Romanian
Fast Without Oil
Polenta with Water-Sauteed Mushroom Ragu
Mamaliga — polenta — is the staff of life in Romanian cooking, and during Lent it replaces bread at most meals. Cooke...
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Today's Fast
April 11, 2026
Lenten Fast — Wine is Allowed
Great and Holy Saturday
Hieromartyr Antipas, Bishop of Pergamum / Holy Martyrs Processus and Martinian (1st c.)
Troparion: Great and Holy Saturday: Tone II. Noble Joseph ... When Thou, the Deathless Life, didst go down to death, then didst Thou slay hell by the lightning flash of Thy Divinity. And when Thou didst raise...
Fasting Recipes
Romanian
Fast With Oil
Cozonac de Post — Fasting Sweet Bread
Cozonac is Romania's beloved holiday sweet bread, and the fasting version is a triumph of technique over restriction....
Romanian
Fast With Oil
Ciorbă de Fasole (Bean Sour Soup)
If ciorbă de legume is the light sour soup, ciorbă de fasole is its heavier, more formidable brother — a thick, filli...
Romanian
Fast With Oil
Sarmale de Post (Fasting Stuffed Cabbage Rolls)
Sarmale are Romania's national dish, and the fasting version is no lesser thing. During Lent, the pork and rice filli...
Romanian
Fast With Oil
Ardei Umpluți de Post (Fasting Stuffed Peppers)
Stuffed peppers are as common in Romania as they are across the Balkans, and the fasting version — filled with season...
Romanian
Fast With Oil
Ghiveci (Romanian Vegetable Stew)
Ghiveci is Romania's answer to ratatouille — except bigger, bolder, and more generous. Where the French use four or f...
Romanian
Fast With Oil
Tocitură de Ciuperci — Mushroom Tocitura with Polenta
Tocitură is Romania's rustic meat stew, but this fasting version built on mushrooms is so deeply savory that it stand...
Romanian
Fast With Oil
Zacuscă (Roasted Vegetable Spread)
Every autumn, Romanian families gather for zacuscă season — days spent roasting peppers and eggplant over open fires,...
Romanian
Fast With Oil
Iahnie de Fasole — Bean Stew
Iahnie de fasole is Romania's national comfort food during fasting periods, and it deserves to be known far beyond it...
Romanian
Fast With Oil
Tocană de Cartofi cu Ciuperci (Potato and Mushroom Stew)
This is the stew that appears when the pantry is nearly bare and the fast still has weeks to run. Potatoes and mushro...
Romanian
Fast With Oil
Fasole Bătută (Mashed Bean Spread)
The great staple of Romanian fasting. Fasole bătută is what every Romanian grandmother makes when the fast begins — w...
Romanian
Fast With Oil
Salată de Vinete (Roasted Eggplant Salad)
In Romania, summer means vinete. Eggplants are roasted over open flames until the skin chars black and the flesh turn...
Romanian
Fast With Oil
Mămăligă cu Ciuperci (Polenta with Mushroom Stew)
Mămăligă is to Romania what bread is to France — the foundation upon which everything else rests. During fasting, whe...
Romanian
Fast Without Oil
Ciorbă de Fasole / Bean and Vegetable Soup
Romanian ciorbă de fasole is a sour bean soup that needs absolutely no oil to be magnificent. The sourness comes from...
Romanian
Fast With Oil
Ciorbă de Ciuperci — Mushroom Sour Soup
Romanian ciorbă gets its signature tang from borș (fermented wheat bran liquid), and when you build it on a base of d...
Romanian
Fast With Oil
Dovlecei Pane de Post — Fasting Fried Zucchini
Dovlecei pane are Romania's answer to fried zucchini, and the fasting version replaces the egg batter with a sparklin...
Romanian
Fast With Oil
Ciorbă de Legume (Vegetable Sour Soup)
Ciorbă is the soul of Romanian cooking — a sour, brothy soup that appears on every table, fasting or not. This vegeta...
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