Lenten menu for memorial meals
For fasting days and the long fasts. No meat, eggs or dairy — but with dishes people actually eat, not just ones that fill the table.
Families' biggest worry is that a lenten meal will come out bland and people will leave hungry. That's why we don't just put out salads: a lenten menu includes soup soured with borscht, lenten sarmale with mushrooms, mashed beans, fish if it's permitted, and pies. It's a meal, not a nibble.
Cold starters
- Aubergine salad with tomatoes
- Homemade zacuscă
- Mashed beans with fried onion
- Beetroot salad with horseradish
- Olives and assorted pickles
Soup
- Vegetable soup soured with borscht
- Bean soup with lovage
- Mushroom soup
Main course
- Lenten sarmale, with mushrooms and rice
- Bean stew with onion
- Oven-baked vegetable ghiveci
- Country potatoes with dill
- Polenta
Colivă, colaci and dessert
- Colivă
- Colaci
- Lenten apple pie
- Lenten walnut cake
The dishes below are a starting proposal. The menu is put together with you, over the phone — things get swapped, removed and added as you need.
When the meal is lenten
The rule is simple: if the day of the memorial falls on a Wednesday, a Friday, or during one of the long fasts — Easter, Christmas, the Dormition, or Saints Peter and Paul — the meal is lenten.
Because the memorial date is fixed while the fasts move, the same memorial can fall inside a fast one year and outside it the next. When you're unsure, ask the priest holding the service; we'll tell you too, if you call with the date.
What goes and what replaces it
Meat, eggs and dairy go. The same courses remain, in the same order, but with different dishes: vegetable or bean soup instead of ciorbă rădăuțeană, sarmale with mushrooms and rice instead of meat ones, lenten pie instead of cozonac.
Colivă doesn't change. It's made from boiled wheat, sugar and walnuts, so it's lenten anyway — it goes on any memorial table.
The worry that it comes out bland
It's the concern we hear most, and it's fair: plenty of lenten meals are three salads and a plate of pickles, and people leave hungry. It needn't be that way.
What actually fills people up at a lenten meal: mashed beans with fried onion, zacuscă, sarmale with mushrooms, bean stew, country potatoes, polenta and a good pie at the end. Put together, that's a full meal, not a long starter.
Frequently asked
What families ask us
How do I know if the day is a fasting one?
Wednesdays and Fridays are fasting days all year, plus the long fasts. Tell us the date and we'll check together — or ask the priest holding the service.
Can we have both lenten and non-fasting at the same meal?
Yes. If some guests keep a strict fast, we prepare separate portions. Tell us how many and we'll make them apart.
Does fish count as lenten?
Only on days when fish is permitted. If your day is one of those, we have a separate fish menu — it also suits families who are fasting but want a more substantial meal.
Is colivă lenten?
Yes. It's made from wheat, sugar and walnuts, so it goes on any memorial table, whatever the day.