Great and Holy Friday
Ven. Hilarion the New / Repose of Gerontissa Gavrilia (1992) (March 15 OC)
Red curry is the everyday workhorse of Thai fasting cooking. It is faster than massaman, more versatile than panang, ...
Panang curry is thicker and richer than its red and green cousins — less soupy, more like a thick, clinging sauce. Th...
Massaman curry is the gentlest of the Thai curries — warm and fragrant rather than fiery, with cinnamon, cardamom, an...
Pindjur is ajvar's rougher, smokier cousin from southern Serbia and Macedonia. Where ajvar is mostly pepper, pindjur ...
Pogača is the everyday bread of Serbia — round, golden, slightly denser than Western bread, and torn apart by hand at...
Serbian salad is not a composed, artistic arrangement. It is a rough chop of whatever ripe vegetables are at hand — t...
Paprikash is normally a rich meat stew bound with sour cream. The fasting version swaps meat for mushrooms and thicke...
Pita (pie) is a daily staple across the Balkans. The regular version uses eggs, cheese, and sometimes milk-soaked phy...
Djuvec is the Balkan answer to the question "what do you do with all these peppers and tomatoes?" Rice baked slowly w...
If prebranac is the king of Serbian fasting, pasulj is the daily bread. This thick white bean soup is eaten year-roun...
Ajvar is not just a recipe. It is a Serbian institution. Every autumn, when the red peppers come in, entire families ...
Sarma is the great celebratory dish of Serbia — normally made with meat and pork fat. During fasting, the filling bec...
The national fasting dish of Serbia, full stop. Prebranac is white beans slow-baked with caramelized onions and papri...
Рассольник gets its name from рассол — pickle brine — and that sour, salty tang is what makes this soup completely ad...
Кутья is among the most ancient dishes in Slavic Orthodox tradition, served on Christmas Eve (Сочельник), at memorial...
These small hand pies filled with braised cabbage are the pride of Russian fasting baking. The dough uses no eggs, no...
There is nothing fancy about жареная картошка с грибами, and that is entirely the point. Pan-fried potatoes with mush...
Thick, golden, and almost absurdly filling, гороховый суп is the heavyweight champion of Russian fasting soups. Split...
Fasting borscht is not a lesser version of the meat original — it is its own magnificent dish, and in many Russian an...
Винегрет is Russia's most beloved cold salad, and it happens to be naturally fasting-compatible. The combination of e...
Buckwheat is practically a national staple in Russia and one of the best fasting grains — nutty, filling, and natural...
Dried forest mushrooms give this soup an almost meaty intensity that fresh mushrooms cannot match. Paired with pearl ...
A cornerstone of Russian fasting cuisine for centuries, щи (shchi) built on sauerkraut is the most satisfying bowl of...
This is the stew that appears when the pantry is nearly bare and the fast still has weeks to run. Potatoes and mushro...
Stuffed peppers are as common in Romania as they are across the Balkans, and the fasting version — filled with season...
In Romania, summer means vinete. Eggplants are roasted over open flames until the skin chars black and the flesh turn...
If ciorbă de legume is the light sour soup, ciorbă de fasole is its heavier, more formidable brother — a thick, filli...
Ghiveci is Romania's answer to ratatouille — except bigger, bolder, and more generous. Where the French use four or f...
Mămăligă is to Romania what bread is to France — the foundation upon which everything else rests. During fasting, whe...
Every autumn, Romanian families gather for zacuscă season — days spent roasting peppers and eggplant over open fires,...
Sarmale are Romania's national dish, and the fasting version is no lesser thing. During Lent, the pork and rice filli...
Ciorbă is the soul of Romanian cooking — a sour, brothy soup that appears on every table, fasting or not. This vegeta...
The great staple of Romanian fasting. Fasole bătută is what every Romanian grandmother makes when the fast begins — w...
Koshari is the national dish of Egypt — a magnificent, chaotic pile of rice, lentils, macaroni pasta, and chickpeas, ...
Muhammara is Aleppo's gift to the mezze table — a thick, brick-red dip of roasted red peppers, toasted walnuts, and p...
Stuffed grape leaves — warak enab in Arabic — are one of the great shared dishes of the Eastern Mediterranean, found ...
Ful medames is the breakfast of Egypt, eaten by millions every single morning, and it is one of the most ancient prep...
Baba ghanoush is the smoky, silky cousin of hummus — roasted eggplant mashed with tahini, lemon, and garlic into a di...
Tabbouleh is a parsley salad with bulgur wheat, not a bulgur salad with parsley. This distinction matters enormously....
Fattoush is the Levantine bread salad — crispy pieces of fried or toasted pita tossed with fresh vegetables and a bri...
Mujaddara may be the single most iconic Orthodox fasting dish in the world. Across Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and the...
Falafel is fried chickpea patties — crispy, deeply herbed, and one of the most satisfying fasting foods in existence....
Real hummus — the kind eaten daily across Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine — is made from dried chickpeas, not canned. T...
The British have been eating curried lentils since the days of the Raj, and for good reason — it is one of the most c...
A straightforward, deeply satisfying lentil stew in the tradition of monastic kitchens. This recipe works on oil days...
Halvas is the fasting dessert of Greece — served at memorial services, during Lent, and wherever something sweet is n...
The name means "the imam fainted" — supposedly from the sheer quantity of olive oil used, or perhaps from how delicio...
Horta is the simplest dish in this collection and, for many Greeks, the most essential. It is nothing more than boile...
Revithada is the Sunday dish of Sifnos, the Cycladic island famous for its pottery and its chickpeas. Traditionally i...
Fasolakia is one of the foundational ladera dishes — green beans braised long and slow in tomato sauce and olive oil ...
Briam is the Greek answer to ratatouille, though Greeks would argue the comparison should run the other direction. It...
If fassolada is the national dish, fakes is the monastery staple. Every monastery kitchen in Greece makes lentil soup...
Spanakorizo is comfort food of the highest order — a one-pot dish of spinach and rice cooked together until the rice ...
Gigantes plaki is one of the great dishes of the Greek table — enormous white beans baked slowly in a thick, sweet to...
Fassolada is the national dish of Greece, and it is a pot of beans. Not a steak, not a roast, not a pastry — beans. T...
Tkemali is to Georgian cooking what ketchup is to American cooking, except that it is vastly more interesting and has...
This is a thick, warming bean soup built on the Georgian flavor foundations: cilantro, garlic, blue fenugreek, and a ...
Bazhe is the great white walnut sauce of Georgian cuisine — silky, garlicky, sharpened with vinegar, and poured gener...
Beet pkhali is the ruby-red jewel of the Georgian fasting table. The technique is identical to spinach pkhali — cooke...
Traditional kharcho is a beef soup. The fasting version drops the meat and compensates with an abundance of walnuts, ...
If hot lobio is winter comfort, this cold version is the dish you want on a warm spring fasting day. Cooked kidney be...
Ajapsandali is Georgia's answer to ratatouille, and it wins the argument. Where the French version aims for delicacy,...
Badrijani nigvzit — eggplant rolls stuffed with spiced walnut paste — is the dish that people who have visited Georgi...
Pkhali is one of the great techniques of Georgian cuisine: cooked vegetables bound with a dense, garlicky walnut past...
Lobio is the beating heart of the Georgian fasting table. The word simply means "beans," but the dish itself is anyth...
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