The church calendar includes a large number of holidays, Christmastide, and fasts. There are posts with different meanings. But there are also days during which food can be severely limited. Such days are called days of dry eating.
Dry eating: what can you eat? During this period, it is allowed to eat all foods without heat treatment. Fasting is not advisable, because it can harm the body.
How to quickly cook sauerkraut
Every housewife has a unique recipe for making sauerkraut. The recipes below are a 100%!g(MISSING) guarantee of obtaining cabbage that will be stored for a long time, without peroxidation, without freezing even in winter, remaining crispy and hard.
Recipe for shredded cabbage
Cabbage is stored in jars, which should be washed before use. There is no need to sterilize, because the vegetables will be placed raw.
For a special taste, add a bay leaf, a few pieces of black pepper and, if available, half a teaspoon of dry dill seeds to the bottom of each jar.
Boil and cool water. Prepare a one-liter jar into which add 1 tbsp. rock salt and ½ tsp. sugar, add water, mix everything. The brine is ready.
Chop the cabbage, rub it a little with your hands, add carrots, everything is done “by eye”.
Place the mixture of cabbage and carrots in a jar with spices, add in parts, compacting and adding brine. A three-liter jar will require 1 liter of water with salt and sugar.
Keep the jars filled and filled with brine in a warm place, pierce them with a knife, releasing the resulting gas. After 3 days, take it to a cool place.
Sauerkraut
Recipe for cabbage, cut into pieces, with beets and horseradish
Prepare the brine: take 100 g of sugar and salt for 2 liters of water, boil, and cool.
For 4 kg of cabbage you will need:
horseradish root, cut into small strips; a head of garlic, peeled into cloves; medium-sized beets, cut into circles; if available, a bunch of parsley, disassembled into leaves or chopped.
The simplicity of this recipe is captivating. The cabbage is cut into pieces, which are then conveniently placed on a plate, placed in a bucket in a layer of about 8 - 10 cm, and some of all the ingredients are placed on top in order. Repeat layers, finishing with beets and ingredients. Pour brine, cover with cabbage leaves and oppression for 3 - 4 days and leave warm. Then leave the finished cabbage in a bucket or put it in jars. Keep refrigerated.
Cabbage with beets and horseradish
Vegetable salad with cranberries
Ingredients:
- Carrots – 1 pc.
- Turnip – 1 pc.
- Cranberries – 200 g.
- Celery root – 1/3 pcs.
- Sugar to taste.
Grate carrots, turnips, and celery root. Crush the cranberries with a spoon to a pulp, add sugar. Mix all ingredients together and sprinkle with lemon juice.
About relaxation
The essence of fasting is that a Christian learns to restrain and control his carnal desires, but if for health reasons a believer is prescribed to follow a certain diet, perhaps dairy, it must be observed.
Often, diet is an integral part of treatment, and without fulfilling the prescribed requirements, complete recovery becomes impossible.
Entering a period of dry eating, every Christian believer needs to understand that food restriction should serve to save a person, cleanse him from sins, and improve the quality of prayer, because well-fed flesh does not contribute to a spiritual mood. If you overdo it in fasting and do it without reasoning, you can harm yourself so much that later you will have no time for prayer and spiritual life, and even no time for food.
One holy ascetic very accurately compared our body to a donkey that carries a believer to the Kingdom of Heaven. If you don’t saturate him enough, or feed him food that is harmful to his health, he will die, and if you feed him all the time, he will go berserk. We must behave during the period of strict fasting in such a way that the body is the best assistant in fulfilling those duties or obediences that are entrusted to us in the world or in the monastery.
There are a number of cases when strict restrictions on food, and especially dry eating, are not only undesirable, but also contraindicated:
Engaging in heavy physical labor. Pregnancy. Breastfeeding. Childhood, at least up to seven years. Illness. Being on the road.
The Church establishes rules that are common to everyone, but is sensitive to different situations, so it is possible to soften the strict rules of dry eating for the sick, pregnant women and other categories.
Attention! The question of what dry eating is during Lent should be discussed with your confessor or any other clergyman, and you should take a blessing to ease the food restrictions.
Pear and raisin salad
Products:
- Pears – 2 pcs.
- Hazelnuts or almonds – 100 g.
- Seedless raisins – 100 g.
- Rucola – 1 pack.
- Salt, sugar, ground black pepper - to taste.
- Apple cider vinegar – 1 tbsp. l.
Prepare the dressing in a blender. Mix apple cider vinegar, salt, pepper, sugar until smooth. Soak raisins in warm water (for 15 minutes), drain, and dry. Peeled and cored pears, cut into slices. Mix with arugula, raisins, hazelnuts (or almonds). Fill with dressing. You can add grapefruit juice for taste.
Lent menu by day
Studying the church menu for the duration of Lent 2021, many people, studying the church daily nutrition calendar for the laity, come across the concept of dry eating. Many people do not understand its meaning. It should be clarified that this refers to products that are not processed with heat. This means that on these days, which usually fall on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, you cannot eat boiled or hot foods. Interesting! In monasteries, monks and elders who keep a strict fast consume bread, salt and water during these days of dry eating. In addition to black bread, water and salt, at this time you can eat cold dishes from vegetables, cereals and legumes without sunflower oil, olive oil or other oil-bearing plants. You can make salads from baked or boiled vegetables. You can also eat nuts, crackers and dried fruits. It is allowed to eat soaked vegetables, berries and fruits. It is also allowed to eat hot food in the form of lean porridges and soups. Those who are fasting for the first time should not give up bread. It is recommended to eat bread with other foods on all days when you can not refuse food. In this case, you need to pay attention to the composition of the bread. It should not contain eggs or animal fats. Advice! It is recommended to eat black rye bread for 46 days. This does not contradict church rules and allows you to maintain strength.
First week (week) (11.03 – 17.03)
Monday: complete refusal to eat. Tuesday: bread and water. Wednesday: dry foods in the form of bread, nuts, dried fruits, sauerkraut. Thursday: dry eating in the form of cold plant foods. Friday: boiled vegetables without oil. Saturday: dried beans with vegetable oil and vegetables, half a glass of wine. Sunday: vegetable pilaf in vegetable oil, wine. Interesting! Dry eating is different from cold food. Foods eaten on dry eating days should not be cooked, and cold food should be boiled or baked before serving and eaten cold.
Second week (18.03-24.03)
Monday: nuts and dried fruits; raw vegetables and fruits. Tuesday: Lenten borscht without vegetable oil. Wednesday: dry foods; vegetable salad without adding oil. Thursday: stewed beans with vegetables, steamed or water without adding oil. Friday: dry eating. Saturday: porridge with vegetable oil; some wine. Sunday: pea porridge with vegetable oil, 100 ml of wine. Important! During the entire Lent, it is allowed to drink red grape wine. It is a source of natural nutrients that support human strength, but you can drink it in small quantities only on Sunday.
Third week (25.03 – 31.03)
Monday: dry eating. Tuesday: stewed vegetables in water. Wednesday: uncooked foods, uncooked and raw foods without oil. Thursday: bean or pea soup without oil. Friday: uncooked food. Saturday: boiled dishes with vegetable oil, half a glass of red wine. Sunday: porridge with vegetable oil, 100 ml of wine.
Fourth week (01.04 – 07.04)
Monday: dry eating; salad of raw vegetables, seasoned with citrus juice. Tuesday: vegetable soup without oil. Wednesday: dry food and raw foods without oil. Thursday: vegetables stewed in water. Friday: dry eating; Saturday: porridge with vegetable oil, a small amount of wine. On Sunday this year the Annunciation holiday is celebrated, so boiled food can be varied not only with vegetable oil, but also with fish. You can also drink 100-125 g of wine.
Fifth week (04/08 – 04/14)
Monday: dry foods; raw vegetables and fruits without oil. Tuesday: borscht without added vegetable fats. Wednesday: dry eating; raw foods in the form of salad, seasoned with lemon or orange juice. Thursday: boiled or stewed dishes from cereals and vegetables without oil. Friday: dry eating; Saturday: boiled food with vegetable oil and 100 g of wine. Sunday: boiled dishes with vegetable oil, wine.
Sixth week (04/15 – 04/21)
Monday: dry food, raw vegetable salad without oil. Tuesday: boiled or stewed dishes without oil. Wednesday: dry food in the form of raw foods without oil. Thursday: vegetable or cereal soup without oil. Friday: dry eating Saturday: porridge with vegetable oil; caviar or soaked fish on the occasion of a church holiday and wine. Palm Sunday: boiled vegetable dishes with vegetable oil and fish, 100 g of red wine.
Seventh week (22.04 -28.04)
From Monday to Thursday, dry, uncooked food without oil. On Friday there is a complete refusal of food, since on this day the crucifixion of Christ took place. Dry food on Saturday. On Sunday, the Easter fast begins after the all-night service; you can eat everything, but you need to start with Easter cottage cheese, boiled eggs and blessed Easter cakes. The last week of fasting is considered the strictest. You cannot eat boiled food and vegetable oil, honey and nuts. Monks usually spend it on water and black bread.
Why do you need dry eating?
You can free your soul from anger, gossip, resentment and unforgiveness and receive healing through prayer with humility. Only after clearly understanding the meaning of the post can you enter into it.
Read about the post:
- What is fasting in Orthodoxy
- Petrov post
- How to fast on Wednesday and Friday
For the laity, TV and computers become an addiction. The time of abstinence should begin with increased time of prayer and study of the Word of God in order to fill the soul with spiritual things and cleanse oneself from the passions of this world, while limiting the viewing of TV series.
Eating food without heat treatment is called dry eating.
Few lay people know that this term means the degree of strict fasting; it is described by the monastic Rules. Ordinary laymen must take the blessing of their confessor for fasting.
Important! Complete abstinence from processed foods is recommended by the church on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays during the entire abstinence period. Lent begins and ends with a week of dry eating.
Relaxation is made for children, pregnant women, and the sick. Those suffering from severe types of diabetes, tuberculosis, dystonia, and anemia can receive relief from their confessor for fasting.
When refusing basic, familiar food, the following foods are not included in the diet:
- dairy products;
- meat;
- salo;
- offal;
- vegetable oils;
- wine;
- fats.
It is prohibited to heat treat all foods, including vegetables, fruits, and prepare hot drinks, but it is allowed to eat bread.
When and how to refuse hot food
The Great and Dormition fasts consist of strict adherence to the canons. Thus, believers humble their sinful flesh in order to come to the great holiday with reverence and trembling and receive God’s blessing.
Some lay people do not even begin to fast, fearing that they will not be able to withstand it, not knowing what dry eating during fasting means.
Restricting food does not mean starvation. For lay people who have not practiced dry eating before, the first approach can be done with unlimited lists of dishes.
Deeply religious people who practice strict dry eating consume bread, sauerkraut and raw cabbage, carrots, fresh salads, and water on days of abstinence.
Potatoes with champignons and tomato sauce
Cut the peeled potatoes into thin slices. Clean the sand from the champignons with a paper towel. Place on foil in 2 layers, sprinkle with chopped onions, close. Place in the oven, heated to 220–250 degrees for half an hour.
At this time, prepare the tomato sauce. Peel the tomatoes (put in boiling water for about five minutes, then cool in cold water, then remove the skin). Mix tomatoes, black pepper, garlic, apple cider vinegar, and salt in a blender until smooth.
Add tomato sauce to baked potatoes with champignons. If desired, decorate with herbs and lettuce leaves.
The meaning of the post
The period of fasting accustoms a believer to self-restraint. This is an ascetic feat performed for the sake of Christ, which helps the believer strengthen his spiritual and moral beginning so much that it dominates the sensual.
Then it will be easier for a person to fight his passions and sinful habits. The main goal of ascetic practice is the purification of the soul of a Christian, and as a result, his performance of correct and righteous deeds.
This is interesting! When is Olga’s name day celebrated according to the church calendar?
Fasting leads the soul to repentance. By limiting themselves in the pleasures they receive from food, believers come to a contrite state of spirit. Repentance is a necessary stage for the spiritual and moral transformation of a person. “A sacrifice to God is a broken spirit,” sings the psalmist David. It's never too late to fast. The Savior in the parable of the workers in the vineyard tells us that he accepts everyone who is ready to struggle and does not deprive him of his reward.
Ingredients:
- Small pumpkin – 1 piece
- Honey or sugar - to taste
- Nuts or sesame seeds - to taste
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Cooking
Take a sweet pumpkin, clean it, cut it into large pieces and place it on a baking sheet lined with parchment. Heat the oven to 213-250°. Bake the pumpkin for an hour. You can also determine the degree of its readiness by its intense smell. Remove the pumpkin from the oven, pour honey or sprinkle with sugar, and decorate with nuts or sesame seeds.
Strict fasting
Despite the significant restrictions, it is possible to find quite original and simple recipes for dishes.
Seasoned oatmeal
One glass of oatmeal is soaked in one glass of water for a quarter of an hour. A handful of dates, a tablespoon of honey and infused water with flakes are poured into a blender. Add vanilla to taste. Everything is mixed until a homogeneous mass is obtained. The porridge laid out on plates should be flavored with honey and garnished with zest and mint.
Carrot salad
First soak the raisins in warm water for 15 minutes. Three large carrots are grated. Four cloves of garlic and herbs are chopped. Everything is mixed with the addition of raisins and sesame seeds, as well as honey and salt. Salad ready.
Beet salad with prune sauce
Take a handful of prunes. To make the dried fruit soft, you need to soak it for a couple of hours in warm water. The same can be done with walnuts (also take a handful), but it is not necessary, since they will in any case undergo a refreshing softening effect - in the sauce.
In a blender, cilantro, walnuts, prunes, salt, and a piece of fresh ginger are crushed and mixed. The beets are peeled, washed and grated on a coarse grater. All components are mixed. It should be delicious!
Tomato gazpacho soup
Peel and chop 250 g of tomatoes. Also chop two cucumbers, one green pepper and two celery stalks. Add salt, lemon juice, black pepper and parsley. Place the finished soup in the cold for two to three hours. Sprinkle with fresh herbs before serving.
Vegetable sandwich
First, you should prepare the avocado: peel it, remove the pit from it and cut it thinly, like tomatoes. Place avocado on slices of wholemeal bread, top with sesame seeds and then add tomatoes.
Dessert
Fruit and nut cookies
Grind two cups of cashew nuts and a quarter cup of dried fruits of three different types through a meat grinder, preferably twice. You need to roll the minced meat into small balls and make small indentations in them. Half a glass of blueberries - either fresh or defrosted - should be mixed with a blender and placed in the depressions. Salt, pepper and dill are added to taste.
"Milk" from pumpkin seeds
The seeds are soaked for several hours or overnight. In a blender, mix with 5 cups of water - two tablespoons of honey, pumpkin seeds, one teaspoon of nutmeg and a quarter teaspoon of sea salt - until smooth.
Chocolate cream
In a food processor or blender, combine seven Brazil nuts, four tablespoons of honey, half a teaspoon of cocoa and a pinch of salt. The resulting paste can be spread on bread or used as jam for tea drinking.
Lately, fasting has become quite popular. Popular and famous people have repeatedly spoken about observing Christian fasts in their interviews. Among ordinary people, most of whom are not parishioners of any Christian church, voluntary abstinence from meat during Orthodox fasts has also become common.
But can such self-restraint be considered fasting? What meaning does the church place on the concept of fasting? What are the different forms of fasting and can everyone observe it? Answers to all these questions, as well as recommendations on what can be included in the Lenten menu, and recipes for dishes can be found by anyone who reads the article to the end.
“Delicious” dry food
For beginning laymen, fasting cannot be hungry. If an Orthodox person does not know what can be eaten during dry eating: recipes for dishes can be found in large quantities, while the diet can be varied and you can eat food with pleasure without feeling hungry. For such people, relief is made.
When compiling a fasting menu for children and the weak, you should adhere to the rule that abstinence means not only limiting the list of products, but also the quantity and frequency of food intake.
Some lay people are cautious about dry eating. What can you eat and drink if you can’t cook anything?
More about Orthodox cuisine:
- Lenten baking recipes
- Russian Orthodox cuisine
- Pancake recipes for Maslenitsa
Delicious porridge
Oatmeal and buckwheat porridges are quite high-calorie foods, and they are easy to prepare without heat treatment.
Pour cereal or cereal into a 200g glass and pour in 200ml of juice or any infusion. Leave overnight. In the morning, the swollen porridge is ready to eat.
To taste, add a little salt and any ingredients:
- fruits;
- dried fruits;
- nuts;
- ground flax;
- honey, if the porridge should be sweet;
- fresh vegetables seasoned with soy sauce.
Fans of cinnamon, mint, and lemon zest can use them to improve the taste of porridge.
Buckwheat porridge without cooking
Salads are a storehouse of vitamins
At any time of the year, the menu of homemade dishes can and should be diversified with salads. Carrots are a root vegetable found in every home, but not everyone holds them in high esteem. Carrots can be used to make a sweet and spicy salad, which will perfectly complement the porridge.
In both cases, the carrots should be grated on a coarse grater or the device should be used to obtain a Korean dish.
Advice! Salads will become especially piquant if you add pre-soaked raisins, ground flax, and sesame seeds.
Sweet carrot salads are easy to make by adding carrots:
- pieces of raw pumpkin;
- honey;
- apples or pears;
- any dried fruits.
Carrot salad with apples and dried fruits
A freshly prepared salad should sit for several hours so that the ingredients become saturated with each other.
Spicy salads are obtained by adding garlic and herbs to the carrot mixture. In this case, salt and pepper are added to taste. A special twist to the spicy salad will be given by a dressing of honey and soy sauce, which must be mixed in a 1:1 ratio.
Unique salad of 2 pieces. Avocado, half a head of cauliflower, seasoned with a mixture of lemon juice and sea salt, taken to taste, will decorate any menu.
Rucolla recently appeared on the tables of Russians, winning sympathy with its unusual mustard smell and bitter taste. Arugula salad with the addition of seemingly completely incompatible ingredients will be a pleasant surprise for the family as dinner.
The recipe for making an amazing salad can be varied to suit your own taste.
Step by step recipe
- Tear a large bunch of arugula into pieces with your hands.
- Grind half a glass of hazelnuts with a knife.
- Pre-soak ½ cup of raisins and dry.
- Mix ½ cup of juice squeezed from grapefruit with pepper, salt and sugar.
- Cut the peeled pear into pieces.
Mix everything in a deep salad bowl.
For fans of first courses
Lay people who find it difficult to fast without a first course can prepare an exquisite Spanish dish, gazpacho, a cold tomato soup.
To prepare it you need:
- Grind 250 g of tomatoes until juice is obtained;
- 2 cucumbers, green pepper, celery root, cut a small bunch of onion into pieces and beat in a blender;
- Gradually add tomato juice to the vegetable mixture;
- salt and pepper to taste;
- squeeze out 1 clove of garlic.
Leave the prepared tomato soup for 2-3 hours, sprinkle with finely chopped parsley and serve.
Gazpacho
Dessert for children
Cookies made from cashews and dried fruits are an excellent substitute for sweets and cakes not only during Lent, but also on holidays.
To prepare a delicious dessert for a large company or for a long time, you will need four two-hundred-gram glasses of cashew nuts, ½ cup of dried fruits in the form of:
- figs;
- apples;
- dried apricots.
Pass dried fruits and nuts through a meat grinder twice. Form balls from the resulting mixture, flatten them into cookies, making a depression for the filling. Any berries, fresh or frozen, mixed with honey in a 1:1 ratio are used as filling.
Dried fruit cookies
A small snack for those who eat frequently
A cocktail made from pumpkin seeds will surprise even seasoned gourmets.
Beat 2 cups of freshly peeled pumpkin seeds in a blender with 1 liter of water, half a cup of pre-soaked raisins, 100 g of honey. If desired, add cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt to taste.
Pumpkin seed cocktail
Dry fasting and weight loss
Some people can use water-based intermittent fasting for weight loss, but dry fasting has mixed effects on weight loss. Research shows that people tend to have lower body weight and body fat at the end of a dry fast, but these effects are modest and short-lived as people gain most of the weight afterwards. One meta-analysis found that people lost an average of 1.2 kg after Ramadan. In 16 follow-up studies, the average weight gain 2 weeks after Ramadan was 0.72 kg.
Dry fasting alone is not enough to lose weight and lose weight. However, if you combine this with a ketogenic diet, you will experience permanent weight loss. One of the biggest problems of dry fasting is dehydration. You would think that limiting your water for half a day couldn't be good for you, right? But it's not that simple.
Will I be dehydrated during a dry fast? Dehydration is a real threat if you don't eat a healthy diet before and after your fast. However, this can be avoided if you stick to the right habits. The researchers found that total body water content was maintained during fasting despite water restriction. Organisms compensated for the lack of water by minimizing water loss, which created internal balance.
Typical mistakes during dry fasting
Overeating after fasting can cause digestive problems. Such as bloating and abdominal pain, as well as rapid weight gain, especially if you eat too many carbohydrates. Transition your fast by eating moderately and drinking plenty of water to hydrate your body. If possible, save your intense gym sessions before or after your fast. You can also choose light exercise instead.
Ignoring your body's signals is the worst mistake you can make at any speed. Pay attention to how you feel during your dry fast. Feel free to break your fast if you feel something is wrong. You may need to shorten the length of your fast or adjust some other lifestyle factors, such as exercise or caffeine.
Ingredients:
- Cabbage – 1 head
- Onion - 1 pc.
- Walnuts – 1 handful
- Cilantro – 1 bunch
- Saffron - to taste
- Apple cider vinegar - to taste
- Salt - to taste
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Cooking
We cut a small head of cabbage into two parts, remove the stalk and finely chop it.
Place it in a large saucepan, add salt and cover with a lid for 20 minutes. During this time, the cabbage will give juice. Then we rub it with our hands, squeezing out the excess juice. Add finely chopped onion, crushed walnuts, finely chopped cilantro to the cabbage, add salt. Add saffron. Season with apple cider vinegar.
Mix everything well and put it in a salad bowl.
Recipe Tip: You can substitute roasted cashews for the walnuts. Very tasty too!
