Good Friday Menu: Traditional Meatless Recipes

Good Friday: the big day of meat-free cuisine

Good Friday is the most solemn day of Holy Week. It is a day of abstinence and fasting. And it is also the day when Spanish cuisine demonstrates that you can eat extraordinarily well without a gram of meat.

Official fasting consists of having only one main meal a day (two light snacks are allowed). Abstinence prohibits meat. But within these rules, there is plenty of room to prepare a memorable meal.

Here is a complete Good Friday menu with a starter, first course, main course, and dessert. All traditional, all step-by-step, all tried and tested.

Starter: Esqueixat cod salad

Esqueixada is a Catalan salad made with "shredded" raw cod (that's what esqueixat means in Catalan). It's fresh, light, and perfect as an appetizer.

Ingredients (4 servings)

• 300g desalted cod (thick, good quality loin)
• 4 ripe tomatoes
• 1 spring onion
• 1 Italian green pepper
• 100g black Aragon olives
• Extra virgin olive oil
• White wine vinegar
• Salt

Preparation

Shred the desalted cod with your hands into thin strips, following the muscle fibers. Do not cut it with a knife: the irregular texture absorbs the dressing better.

Cut the tomatoes into wedges, the onion into fine julienne strips, and the pepper into rings. Mix everything in a bowl with the olives. Dress with a good drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a little vinegar. Let it rest for 15 minutes in the fridge before serving.

The cod must be well desalted (48-72 hours in the fridge, changing the water every 8 hours). Since it is eaten raw, excessive salt will ruin the dish.

First course: Lentil stew (Potaje de vigilia)

There is no Good Friday without lentil stew. It is the most emblematic dish of Holy Week in Castile, Andalusia, and a large part of Spain. Chickpeas, spinach, cod, and hard-boiled egg: four humble ingredients that together create something extraordinary.

Ingredients (4-6 servings)

• 400g dried chickpeas (soaked for 12 hours) or 2 400g cans
• 300g fresh spinach (or 200g frozen)
• 300g desalted cod
• 1 onion
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 1 teaspoon sweet paprika from La Vera
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 eggs
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Salt

Preparation

If using dried chickpeas, boil them in water with 1 bay leaf for 1.5 hours over medium heat (starting with cold water). If using canned chickpeas, skip this step.

Boil the 2 eggs for 10 minutes in boiling water. Peel them and set aside.

In a large pot, sauté the chopped onion and sliced garlic in olive oil for 8 minutes. Add the paprika and cumin, stir for 30 seconds (without burning the paprika) and add the spinach. Cook for 3 minutes until wilted.

Add the chickpeas with a couple of ladles of their broth (or water if canned). Let it boil for 10 minutes. Add the shredded cod and cook for 5 more minutes. Adjust salt to taste.

Serve in deep plates with the hard-boiled eggs cut into quarters and a drizzle of raw olive oil. The stew tastes even better the next day, so you can make it on Maundy Thursday.

Main course: Cod a la Vizcaína

If the stew is a dish of austerity, cod a la Vizcaína is a dish of celebration. It is one of the great dishes of Spanish cuisine. It takes more work, but the result is worth every minute.

Ingredients (4 servings)

• 4 desalted cod loins, 200g each
• 4 large onions
• 6 dried choricero peppers
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Flour for dredging

Preparation

The day before, soak the choricero peppers in hot water for 30 minutes. Scrape out the pulp with a spoon and discard the skin.

Finely chop the 4 onions. Sauté them in a pot with plenty of olive oil over low heat for 45 minutes. Stir occasionally. The onion should be golden and almost melted, like a jam.

Add the minced garlic and the pulp of the choricero peppers. Cook for 10 more minutes. Blend with an immersion blender if you want a smooth sauce, or leave it rustic. Add sugar to balance the acidity.

Dredge the cod loins in flour and brown them for 2 minutes on each side in a frying pan with oil. Place them in the pot over the sauce and cook covered over low heat for 10 minutes.

Serve directly in the pot. The Vizcaína sauce is thick, red, and has a deep flavor that is only achieved with those 45 minutes of onion cooking.

Dessert: French toast (Torrijas) with milk and cinnamon

There is no Good Friday without "torrijas". They are the most popular Holy Week dessert throughout Spain and a delicious way to finish the meal.

Ingredients (8 torrijas)

• 8 thick slices of "torrija" bread (or day-old brioche)
• 500ml whole milk
• 100g sugar
• 1 cinnamon stick
• Zest of 1 lemon (yellow part only)
• 3 eggs
• Mild olive oil for frying
• Sugar and ground cinnamon for coating

Preparation

Heat the milk with sugar, cinnamon stick, and lemon zest. When it comes to a boil, remove from heat and let it cool completely. If the milk is hot when soaking the bread, it will fall apart.

Soak the bread slices in the cold milk for 3-5 minutes on each side. They should absorb the milk but not break apart. Carefully remove them.

Beat the eggs. Dip each slice in the beaten egg and fry in hot oil (not too hot: medium heat) for 2 minutes per side. The oil should be about 3 cm deep.

Drain on absorbent paper. Coat in a mixture of sugar and ground cinnamon (3 tablespoons sugar to 1 of cinnamon). Serve warm.

If you prefer torrijas in syrup: boil 300ml of water with 200g sugar and 1 cinnamon stick for 5 minutes. Submerge the fried torrijas in the syrup for 1 minute per side.

How to organize menu preparation

So that you don't spend all morning in the kitchen on Good Friday, prepare in advance:

• Wednesday: Soak the chickpeas. Soak the choricero peppers. Start desalting the cod if you don't buy it already desalted.
• Maundy Thursday: Make the lentil stew (it gets better overnight). Prepare the Vizcaína sauce (it can be reheated). Infuse the milk for the torrijas.
• Good Friday: Assemble the esqueixada (10 minutes). Reheat the stew. Cook the cod in the Vizcaína sauce (15 minutes). Fry the torrijas (20 minutes).

With this organization, on Good Friday you only need 45 minutes of cooking. The rest of the time is for enjoyment.

Frequently Asked Questions