Is it possible to eat pasta while fasting? Hello! Please tell me, is it possible to eat pasta during Lent? Thank you. A smart approach to restrictions

Dear Maria!

Everything needs to be approached wisely and with reasoning.

Fasting is, first of all, spiritual cleansing from the filth of passions and sinful attachments in order to draw closer to God. A necessary condition on the way to achieve this is food restriction.

Indeed, there are differences between monastic rules and rules for the laity.

Bread, simple loaves, oatmeal cookies, gingerbread cookies, cracker cookies are considered lean, but all other buns, cookies and other products, the packaging of which states that they contain dairy products, are best not eaten during fasting and fasting days, except In addition, during the Assumption and Great Fasts (except for 1, 4 and Holy Week) the laity is blessed with food with vegetable oil, except Wednesday and Friday, and on Christmas and Petrov Fasts are blessed by fish, except Wednesday and Friday.

During fasting, the following simple rules must be observed. This is an exclusion from the diet of all meat, fish(depending on the severity of fasting) and dairy dishes, as well as products containing animal fats and proteins. But you can and should eat as many raw vegetables and fruits as possible, and always greens. The amount of fried food should be minimized and overcooked foods should be abandoned once and for all, especially those cooked in reused or long-boiling oil. During fasting, you should consume as much liquid as possible: kvass, jelly, compotes should take their rightful place on your table.

If you are going to fast, then you will most likely subject yourself to severe trials, not so much because you will have to limit yourself in food, but because your relatives, friends, acquaintances and work colleagues for the most part do not observe the fast and do not intend to fast observe. Maybe they reason something like this:

“What to eat during Lent - just potatoes and pasta? So you can ruin your stomach too!”

Of course, if you eat only potatoes and pasta, there really won’t be any benefit. But the point is that during Lent no one forces you to limit yourself to only these products. You can’t even imagine what a variety of recipes for Lenten dishes have been created throughout the history of mankind. You can say: fasting is just fasting, what variety there is, there are only restrictions, you can’t eat almost anything... And you will be wrong. Fasting involves choosing from a gigantic, without exaggeration, set of products. Even the strictest canons of Lent (which no one obliges us to observe today) are far from just bread and water. After all, what is the so-called “dry eating”, which involves giving up everything cooked? This, by the way, is not only raw cabbage and carrots, but also, for example, raisins, nuts, and various fruits. What is a fish fast table? Do you think this is one boiled fish? Nothing like this. This includes red and black caviar and a variety of seafood, including oysters and lobsters.

Of course, the wallets of most of our fellow citizens today do not allow them to eat red and black caviar and oysters. Yes, we do not encourage you to do this. With this example, we only want to emphasize that you can approach the Lenten table creatively, with imagination, abandon the usual culinary stereotypes - and you will see that the Lenten table can sometimes be even richer than your usual table!

Someone might say that in our time most people have such low material wealth that even without any fasting they are forced to deny themselves everything. I also foresee such a reproach: we are like that. they say, we are sitting on bread and water, that’s why we are called here to fast and show humility, they inspire us that fasting is useful, in order to distract people from social problems and prevent manifestations of popular anger.

Yes, it’s true, now many people are forced to deny themselves everything. But think about the prophecy of the holy Optina elders. Here it is: “If they don’t want to fast voluntarily, they will fast involuntarily.” Is this prophecy now coming true? Maybe it will come true for you, or for one of your loved ones and acquaintances? Is it not for many years of rejection of Orthodox traditions, is it not for our universal atheism that we are now paying? Think about it. Perhaps you will come to the conclusion that it is necessary to consciously abstain from food? So that you don’t have to forcibly abstain from it...

Moreover, a person, starting to observe fasts, immediately notices the result: instead of anger at the government and reforms and envy of the well-fed and rich, we feel peace of mind, tranquility, and most importantly - confidence in our rightness, because we know that, unlike from the well-fed and rich, by observing fasting, we save our soul.

And over time, you will feel that fasting has already become your need and observing it is actually not so difficult.

Before you start fasting, you need to think very carefully about your diet. No one is forcing you to eat only dry crusts, and please, let’s do without such extremes. It really won’t take long for you to get gastritis and some other bad things, especially if your faith is not yet very strong and you cannot rely on spiritual food alone, as the saints and ascetics did. Be prudent, there is no need to devoutly “mortify” your flesh. Better learn to live with your body in friendship, listen carefully to its signals, and understand what it really needs.

So, what can you eat while fasting? Of course, the most welcome guests on the table at this time are fruits and vegetables. There is the largest amount of vitamins and minerals needed by our body. So in the summer, let there be salads from fresh vegetables on your table every day, and in the winter - sauerkraut, pickles, carrots, and beets.

During Lent, we eat boiled and stewed vegetables. But here we must remember that the less heat treatment, the better - more nutrients will be preserved in the finished dish. Therefore, it is better to put vegetables in boiling water, and then make sure that they are not overcooked. Do not cook vegetables in a large amount of water, and do not allow them to boil over strongly when cooking.

And remember that you don’t have to limit yourself to just potatoes and cabbage. The entire diversity of the fruit and vegetable world is open to you, don’t forget about zucchini, peppers, cauliflower, corn, and green peas. The more varied the better.

You can also cook vegetable soups by adding cereals - rice, barley.

A very important component of the Lenten table is porridge. Of course, cooked in water, not milk, and without adding butter. But this does not mean that the porridge will necessarily be tasteless. Remember that there are many foods allowed during fasting that can be added to porridge for taste. These include raisins, nuts, carrots, and mushrooms, which can be combined with buckwheat, rice, and other cereals. Experiment, give free rein to your culinary imagination!

There is an opinion that by not consuming meat, eggs, and dairy products, a person deprives himself of the required amount of protein. This is true, but only if you approach the post illiterately. Don't forget to include foods containing plant protein in your diet - and everything will be fine. These include mushrooms, eggplants, legumes, and, of course, soy. Now on the shelves there are a lot of different products made from the so-called “soy meat”, which, when properly cooked, flavored with spices and sauces, perfectly replaces real meat. Nutritionists claim that soy protein in its composition and biological value is an equivalent substitute for meat and fish protein.

During fasting, bakery products are not prohibited, and on non-strict fasting days, vegetable oil and the whole variety of fish products are not prohibited. And you will see how many different dishes you can prepare from all this by getting acquainted with the culinary recipes in the section How to conduct Petrov's fast rubric "Fundamentals of Orthodoxy".

Just remember that you should under no circumstances overeat during Lent - even if you limit yourself to strictly lean foods. Remember that fasting excludes any abuse - spices, spicy, salty, sour, sweet, fried foods. It is better to give preference to boiled dishes, as well as steamed or grilled ones. Keep your food varied but simple. And you, of course, will be able to feel and appreciate this joy and sacredness of the simplest food.

At the same time, it should be borne in mind that after the end of fasting, one must switch to a normal diet gradually and in no case immediately pounce on fatty meat, smoked sausage, fried entrecotes... This will not lead to anything good. Gradually, day by day, introduce small amounts of animal products into your diet - a little cheese, a little butter, and if it is meat, then in small pieces, boiled or steamed.

The answer to this question was read by 11529 visitors

Asked by: Maria

Answers:

Dear Maria!

Everything needs to be approached wisely and with reasoning.

Fasting is, first of all, spiritual cleansing from the filth of passions and sinful attachments in order to draw closer to God. A necessary condition on the way to achieve this is food restriction.

Indeed, there are differences between monastic rules and rules for the laity.

“What to eat during Lent - just potatoes and pasta? So you can ruin your stomach too!”

And over time, you will feel that fasting has already become your need and observing it is actually not so difficult.

You can also cook vegetable soups by adding cereals - rice, barley.

Hello friends! Recently I came across the fact that some people are interested in whether it is possible to eat pasta during Lent at all?

Some say that of course it is possible, others, accordingly, contradict them.

But who is really right?

I propose that we deal with this issue now. Of course, we will do this based on common sense, logical reasoning and reasonable assumptions :)

Oh how it turned out to be twisted...

Anyway. Let’s not be clever, but let’s get down to business :)

Pasta for Lent

In order to deal with this issue, we first need to look at. Most often, the composition includes:

some kind of flour (wheat, corn, etc.)
plain water.

This is the simplest thing. But, from time to time you can find the addition of eggs and other products of animal origin (we do not count dairy products and their derivatives). And, if we are talking about eating pasta during Lent, then a two-digit answer suggests itself.

Is it possible to have pasta during Lent?

This answer is that there are 2 options:

and you can
and it’s impossible.

Let's figure it out... The fact is that in religious tradition there are always restrictions on the consumption of food of animal origin, again, with the exception of dairy products. Dairy products have always been valued in religion, and many holy figures drank only.

In general, I would say that in many religious traditions there are strict restrictions and prohibitions on animal food. But, due to the fact that many people are very addicted to such food, the tradition of fasting was introduced, which limits a person from eating this food, which is considered dirty.

Therefore, when we talk about whether pasta is possible during Lent, we must take into account the composition of a particular product. If we are talking about products that contain eggs and similar “animal additives”, then you cannot eat them.

If we are talking about the most ordinary products, without any additional additives, then, accordingly, You can eat this type of pasta during Lent. The only thing you need to remember is that they should only be eaten at lunchtime. And, this is not only during Lent. This rule applies at all times.

How to cook delicious pasta

Everything is very simple. In order to understand how to cook pasta deliciously, you first need to select it. I think it’s no secret to you that the cheapest products, no matter how you cook them or what you add, will not give you a particularly pleasant taste and sensation.

Lent is the most strict and significant of all fasts. During fasting, you cannot eat meat, fish, eggs, milk, smoke or drink alcoholic beverages; eat more than once a day. Only plant foods (fruits, vegetables, dried fruits), pickles (sauerkraut, pickled and pickled cucumbers), crackers, dried fruits, tea, mushrooms, nuts, black and gray bread, jelly, water porridge are allowed.

Grade

On Saturdays and Sundays you can have vegetable oil, wine and eat twice a day. On holidays that coincide with fasting, fasting becomes less strict: on Lazarus Saturday you can eat caviar, and on Annunciation and Palm Sunday you can eat fish.

The first four days of Great Lent, as well as the entire Holy Week, are the strictest days of fasting. On Good Friday you cannot eat anything. On Clean Monday, complete abstinence from food is accepted. On Friday of the first week you can only eat (boiled wheat, sweetened with honey or sugar).

During the rest of the fasting period: Monday, Wednesday, Friday - dry food (water, bread, fruits, vegetables, compotes); Tuesday, Thursday - hot food without oil; Saturday, Sunday - food with vegetable oil.

But the main purpose of fasting is not in refusing food, but in the spiritual cleansing of a person. “True fasting is the removal of evil, bridling the tongue, putting aside anger, taming lusts, stopping slander, lies, and perjury.”

Reasonable abstinence from food during fasting is beneficial for the body. But the church allows the sick and elderly to fast; if they do it sincerely and not under duress. It is believed that a person who deliberately harms his health commits a mortal sin.

Here are simple recipes for dishes without oil. It’s delicious and doesn’t take much time.

First meal:

. Pumpkin soup: Boil the potatoes, add the same amount of pumpkin, the same amount of onions, and greens. Serve

. Noodles soup : a lot of onions, carrots. Add noodles at the end. Greens on plates. It is better to eat the soup right away before the noodles become soggy.

. Potato soup : boil the potatoes, grind them separately into a smooth puree, combine with potato broth, add crushed garlic and dill. You can use black pepper. Serve with croutons. You can add a little wild garlic instead of garlic.

. Soup with cereals: boil the potatoes, add any cereal (buckwheat, rice, millet, etc.), a lot of onions, carrots, roots to taste (parsley, parsnips, celery). Garlic, herbs - on plates. You can add a little tomato.

. French soup: Do not overcook the potatoes, but cook until tender; green peas (preferably frozen), white or cauliflower cabbage, carrots, onions. You can add broken asparagus. Greens - on plates.

. Vegetable pickle: Boil potatoes, rice, carrots, then add parsley, turnips (in strips), leeks, pickles. Fresh parsley - on plates. Serve with toasted bread.

Second courses:

. Noodles with olives: Boil any pasta, rinse with cold water, add olive juice, chop the olives themselves, tomato or ketchup like “Veres - mushroom sauce”, garlic or wild garlic, basil (dried or fresh). It’s good to add some vegetable stuff there. oil. You can use green beans instead of noodles.

. Stewed potatoes with peas or mushrooms : Boil 3 parts potatoes until half cooked, add 4 parts diced carrots, 1 part chopped celery roots, cook for half an hour; then 1 part onion, 1 part mushrooms (fresh or dried boiled) or peas (any: fresh, frozen, dried and boiled) cook for 5 minutes. Greens - on plates.

READ ALSO - Are you not fasting yet? But it’s not just about religion...

. Monastery-style beans : Boil the beans until half cooked, add a lot of finely chopped onion, cook for another half hour. Greens - on plates.

. Braised cabbage : Simmer 1 kg of cabbage until softened, add ground red pepper, 2 potatoes and simmer until tender. Pour in 200g of tomato juice. At the end add dill. You can stew it with bell pepper.

. Cabbage with mushrooms: Boil the mushrooms until half cooked, chop finely. Stew the onion in a small amount of mushroom broth, then shredded cabbage, add red pepper, then mushrooms. Make a sauce from the remaining broth (dilute the flour in the broth, add spices, cook until thickened). Season the finished cabbage with sauce and herbs.

. Corn salad (peas): boil the potatoes in their jackets. Cut into cubes, add finely chopped onions (preferably green, wild garlic can be used), pickled cucumbers (zucchini) without skin, canned corn with juice (peas). Add a little cucumber marinade and herbs. Can be done with olives and olive juice.

Lenten baking:

. Honey Cake: 1 tbsp. warm water, 1 tbsp. sugar, 2 tbsp. Stir the honey until the honey and sugar dissolve. Cool. Add sifted flour (until sour cream thickens), 0.5 tbsp. raisins and nuts, vanilla (or zest), soda and vinegar. Mix. Bake.

. Cake "Semolina" : 1 tbsp. water, 1 tbsp. sugar, 1 tbsp. Stir the semolina and leave for 30 minutes. Then add sifted flour until sour cream thickens, add vanilla (zest or cinnamon), slaked soda. Bake. You can brush the finished cake with jam. You can add cocoa to the dough. White and brown cake layers can be stacked on top of each other and brushed with jam to create a tall cake. When possible, you can add 1-6 tbsp to the dough. vegetable oil.

. Cherry Cake : 1.5 tbsp. water, 1.5 tbsp. cherry jam, 1 tbsp. sugar, 1 tbsp. nuts, vanilla (zest) - mix, add flour until sour cream thickens, slaked soda. Bake. Instead of water, you can use a decoction of dried fruits.

Enjoy your meal!

Before you start talking about dishes that are not allowed to be eaten on certain days, and deciding whether pasta is allowed during Lent, you should remember some church rules. Abstinence from eating - what is it? How many posts a year? What are their names? In addition, it should be noted that the restrictions imposed during fasting are different for different categories of persons. This is what our story will be about.

What are there

The fasts established by the Orthodox Church are divided into several categories. One-day ones - there are four of them a year. These are Lent, Petrov, Uspensky and Rozhdestvensky. In addition, they were installed on Epiphany Eve, on the eve of holidays and the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. They are called one-day ones. During the rest of the year, Orthodox people fast on Wednesdays, in memory of Judas' betrayal of Christ, and on Fridays, remembering the Savior's suffering on the cross.

Everything that is eaten on fasting days must meet a number of specific requirements. They are established by the Church Charter. These requirements may vary depending on what specific post is meant. Even during the period of multi-day restrictions on the intake of certain types of products, there are certain days - exceptions to the general rules. So, for example, during Lent there are days on which complete abstinence from food is prescribed, and there are those when eating fish roe is blessed. Anyone who wishes to fast must check daily according to the church calendar what menu features are prescribed for that day.

A smart approach to restrictions

Dishes during Lent are selected in such a way as to exclude certain foods - meat, dairy and fish. These restrictions serve to completely tame the flesh and direct all thoughts to prayer, repentance and thoughts about God. But the flesh needs to be pacified, not killed.

And gastritis will not save the soul. This is important to remember. Therefore, having soberly assessed their strengths, everyone must decide for themselves to what extent they will follow the general rules. In this case, it is recommended to consult with a priest or someone more experienced. By the way, the Church Charter exempts sick people, pregnant women, young children, as well as persons traveling and participating in hostilities from fasting. Now let's move on to the question of whether pasta is allowed during Lent. The product seems to be dietary - and there should be no problems with it.

Do you eat pasta during Lent?

Many people love this product for its speed of preparation and the ability to diversify their menu with it and various sauces. The question of whether pasta can be used during Lent cannot be answered unequivocally. It all depends on the ingredients included in their composition. If we are talking about the simplest ones consisting of flour and water, then, of course, it is possible.

There is no obstacle to eating them, just as there is no obstacle to eating bread. But the industry also produces varieties that have a more complex composition. They may include eggs, dairy components and all kinds of components of animal origin. In this case, you should refrain from them. Thus, people eat pasta during Lent, but first check the list of ingredients.

Vegetables on the Lenten table

In general, dishes during Lent can be quite varied. Every housewife, with a little imagination, can create a completely acceptable menu. It will include, first of all, vegetables prepared in a variety of ways. For example, fried potatoes are a regular guest on Lenten tables, and you can’t do without sauerkraut and cucumbers these days. Recipes during Lent also include mushrooms, prepared for the winter and waiting in the wings in tubs and buckets. Dried and pickled, they will be a good help for the Lenten table.

Boiled ones are recommended and As for the technology of their preparation, housewives can be advised to try to minimize heat treatment. This will preserve the beneficial substances they contain. It is advisable to immerse the vegetables in already boiling water and make sure that they do not overcook. Also, you should not cook them in a large volume of water and allow excessive boiling. When choosing vegetables, you should try to expand the range as much as possible, including zucchini, beans, corn, cauliflower, etc. in the menu.

Fruits and nuts while fasting

An integral part of the menu is fruits, nuts and all kinds of dishes prepared from them. An excellent dessert mixture can be prepared from dried apricots and prunes with the addition of nuts - walnuts or peanuts. The dish will be especially tasty and nutritious if you season it with honey.

Each component will perform a specific function: nuts will restore strength, and dried fruits and honey will add taste. Honey deserves special attention, since it can be used to prepare many different treats. Modern cooking offers a wide selection of recipes for dishes that do not include sugar and milk, but use honey. For example, honey pie can be baked only from lean ingredients.

Flour products and cereals

Recipes during fasting contain a lot of cereals. Of course, you need to cook them in water, not milk, and you should refrain from butter. But even with these restrictions you can prepare very tasty porridge. No one forbids adding raisins, nuts or carrots to it. And mushrooms go well with buckwheat, rice and other types of cereals. It all depends on the owner’s imagination and her ability to experiment.

Eating various baked goods and pastries is blessed. It is only important that they do not contain eggs or milk. The question of whether or not you can eat baked goods is similar to the question of whether you can eat pasta during Lent. In some cases it is possible, in others it is not. You just need to be careful and not be lazy to check their composition.

The food industry produces many different substitutes for regular foods allowed during Lent. For example, instead of regular mayonnaise, which contains yolks, you can take its analogue, prepared without using them. Thus, during fasting you can use different recipes in cooking, choosing ingredients suitable for fasting.

Quantitative restrictions on food

During fasting, in addition to qualitative restrictions in food, it is very important to take into account the quantity of food eaten. Fasting will be completely meaningless if, getting up from the table, we are weighed down with food. Excessive consumption of food, or otherwise gluttony, is, according to church canons, one of the deadly sins. If it is condemned on ordinary days, then during the period of fasting it is even more unacceptable. The same can be said about drinking alcohol. On some days of fasting you are allowed to drink a little wine. However, alcohol abuse is condemned by the church, regardless of whether it happened on a fast day or a fast day.

Physical fasting and spiritual fasting

Compliance with fasting is not limited to just temporary refusal to eat certain foods. Otherwise, everything would come down to a regular diet. Fasting includes conscious abstinence from everything that prevents you from concentrating as much as possible on your own. It is important to understand how much your life corresponds to Christ’s teaching, to recognize your sins and sincerely repent of them. To do this, during fasting you should distance yourself from everything vain and coming. Physical fasting must be combined with spiritual fasting. The question of whether one eats pasta during Lent or other foods is, of course, important, but even more important is what one’s thoughts are occupied with. Let rest, entertainment and all kinds of pleasures fade into the background these days. Their time will come. It is necessary to devote days of fasting to the soul, but there are still many days left in the year for the body.