Great Lent for believers is a time of spiritual and bodily purification. The most important week before Easter is amazing: every day is filled with special meaning.
Power restrictions are severe even compared to the previous 40-day fast period.
What do believers eat in fasting before Easter? What dishes can lay people prepare?
What to eat in fasting before Easter - general principles
The last seven days before Sunday Easter are the most severe in terms of nutrition. In Holy Week, believers recall the death of Christ and reflect on the meaning of his purifying sacrifice. At the same time, believers are preparing for the holiday. It is during this period that they clean the house or apartment, paint and paint eggs, bake a variety of Easter cakes, make Easter.
What to eat in the post before Easter? Traditionally, the food plan for Holy Week is very tough. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday - raw food eating. This means that you can only eat raw food of plant origin. Fruits and vegetables are allowed - fresh, soaked, pickled, pickled, as well as mushrooms, bread, honey, nuts and cold drinks. It is believed that on Monday you can eat only in the evening, after daytime work. On Tuesday and Wednesday, you can eat during the day, in small portions.
Good Thursday the church allows you to take hot food and put vegetable oil in it. You can eat salads, cereals, first courses, bake or fry something flour.
Good friday believers mourn the crucified Christ and completely refuse food. Only after evening service can you take some food for children, the sick and the elderly to support your strength.
Great Saturday consecrate colored eggs, baked Easter cakes, cooked Easter. In the evening, believers can eat some bread, dried fruits, honey, raw vegetables.
Thus, hot food on Holy Week is allowed only on Thursday. In addition to honey, you can eat only plant products. Oil, even vegetable, is strictly limited. You can refuse it only on Good Saturday, and add it to dishes during the week.
It is important to understand that the canons of fasting were primarily created for monasteries.. Monks spend this period in meditation and prayer, so hungry fainting is rare. But severe restrictions in worldly life are hardly justified, because the laity have to work, and raise children, and do housework.
Explaining the meaning of fasting to unchurched people, priests constantly emphasize that it is possible and necessary to eat fasting before Easter. You can not strictly limit the diet of children, adolescents, pregnant women, the elderly. Another question is that, following the very spirit, the meaning of Lent, you need to cook food for your home from permitted foods, without making a cult of food.
What can not be fasted before Easter
Observing fasting, you need to forget about animal products. This is primarily meat and fish, offal and seafood, butter and eggs, cheese and dairy products. An exception is made only for honey: this sweetness is permitted by church canons.
It is important to understand that it is impossible to eat not only the aforementioned products in the fast before Easter, but also dishes, which include them as separate components. For example, when buying bread in a store, be sure to read the label. If the ingredients indicate an egg, milk powder, butter, such bread is no longer lean.
Sweets containing animal butter and milk, mayonnaise on chicken eggs, chocolate and even marmalade on gelatin fall under the ban. The fact is that gelatin is produced from the bone tissue of animals, which means that it belongs to food of animal origin. This means that you can’t eat purchased jellies and other desserts on gelatin in the post before Easter. But if you, for example, cook jelly on a plant agar, then you will be able to meet the “lean” conditions.
Pearl barley pilaf with mushrooms
This is a delicious Thursday dish that you can feed the whole family. Properly prepared pearl barley has nothing to do with Soviet porridge from the district catering. And it is unreasonable not to use the healing properties of pearl barley. Be sure to try this lean dish. It turns out very tasty!
Ingredients:
• two glasses of pure pearl barley;
• two large carrots;
• two large onions;
• a pound of fresh champignons;
• three tablespoons of vegetable oil;
• salt.
Cooking method:
Rinse pearl barley thoroughly to get rid of starch and make pilaf crumbly.
Fold the barley in a cast-iron or thick-walled pan.
Boil water and steam the cereal with boiling water so that the water above the barley is two fingers (2-2.5 cm). Leave the pan until the water has cooled completely, and can be longer.
Cut the carrots into thin strips or simply grate coarsely.
Grind onions into cubes.
Cook the carrot-onion fry in oil.
Fry the finely chopped mushrooms in oil in a separate frying pan.
Discard the groats with a slotted spoon, drain the remaining water. Steamed barley should be almost ready. If it seems to you that the cereal is completely raw, pour it with a new portion of boiling water and boil for about twenty minutes.
Put frying and mushrooms in a pan, mix.
Pour half a glass of boiling water.
Put the barley, stir everything thoroughly.
Simmer under the lid until cooked. This usually takes no more than 40 minutes.
Lenten cake "Monastic"
Pastry is allowed, so try this variant of homemade lean cake. Given that only vegetable products are eaten in fasting before Easter, the recipe does not violate any requirements. You can make a pie in just half an hour. To give it a flavor, you can use flavored tea bags. Fragrant cinnamon can be replaced with vanilla, ginger, cardamom.
Ingredients:
• a glass of strong black tea;
• two glasses of white flour;
• three tablespoons of thick jam, preferably sour;
• two tablespoons of vegetable oil;
• bag of baking powder (10 grams);
• a glass of sugar;
• a teaspoon of cinnamon powder;
• half a glass of powdered sugar for decoration.
Cooking method:
Brew a glass of strong tea.
Pour jam with hot tea and wait for it to disperse and the liquid to cool.
Pour baking powder into the flour, mix and sift.
Add a glass of sugar and cinnamon to the flour mixture, mix.
In the center of the flour hill, make a hole, pour tea with jam and vegetable oil.
Knead a simple soft dough.
Cover the mold with baking paper, pour the dough and send it into the oven, preheated to 190 ° C.
The cake is baked for about twenty minutes.
Leave the cake to cool in shape.
When it becomes warm, remove the paper, put the cake on the board.
Garnish with powdered sugar.
You need to cut such a pie after completely cooling.
Vinaigrette with beans and pickled mushrooms
It is easiest to make light vinaigrette from vegetable dishes. A light, tasty and very healthy dish is an ideal lean option for dinner.
Ingredients:
• three potatoes;
• large beets;
• half a glass of beans;
• three salty loaves;
• two pickles;
• a glass of sauerkraut;
• a small onion;
• three tablespoons of aromatic vegetable oil.
Cooking method:
Soak dry beans for three to four hours, then boil in a new portion of water until tender.
Finely chopped boiled and cooled potatoes.
Cook beets in a double boiler or bake in foil. Cool, cut into cubes and pour vegetable oil in a separate bowl. The oil "seals" the beetroot juice and prevents the beets from coloring the vinaigrette.
Finely chop the mushrooms, onions and cucumbers.
Combine all the components of the vinaigrette, salt to taste, mix and serve.
Lean borsch with mushrooms
A delicious first course, lean borscht will be a great alternative to meat dishes. Mushrooms are almost as good as meat in nutritional value. Borsch is nutritious and very tasty.
Ingredients:
• two hundred grams of fresh mushrooms or thirty grams of dried;
• two medium-sized beets;
• four potatoes;
• large onion;
• a tablespoon of tomato paste;
• a teaspoon of flour;
• a tablespoon of vegetable oil;
• a teaspoon of vinegar;
• salt;
• a bunch of fresh herbs;
• three cloves of garlic;
• ten peas of black pepper.
Cooking method:
Chop the onion and mushrooms in neat cubes.
Fry onion and mushrooms in vegetable oil by adding tomato paste.
Cook beets, peel and cut into strips.
To boil water.
Potatoes cut into cubes.
Put potatoes in boiling water and boil until half cooked for 4-5 minutes.
Throw mushroom roast and beets.
Dilute flour in several tablespoons of water, pour into borsch.
Salt, boil for about five minutes with a slow boil.
Chop greens.
Pour a teaspoon of vinegar into the borscht, toss crushed pepper, chopped herbs, garlic.
Hold under cover for ten minutes and serve.
Rice cutlets with mushroom sauce
Meat cutlets can be replaced with a lean dish made from mushrooms, vegetables or cereals. The rice version with mushroom sauce is delicious and original.
Ingredients:
• a glass of rice;
• three hundred grams of mushrooms;
• one hundred grams of raisins;
• one hundred grams of walnuts;
• some vegetable oil;
• medium onion;
• one hundred grams of flour;
• one hundred grams of breadcrumbs;
• lemon.
Cooking method:
Cut the mushrooms, add water, salt and cook until tender (about twenty minutes).
From rice, cook viscous porridge on water by adding two glasses of water.
Add a little oil to the boiled rice for better viscosity and mix.
Pour breadcrumbs onto a cutting board.
Roll round cutlets from the mass, roll them in breading.
Heat the oil in a frying pan, fry the patties on both sides until golden brown.
Finely chop the onion and fry with flour.
Pour mushroom broth with mushrooms.
Add chopped nuts and raisins to the sauce, pour in the lemon juice (2-3 tablespoons).
Stir vigorously and turn off the sauce.
Put the patties on a serving plate and serve with sauce.
Lenten cake "Coffee" without butter
Another pie option for those who do not want to violate the strictest rules of Holy Week and do not know what to eat in the post before Easter with tea or coffee. The recipe does not even use vegetable oil, the cake still turns out very tasty.
Ingredients:
• a glass of strong black coffee (250 ml);
• one and a half cups of flour (about 300 grams);
• a bag of baking powder or a teaspoon of soda;
• two tablespoons of honey;
• a glass of sugar;
• half a glass of walnuts;
• half a glass of raisins;
• some salt.
Cooking method:
Brew coffee beans (soluble powder is also suitable), be sure to strain the coffee beans.
In a bowl, mix hot coffee, sugar, honey, salt, mix everything.
Mix chopped nuts and raisins, add a tablespoon of flour and mix. The flour layer will prevent nuts and dried fruits from getting wet during baking.
Pour baking powder or soda, sifted flour, nuts and dried fruits into coffee. To mix everything.
If the flour is not enough, add more. The dough should not be thick.
Grease a baking dish with a drop of vegetable oil or a slice of margarine, sprinkle with flour.
Pour the dough into a mold and bake in an oven preheated to 180-190 ° С.
Fasting is, above all, abstinence from pleasure. That is why the food on Holy Week should not be tasty. The main thing is that it be diverse and nutritious.
Do not look at what believers eat in fasting before Easter! It is amazing how many truly delicious dishes you can take to the treasury of your favorite culinary recipes.
