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Hi All,

This cookbook may help. It is in English, but published in Greece. I have seen it at many Orthodox book fairs and stores. It is called 'The Festive Fast', Greek Meatless Cooking in the Eastern Orthodox Tradition.

In the Greek tradition, much emphasis is put on legumes and cooked veggies for health, and quite often these are prepared together with rice or pasta. We are allowed to consume oil. However, the amounts used in traditional recipes can often be overwhelming calorie wise and otherwise. (for instance, one cup in a recipe for six!!). What I have done normally in my lower fat diet is to substitute chicken broth for oil in cooking. During fast times, I have discovered canned vegetable broth substitutes quite nicely, deliciously, and is low in fat and calories.

For instance, a favorite recipe of my family is:
In a pot, cook (about 3/4 of a box) orzo pasta, (but instead of boiling it all in water, boil it in water with vegetable broth and a touch of olive oil), together with a large can of drained chick peas, watching it, and occasionally mixing it, until all the liquid is absorbed. Voila! (Protein, carb and some fat). If you are not fasting from dairy, add grated cheese. If you are, you can add a teaspoon of olive oil for extra flavor, and/or some salt and pepper.

I also make an Italian pasta dish with white beans and vegetable broth. In a small of amount of olive oil, mince fresh garlic and cook. Add a can of drained small white beans and saute for a couple of minutes. Add about a half can of tomato paste together with about a 2/3 of a small can of vegetable broth and simmer to make a sauce. Add salt, pepper, and ground rosemary. Then add about a half box of cooked shell pasta to this sauce in the frying pan, stir to coat the pasta and either top with parmesan or not. Serves about four.

(Adjust amounts as necessary)

Also spinach with rice is a satisfying and healthy Greek lenten dish:
In some olive oil (two or three tablespoons, more or less) saute an onion until translucent. Buy a large bag of (I prefer baby spinach)washed spinach. Chop or tear it up if the leaves are large. Add it to the sauteed onions in the pot, and add some finely chopped fresh dill weed (Spinach and dill weed always go together in Greek cuisine). Saute a few seconds, add the juice of one or two lemons, and cover just a few minutes until the spinach has wilted. Add one and a half cups of rice with three cups of water, bring to a boil, then cover and simmer until rice is done. Add a few teaspoons of olive oil after it is finished, mix in, with some salt and white pepper. (for a variation, substitute lemon juice with one cup crushed tomatoe puree).
If you are allowed dairy, feta cheese makes a nice accompaniment.

Since the Greek traditional fast allows olive oil but not dairy, olive oil is used to flavor food, and does a pretty good, and healthy, job of it.

If you don't want to cook, most supermarkets have a middle eastern section with items such as tabouli, hummus, baba ganoush, etc. These are all lenten. Lentil soup without meat is also lenten. Vegetarian chili is also lenten. Vegetable burgers are also lenten.

This is all that comes to mind for now!

Hope this helps!

Agape,
Alice

OK folks - here's my Vegetable soup

And I will start by saying - First grow your veggies - well all good cooks do don't they ?

Vegetable soup
I make this in a pressure cooker for speed [Sharon - great minds think alike hehe ]

You need root vegetables - carrots, Swede [ that's a yellow turnip for those who are not used to them] White turnip, Potato, onion, even tomatoes to add colour.

Dried red lentils [ if you use a pressure cooker these do not have to be pre-soaked but if not soak overnight first] - oh and roughly 8 oz for 1 & 1/2 pint of stock. Have to say I normally throw in 2 handsfull

Hot vegetable stock - go on cheat and use a good cube.

Chop all veggies into small strips [ not quite Julienne for the cooks !] and sweat off in the pan with a teeny bit of veg. oil.

Rinse the lentils [ whether soaked or not] and add to the vegetables.

Cover with veg stock and bring to the boil [ when I say cover I do mean just cover not float the veggies ]

Then either bring to 15 lbs pressure and cook for 30 mins or simmer very gently till the veg are soft and . Stir occasionally to stop the lentils sticking. Once the lentils have almost disintegrated, and the veg are cooked your soup is almost done

Remove from the stove and whizz most of the soup in a liquidiser or food processor till a thick soup like texture. Add the reserved bit to improve the texture.

If you have got the quantities right [ and it's all done by guess work] it will thicken up again as it cools. Since I never weigh anything when making soup, it is never the same twice running. that adds to the interest.

For seasoning - well if you use a Pressure cooker add salt pepper etc at the end once it is cooked. otherwise do it as it cooks but be careful not to overdo it. I normally don't bother but put it on the table

Serve with nice fresh bread and you have a meal [ garlic bread is nice with it ]

And here's a treat from my childhood...

My Mama used to buy this in a cellophane tube from the kosher market. I haven't seen it commercially in ages, and anyway why spend over $1.50 for thirty cents worth of ingredients??

Put about 1/2 - 1/3 cup EACH of:
Split dry green peas
Split dry yellow peas
Barley (NOT instant or quick-cooking)
and about 5 or 6 dry lima beans

into pot with water & a bit of salt. Cook until the beans have totally disintegrated. In a pressure cooker this is maybe 20 minutes. In a standard pot it's several hours - and a great thing to do in a nonstick crock-pot as long as it's one that will boil. Stir every so often if it's in an open pot.

When it's done, throw in a cup or so of tiny pasta. We always used alphabet pasta. I can't find that anymore, so last time I used tiny stars (daughter called them "gears") or I guess you could use orzo or any other tiny pasta. Cook another 10 minutes. Season to taste - usually I add salt, fresh ground black pepper, and sometimes hot sauce.

If there are leftovers it will "gel" overnight in the fridge. Just heat & add a bit of water to enjoy again.

Yum, yum, yum.

Sharon

For all asian aficianados, throwing in cubes of tofu and peanuts into a tasty vegetable stir fry will boost the protein content considerably. Many local groceries now have excellent vegetarian sections. I regularly buy soy yogurts, one serving of which supplies 50% of the daily calcium requirement.

Khrystyna

Hello to everyone on the 1st day of the great fast. I am a Vegetarian so, I am living the "simple" fast everday. However this year I am eliminating sweets to make my fast more "productive" My DH and I consume lots of peanutbutter, vegan burgers (Not all soy burgers are fast friendly many contain dairy and/or eggs) Tofu, beans,pasta and rice. We have beem using soymilk in our coffee. (Check out Silk vanilla)

Someone was looking for a veggie soup free of beans? Here ya go...

Kitchen Sink Vegtable Soup

1 Container of Imagine "No Chicken Broth" or Regular old Veggie Broth. (Enough to make 4 cups)

2 Carrots cut into rounds

2 Stalks of Celery

1/2 of white onion cut into small dice

1 can of crushed tomatoes

1 small can of corn (optional)

1 small can of green beans (optional)

Combine all ingrediants into a soup pot, bring to a boil and let simmer until carrots and onions are tender to the bite (about 15-20 minutes)

I also suggest checking out www.vegweb.com [vegweb.com] for recipes. All recipes are vegan (i.e. no meat, dairy, fish or honey) perfect for the fast! I also have stores of recipes, I will be happy to post more!

Alison

Alison

Oh and before I forget -- there's lots of great tasting calcium-fortified orange juice on the market these days, too --

Khrystyna

GLORY TO JESUS CHRIST!
GLORY TO HIM FOREVER!

Hi gang!

My cousin just sent me the most WONDERFULLY MARVELOUS cookbook. It's called a LENTEN COOKBOOK and it's published by St. George Lazarica Serbian Orthodox Church School in Midland, PA.

The cookbook covers everything from Appetizers & beverages to breads to breakfast & snack ideas to desserts to fish & seafood to main dishes to soups & salads to vegetables.

The cost of the cookbook is $15 plus $3 S & H.

St. George's address is:
St. George Serbian Orthodox Church
20 10th Street
Midland, PA 1505

phone: 724-643-1396

They have a recipe for pancakes that I'm gonna try. You use self-rising pancake flour, water and orange juice. You use Lenten margerine or non-stick spray on the pan! I can't wait!

Also a bunch of good pasta recipes and the desserts are FANTASTIC!!!

mark

I will never understand the point of these elaborate cookbooks promoted as "lenten", regardless of the ingredients used (or the source, whether it's from an "Orthodox" monastery or an ethnic kitchen).

I figure that if you spend more time preparing a meal than you do eating it, it is not fasting and you're missing the point.

Dear Lemko,

The fact that preparation of lenten meals is somewhat longer than that of non-lenten meals fits into the overall orthodox concept of increased preparation for increased reward.

The Vesperal Divine Liturgies and Presanctified Liturgies all all during lenten seasons and if served according to the rubrics, imply complete fasting from midnight through to 12:00 noon or even 4:00 PM (Holy Saturday's rubrics from 1555). These are liturgies of preparation for the great festal Liturgies that follow (Pascha, Theophany, and Nativity).

To me, non-lenten food preparation would be if we were to throw a store-bought frozen dinner in the microwave, fail to say a prayer before starting, and eat it while watching TV.

In Christ.

Dear Sharon,

The most useful gift that we've ever received was a beautiful stailess steel pressure cooker. Yes, but who remembers to soak the beans one day in advance?

Lazy and forgetful, but,

In Christ.

My dear brother,

If you soak the beans it takes five minutes less in the pressure cooker. If you make dinner by the "It's 7:00pm. Hmmmmm. What's this on the shelf??" method you can STILL get the beans from bag to soup in a very short time in that marvelous little pot. Stainless steel, huh? Somebody REALLY likes you!

I have my Mama's old Presto. It's aluminum, but twice the weight of the new ones. Somewhere in the last move, we lost the pressure gauge. I saw the exact one last time I was at Lehman's. Gotta remember to get one. NEED the pressure cooker!

Best,

Sharon

FatherMark<<If we stick to the oil rules during the Great Fast then fried food won't be a problem.>>

Father, bless.

I want to make it absolutely clear that olive oil was not involved, but only the cheapest vegetable oil. I am on a fixed income--this is about all I can afford.

Kissing your right hand,
OrthodoxEast

Okay,
not being a "cradle Byzantine", but a transfer of Rite Byzantine, I seem to be uneducated on some of the finer points of today's fasting rules. No Olive oil???

I have not done the full forty day fast in the past. I am doing quite a bit just to get my family to avoid the meat/dairy today and Great and Holy Friday; and avoid meat on all the other Fridays.

Most of the items the other posters list sound yummy to me, but...... not to my gang.

Did I hear the Administrator imply a grilled chicken breast would be better for my group than fried shrimp or other unhealthy greasy foods? Without "meat" my group only thinks "fried".

humbly,
denise

p.s. An old, old friend of mine, of peaceful repose, thought it was better to "fast" from words than to give up sweets and such. Fast from words, meaning, no harsh words, gossip, etc.

Dear Denise,

Probably you will find that keeping even the strictest of the dietary rules is easier than bridling the tongue (fasting from words). The Apostle James had quite a something to say about bridling the tongue. The first time that I read it, I got nervous and thought that he was writing about me!

Traditionally, we start out with baby steps, like dietary restrictions. Then we move on to bigger things like controlling our tongues, loving our brothers, or even our enemies. Forgiveness is a dish that few can prepare and serve.

A blessed fast to you and your family. May God brighten it with blessings of joy!

In Christ,
Andrew.

Denise,

I think you and I ought to get together with our puzzlements .

This is my first try at the Great Fast [ being as how I am a Latin ] but I thought I had things more or less sussed out - and now Andrew has been talking of beer !! And during the week too - I thought things were 'relaxed 'at the weekends.

For us 'first timers' how about a set of simple rules ?

Anhelyna