readiness.
- Vegetable soup … We prepare about a dozen green beans, a couple of green onion stalks, a clove of garlic, a couple of carrots, parsley, spices, salt, a couple of drops of vinegar. Pour about five glasses of hot water into the container, adding vinegar. We put beans, chopped carrots, greens. Cook for about ten minutes over high heat, then reduce it and cook for another half hour. Before serving, sprinkle the soup with herbs.
What can you eat in Lent 2017 from fruits
Lent is a time when you can indulge yourself with various fruits at least every day. Until the first spring harvests are ripe, you can eat blanks - jams, jams, dried fruits. You can also eat exotic fruits. You can eat both raw and thermally processed fruits, add them to salads and prepare desserts from them. Fruits go well with various nuts. You can make the following quick fruit dishes:
- Apple salad with pumpkin … We take three sour apples, two hundred grams of pumpkin and half a glass of berry jelly. Peel the apples and pumpkin and rub on a coarse grater, add the jelly and mix.
- Cranberry salad … Grind two or three glasses of cranberries with sugar. Add a couple of grated carrots and the same amount of chopped turnips. Finely chop one celery root and mix with salad.
- Lingonberry salad … Grind a couple of glasses of lingonberries with sugar, add peeled and chopped two carrots and a piece of swede. Mix thoroughly.
- Dried fruit salad … Thoroughly rinse 250 grams of prunes in warm water, cut into strips, mix with 50 grams of sugar, add a pinch of cinnamon, cloves and pour with lemon juice. Salad with dried apricots is prepared in the same way. Only instead of cinnamon, vanilla is added to it.
- Baked apples … For cooking, take four large apples, a couple of tablespoons of sugar, a little thick jam, cinnamon and nuts to taste. We wash the fruits, take out the core and stuff the fruits with a mixture of nuts, spices, sugar and jam. We bake in the oven for about twenty minutes.
What can you eat in Lent 2017 from sweets
In general, sweets during fasting should be limited. In addition, the use of fatty confectionery products, in the preparation of which oil, fats, dairy products and other prohibited categories were used, are not allowed. It is allowed during Lent to eat marmalade, lean marshmallows, halva (on certain days), oatmeal cookies, dark chocolate, cranberries in sugar, honey, Turkish delight, lollipops. These foods are classified as lean, but read the label carefully before purchasing. You can cook a lean sweet dish for dessert yourself. Choosing a suitable recipe:
- Rice with lemon jelly … For cooking, you need one hundred grams of rice, three sugars, one tablespoon of agar, a couple of glasses of water, six lemons. Cook the rice until tender with 1, 5 cups of sugar. Pour the agar with two glasses of water, heat until dissolved, add a glass of sugar, pour in the juice from three lemons. Put the rice in a deep container and fill it with hot jelly, put it in the refrigerator. Oranges can be used instead of lemons.
- Cranberry mousse … We take three glasses of water, half a glass of cranberries, half a glass of semolina, half a glass of sugar. We wash the berries, squeeze the juice out of them. We boil "dry" berries, filter. Add sugar, semolina to the liquid and cook until tender. Cool the porridge, add the juice and beat with a mixer. We lay out on bowls and decorate with cranberries.
- Orangeade … This sweet drink makes a great addition to your dessert. You will need eight oranges, a couple of lemons, half a kilogram of sugar, 2.5 liters of water. Wash the citruses and remove the skin. Put the zest in a container with water and add sugar. We put on a small fire and cook, stirring and pressing on the zest, so that the butter comes out. Cover the broth with a lid and cool. Cut oranges and lemons in half and squeeze out the juice. We pour it into a decoction of the zest. Cool the drink before serving.
What to eat in Lent of the day from seafood
According to Orthodox canons, you can eat fish during Lent for only two days. For this there is the Annunciation and Palm Sunday. But on Saturday before Palm Sunday, it is allowed to eat fish caviar. As for the rest of the seafood, opinions differ about their intake during the fast. Some believers argue that marine life is akin to fish and can only be eaten on strictly allotted days. Others believe that fish cannot be compared with shrimp or squid, so you can eat the latter on other days of Lent. Even if there is an opportunity to eat fish, it is better to cook it not by frying. The optimal method of heat treatment would be stewing, cooking, baking.
Try pampering yourself with these fish dishes during the fast:
- Jellied pike perch … For cooking, you will need pike perch about one kilogram in weight, a couple of onions, two carrots, black pepper, bay leaf, salt, agar (instead of gelatin), a couple of lemons, pickles, green peas, bell peppers, parsley. We remove the scales from the fish, take out the insides, remove the fins, bones, and the head. We put the latter in a container and fill it with water (one and a half liters). Add peeled onions and carrots. Bring to a boil, remove foam and add pepper and bay leaf. Cook the broth for an hour. At the same time, pour agar-agar with cold water. Let it brew for an hour and filter. We introduce the liquid into the broth, salt. Put the pre-boiled pike perch fillet on a large dish, fill it with a small amount of agar mixture and refrigerate. After hardening, decorate the top with slices of lemon and pepper. Pour again and cool the dish until it hardens completely.
- Okroshka fish … Fry any fish in vegetable oil, take out the bones, cut into pieces and put in a deep plate, add pickles, green onions, dill, tarragon and pour in kvass. Salt the dish if desired.
- Fish soup with tomatoes … We take half a kilogram of any fish, three potatoes, one carrot, one onion, parsley root, half a glass of green peas, four tomatoes, a little vegetable oil, herbs, salt, spices. Boil the fish until tender. Put chopped potatoes, pre-fried vegetables, roots into the hot broth. Add tomatoes and peas five minutes before complete readiness. Sprinkle with herbs when serving.
- Fish pie … For the filling, you will need fillet of pink salmon, pike perch, onion, a little sunflower oil, salt, spices. We take the finished puff pastry and roll it onto a pie. Put the pink salmon fillet, salt, pepper, put the fried onion on top. Place the pike perch on top of the pink salmon, salt it. Cover the top with another layer of dough and form a "fish". You can draw a pattern of scales with a knife. We bake the pie in a hot oven.
What can you eat on days of Lent from fat
In general, eating vegetable and animal fats during Lent is not recommended. You cannot fry food on them, and also add them to baked goods, salads and other dishes. However, there are certain days of the so-called "relaxation". At this time, you can eat fish, which is also prohibited on other days of fasting, drink a little red wine and add vegetable oil to dishes. From oils these days you can eat any: sunflower, linseed, olive, sesame. It is advisable not to fry food on them, but to add them to salads and ready-made meals. Palm Sunday and Annunciation are considered the days of relaxation. But animal fats (lard, bacon, butter) cannot be eaten during Great Lent on any days. Moreover, they are prohibited even as part of various dishes and products. For example, even bread must be cooked without them.
What you can eat during Lent from flour products
It is not forbidden to eat bread and pastries during Lent. The main condition is that they do not include prohibited products such as eggs, milk, oils, fats. Bread can be seasoned with vegetable oil only on the days of relaxation.
Of course, all kinds of baked goods that are prepared with dough cannot be eaten during Lent.
Various pasta can also be attributed to flour products. You can eat spaghetti, noodles, pasta, noodles.
For example, in many Italian recipes, you can find lean pasta dressings. Vegetable sauces and spices will help you diversify your meals. You can experiment with these lean dishes:
- Pasta with vegetables … We take half a kilogram of pasta, a couple of carrots, 50 grams of parsley root, three onions, a glass of canned peas, a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste, one hundred grams of sunflower oil, herbs. Finely chop the onion, carrots and greens and fry in tomato paste in vegetable oil. Add peas to the vegetables and mix them. We boil pasta, drain the water and combine them with vegetables. Serve the dish hot, sprinkled with herbs.
- Noodle soup … For cooking, you will need one onion and one carrot, parsley root, a couple of tablespoons of sunflower oil, spices, salt, a glass of flour, a little water. Saute onions with carrots and parsley with the addition of salt and spices. For the noodles, prepare the dough in water. Roll it out thinly and cut it into narrow strips. Boil the noodles until tender and add ready-made vegetables to the water. Sprinkle with herbs before serving.
What you can't eat during Lent
First of all, during the fast, you should refuse products that are of animal origin. These include:
- Meat, poultry, and products based on it … These are sausages, sausages, broths and more.
- Dairy products … This category also includes fermented milk products, as well as butter, ice cream.
- Eggs … You can not eat both raw and thermally processed eggs, and products that contain them. For example, muffins, pastries, mayonnaise, and more.
- Gelatin … It is produced from cartilage tissue, which means it cannot be eaten. Agar-agar can replace it on a lean table; jelly is also prepared from it. It is worth remembering that many sweets, marmalade, and chewing gums are prepared from gelatin.
- Alcohol … Strong alcoholic drinks are especially prohibited. On days of relaxation, you can drink red wine, for example, Cahors in small quantities.
The first and last weeks of Lent are considered the most severe. Also, you can not overeat during fasting. Otherwise, the whole tradition loses its meaning. Noisy festivities during this period are not recommended. According to strict rules, on weekdays it is allowed to eat only once a day. On weekends - twice a day. What you can eat during Lent - watch the video:
[media = https://www.youtube.com/watch? v = 3lF6h-dIbs8] Eating during Lent is not just a diet, but a deliberate restriction of oneself in food and usual entertainment. Remember that you need to leave the post carefully, not immediately leaning on the animal protein. Let your body adapt after eating a plant-based diet.