Lent Recipes & the 40 Days
Simple, meatless meals for the season before Easter: what Lent is, what you can eat, and recipes to carry you through the forty days.
Lent is the forty-day season of fasting, prayer and reflection that Christians keep in the weeks leading up to Easter. For many it is marked at the table: simpler meals, meatless Fridays, and giving something up as a small daily act of devotion. These Lenten recipes are built for exactly that - humble, nourishing food that fits the spirit of the season.
"After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry."Matthew 4:2
The forty days echo the forty Jesus spent fasting in the wilderness before beginning his ministry. Lent invites us to walk a small version of that road: to set something aside, to eat more plainly, and to make a little more room for prayer. The food of Lent has always been the food of restraint - bread and beans, soups and grains, fish on Fridays in place of meat - and it turns out to be some of the most comforting cooking there is.
The Lenten Table
What to Eat During Lent
At the heart of Lent
Foods to Lean On
- Hearty vegetable and bean soups
- Lentils, beans and chickpeas
- Whole grains: rice, barley, oats, bread
- Fish and seafood (the traditional Friday meal)
- Vegetables, in season and simply cooked
- Fruit, nuts and olive oil
- Plain bread and simple bakes
Traditionally set aside
What Many Give Up
- The meat of land animals on Ash Wednesday and Fridays (beef, pork, poultry)
- Rich, festive and indulgent dishes
- Sweets, desserts and treats
- Alcohol, for those who choose to
- A personal "giving up": coffee, snacks or a favourite food
Traditions vary between churches. The common thread is simple: eat more plainly, keep Fridays meatless, and let the table reflect the season.
How the 40 Days Work
In the Western church, Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and runs for forty days, not counting Sundays, until Easter. Because Easter moves each year, so does Lent: Ash Wednesday usually falls in February or early March. The forty days recall Jesus' fast in the wilderness, as well as the forty years Israel wandered and the forty days Moses spent on the mountain.
The oldest discipline of the season is fasting and abstinence. Abstinence means going without the meat of land animals - which is why fish, soups and bean dishes became the classic Lenten meals - and is traditionally kept on Ash Wednesday and every Friday of Lent. Fasting, in the stricter sense, means eating more sparingly. Beyond the rules, most people add a personal practice: giving up a particular food or habit, or taking on extra prayer, Scripture and generosity.
Practically, Lenten cooking rewards a pot of soup. A big batch of vegetable or bean soup early in the week covers several meatless meals, and a simple baked fish makes an easy Friday dinner. Keep good bread, olive oil and dried beans on hand and the season more or less cooks itself.
A Simple Lenten Friday
- Lunch: a bowl of hearty vegetable or white bean soup with bread
- Dinner: baked fish with lemon, herbs and a simple vegetable
- To finish: fruit, rather than a sweet
- Throughout: water, and a little less of everything
Recipes
Lenten Recipes
Meatless soups, beans and Friday fish for the season of Lent - simple, filling and rooted in the food of restraint.
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A Month of Simple Biblical Meals
Our free 4-week Biblical Meal Plan maps out wholesome, plant-forward meals with a Scripture for each day - an easy companion for Lent, with a combined shopping list to keep it simple.
Lent Questions
What is Lent?
The 40-day season of fasting, prayer and reflection that Christians keep before Easter. It remembers the forty days Jesus fasted in the wilderness (Matthew 4:2) and is traditionally a time of simpler eating, giving something up, and drawing closer to God.
When does Lent start?
In the Western church it begins on Ash Wednesday and runs forty days, not counting Sundays, until Easter. The dates move with Easter each year, so Ash Wednesday usually falls in February or early March.
What can you eat during Lent?
Simple, plant-forward meals: vegetables, beans and lentils, grains and bread, fruit and olive oil, with fish allowed. The classic rule is no meat from land animals on Ash Wednesday and Fridays, which is why soups, bean dishes and fish are the heart of Lenten cooking.
Why no meat on Fridays?
Going without the meat of land animals on Fridays is an old act of penance, recalling that Jesus died on a Friday. Fish has always been permitted, which is how fish and meatless meals became the Friday tradition.
Can you eat fish during Lent?
Yes. Abstinence applies to the meat of land animals, not to fish, so fish and seafood are the traditional centerpiece of Lenten Fridays.
Is Lent in the Bible?
The season is not commanded by name, but it is rooted in Scripture: it mirrors Jesus' forty days of fasting (Matthew 4:1-2) and the Bible's long tradition of fasting and repentance, such as Joel 2:12, "return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping."