Lenten Recipes
Simple dishes for fasting days — search a dish, or start from what's in your fridge.
📖 Adapting a recipe for the Fast
During the Fast we cook without meat, eggs or dairy (and without fish, except on the days it is allowed). The good news: almost every everyday dish adapts, simply by replacing what comes from animals.
Replacing eggs — it depends on their job in the recipe:
- to bind (patties, fritters): 1 tbsp ground flaxseed mixed with 3 tbsp water, left to thicken for 5 minutes;
- for softness (cakes): a little applesauce, or half a mashed banana;
- for a mousse: whipped aquafaba (the liquid from a can of chickpeas).
Replacing milk and cream: with plant drinks (oat, soy, almond, coconut) and soy or coconut creams.
Replacing butter: with olive oil, nut butters (almond, hazelnut) or plant margarine.
📖 Fasting — in what spirit?
Fasting is not first about "depriving oneself", but about reordering life: a little less for the stomach, a little more for God and neighbour. The table grows simpler — and often more inventive.
The year has four great fasts (before Pascha, before the Nativity, the Apostles', the Dormition), plus Wednesdays and Fridays; the calendar shows the oil and fish days. To fit the fast to your health, ask a priest's advice.
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