Why Fast And What To Eat In Great Lent (FAQ About Fasting)

Today, many Christians perceive fasting as something obsolete, optional, unimportant.

Today, many Christians perceive fasting as something obsolete, optional, unimportant. We consider ourselves good people who know how to care for others and empathize, and fasting cannot affect this. But still, with all the opportunities and abundance, we get depressed and feel miserable. Why? To answer this question, you do not have to run away to the ends of the world. Christianity offers a simple answer - fasting and prayer.

It is fasting that allows you to slow down in the eternal race for more, stop and disconnect from passions, emotions, and abundance of food. Perhaps then you can understand the most important thing - the happiness that you and your loved ones live in love, faith, peace.

We read and listened to interviews with Church ministers and found answers to the most popular questions about fasting. We share with you.

 

Why is a post necessary?

The meaning of fasting is to find a path that returns us to ourselves, allows us to hear the Lord better and love our neighbors in deed.

How to fast?

In addition to abstaining from the use of animal products (as far as possible), we must try to give up what harms our soul: idle pastime, anger, slander, lies.

You can simply immerse yourself in the Gospel reading in silence in nature or at home, help your neighbors with vital matters, spend time with relatives, especially with those who need us.

 

What can you eat in a post?

Lent lasts 40 days. The next 8 days - Lazarus Saturday, Palm Sunday and 6 days of Holy Week - are dedicated to the memory of the Passion of the Savior and the events that preceded them.

In fasting, you can not eat animal products - meat, milk, eggs, fish.

From Monday to Friday, if there is no holiday on these days, vegetable oil is also prohibited.

Fish can be eaten on the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (April 7) and on Palm Sunday.

Caviar is allowed on Lazarus Saturday.

On the remaining Saturdays and Sundays of Lent, Great Thursday (Holy Thursday) and on the days of some especially revered saints (for example, the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste - March 22, St. Gregory the Dialogist - March 25), vegetable oil is allowed.

The first day of fasting (Clean Monday) and the penultimate one - Great Heel (Good Friday) - are recommended to be spent without food at all.

What to cook for fasting?

We offer interesting recipes for lenten dishes.

There is a section on our website dedicated exclusively to Lenten dishes.

Zucchini rolls

 

Ingredients:

2 zucchini; bell pepper; 2 cloves of garlic; a third of a lemon; 3 art. l. breadcrumbs; 25 g almonds; 3 art. l. olive oil; salt to taste; a couple of pinches of dried basil; parsley to taste.

Rinse the zucchini and cut lengthwise into thin slices. Fry in oil on both sides until soft over medium heat.

Bake the peppers in the oven, wrapped in foil, for 20 minutes at a temperature of 190 degrees. Remove skin.

In a bowl, mix chopped garlic, chopped parsley, chopped almonds, a spoonful of oil and lemon juice, salt, diced pepper. If some of the zucchini strips are crooked, chop finely and add to the stuffing as well.

Put the filling on the central part of the strip in a thin layer along the entire length. Roll up the rolls. You can already serve the rolls as a cold appetizer. Or you can roll breaded rolls and fry in oil until crispy.

Ratatouille

 

Ingredients:

eggplant; vegetable marrow; 1 kg of tomatoes; 2 onions; 2 bell peppers; 3 cloves of garlic; 50 ml of olive oil; salt and herbes de provence to taste.

Wash the vegetables, cut off the tails, remove the seeds from the bell pepper. Dip half of the tomatoes in boiling water, remove the skin and chop.

Cut the peeled onion into cubes and fry in two tablespoons of oil with salt. Add chopped half of the tomatoes and chopped peppers, simmer until soft.

Zucchini, the remaining half of the tomatoes and eggplant cut into thin rings, no thicker than 5 mm.

In a bowl, mix the garlic passed through the press, a couple of pinches of salt, Provence herbs.

Put the frying on the bottom of the baking dish, level it along the bottom. Then overlap the rings of vegetables, alternating them with each other. Salt and drizzle with fragrant oil.

Bake in the oven at 180 degrees, first under foil for 30 minutes, then another 20 minutes without foil.

Rice zrazy

 

Ingredients:

300 g of round grain rice; 200 g of champignons; bulb; 2 cloves of garlic; 1 st. l. starch; 50 ml vegetable oil for frying; 30 g breadcrumbs; salt, pepper to taste.

Boil the rice with salt according to the instructions until tender. Peel onion and garlic, chop. Finely chop the mushrooms. Saute the onion in a couple of tablespoons of oil for a couple of minutes over medium heat, then add the garlic and mushrooms. Fry for another 3 minutes, salt.

Mix boiled rice with starch, form a pancake on the palm of your hand. Put a spoonful of the filling on the center of the pancake, glue it right away.

Roll the zrazy in breadcrumbs and fry over medium-high heat in oil until golden brown on both sides.

Vegetable soup with bulgur and lentils

 

Ingredients:

100 g of bulgur and lentils; 300 g canned tomatoes in their own juice or trade winds; bell pepper; carrot; bulb; 2 tbsp. l. vegetable oil; 2 liters of water or vegetable broth; salt and herbs to taste.

Rinse the bulgur and lentils, put in a pot of boiling water and cook over medium heat for 20 minutes after boiling.

Remove the skin from the tomatoes, mash with a fork or beat with a blender. Peel peppers, carrots and onions, cut into small cubes. Fry the vegetables in a skillet in oil until soft over medium heat. Then add the tomatoes, salt, simmer for a couple of minutes.

Add the roast to the pan to the prepared bulgur and lentils, mix, heat. Turn off the heat and leave covered for 20 minutes. Serve with fresh herbs.

Draniki

 

Ingredients:

5 large potatoes; bulb; 1 st. l. wheat flour; salt and pepper to taste; oil for frying (4-5 tablespoons).

Peel potatoes and onions, grate. Squeeze out the juice with your hands, add salt and pepper. Heat up a frying pan with oil. Spoon the potato mixture into a pancake shape, and fry on both sides until golden brown, about a minute and a half. If necessary, add more oil.

Should everyone fast?

Relaxation in fasting is possible for children under 14 years of age, the sick, the elderly, pregnant women, people engaged in heavy physical labor.

Health and joy to you and your loved ones!