With the advent of fasting, any responsible cook thinks about making a menu. Do not assume that Orthodox food is tasteless. This is far from the case. The fast table is observed for a long time several times a year, in addition there are fast days, so recipes for cooking lean dishes are very necessary for many.
Selected recipes for a lean table will help to diversify the diet and improve your health, since vegetarian food helps to relieve the body. For greater comfort, make a specific list of dishes, making it easier to choose and prepare an alternative – every time you go into the kitchen you will not have to think about the menu for a long time.
With prolonged fasting, it is necessary to think over a set of products especially carefully, since not everyone can withstand it. The diet depends on the rigor of fasting. For example, abstinence in the period before Easter is especially strict, so these days you need to choose mediocre dishes, including cereals, vegetables and fruits. A relaxing fast allows the presence of fish, meat or dairy products. In any case, even from a limited list of ingredients, you can prepare nutritious and delicious food.
Here you will learn a lot of options for what you can cook during fasting without using prohibited products, such as meat, eggs, dairy products. In general, representatives of the church teach that in order to achieve the desired effect, it is not enough to observe a lenten menu: in addition, spiritual fasting is also needed. Fast food is good, but the meaning of fasting is not to limit the use of certain foods, but rather to spiritual purification through self—improvement.
As for food, traditionally simple recipes for lean dishes do not contain “fast” products, that is, meat, fat, eggs, milk and dairy products. If you follow the strict prescriptions of the Church Charter, then you need to change your fast table from day to day, from week to week: for example, on certain days it is even allowed to eat fish, on some it is prescribed to eat raw food, on some – boiled, etc. However, modern clergymen emphasize that it is not so important what they eat during lent.
Recipes for lean dishes on non-strict days allow you to cook fish and use vegetable oils. But even from a strictly limited list of lean foods, you can cook delicious dishes of lean cuisine, and sometimes they can be more interesting and more useful than meat or dairy products that we have known for a long time. We must not forget about the beauty of the design, because artfully decorated food is much more pleasant to eat. In addition, a lean menu does not necessarily imply a feeling of hunger. It simply does not contain excesses, since fasting is a time of abstinence and restrictions.
As a rule, we prepare lean dishes at home from the most ordinary products — all kinds of cereals, vegetables, mushrooms, sometimes fish.
New Year’s holidays fall on lent, and sometimes it is difficult to choose a festive lenten dish. And it will be a great side dish for meat or poultry. “What’s new and festive about potatoes?!” you say. Did you cook like that? No, then it’s time to try new flavors.
New Year’s Eve is a time of gifts from St. Nicholas, Santa Claus with the Snow Maiden, Santa Claus on reindeer sleds, time of sparklers, fireworks, champagne and, of course, delicious snacks!!! This fish is one of them – delicious, absolutely easy to prepare, for a festive table, easy for the body!
For a quick salad, boil or bake beets in advance, and instead of turnips, you can take rutabaga or radish. Prepare this delicious salad, it will make any menu healthier!
A very unusual side dish will surprise your family and will look very impressive on the table. Instead of couscous, you can take rice, bulgur or quinoa. Coriander, mint or thyme greens will complement the taste of this side dish.
Anyone who cooks marshmallows knows that the basis is applesauce (from antonovka – ideally) from green apples, because they contain more pectin than others, and this is important for marshmallows. There is no pectin in persimmons! Therefore, this fruit will be mixed with applesauce. And there will be nuts! No, no, no… Of course, nuts do not carry any load for the marshmallow base. This is a delicious addition and “unusual” for marshmallows. You eat soft marshmallows and stumble upon pieces of nuts. They also decorate the top of the marshmallow. Such an airy and useful gift can be made to your dear people. And there are still a lot of reasons ahead!
Many people are probably familiar with the vitamin mixture of dried fruits and honey to strengthen the immune system. I propose to prepare a very tasty pastille, similar in composition to this most useful mixture. Sweets have a pronounced taste of prunes and chocolate.