During the year, Orthodox believers shouldobserve four multi-day fasts, among which the most important and most severe is Lent. In 2012, it will begin on February 27, and will last until Easter. During fasting, only lean food should be in the diet of believers. Therefore, people who for the first time want to observe this tradition, want to know what foods can be used in fasting, and what dishes can be cooked.
Food in Lent
During fasting, food should be non-animalorigin. Therefore, you can not eat meat, fish, eggs, butter, dairy and sour milk products. Only on Palm Sunday and in the Annunciation are allowed to eat fish and seafood. In addition, the Lenten menu in Lent excludes from the diet white bread, muffins, sweets and mayonnaise. In fact, during this period it is not desirable to use any dainties, even those made on a plant basis. There is a ban on alcohol and smoking. On such days as Monday, Wednesday and Friday, you can not add vegetable oil. So, what to eat when you fast? It is safe to say that the basis of such a menu should be products of plant origin. These are fruits, dried fruits, vegetables, root vegetables and legumes. Also these days you can eat all kinds of pickles, nuts, mushrooms and cereals. Of the flour products allowed black and gray bread, biscuits and drying. Coffee lovers should refrain from this drink, the best drink will be tea, fruit drinks, herbal decoctions and kissels. At first glance it may seem that the post imposes rather large restrictions on food intake, in fact, the range of dishes that can be consumed is very wide. The Lenten menu, whose recipes will be recommended in this article, will help you organize your meals correctly in the days of Lent. In this period, of course, food should be simple, but there is no ban on its diversity!
What and how to cook in the post?
To power in the post did not look anyirritating diet, and led to humility, pacification and awareness of life, recipes are offered recipes based on ancient Russian traditions with the addition of elements of modern culinary arts. The products used for them are tasty and easy to prepare. Therefore, fast with pleasure! To post your menu in a variety of ways, we recommend the following tips:
- when preparing salads combine fresh vegetables with various kinds of billets - salted, pickled, frozen, as well as with rice or other cereal;
- porridge is cooked only on water and without oil. And to improve the taste, the finished porridge can be poured with jelly, put frozen berries, dried fruits, honey, nuts. Cook porridge from different groats;
- when preparing lean soups, it is important to properly cook vegetables: they must all be ready at the same time;
- The basis of such a menu are vegetables. They can be combined with cereals and flour products. Do not be afraid to experiment, for example: very tasty pancakes made from unleavened dough stuffed with fried onions and carrots;
- do not forget about baking, just when kneadingtest exclude eggs, replace milk with water, butter - margarine or vegetable oil. So you can cook any dough - fresh yeast, sand.
Lenten dishes do not require expensive products, they are tasty and easy to prepare. Here's a try: 
Vinaigrette with sea kale
This is not only a favorite snack, it can be used as a side dish and as an independent dish, which is simply indispensable in the menu of a person who observes fasting. Ingredients:
- canned sea kale - 100 g,
- sauerkraut - 100 g,
- carrots - 1 pc.,
- potatoes - 5 pcs.,
- beet - 1 pc.,
- pickled cucumbers - 1 pc.,
- onion-turnip - 1 pc.,
- canned green peas,
- vegetable oil, salt - to taste.
Preparation: Carrots, potatoes and beetroot to cook, cool and cut into cubes. Sea and sauerkraut to crush and add to vegetables. There also send the green peas and chopped onions. Add salt, add vegetable oil and mix.
Simple vegetable salad
This salad is very simple to prepare, but its taste is pleasantly amazed. Ingredients:
- Pickled cucumbers - 1 pc.,
- fresh tomatoes - 1 pc.,
- red onions - 1 pc.,
- greens - 1 bunch.
For refueling:
- mustard - 0.5 teaspoon,
- vegetable oil - 3 tablespoons,
- salt, black and red ground pepper - to taste.
Preparation: All is very simple: all the ingredients listed, grind, mix and fill.
Tomato and buckwheat salad
A successful combination of tomatoes and buckwheat make this salad tasty and satisfying. Ingredients:
- ready buckwheat porridge - 4 tablespoons (50-60 g),
- tomatoes - 1 pc. (150-100 g),
- Peking cabbage - 30 g.
For refueling:
- vegetable oil - 3 tablespoons,
- vinegar 3% - 1 teaspoon,
- salt - 1/5 teaspoon.
Preparation: Prepare crumbly buckwheat porridge. Cool it to the temperature you want. Peking cabbage to rip. Cut the tomatoes into cubes. Mix cabbage, tomatoes and cooked buckwheat. If desired, you can add finely chopped onions, as well as sweet peppers. Pour the dressing, salt to taste. 
Borsch with prunes
This borsch is cooked without meat, but it is hearty and tasty. Ingredients:
- water 3 liters,
- large beet - 1 pc.,
- Peking cabbage - 100 g,
- potatoes - 4 pcs.,
- carrots - 1 pc.,
- onion-turnip - 1 pc.,
- prunes - 100 g,
- tomato paste - 1 teaspoon
- lemon - ½ pcs.,
- garlic - 1 clove,
- salt - to taste,
- dried basil - to taste,
- greens - to taste,
- bay leaf - 1 leaflet.
Note: who do not like Peking cabbage, you can take white cabbage. Preparation: Grate the beetroot on a large grater. Put in a frying pan, add lemon juice, 3 tablespoons water and tomato paste. Stew it all for 15 minutes. At this time, chop the cabbage, cut the potatoes into cubes, grate the carrots and chop the onion. In the pot, pour water and boil. To dip there cabbage, potatoes, carrots and onions. Add the bay leaf and salt. All this cook for 15 minutes. After washing, cut the prunes. In boiling vegetables put prunes, stewed beets and basil. Brew another 15 minutes. Borsch is ready. Add the chopped garlic and greens to it. Let the borsch infusion for 10 minutes. Serve with sour cream.
Pea soup
This soup is lean. But, despite this, having tasted it, will be satisfied, because it is tasty and satisfying. Ingredients:
- peas - 100 g,
- potatoes - 3 pcs.,
- carrots - 1 pc.,
- onion-turnip - 1 pc.,
- tomato sauce - 1 tablespoon,
- pepper, bay leaves, salt,
- coriander, garlic - to taste.
Preparation: Soak peas washed and cook until half cooked. Then add the potatoes. Fry carrots, onions, add crushed garlic. Put the tomato sauce and seasoning. All mixed well, add salt. Stir fried vegetables into soup, stir. Add salt and cook for another 10 minutes. Serve it hot, decorating with croutons.
Fish soup with seafood
This soup of fish and seafood according to the Italian recipe is very unusual and tasty. In those days of fasting, when it is allowed to eat fish, it is perfect for a lunch meal. Ingredients:
- water - 1 liter,
- fish - 500 grams,
- sea cocktail - 500 grams,
- tomatoes - 1 pc.,
- tomato paste - 1 tablespoon,
- stalk of celery - 1 pc.,
- lemon - 1 pc.,
- garlic - 3 cloves,
- salt - to taste,
- parsley - a bunch,
- Dried herbs (oregano, basil, thyme, etc.).
Preparation: Cook broth from fish. Finely chop garlic and celery and fry. Add the same sea cocktail and simmer for another five minutes. Tomatoes scalded with boiling water and peeled off them, making them puree, which, together with the tomato paste put in a frying pan. All this put out another 5 minutes. Fish from broth to get, remove from it bones and to separate into small pieces. Add the roast and fish to the boiling broth. Salt. Cook for 10 minutes. Soup is ready, add the juice of lemon and herbs. 
Mushroom pilaf
Lenten menu, the recipes of which are given here,will help you to eat differently not only in Lent, but in the days that follow. For example, this mushroom pilaf. Try to cook it, you'll love it! Ingredients:
- mushrooms forest frozen - 300 g (can be replaced with champignons),
- long grain rice - 1 glass,
- carrots - 1 pc.,
- onion-turnip - 1 pc.,
- garlic - 4 cloves,
- vegetable oil, salt,
- barberry, anise or seasoning for pilaf.
Preparation: Cut the onions and carrots into small pieces. Frozen mushrooms fill with water and hold for about an hour. Then get them out of the water, rinse and cut. In a saucepan with a thick bottom, pour the vegetable oil, heat it and fry the onions in it for 5 minutes, add the carrots and fry for another 5 minutes. Put mushrooms in a pan with vegetables, cover and soap for 10 minutes. Then add salt and seasonings. Rinse the rice in an even layer on the mushrooms with vegetables, without stirring. Then pour hot water so that it was above rice by 1 centimeter. Add the fire, bring to a boil, close tightly with a lid. Reduce the fire, and cook until all the water has evaporated. Add the peeled garlic cloves. Within 10 minutes, still cook on low heat, without removing the lid. Then turn off the fire, mix the pilaf, but for another 15 minutes leave it to stand under the tightly closed lid.
Cabbage rolls with vegetables and rice
Varied menu will help cabbage rolls with vegetables and rice. They are not worse than meat, they are as delicious and delicious. Ingredients:
- cabbage leaves - 8 pcs.,
- carrots - 4 pcs.,
- onion-turnip - 1 pc.,
- vegetable oil - 30 grams,
- tomatoes in their own juice,
- salt, cloves, black pepper.
Preparation: Cabbage leaves put in boiling salted water and cook for 5 minutes. Then take them out with a whisk and cool water. Dense cuttings slightly repulsed. Boil rice until half cooked, mixed with vegetables, previously stewed in vegetable oil, salt. In the middle of the cabbage leaf put the cooked stuffing, curtail the tube, bending at the sides. Put into a saucepan, pour tomato, extract seasonings to taste and allow to boil. Then put in the oven and simmer on low heat until cooked.
Vegetables in the bank
Very tasty, lean dish! It is - beautiful, fragrant, well, about the use and say nothing. Vegetables stewed in their own juice - that can be more beautiful! Ingredients for a can of 1.5 liters:
- eggplant - 1 pc.,
- small zucchini - 1 pc.,
- tomatoes - 300 grams,
- onion-turnip - 1 pc.,
- vegetable oil - 3 tablespoons,
- salt, seasonings (hops-suneli).
Preparation: Eggplant clean and cut. Tomatoes dip in boiling water, take off their skins and grind them. Marrows clean, remove seeds, cut into cubes. Shred the onion. Fold the vegetables in a bowl. Add vegetable oil, salt and seasonings. Mix. All put in a dry jar, slightly ramming. Close tightly with a lid or foil in 4 pieces. Put the jar of vegetables on a tray and send it to a cold oven, which immediately turn on, setting the temperature to 110-130 degrees. When it boils, lower the temperature to 160-180 degrees and simmer for 1 hour.
Lenten pancakes with mineral water
Pancakes on this recipe are beautiful, with small holes. Ingredients:
- mineral water with gas - 1 glass,
- flour - according to need,
- vegetable oil - 1 tablespoon,
- sugar - 1 teaspoon,
- salt - to taste.
Preparation: Mineral water mix with flour until the consistency of sour cream, add a tablespoon of vegetable oil, salt and sugar, stir. If necessary, dilute the dough with mineral water to the pancake density you need, but do not make it too liquid. Grease a hot frying pan with vegetable oil and bake. There are pancakes can be with honey, salted rozhikami or stuffed with vegetable filling.
Lukovnik
This pie tastes hot, but you can eat it also in the cold. He is delicious, appetizing, with a ruddy crust! Ingredients:
- flour - 400 grams,
- yeast - 30 g,
- sugar - 1 teaspoon,
- onion-turnip - 400 g,
- vegetable oil - 1 tablespoon,
- salt - to taste
Preparation: From flour, warm water and yeast, knead the lean dough, with the addition of salt and sugar. Let him rise two times. After the second time, roll it out to a few thin tortillas. Cut the onion and fry it until golden in vegetable oil. Then put a thin cake of dough on the bottom of the form, oiled with butter, cover it with fried onions, then - again cake, on it - onions. So make a few layers. The top layer should be made of dough. Connect the beautiful edges. Bulb bake in a well-heated oven. Having finished the finished pie, grease it with vegetable oil, cover with a cloth, and let it stand for several minutes.
Monastic porridge
This lean porridge from different cereals is delicious, original and very useful. Ingredients:
- different groats - in equal proportions,
- champignons - 400 g,
- onion-turnip - 3 pcs.,
- carrots - 1 pc.,
- vegetable oil - for roasting,
- salt, seasoning - to taste.
Preparation: Pearl barley pre-weld and rinse. Pyshenka bring to a boil and drain the water. Buckwheat and rice wash. Mushrooms fried with onions and grated carrots. In a saucepan spread layers: a layer of cereals, a layer of vegetables, a layer of other groats - a layer of vegetables, etc. vegetables. Sprinkle with seasonings, salt, pour water to a level that the water was slightly above the top layer. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and cook until cooked.
The porridge from the "Hercules"
This porridge of oatmeal is suitable for fasting days and dietary nutrition. Ingredients:
- oat flakes - 1 tablespoon,
- boiling water - 100 ml,
- salt - to taste.
Preparation: Oat flakes boil with boiling water, cover, you can add a little, let it brew for 10 minutes. The porridge is ready. To taste, you can add grated apple or dried fruit, or honey, nuts, etc.
Lenten food is a healthy diet
We hope that the lean menu, recipes of whichrecommended above, will help you correctly observe Orthodox traditions during Lent. Dishes that are offered here, you can easily cook and please your household. In addition, recipes for lean dishes will be useful to people who are monitoring their health, having certain diseases, and also to all adherents of right and healthy food. Bon Appetit! We advise you to read:
