The bright Resurrection of Christ in 2019 will be celebrated by the Orthodox on April 28. The holiday is preceded by Great Lent, which in 2018 begins on March 11 and will last seven weeks.

Lent is the strictest and longest of all four multi-day fasts established by the Orthodox Church. Therefore, it can be difficult to start fasting without any preparation, and it will not harm your health for long if you do not know how to eat right.

The main goal of fasting is to achieve internal qualitative changes, as well as the desire of a Christian to follow the feat of Jesus Christ, who fasted for 40 days in the wilderness.

Fasting today is a voluntary act and is deeply individual in nature. During fasting, you need to devote your free time to prayers, humble desires for food, excluding any excesses and idleness, and strive for a more secluded lifestyle.

For seven weeks, you will have to give up meat, eggs, milk, cottage cheese and other animal products. At the same time, food intake per day is limited.

Lenten menu

Fasting is primarily abstaining from abundant food, and not exhaustion of the body, so the lean menu should be varied and rich in vitamins.

The lean menu can be quite diverse - during Lent you can cook various cereals, lean pilaf, pasta, soups, cutlets, salads, and so on.

Porridge - corn, buckwheat, rice, oatmeal, millet, barley, pea, beans, pearl barley and others - can be cooked in water. For example, rice porridge can be varied by adding pumpkin, mushrooms, raisins, dried fruits, or jam.

You can and should eat any vegetables - all kinds of cabbage, carrots, beets, radishes, potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, green beans and others that exist in nature are at your service.

It is important during this period to eat a lot of bell peppers and fresh herbs, as they are rich in many vitamins and minerals needed to maintain health.

You can also eat any fruit available this season - apples, pears, bananas, oranges, and so on. You can use jams, dried fruits, pickles, honey, nuts and spices.

© Sputnik / Alexander Imedashvili

Xerophagy

According to church canons, it is necessary to draw up a menu of lean cuisine according to the following principles - in the first and last (Passion) weeks of Great Lent, as well as on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays - dry eating.

On these days, it is allowed to eat fruits, vegetables, dried fruits, nuts, that is, the use of exclusively raw, thermally unprocessed food and lean bread. On this day, it is not even recommended to drink tea or compote.

If desired, you can prepare vegetable or fruit salads, the latter can be seasoned with honey.

"Exotic" salad

Put the chopped cabbage in a bowl, lightly sprinkle with salt and rub with your hands so that the cabbage softens and gives juice. The juice should be drained. Rub the carrots on a coarse grater and add to the cabbage. Finely chop the onion, a couple of garlic cloves and a few celery sprigs. Cut a fresh cucumber, apple or orange into cubes. Pour lemon juice, salt, pepper and mix all the ingredients. This quirky and savory salad will energize you all day.

Days without oil

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, you can eat hot, plant-based foods without oil. On these days, you can pamper yourself with various cereals and soups, and you can also use jams, pickles, herbs and so on.

Bean soup with pasta

Boil the red beans, add some pasta, finely chopped onion, garlic and a bunch of cilantro, spices to a saucepan and cook until tender. Then add salt and the soup is ready.

You can expand the menu these days with baked potatoes and other vegetables. You can also make lean spaghetti - boil pasta in salted water and season with tomato paste. On these days you can drink tea and compotes.

Mushroom, potato, cabbage, carrot lean cutlets, in which eggs can be easily replaced with semolina as a fixative, can also be the second dishes on the menu during fasting. On days when the use of oil is prohibited, cutlets can be steamed.

With butter

On Saturday and Sunday (except the last Saturday of Great Lent), food with the addition of vegetable oil is allowed. Here you can give free rein to your imagination and cook various dishes - soups, salads, lean cutlets and pilaf, and so on.

Mushroom soup

Fry finely chopped onion and garlic in a saucepan and pour boiling water over the fry. As soon as the water boils, you need to pour a handful of rice into the pan, and after 10 minutes put the mushrooms in the pan and cook a little. Then add a few inflorescences of cauliflower or broccoli, grated carrots and bell peppers (preferably red), chopped cilantro, dill and cook the soup until tender. Then add salt and start dinner.

"Markitanka" salad

Boil the potatoes and cut into cubes. Add shredded sauerkraut (preferably red), a jar of canned corn, chopped green onions, parsley, cilantro, dill, celery, oil, lemon juice and mix well.

Fish day

During Lent, fish is allowed to be eaten only twice - on the Annunciation (April 7) and on Palm Sunday, which falls on April 9 in 2017. These days fish can be eaten both boiled and fried, and if you are a fan of Japanese cuisine, you can treat yourself to sushi.

Soup

Put a whole onion and chopped carrots in boiling salted water. Cook for about five minutes over medium heat. Add potatoes and cook until tender. Very carefully, one piece at a time, we lay the fish (both red and white will do), without stirring so as not to crumble. Bring to a boil over low heat, add bay leaves, allspice and finely chopped fresh herbs, and remove - the fish will be ready.

Fish baked in foil

In foil, you can bake any fish - river, sea, both in pieces and whole (if it is small).

Cut the fish into pieces or leave whole, put on foil, pepper and salt. Greens, preferably oregano or tarragon, can be put in the belly of the fish, on its carcass or pieces. Then sprinkle with lemon juice, or cover with lemon slices, fasten the edges of the foil and bake until tender.

Treats

Of course, the main point of fasting is spiritual cleansing and refusal not only from certain foods, but also from harmful passions, evil words and deeds, bad mood and irritability. But I want variety even in fasting.

To the delight of many fasting sweets, many lean sweets have been produced in recent years. You can also eat dark chocolate, nuts, fruit and berry preserves, jams, dried fruits, halva, natural marmalade, biscuit biscuits and so on. The main thing is that desserts do not contain milk and its derivatives, animal fats.

You can also make a variety of goodies at home. For example, you can cook dessert salad.

Chop any fruit - apples, pears, oranges, add raisins, chopped nuts and dried apricots, and season the salad with liquid honey.

For cooking lemon gingerbread cookie you will need: 100 grams of wheat flour; 100 grams of water; 40 grams of olive oil; 30 grams of fresh ginger; one lemon; one full cup of honey; one tsp baking powder for the dough.

Peel and peel the lemon, chop the pulp with a blender. Rub the ginger on a fine grater, mix honey with warm water (a little to dissolve). Stir 100 ml of water, sifted flour, diluted honey, baking powder, olive oil, ginger and lemon - the dough should turn out thick, its thickness can be adjusted with the amount of water, or additionally adding flour if the dough is thin.

After covering, leave the kneaded dough for 10-15 minutes at room temperature. Heat the oven to 150 degrees, line the baking sheet with foil, make cookies of the desired shape from the dough and bake for 15 minutes.

The material was prepared on the basis of open sources

The weekly lean menu offered to your attention is rather mild - it contains dishes with fish and seafood. Refusal from animal products to untrained citizens seems like something incredible, so it makes sense to introduce seafood into your lean menu once or twice a week. In addition, greens, nuts, honey, dried fruits, fruits and fresh vegetables must be present on your table, and not only during fasting - all these products enrich the body with vitamins and microelements. Instead of the usual coffee and tea, use an infusion of dried fruits, sweetened with honey or stevia decoction.

Fasting is a good reason to live without canned foods, sauces and semi-finished products stuffed with "chemistry", and to cleanse not only the body, but also the soul.

Breakfast

Buckwheat pancakes with onion baking

Ingredients:
1 stack. buckwheat flour,
1 cup wheat flour
10 g of compressed yeast,
½ cup cold water
¼ stack. hot water,
1 onion
salt, sugar, vegetable oil - to taste.

Preparation:
Dissolve wheat with cold water, stir and pour in cold water. Add yeast and let sit. Knead the matched dough, add salt, sugar, buckwheat flour and let rise again. Knead the dough again before baking, add finely chopped onion. Fry in vegetable oil like regular pancakes.

Fresh cabbage salad with corn

Ingredients:
500 g of white or Peking cabbage,
1 can of canned corn
1 green apple
½ lemon (juice),
olive oil.

Preparation:
Finely chop cabbage, apple into small cubes, mix with corn and season with lemon juice and vegetable oil.

Ingredients:
400 g boiled chickpeas,
2 tbsp olives or pitted olives,
½ sweet onion,
½ lemon (juice),
1 tbsp parsley,
salt, black pepper, olive oil - to taste.

Preparation:
Chop the onion into small cubes, chop the olives or olives too. Mash boiled chickpeas with a fork, add onions, olives, herbs and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Spread this mass on toast or slices of black bread.

Winter salad

Ingredients:
2-3 boiled potatoes,
3 pickled cucumbers,
½ onion,
a handful of sauerkraut,
vegetable oil.

Preparation:
Rinse the cabbage, if it is too sour, cut the potatoes into cubes, cucumbers into strips, onions into half rings. Stir and season with vegetable oil.

Ingredients:
300 g of boiled beans
1 apple,
250 g of boiled beets,
½ lemon (juice),
vegetable oil.

Preparation:
Cut the apple into cubes, the beets into strips. Combine all ingredients and season with lemon juice and vegetable oil.

Ingredients:
200 g bulgur,
200 g frozen vegetable mix
800 ml vegetable broth,
vegetable oil.

Preparation:
Fry bulgur in vegetable oil, add vegetables and fry until half cooked. Pour in broth, bring to a boil, cover and cook for 15 minutes.

Ingredients:
500 g potatoes
3-4 tablespoons vegetable oil,
1 small onion
1 clove of garlic
greens, salt, black pepper - to taste.

Preparation:
Grate the peeled potatoes on a coarse grater and squeeze out the moisture. Chop the onion into small cubes, chop the garlic with a knife, finely chop the greens. Stir in potatoes. Heat the oil in a skillet and lay out the grated potatoes, leveling them with a fork. Season with salt and pepper. Let it brown and turn the pancake with a spatula.

Lunches

Oven soup

Ingredients:
3-4 potatoes,
1 carrot,
1 stalk of celery
1 onion
1 bell pepper
2 tomatoes,
vegetable oil, salt, pepper - to taste.

Preparation:
Cut potatoes into cubes, onions, carrots and celery into small cubes, tomatoes into slices, bell peppers into strips. Place all vegetables in a large earthenware pot or rooster, cover with boiling water or vegetable broth and simmer in a hot oven. Season with salt and pepper to taste, sprinkle with herbs and serve. This soup can be prepared in a multicooker.

Ingredients:
3-5 potatoes,
1 onion
1 carrot,
200 g fresh champignons,
½ a can of green peas,
greens.

Preparation:
Cut potatoes, onions and carrots into cubes, cover with boiling water, add peas and chopped mushrooms. Boil, reduce heat to medium and cook soup until tender. Add any greens, cut into strips, boil for 5 minutes and remove from heat.

Ingredients:
500 g cabbage
1 beet
1 carrot,
1 bell pepper
1-2 tomatoes,
3-4 potatoes,
greens, salt, black pepper, a little flour, vegetable oil.

Preparation:
Chop the cabbage, put it in a saucepan and cover with boiling salted water. In the meantime, grate the beets on a coarse grater and put them to stew, adding a little vinegar. In a separate skillet, fry the grated carrots, finely diced onions and bell peppers. When the vegetables are browned, add a little flour and chopped tomatoes, which can be peeled off first. Place the chopped potatoes in a pot of cabbage. When the potatoes are almost ready, put the beets and fried vegetables in a saucepan, add a pinch of sugar and herbs. When serving, you can add a little garlic.

Lean pickle

Ingredients:
100 g of rice
2 pickled cucumbers,
3 potatoes,
1 carrot,
1 stalk of celery
1 onion
spices to taste.

Preparation:
Peel the cucumbers and cut into small cubes. Pour the peel with a little water and simmer for 15 minutes, then remove it and add the sliced ​​cucumbers, which also boil for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, chop the vegetables, cover with boiling water and cook with the rice. When the vegetables and rice are almost ready, add the cucumbers along with the broth, salt, if necessary, spices to taste and serve, sprinkled with herbs.

Ingredients:
500 g fresh cabbage
300 g broccoli
3-4 potatoes,
1 carrot,
1 onion
salt and pepper to taste.

Preparation:
In boiling salted water, add in turn, each time waiting for a boil, vegetables in the following order: potatoes, cabbage, carrots, onions, broccoli. Carrots and onions can be pre-fried in vegetable oil. Serve with fresh herbs.

Ingredients:
1 fish carcass,
1 carrot,
1 onion
2 tomatoes,
1 celery root,
3-4 potatoes,
greens, salt, black pepper.

Preparation:
Pour the washed fish with cold water, add salt, celery root and carrots and cook until tender. Strain the broth, bring to a boil and add the potatoes, chopped peeled tomatoes and the onion, cook for 15 minutes. Add boneless fish pieces and fresh herbs before serving.

Ingredients:
3 tbsp white or red beans
3 potatoes,
1 onion
1 carrot,
½ beets,
¼ a head of white cabbage,
4-5 tomatoes,
salt, black pepper, bay leaf, vegetable oil, lemon juice.

Preparation:
Soak the beans for 6 hours (or overnight). Cook until half cooked. Fry onions and carrots in vegetable oil until golden brown. Chop the tomatoes with a blender and pour into a frying pan. Grate the beets on a coarse grater and stew with the addition of lemon juice under the lid. Boil water, add salt, add potatoes and cook until half cooked, then add beets, beans and fry. Bring to a boil, add the chopped cabbage and cook the borscht. Serve sprinkled with herbs. You can grind the garlic with salt and place it in bowls.

Dinner

Lobio. Soak red beans overnight, drain the water in the morning, fill with clean cold water, put 1 onion, cut into 4 parts, 3-4 cloves of garlic, 1-2 stalks of celery, sprigs of parsley (cut the leaves and set aside for now) and 3-5 tbsp .l. vegetable oil, cover and simmer. The beans should be cooked for a very long time until they are completely boiled. When the beans are boiled, add adjika (real, salted), a little vinegar or citric acid, salt and chop with a blender. Add parsley leaves, bring to a boil again and remove from heat.

Ingredients:
500 g flour
1 stack. water,
some salt.
Filling:
150 g dried mushrooms
1 onion
1 stack. mashed potatoes,
vegetable oil, salt - to taste.

Preparation:
Knead a tough dough from flour, water, salt and vegetable oil, put it in a plastic bag and let it rest for about an hour at room temperature. Meanwhile, boil the dried mushrooms until soft, cut into small pieces, salt and fry in vegetable oil along with onions. Add mashed potatoes. Cool the filling and cook the dumplings. Boil them in boiling salted water until they float.

Ingredients:
350 g potatoes,
100 g cauliflower
1 onion
100 g of rice
vegetable oil, salt, black pepper, herbs - to taste.

Preparation:
Boil potatoes and rice in salted water, steam cauliflower. Fry chopped onions in vegetable oil. Mix all the ingredients, grind with a blender, add rice, herbs and salt. Form small patties and bake them in the oven.

Cabbage stewed with beans

Ingredients:
500 g fresh cabbage
1 carrot,
1 onion
1 can of canned beans in tomato sauce
2-3 tbsp vegetable oil,
1 tbsp Sahara,
salt, black pepper to taste.

Preparation:
Fry onions and carrots in vegetable oil, add cabbage, salt, pepper, add sugar and simmer covered for 15 minutes. Add the beans along with the sauce and simmer until the cabbage is soft.

Ingredients:
1 loose head of cabbage
½ stack. rice,
1 onion
1 carrot,
2 stacks tomato juice
1-3 cloves of garlic
salt, black pepper, herbs, vegetable oil.

Preparation:
Disassemble the cabbage into leaves by dipping it into boiling water and removing the leaves as they soften. Cool and cut or beat off the blunt side of the knife for the bumps on the leaves. In the meantime, prepare the filling. Boil the rice until half cooked. Save the onion until golden brown in vegetable oil, add the carrots and fry until tender. Pour ½ stack into the roast. tomato juice, add garlic and let it boil. Combine rice and vegetable stir-fry and let cool. Wrap the filling in cabbage leaves, fry in vegetable oil and place in a saucepan. Pour in tomato juice, add a little water, salt, pepper and simmer for 30-40 minutes.

Ingredients:
400-500 g hake or cod fillet,
1 onion
2 slices of white bread
50-100 g of cabbage,
½ bunch of greens,
vegetable oil, salt, black pepper.

Preparation:
Grind the fish fillet in a meat grinder or blender. Soak the bread in water and squeeze, add to the minced meat, put very finely chopped onion, chopped greens and finely chopped cabbage there. Stir, add a little vegetable oil and shape into small patties. Steam it. Serve with potatoes or rice.

Ingredients:
250 g rice
200 g frozen seafood
1 onion
1 carrot,
200 g frozen peas or green beans,
salt, black pepper, a pinch of turmeric, vegetable oil.

Preparation:
Boil rice. Salt the onions and carrots until golden brown in vegetable oil. Add seafood and green peas to the vegetables, stir, salt and simmer until the water evaporates. Add rice and simmer until tender.

Ingredients:
1 stack. buckwheat groats,
2 stacks water,
1 onion
1 carrot,
500 g champignons or oyster mushrooms,
1 tbsp flour,
salt, ground pepper, herbs, vegetable oil - to taste.

Preparation:
Rinse the buckwheat in several waters, pour boiling water over it, add salt to taste and wrap it in a warm blanket. Meanwhile, fry the carrots grated on a coarse grater in vegetable oil until golden brown and mix it with one stripped off buckwheat. Cut the mushrooms into pieces, fry in a dry frying pan until the liquid evaporates, then add a little vegetable oil and simmer under the lid. In another pan, save the chopped onion until transparent, sprinkle with flour and fry until the flour smell disappears. Add mushrooms, stir, salt, pepper and pour in enough water to make a sauce of the consistency you need. Serve porridge with sauce and sprinkle with herbs.

Bon Appetit!

Larisa Shuftaykina

A lean menu for a week allows you to get rid of a few extra pounds by reducing the amount of fat consumed. The basis of the diet is made up of dishes prepared by believers in Orthodox fasts.

Basic principles and mechanism of action of lean nutrition

The lean diet is based on four principles:

• moderation in nutrition;
• correct daily rhythm;
• thorough chewing of food;
• vegetable food.

A lean diet has a positive effect on the state of the body, contributing to the normalization of the work of all its organs. People whose menu includes vegetables, fruits and other plant products are less likely to suffer from cardiovascular diseases, atherosclerosis and other pathologies.

Such nutrition allows you to get rid of a few extra pounds. The achieved result is stable, that is, the lost kilograms are not returned. This is due to the fact that a lean diet does not stress the body, so it does not begin to stock up on calories for future use.

To speed up metabolism and improve digestion during the period of dieting, it is recommended to drink plenty of fluids - at least 2 liters per day.

Allowed and Prohibited Products

A diet based on lean dishes involves the use of some foods and prohibits others.

It is allowed to eat vegetables, fruits, mushrooms, vegetable oil in limited quantities (no more than 40 g per day), cereals, flour products in limited quantities, legumes. It is forbidden to eat meat, including poultry, dairy and sour milk products, eggs, fish, seafood. A lean diet does not prohibit drinking tea and coffee.

Lenten menu options for the week

An option for a weekly menu with a complete rejection of animal products can be something like this:

1. Monday. Breakfast - lean porridge made from millet and pumpkin in water, green tea (sugar is not recommended). Lunch - cabbage salad (fresh, not pickled vegetable is used) with the addition of lemon juice, vegetable borscht, 200 ml of unsalted mineral water. Afternoon snack - 1 banana, compote, cooked from dried fruits. Dinner - carrot and beetroot salad, lingonberry with a little sugar, herbal tea.
2. Tuesday. Breakfast - boiled or oven-baked potatoes, some caviar made from any mushrooms, black coffee or chicory. Lunch - salad from any vegetables, lean pea soup, unsweetened fruit drink from wild berries. Afternoon snack - stewed zucchini, fruits or berries. Dinner - cabbage rolls (you can use rice, mushrooms or other lean product as a filling), black or herbal tea.
3. Wednesday. Breakfast - salad (carrot with apple), compote or tea. Lunch - salad of any vegetables (carrot, beetroot, with radish), soup with cabbage, 1 loaf, mineral water. Afternoon snack - meatballs made from boiled potatoes, jelly from fruits and berries. Dinner - pea croquettes, black tea with 2 tsp. berry or fruit jam.
4. Thursday. Breakfast - eggplant baked in the oven, toast from rye or whole grain bread, black coffee. Lunch - vegetable salad, zucchini soup, rye bread toast, herbal tea. Afternoon snack - carrot salad with a little turnips. Dinner - rice porridge in water with prunes, herbal decoction.
5. Friday. A seven-day lean diet includes 1 fasting day, during which you need to drink water, fruit drinks and juices. It is advisable to go to the bathhouse on this day.
6. Saturday. Breakfast - buckwheat, light salad (cabbage with carrots, beets or other vegetables), seasoned with lemon juice, black coffee or chicory. Lunch - lean soup with legumes, still mineral water. Afternoon snack - 2 sour apples, baked in the oven. Dinner - boiled potatoes or mashed potatoes and some homemade squash caviar.
7. Sunday. Breakfast - rye bread toast, green tea. Lunch - any vegetable soup, cucumber salad, tea. Afternoon snack - cereal casserole with pumpkin, jelly. Dinner - rye pudding, berry juice.

A seven-day lean menu will help you get rid of 5-7 kg.

Recipes

The lean diet includes low-calorie meals. There are many recipes, adhering to which, you can eat tasty and healthy.

Pea barley soup is an excellent first course. For cooking, you will need 1 liter of water, 1 glass of peas and pearl barley, 1 small carrot, 1 onion, parsley root (to taste), 1 tbsp. l. olive oil, a little salt.

The preparation of the dish begins with soaking the peas. This should be done in the evening. In the morning, pearl barley is added to the peas (there is no need to drain the water). The container is put on fire. While the cereals are boiling, you need to peel and chop the onions and roots, fry them in olive oil and add to the soup a few minutes until tender.

A delicious soup can be made with vegetables and ginger. It will require 1/4 of a head of cauliflower, 2 tbsp. l. olive oil, 1 small onion, 1 tbsp. l. chopped ginger root, 3 cloves of garlic, 1/4 chili, a little salt and black pepper, 600 ml water, 300 g tomatoes,

It is necessary to fry the onions in oil in a saucepan until cooked, add vegetables and fry with the onions, pour water, bring to a boil. Then add the tomatoes, peeled and cut into small slices. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes. Greens are added to the soup before serving.

Bishop-style potatoes can be served for dinner. For cooking, you will need 1.5 kg of potatoes, 5 tbsp. l. sunflower oil, 2 tbsp. l. flour, a little salt. Peel and boil the potatoes, cool and cut into cubes or slices. Heat oil in a frying pan and place potatoes in it. After frying the vegetable, add flour, stir quickly and fry for a few more minutes until a golden crust appears. The dish can be served with a salad made from fresh cabbage, seasoned with lemon juice.

Bean croquettes are a good second choice. Prepared from 500 g of beans, peas or other legumes (a mixture of products is also suitable), 1 tsp. Provencal herbs, 1 tbsp. l. vegetable oil and salt. You need some more bread crumbs for frying.

The legumes should be soaked overnight and boiled in the morning until soft. Then you need to drain the remaining water and grind the mass with a blender. Salt, add herbs. From the cooked mass, you should form meatballs, roll them in breadcrumbs and fry. You can serve croquettes with a salad made from fresh cucumbers.

Great Lent is a time of testing and spiritual cleansing. We refuse food containing animal fats and ... are faced with a large selection of plant foods. But how to choose from them those that will help us make the diet quite diverse and replace the usual animal products. Let's try to make a more or less familiar menu from plant products. So, we start from what we often eat in ordinary, fast-paced life.

Since the majority of fasting people do not follow all the rules of fasting to the subtleties, namely, they do not limit themselves to hot food and vegetable oil, although the rules of Lent recommend doing this, which you can read about in more detail. We will focus on the majority and not think about which day you can use vegetable oil and which day you shouldn't.

Breakfast

Perhaps the most difficult fasting meal is the morning meal. Time is short, it is impossible to cook for a long time, you want something very light, but at the same time nutritious and high in protein and vitamins. In addition, you want to eat quite satisfyingly, since you do not know what awaits you during the day and whether you will be able to find lean food. Before Lent, egg dishes and a variety of curds did an excellent job with all these tasks. Now they are not available ...

Beverages. The usual tea-coffee of plant origin, although the milk we add to them is a prohibited product. But now there are many options for a vegetable substitute: almond, coconut, oatmeal, soy ... However, fasting is the best time to add variety to your life and try to drink herbal infusions, berry drinks and so on instead of tea and coffee.

Lunch at the office

It requires something compact, convenient, that you can eat without getting dirty. And besides, something that doesn't smell too strong.

Sandwich... We have already figured out the bread. All kinds of pita bread, pita bread, all kinds of flat cakes are also suitable, and finally, rice paper, in which you can also wrap anything. It is convenient to make sandwiches with a variety of vegetables: cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, celery, stewed beets, cabbage, fried eggplant-zucchini. You can tamp mashed potatoes or beans into pita, make cutlets from chickpeas or some vegetables.

Various recipes for lean sandwiches you will find

Lean cutlets... There are a lot of options. The only problem is that these options add up to one cutlet. Chickpea flour, mashed potatoes, semolina will help to glue finely grated vegetables into a homogeneous mass.

4 potatoes

2 small carrots

2-3 st. l. canned corn

2-3 st. l. canned peas

1 tbsp. l. lemon juice

½ onion

salt, black pepper, chili pepper, turmeric

2-3 st. l. flour

breadcrumbs

vegetable oil for frying

Step 1. Boil potatoes and carrots.

Step 2. Boil the carrots until half cooked, then peel, cut into small cubes.

Step 3. Finely chop the onion and fry it.

Step 4. Mix the peas, corn and carrots.

Step 5. Peel potatoes, crush them, add onions and other vegetables. Add flour.

Step 6. Stir everything and mold the cutlets.

Step 7. Roll in breadcrumbs and fry in vegetable oil.

You will find more recipes for lean cutlets

Salad with cereals. Raw vegetables and leftovers from the porridge you cooked for breakfast are great options for lunch. In addition, such a salad turns out to be very satisfying and healthy. In principle, you can use absolutely any vegetables and cereals, endlessly experimenting with tastes.

100 g of boiled buckwheat

1 handful of cherry tomatoes

½ lettuce onion

½ bell pepper

Olive oil

Lemon juice

Salt and pepper

1/3 tsp sesame

Step 1. Cut all vegetables into large cubes.

Step 2. Finely chop the greens. Cut the onion into thin half rings.

Step 3. Mix buckwheat and vegetables, sprinkle with herbs, add onion.

Step 4. Beat olive oil with lemon juice, salt and pepper. Season the salad with the sauce.

Step 5. Sprinkle sesame seeds over the salad and place in a container or jar.

Sauce. It is advisable to season sandwiches with vegetables and vegetable salads with sauce. You can just use vegetable oil, or you can use lean mayonnaise bought in a store. But it's best to make your own lean mayonnaise. That is, it will certainly not be mayonnaise, but the sauce is very similar to it. For example, from mashed canned beans. This can be used to season both vinaigrette and Olivier.

Bean mayonnaise

1 can of white beans

300 ml vegetable oil

Sugar and salt

1 tsp mustard powder

2 tbsp lemon juice

Step 1. Pour the water from the can of beans into a separate bowl.

Step 2. Punch the beans in a blender, season with salt and pepper. Add sugar.

Step 3. Add mustard without stopping whisking.

Step 4. Without stopping whisking, pour vegetable oil in a thin stream.

Step 5. Squeeze the juice into mayonnaise, beat again and store (it can stand up to 10 days in the refrigerator).

Dinner

Lenten stew Photo: Shutterstock.com

Vegetable pancakes. If you grate a couple of potatoes, zucchini, cabbage and carrots. Add a little semolina or some flour to all this - you get excellent pancakes. Instead of potatoes, you can use millet or rice porridge, wiped through a sieve. You can experiment with vegetables.

Fry such pancakes in a pan, and then bring to readiness in the oven. You can also steam them to avoid consuming a lot of fried oil.

By the way, if you want sweet pancakes for dinner, use a banana as a base.

1 cup round rice, cooked

400 g pumpkin pulp

3 tbsp Sahara

2 tbsp chickpea flour

½ glass of almond milk

1-2 tsp vegetable oil

Step 1. Grate the pumpkin on the finest grater.

Step 2. Cook the rice, and then puree it with a blender.

Step 3. Mix pumpkin with rice, add flour and some milk and baking soda. Season with salt and sugar.

Step 4. Heat a frying pan, sprinkle with oil, put culinary rings on it, put pancake dough in them and fry on both sides for 1 minute.

Step 5. Bring to readiness in the oven.

We replace the meat. Perhaps one of the most difficult problems for meat lovers is to be left without it during the post. In terms of taste and structure, it is quite difficult to replace it, let's be honest. We will not take soy sausage and roast for full-fledged substitutes. But if meat cannot be replaced by taste, then in terms of content, in principle, it is possible. A large amount of protein and vitamins is found in legumes (lentils, chickpeas, beans, peas, mung bean), in some cereals (buckwheat, quinoa), good saturation is given and perceived as a main dish - eggplants, mushrooms.

To increase the calorie content of dishes, add a little nuts to them, although they are fatty, they contain a lot of protein and vitamins.

Finally, look for plant-based sources of calcium, iron, and vitamins. Very good as an addition to salads and vegetables - sesame seeds. There is an abyss of calcium in it.

Seafood. Fish is allowed during Lent only twice, on April 7 on the Annunciation and on Palm Sunday, on April 24. But on other days you can eat seafood. Most often they are recommended to be eaten only on weekends, but formally they are not prohibited at all and they can be consumed on any days, except those on which you need to eat only raw food.

The proposed Lenten menu for the week does not fully comply with the strict church rules. Although the ministers of the Church themselves say that strict adherence to the precepts during fasting is the lot of priests and monks, for the laity, it is enough to simply refuse animal products. How to conduct Lent is up to you. And our site offers an exemplary weekly lean menu for those who decide to conduct the upcoming post with minimal restrictions.

Any menu, and even more so a lean menu for a week, should always be replete with fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs. All kinds of salads, green smoothies and fruit platter should be on your table at all times. The more fresh food in the diet, the more you get vitamins, trace elements and enzymes - enzymes responsible for autolysis (self-digestion of food). The constant consumption of fresh vegetables and fruits allows the body not to waste its own enzymes for digesting food. And this affects the figure in the best way, because overeating vegetables, especially fresh ones, is quite difficult. For the duration of the fast, give up purchased juices and other drinks, prepare kvass with rye flour. And from leavened leaven you can quickly and easily make homemade bread.

The Russian Lenten menu is very varied. These are soups, pickles, cabbage soup and borscht, many second vegetable and mushroom dishes, as well as lean pastries and drinks. In old cookbooks, lean recipes take up almost more space than a fast table. But life does not stand still, and in our lean menu for a week, we decided to use vegetarian dishes from various cuisines of the world.

Depending on your preference, you can have cereal, salad or energy cocktail for breakfast. Porridge can be cooked at night, pouring well-washed cereals with boiling water and wrapping a saucepan in a blanket - this way more nutrients will be retained in the cereal. True, the porridge prepared in this way will have to be reheated. It is easier for owners of multicooker and slow cooker in this regard - in the evening, measure out the prescribed amount of cereal and water, set a timer, and in the morning you will be woken up by the smell of freshly cooked porridge. If porridge in the morning is too satisfying for you, then prepare an energy cocktail from greens or wheat germs. To do this, grind a handful of herbs or sprouted grains in a blender, add 1-2 fruits to taste and top up with clean water if it turns out too thick. Or stretch your breakfast twice by drinking a glass of freshly squeezed juice in the morning, and after a couple of hours, having breakfast more thoroughly (porridge or salad).

Monday

Dinner - Pea soup with barley

Ingredients:
1 liter of water
1 stack. peas,
1 tbsp pearl barley,
½ carrots,
½ onion,
½ parsley root,
1 tbsp vegetable oil,
greens, salt - to taste.

Preparation:
Soak the peas overnight. In the morning, add pearl barley to the peas and, without draining the water, set to cook. Cut the roots and onions into small cubes, fry in oil and add to the peas when they are almost ready. Season with salt and herbs.

Dinner - Bishop potatoes

Ingredients:
1.5 kg of potatoes,
5 tbsp vegetable oil,
2 tbsp flour,
salt to taste.

Preparation:
Boil peeled potatoes, cool and cut into large slices. Heat vegetable oil in a frying pan and fry the potato slices on it, add flour at the end of frying, mix quickly and thoroughly and fry until golden brown. Serve with fresh cabbage salad.

Tuesday

Dinner - Creamy tomato soup

Ingredients:
1.5 kg of tomatoes in their own juice,
1 onion
5 cloves of garlic
2 medium potatoes
1 stack. water,
100-200 g cashew nuts,
salt to taste.

Preparation:
Soak the nuts in clean water overnight. Put the tomatoes in a saucepan, cover with water and put on fire. When it boils, add the onion, garlic and potatoes, bring to a boil, reduce heat and cook for 10-15 minutes until tender. Pour the soup into a blender, add the nuts and beat until smooth. Add any seasonings to taste and salt if needed.

Dinner - Legume croquettes

Ingredients:
500 g of any legumes (peas, chickpeas, beans, mung bean or their mixture),
1 tsp seasonings "Provencal herbs",
vegetable oil, salt - to taste,
breadcrumbs for frying.

Preparation:
Soak the washed legumes overnight in clean water. Boil over high heat, let it boil and reduce heat to low. Cook the legumes until soft. Drain off any remaining water and use a blender to grind the whole mixture until smooth. Season with salt, seasonings and pepper to taste. From the resulting mass, make small cutlets, roll them in breadcrumbs and fry in hot vegetable oil until golden brown. Serve with guacamole sauce (sauce made of avocado, garlic, lemon juice and vegetable oil) and lettuce and tomato and cucumber.

Wednesday

Dinner - Vegetable soup with ginger

Ingredients:
2 tbsp olive oil,
1 onion
¼ broccoli heads,
¼ heads of cauliflower,
1 tbsp grated ginger
3 cloves of garlic
¼ chili peppers,
½ tsp a mixture of black pepper and salt,
3 stacks vegetable broth or water,
300 g tomatoes
5 tbsp vegetable oil.

Preparation:
In a large saucepan, heat the oil and save the onions in it until soft, add other vegetables, ginger, garlic, pepper, salt and pepper mixture and sauté until soft. Then add water or vegetable stock, chopped peeled tomatoes, bring to a boil and reduce heat. Cook for about 20 minutes. Sprinkle with herbs to taste before serving. You can add a little grated coconut to the soup, this will add exoticism and piquancy.

Dinner - Curry with mushrooms

Ingredients:
300 g of mushrooms (champignons, oyster mushrooms),
½ large onion,
6 cloves of garlic
1 tsp cumin,
1 tsp ground coriander,
1 tsp chili peppers
½ tsp turmeric,
½ tsp salt,
1 tbsp tomato paste
3 tbsp chopped cilantro.

Preparation:
Salt the finely chopped onion in hot oil until transparent, add the garlic and fry for about a minute. Then add cumin, coriander, chili and turmeric, stir and simmer for 4-5 minutes. Add 1-3 tbsp. water, stir and add the chopped mushrooms, tomato paste and salt. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat, and simmer for about 10 minutes. Sprinkle with fresh cilantro before serving. For garnish, you can serve couscous or brown rice.

Thursday

Dinner - Lean cabbage soup with mushrooms

Ingredients:
600 g sauerkraut,
6 dry porcini mushrooms,
1 tbsp buckwheat groats,
2 onions
1 potato,
1 carrot,
1 turnip or rutabaga (optional)
4 cloves of garlic
2 tbsp vegetable oil,
bay leaf, black peppercorns, herbs, salt - to taste.

Preparation:
Place the sauerkraut in an earthenware pot, pour 500 ml of boiling water and place in a hot oven for 30 minutes. Then pour the broth into a separate bowl, and salt the cabbage, add finely chopped onion and add vegetable oil. Stir until the oil is absorbed into the cabbage. Then transfer the cabbage to the broth and put the pot over the fire. Boil the pre-soaked mushrooms in 1 liter of water, combine the mushroom broth with cabbage, add buckwheat and simmer the cabbage soup over low heat until the cabbage is cooked.

Dinner - Red lentil cutlets

Ingredients:
1 stack. brown rice
½ stack. red lentils,
3.5 stack. water,
1 tsp cumin seeds,
1 red bell pepper
1 onion
1 tsp corn starch,
1-2 tsp vegetable oil,
salt to taste.
For the sauce:
¼ stack. coconut flakes,
1 tsp grated ginger
2 tsp chopped mint
2 tsp honey,
1 tsp soy sauce,
1 tsp lemon juice
1 clove of garlic

Preparation:
Pour water into a saucepan, put all the ingredients in it, except for starch and vegetable oil, cover and cook over low heat until the water is completely boiled away. Cool the resulting mass, add starch and mix well. Form patties and fry until golden brown in vegetable oil. For the sauce, place all the ingredients in a blender and whisk. Serve with any salad.

Friday

Dinner - Vegetable soup

Ingredients:
2 medium stalks of leeks,
6-8 large potatoes,
1 stack. frozen peas,
2 tbsp vegetable oil,
2-3 cloves of garlic
2 tbsp flour,
1 liter of water
salt, pepper - to taste.

Preparation:
Cut the leeks across into thin, round slices. Coarsely chop the potatoes. Salt the leeks and garlic for 2-3 minutes in vegetable oil, add flour, stir and add 1 cup. water. Stir well so that the flour does not grab into lumps, put the potatoes in the mixture, add the remaining water and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat and cook until potatoes are tender. Then add the peas, boil and simmer, covered for a few minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Dinner - Mexican rice

Ingredients:
1 stack. rice,
2 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp olive oil,
2 stacks water,
½ onion,
1 medium tomato
1 hot pepper
¼ stack. tomato sauce
1 reading sheet cumin seeds,
1 tsp spicy herbs
salt to taste.

Preparation:
Pour oil into a deep frying pan and heat it up. Add the washed and dried rice and stir until all the rice is in the oil. Heat until the rice is brown. Stir constantly so that the rice does not burn. Add chopped garlic, stir and fry lightly. Pour in cold water gently, add the rest of the ingredients and stir. Cover loosely, reduce heat and simmer for about 20-30 minutes. When the rice is cooked, all the water has been absorbed, the rice will be crumbly, but not dry. Season to taste.

Saturday

Dinner - Borscht with squid

Ingredients:
200 g squid
150 g boiled beets
200 g of fresh cabbage,
1 carrot,
1 parsley root
1 onion
2 tbsp vegetable oil,
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 liter of water
salt, sugar, peppercorns, bay leaves, vinegar, herbs - to taste.

Preparation:
Defrost the squid, remove the foil and rinse well. Boil the squid in boiling water, lowering them one at a time for 2-3 minutes. Cut into strips or cubes. Cut the cabbage into strips and boil in a little water. chop carrots and onions and fry in vegetable oil, then add squid pieces and tomato paste and simmer for a few minutes. Add stewed roots and squid to the finished cabbage, pour over the remaining boiling water, add spices to taste. Grate the boiled beets on a coarse grater, put on the cabbage, boil and add salt, vinegar and sugar. Sprinkle with herbs when serving.

Dinner - Cabbage roll with mushrooms

Ingredients:
1 small head of cabbage
50 g dry mushrooms (or 200 g fresh),
1 stack. buckwheat groats,
2 onions
2 tbsp vegetable oil,
salt, pepper, herbs - to taste.

Preparation:
Boil water in a large saucepan. Dip a head of cabbage in boiling water, removing the softened leaves. Disassemble the entire head of cabbage in this way, cut or beat off the thickened veins and lay the leaves on a towel in the form of a path so that each leaf covers a part of the adjacent leaf. Place the filling, roll up, place on a greased baking sheet and bake in the oven until golden brown. For the filling, cook viscous buckwheat porridge, add mushrooms, salt, pepper fried with onions, mix. Sprinkle with herbs when serving.

Sunday

Dinner - Fish soup

Ingredients:
300-400 g of sea fish,
1 liter of water
2-3 potatoes,
1 carrot,
1 onion
1 tbsp vegetable oil,
1 tbsp flour,
bay leaf, salt, herbs, peppercorns.

Preparation:
Peel the fish, rinse well and place in cold salted water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 30 minutes. At the end of cooking, add herbs and spices. Fry chopped onions and carrots in vegetable oil until soft, add flour, mix and bring until tender. Remove the finished fish with a slotted spoon, strain the broth and put the chopped potatoes in it. Boil the potatoes until tender, add the fried vegetables, boil and serve, sprinkled with herbs.

Dinner - American style roast with pumpkin

Ingredients:
1 small pumpkin
250 g of pearl barley,
300 g broccoli
1 medium tomato
1 onion
2 tbsp pumpkin seeds,
15 pitted olives,
1 tbsp olive oil,
1 tbsp basilica.

For the sauce:
5 tbsp balsamic vinegar,
6 tbsp olive oil,
1 tbsp dijon mustard,
1 clove of garlic

Preparation:
Peel and cut the pumpkin into pieces. Pour in olive oil, stir and place on a baking sheet. Place in an oven preheated to 180 ° C for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, cook the barley until soft in salted water. Make the sauce: Whisk all the ingredients in a small bowl and season with salt and pepper to taste. Combine the finished barley with the sauce, stir and let cool. Boil broccoli inflorescences for a couple, fold on a sieve and let dry. Combine pumpkin slices, broccoli and barley. This dish can be served hot or cold.

The proposed lean menu for the week is just one of the options for how you can combine different plant foods throughout the week. Eating varied, you will provide your body with all the nutrients.

Larisa Shuftaykina