Lent 2022: menu, dishes, diet. What can you eat during Lent? Nutrition calendar for Easter Lent

Fasting is quite common for believers. Most even prepare for the winter using only approved products. But still, creating a menu for these days causes a lot of difficulties. When Lent begins and ends in 2022, what you can eat by day of the week, as well as the best Lenten recipes, we will study together.

What is Lent?

Lent is a multi-day preparation of body, soul and spirit for the most important event of the Christian calendar - the Holy Resurrection of Christ. To the moment when a person has the opportunity to get as close as possible to God (forgive the tautology).

The Great (Easter) Lent lasts 40 days: in 2022 - from March 15 to April 23 (Holy Pentecost).

Next come Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday - April 24 and 25.

And the strictest week of fasting is Holy Week (from April 26 to May 1). Which, roughly speaking, no longer refers to Lent, however, people also consider this time to be part of Easter Lent.

Lenten recipes

Everyday and holiday menu
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Passions are...

What does the word “passion” mean in a Christian understanding? Translated into modern language these are “suffering” and “trials”. Accordingly, Holy Week is a week of suffering and trials. Who suffered and endured cruel trials this week? Jesus Christ. Holy Week is the last week of Christ's earthly life. This week He was betrayed, judged by an unjust court and crucified. That same week He was resurrected.

Holy Week is also called Red and Clean Week. Fasting these days is especially strict. In Orthodox churches, special services are held all week, at which the events of the last days of Christ’s life are remembered, and most importantly, they talk about His resurrection and the significance of this great event for all humanity and each person individually.

It is very desirable for every person to put aside all matters and live this entire week in a special way: visit temple, fast, and most importantly, reflect on your sins and ask God for forgiveness. Any sincere prayer can be heard by God, and even more so on Holy Week.

Why is Lent necessary?

During Lent, a person is given the opportunity to:

• cleanse your body
  of the excess load of heavy food (meaning animal products, which most of us abuse, and which inevitably leads to illness and suffering)
• cleanse the soul of the “stones”
  that have accumulated on it over the previous year (repent before God and people)
• and also strengthen your spirit
  in order to become closer to the Lord God, without being distracted by worldly pleasures and burdens (pray, directing your thoughts to the Almighty, and also simply observe fasting - which is oh how difficult...)

These are the main motives of Easter Lent. Naturally, you can comment and interpret each of the points for a long time. But not here and not now.

Lenten soup recipes

Meatless soups for Easter Lent and fasting days
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Recipes for Lenten main courses

Complete side dishes and main dishes without animal products!
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Lenten baking recipes

Bright Lenten baked goods for Lent and beyond...
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Advantages and disadvantages

Cheese Week - the week before Lent (preparatory)

To prepare for the strict regime of Lent, the church charter suggests a gradual abandonment of the usual rhythm and diet - over the course of a week.

The church name of this week is Cheese Week, the popular name is Maslenitsa.

The important thing here is that Maslenitsa is not a riotous and cheerful time, but a way to gradually prepare for fasting. You shouldn’t eat and drink “like the last time,” because you will have to endure it for a long time. It’s better to gradually move on to simple and light food, because the first week of Lent is oh so difficult...

Recipes for Maslenitsa

Pancakes and pancakes for every taste!
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Soups

The 2022 menu during Lent can be diversified with unusual variations of soups. Each housewife decides for herself how to prepare the soup; a lot of knowledge is passed on in this aspect from generation to generation. Some people cut the onion into cubes, some into rings, some add salt at the very end, and some at the stage of cooking the meat ingredient, when it is allowed into the diet.

However, not everyone knows that it is better to immerse all vegetables in water after it boils. This allows you to retain more vitamins in the pieces.

For children, you can also make the menu leaner. For example, by straining or draining the first broth in which the meat was cooked.

But, again, let's get down to specifics:

Borsch

Everyone knows how to cook borscht. But one can only be surprised at the number of options for preparing this dish. We offer borscht with beans. Detailed recipe for borscht with beans.

For frying, you can use fresh tomato or tomato paste. It needs to be added to pre-sauteed onions, carrots and beets, and then simmer all together for about 10 minutes. You can add garlic to taste. At this time, potatoes and cabbage are cooked, which, in the case of raw cabbage, can be added to the water at the same time. If the cabbage is salted or pickled, it is added a little later, when the potatoes are half cooked.

In our case, beans are not cooked together with vegetables. It is prepared in advance, since cooking regular beans takes quite a long time. Boiled beans can be added to the fry after 5 minutes of simmering. If you want to use green beans, which is also allowed, they should be placed in the water along with the potatoes. 5 minutes before the vegetables are ready in the pan, add frying and spices. At the very end - greens to taste. We also suggest that you familiarize yourself with the recipes:

1. Lenten borscht with beets;
2. delicious lean borscht in a slow cooker.

Lenten pickle

Since pickles are allowed in the Lenten diet, it is impossible not to take advantage of this. Our pickle will be distinguished not only by the absence of meat, but also by the presence of pearl barley in it. For frying, use traditional onions and carrots, plus grated cucumbers. They are added last, when there are 5 minutes left to simmer the onions and carrots. At this time, potatoes and pearl barley, added at the same time, are boiled in a saucepan. After 20-25 minutes of cooking, you can add the fry to the pan and cook for another 3 minutes. Season with salt, add herbs and serve. Lenten pickle recipe with pictures.

Chowder from preparations

If you are in the habit of storing food for future use, this recipe may be for you. You will need dried vegetables: carrots, tomatoes, sweet bell peppers. A small amount of canned corn is taken and stewed in a frying pan. Then it is added to pre-boiled potatoes. Sprinkle with spices, it’s good if there is ground celery root among them. After this, dried vegetables are placed there, but it is no longer necessary to cook. You can wait for the pieces of dried vegetables to soften and serve.

Nutrition calendar during Lent by week (table) in 2022

Table of products allowed for consumption during Lent, according to the Church Charter Typikon

, written a thousand years ago for monks living in the Mediterranean.

The charter specifies only the most strict rules and norms, which all believers must strive to observe.
The conditions for relaxations and exceptions are below. Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6

Week 7

* Xerophagy

- plant foods that have not been subject to heat treatment, fresh, dried or soaked vegetables and fruits (Typikon offers, for example: figs, dates, raisins, olives, nuts).

Lenten recipes without oil

For a lean diet without vegetable oil
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Lenten bread

All kinds of lean bread options for the menu for Lent
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List of Lenten Products

In the first week of fasting, proper nutrition is especially important. It will be easier to decide on such a step if, in addition to your mood, you prepare foods that are allowed during fasting:

• vegetables of all kinds;
• greens (parsley, dill, lettuce, sorrel, etc.);
• lean bread (malt, bran, rye);
• fruits;
• cereals;
• nuts and seeds of different varieties;
• candied fruit;
• dried fruits;
• legumes;
• mushrooms;
• jam;
• berries;
• unrefined vegetable oil (olive, sunflower, corn) - on certain days.

Diet. What can and cannot be eaten during Lent?

The general rules of nutrition during Lent are quite simple:

• You can’t eat any animal products except honey
• you can't drink wine
• vegetable oil cannot be used
• you should eat once a day

Should we all adhere to such strict rules?

Very unlikely.

The Orthodox Church recommends that the laity contact their clergy so that they can bless them for one or another version of fasting (with certain relaxations). On a personal basis. This is not just: “I bless everyone at once,” but the blessing of each individual parishioner, taking into account his physical condition, illness, age, etc.

The prayers say: “fast with a pleasant fast” (spiritually - author’s note). For it is important to impose upon yourself all possible bodily abstinence, focusing mainly on cleansing your soul.

We highly recommend that you listen to this recommendation so as not to harm yourself.

Lenten desserts

Lenten desserts for Easter Lent (if you can’t, but you really want to and can’t do otherwise)
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Exceptions to the General Rules

The general rules of Lent are relaxed on weekends - Saturdays and Sundays. This means that on all Saturdays and Sundays of Lent (except May 1) you can:

• eat twice a day
• drink wine and vegetable oil

And two more times throughout Lent you are allowed to eat fish: on the Feast of the Annunciation (April 7) and on Palm Sunday (The Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem - April 25). True, without caviar, which can be consumed only once - on Lazarus Saturday (the eve of Palm Sunday - April 24).

Porridge

Unusual oatmeal

It is also cooked with milk. But, attention! With coconut milk. If you like your oatmeal sweet, this is a great option. Oatmeal is cooked as usual, you can use only coconut milk, you can dilute it with water in the desired proportion. Add sugar. You can add apples while still cooking, or you can place pre-peeled and cut apple cubes on a plate after serving. In any case, such porridge will not seem boring and ordinary.

Recipe for lean porridge in a slow cooker

Simple pearl barley from a new perspective

Barley is cooked as usual. Add chopped tomato, herbs (basil or cilantro, whatever you prefer) to the hot porridge and add a little olive oil. You can add vegetable, but there will be no more piquancy.

Pea

For some, the addition of onions and herbs to pea porridge will be new. You can also add carrots. Onions and carrots should be fully or partially cooked when added to boiled peas. Therefore, chopped vegetables are fried in a frying pan in a small amount of vegetable or olive oil. After this, you need to add them to the cereal, season it, and let the porridge sit on the fire a little longer so that the flavors are properly infused. After turning off the gas, add your favorite herbs to taste. The dish is hearty and tasty.

Porridge in a frying pan

It is prepared from millet cereals with the addition of sauerkraut, onions and carrots. As in the previous recipe, onions and carrots are pre-sautéed. Then the pre-washed sauerkraut is placed in the frying pan and everything is kept under the lid for about 15 minutes. Then the washed millet is laid out there and filled with water. Salt and eat, that's it!

Based on these recipes, you can experiment with other vegetables. In most cases, the compatibility of products is so high that it is almost impossible to spoil the taste.