For many families the fast is not only about food but about a particular rhythm: less bustle, more simplicity. The rules belong to each family and each parish, and we do not say here what is allowed and what is not: it is better to ask a priest or the elders of the family. Our task is more modest: to help you plan a tasty, filling table without meat and not to run to the shop every day.

Below is a simple scheme: what to cook from beans, mushrooms, vegetables and grains, how much to take per portion, an example menu for a week and a shopping list. There are no prices in the text, they change every week: you will see the current shop offers in the live blocks.

How to build a week without meat

A week of fasting rests on five pillars: pulses, mushrooms, vegetables, grains and potatoes. If you take one dish from each group and alternate them, it comes out both varied and filling. It is worth cooking the main dishes at once in a big pot: beans or a vegetable stew for two days save both time and money.

The usual rule: for supper one main dish, with a side or bread and something fresh. At lunch a soup or a hot dish. It is better to have one or two ready dishes in the fridge than to invent anew every evening.

Beans: filling and simple

Beans are one of the main dishes of the fast. Count about sixty to eighty grams of dry beans per portion, which comes to about two hundred grams after cooking. Dry beans are soaked overnight and cooked for an hour to an hour and a half, tinned ones only need rinsing. The classic of Moldovan cooking is beaten beans with fried onion and garlic: a thick purée eaten with mămăligă, bread or pickles.

We have no separate page for beans, so look for them in the catalogues, and for a week take about half a kilo of dry beans for four people.

Mushrooms: button and oyster

Mushrooms give dishes a flavour that many look for in place of meat. Take button or oyster mushrooms: they are easy to cook and are available almost always. Count about a hundred and fifty to two hundred grams of fresh mushrooms per portion. They shrink a lot when fried, so you need more fresh ones than it looks by eye.

From mushrooms you make fried mushrooms with onion, a filling for plăcinte and sarmale with rice and mushrooms, a sauce for mămăligă or potatoes. What there is now in mushrooms:

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Vegetables: stew, braised cabbage and oven-baked

At a fasting table vegetables are a main dish, not just a side. A vegetable stew like ghiveci with aubergines, courgettes, peppers and tomatoes is filling and made in one pot. Braised cabbage goes wonderfully without meat too: with carrot, onion and tomato. Pumpkin and potatoes bake in the oven almost without attention.

For a portion of a vegetable dish count about three hundred grams of vegetables. For a week, for a family of four, you need about three to four kilos of assorted vegetables. What there is now in vegetables:

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Grains and rice: the base of the side and of sarmale

Rice, buckwheat, millet and cornmeal for mămăligă give the side and the fullness. For a portion of a side about fifty to seventy grams of dry grain is enough. From rice with fried onion, carrot and mushrooms comes the filling for fasting sarmale: the leaves are the same, the filling without minced meat. Rice with mushrooms or vegetables, mămăligă with beans or with fried mushrooms work as a complete dish.

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Oil: what to fry and dress with

In fasting cooking oil is the base of flavour: onion and carrot are sautéed in it, mushrooms fried, salads dressed. One or two tablespoons per portion are usually enough, that is fifteen to thirty millilitres. For a family of four for a week you need about a litre.

Oil can be bought ahead, it keeps. What there is now in sunflower oil:

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Fish: where it is the family custom

The rules about fish differ between families, and we do not define them. If in your family fish is allowed on certain days, it fits well in the menu: about two hundred grams per portion, for example baked or fried. If it is not allowed, simply skip this section and change nothing in the rest.

What there is now in fish:

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A menu for the week

  • Monday: beaten beans with fried onion and mămăligă, pickles.
  • Tuesday: vegetable stew with potatoes, bread.
  • Wednesday: fried mushrooms with onion and buckwheat.
  • Thursday: braised cabbage with carrot and tomato, potatoes.
  • Friday: soup with beans and vegetables, a fresh vegetable salad.
  • Saturday: sarmale with rice and mushrooms, mămăligă.
  • Sunday: baked vegetables with rice or fish, where it is the family custom.

A shopping list for a week for four

  • Beans: about half a kilo dry.
  • Mushrooms: a kilo fresh.
  • Vegetables: three to four kilos: cabbage, carrots, onions, potatoes, aubergines, courgettes, tomatoes.
  • Grains: rice and buckwheat, half a kilo each.
  • Cornmeal for mămăligă.
  • Sunflower oil: a litre.
  • Greens, garlic, salt, spices.

A short checklist

  • Plan the week once and buy everything at once.
  • Cook the main dish in a double portion for two days.
  • Include something filling every day: beans, mushrooms or grains.
  • Keep oil, rice, tinned beans and frozen vegetables in reserve.
  • If you are not sure about the rules, ask a priest or the elders of the family.