Collection
17 days until the Nativity Fast
What to cook during Lent
Fifty-six Lenten dishes with no meat, fish, dairy or eggs, with a price per serving and protein: shchi, rassolnik and pea soup, buckwheat and lentil cutlets, lean plov, dumplings and cabbage rolls, pates and hummus, porridge on water and banana pancakes, lean pies, charlotte and halva. Ready weeks: first week, budget, filling on legumes, no stove or oven, baking and sweets, before Easter.
- 56recipes
- $0.24–$3.42per portion
- 10 min – 24 hto cook
- 147–761kcal per portion
The Nativity Fast lasts forty days and Great Lent seven weeks, and buckwheat with cabbage alone will not get you through them. Here are fifty-six Lenten dishes without meat, fish, dairy or eggs, each with protein, calories and a price per serving at your store's prices. Sauerkraut shchi with mushrooms, pea and lentil soups, buckwheat and lentil cutlets, potato cutlets with mushroom gravy, lean plov with chickpeas, potato dumplings, lazy cabbage rolls with mushrooms. Mushroom and bean pates, hummus, eggplant caviar. Pies, charlotte and halva on vegetable oil.
Below are six ready weeks. "First week" is familiar food to enter the fast without a shock, "Budget" is cabbage, potatoes and peas, "Filling" is legumes with 15 to 35 g of protein per dish, "No stove or oven" for those at work, "Baking and sweets" for tea, "Before Easter" with Holy Week dishes and fish for the Annunciation. The quiz has a Lenten week event: it removes meat, fish, dairy and eggs from every meal, and the "Build a week from the collection" button puts the dishes from here in.
Nativity Fast 2026–2027 day by day
From 28 November to 6 January. The calendar shows which days allow fish, which allow vegetable oil and which are stricter.
MonTueWedThuFriSatSun
2324252627
78910
28 November 2026
Fish allowed
Fish, vegetable oil and cooked food. Fish soup, steamed fish or fish baked with vegetables all work.
No fish, vegetable oil allowed
Cooked food with vegetable oil but no fish: stewed vegetables, porridge, soups with fried onion and carrot.
No oil: cooked food or raw only
By the rule, Monday is cooked food without oil, Wednesday and Friday raw food only: bread, raw vegetables and fruit, nuts, honey. Below are dishes from this collection without oil.
Christmas Eve: no food until the first star, then sochivo
No food until the first star. In the evening, sochivo or kutia, uzvar and a lenten table.
- Fish allowed
- No fish, vegetable oil allowed
- No oil: cooked food or raw only
- Christmas Eve: no food until the first star, then sochivo
The calendar follows the monastic rule. Lay people are usually allowed more, especially children, the sick and travellers; this is discussed with a priest. The dishes on this page have no meat, fish, dairy or eggs, except the fish-day section.
Ready menus
Breakfast 5
Lunch 18
Dinner 19
Snack 14
For fish days 12
During the Nativity Fast fish is eaten on Tuesdays, Thursdays and weekends until 19 December, then only at weekends until 1 January. These fish dishes have no meat, dairy or eggs.
More lenten dishes from the catalog 197
Everything in the catalog that suits the fast: no meat, fish, dairy or eggs. Each recipe shows the price per serving and the time.
Mains 80
Show 72 more
Soups 8
Breakfast and porridge 9
Show 1 more
Salads and starters 42
Show 34 more
Baking, sweets and drinks 58
Show 50 more
How to use it
Pick the Lenten week event in the quiz: the planner removes meat, fish, dairy and eggs from every meal, snacks included, and counts the day's protein. The "Build a week from the collection" button puts the dishes from here on breakfasts, lunches and dinners and builds a shopping list in whole packs: grains, legumes and cabbage repeat, so nothing is left over.
Protein during Lent comes from legumes, nuts, seeds and tofu: keep at least three dishes on lentils, chickpeas or beans in the week. Mushrooms replace meat in taste but not in protein, so pair mushroom dishes with buckwheat and beans. Cook soups and stews for two days. Fish is allowed only on the Annunciation and Palm Sunday, and there is one dish here for that.
Plan a week from this collectionQuestions
When is the Nativity Fast in 2026?
From 28 November 2026 to 6 January 2027, forty days. The dates are the same every year: the fast ends on Christmas Eve.
On which days of the Nativity Fast is fish allowed?
Until 19 December inclusive, on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays, and on 4 December, the Entry of the Theotokos. From 20 December to 1 January only on Saturday and Sunday. From 2 to 6 January there is no fish.
What can you eat during a fast?
Grains, beans and lentils, vegetables, mushrooms, fruit and berries, nuts, bread without milk or eggs, vegetable oil and honey. Meat, dairy and eggs are out for the whole fast, fish only on fish days.
Where do you get protein during a fast?
From beans, lentils, chickpeas and peas, and also tofu, buckwheat and nuts. Each recipe page shows how much protein the dish has.
What can I cook for lunch during Lent?
Sauerkraut shchi with mushrooms, pea soup, lentil soup with tomatoes, lean rassolnik with barley, lean borscht with beans, lean plov with chickpeas, peppers with rice and mushrooms, lazy cabbage rolls. Cook the soups for two days at once.
What can I cook for dinner during Lent?
Buckwheat, lentil, potato or cabbage cutlets, potatoes with mushrooms, potato dumplings, tofu with broccoli, pasta with tomatoes and olives, rice with vegetables in soy sauce. All without meat, dairy or eggs, 350 to 550 kcal.
What Lenten food is filling?
Dishes on legumes: lentil cutlets, plov with chickpeas, beans in tomato, chickpeas with spinach in curry, hummus, lobio. They have 15 to 35 g of protein per serving, as much as a cutlet. The Filling week is made of such dishes.
What sweets can I make during Lent?
Lean oat cookies, a jam and walnut cake, a charlotte on sparkling water, sunflower halva, banana pancakes without eggs, berry kissel, millet porridge with pumpkin and honey. All on vegetable oil, with sweetness from sugar, honey, fruit and jam.
What is cheap to cook during Lent?
Pea soup, cabbage cutlets, potato cutlets with mushroom gravy, stewed cabbage with mushrooms, buckwheat with mushrooms, cabbage and carrot salad, kissel. The Budget week is the cheapest, and the price per serving is counted in every recipe.
