Next: 10 Feb to 27 Mar 2027
Lent
Forty days of plainer eating before Easter: no meat on Fridays, and fish, pulses and bread in its place.
What is eaten for Lent
Lent runs from Ash Wednesday to the eve of Easter and recalls the forty days Jesus fasted in the desert. Catholics fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday and give up meat on Fridays. Many people also give up something of their own choosing. The kitchens of Lent are full of fish, salt cod, beans, eggs and vegetables. The pretzel began as a Lenten bread made without eggs or fat. Mexico makes capirotada, a spiced bread pudding, and Ecuador cooks fanesca, a soup of twelve grains and salt cod, for Holy Week.
The dishes
Also part of it, and being written: Fish fry (The Friday parish supper in the American Midwest.).
More dishes made for Lent
French toast
🇫🇷 France and 5 moreBread soaked in egg and milk, pan-fried and served sweet or savoury
Main dish, Breakfast, Snacks
Pancake
🇺🇸 United States and 5 moreFlat cakes made from batter, cooked on a griddle or pan and served sweet or savoury
Main dish, Breakfast, Snacks
Ful medamesVeganفول مدمس
🇪🇬 Egypt and 5 moreStew of slow-cooked fava beans with olive oil and spices, a staple across Egypt
Main dish, Breakfast
Snails as foodMeat
🇲🇦 Morocco and 5 moreLand and sea snails prepared and eaten in many world cuisines
Main dish, Lunch, Dinner
MujaddaraVeganمجدّرة
🇮🇶 Iraq and 5 moreLentils and rice cooked together and topped with fried onions
Main dish, Lunch, Dinner
Cozonac
🇷🇴 Romania and 4 moreA sweet, enriched bread often filled with nuts or dried fruit, baked for Easter
Sweet or dessert, Tea time, Snacks
Dried and salted codFish or seafood
🇳🇴 Norway and 5 moreCod preserved with salt and dried for long storage and global cooking
Main dish, Breakfast, Lunch
Zeppole
🇮🇹 Italy and 3 moreItalian deep-fried dough balls, sweet or savory, often filled or topped
Pie or savoury pastry, Snacks, Tea time
ShiroVegan
🇪🇹 Ethiopia and 1 moreChickpea or broad bean stew, a staple in Ethiopian and Eritrean meals
Stew or curry, Lunch, Dinner
MaritozzoVegetarian
🇮🇹 ItalyItalian sweet bun filled with whipped cream, typical in Rome and central Italy
Sweet or dessert, Breakfast, Snacks
Romeritos
🇲🇽 MexicoBoiled seepweed sprigs in mole sauce, often with potatoes, nopales and shrimp
Main dish
Written by the Thali desk with AI assistance. Background: "Lent" on Wikipedia. Customs differ from family to family and place to place. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- French toast: Jonathunder, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Cozonac: L.Kenzel, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Pretzel: LenaRaisch, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Fanesca: Agencia de Noticias ANDES, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Shiro: Temesgen Woldezion; edited by Merhawie Woldezion, CC BY-SA 2.5, source
- Ful medames: Habib M'henni, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Pancake: Brandon Martin-Anderson, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Capirotada: PlumaLila, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Snails as food: Marianne Casamance, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Romeritos: Mevystark, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Zeppole: I, Calcagnile Floriano, Florixc, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Mujaddara: Bazel, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Dried and salted cod: Riksarkivet (National Archives of Norway), No restrictions, source
- Bacalhau: No machine-readable author provided. Glum~commonswiki assumed (based o, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Maritozzo: Gerjantd, CC BY-SA 4.0, source