What Do You Feed Your Family on Good Friday?

We asked our writers, friends, and followers on social media about their family traditions surrounding the Good Friday meal.

For Roman Catholics, Good Friday is an obligatory day of both fasting and abstinence. Fasting means that Catholics ages 18 through 59 are permitted to eat one full meal in addition to two smaller meals that together are smaller than one full meal. Abstinence means that Catholics ages 14 and older must refrain from eating meat.

What's Cooking on Good Friday?

I miss the days when my parish hosted a Good Friday Soup and Bread Dinner after the 3 PM liturgy. Parishioners signed up to bring a crockpot of meatless soup, and every family was asked to donate a loaf of bread to share. I loved that I could drop off my family's contribution of a loaf of bread before church, and afterward, head to the parish center to enjoy a simple supper with family and friends.

My husband, though he always enjoys sharing meals with friends, preferred to come home after the Good Friday liturgy and eat the meal his mom had always served on Good Friday: grilled cheese sandwiches and canned tomato soup. Sometimes he'd agree to change it up and have clam chowder instead.

When we conducted our (admittedly unscientific) survey on social media, I expected to see pizza topping the list, so I was very surprised that only one respondent, our writer Liz Lantigua, mentioned pizza at all — and that was in conjunction with several other options.

We decided to go through Catholic Mom's Meatless Friday archives and find recipes for you for many of the dishes mentioned below. We hope you find a new recipe idea to enjoy together!

Fish on Fridays

A few readers mentioned fish of some kind: my friend Peg Smith recalls having fish sticks as a child, and Catholic writer Jane Lebak said she sometimes serves tuna melts and tomato soup. When my aunt Eileen Grady was a child, her mom made homemade fish and chips, and Aunt Eileen continued that tradition with her kids, but got takeout instead of homemade. Kate O'Hare from Family Theater Productions, our sister ministry, also mentioned fish and chips, as well as tuna mac and cheese (which was a favorite of my friend Jeanne Wayman and one of Catholic Mom's followers on Instagram). My friend Rose Thomas says she serves shrimp, which (along with salmon) was also mentioned by Liz Lantigua.

New Catholic Mom writer Velany Rodrigues, who writes from India, shared:

Our staple is rice, dal (lentils/split moong), and masala fried fish. It's what my mum made every Good Friday. I'm continuing the tradition. My husband's grandmother would make pomfrets stuffed with green masala!  

I'll be checking in with Velany to see if she'll share some of these recipes with us before long!

Soup's On

Simple meatless soups are popular fare on Good Friday. Catholic writer and editor Jaymie Stuart Wolfe recalls having borscht with pumpernickel bread, alongside pita, hummus, dried dates, and figs — combining foods from her Slavic heritage with those from the Middle East.

Catholic author Daria Sockey serves either pea soup or lentil soup with crusty bread. Our writer Sarah Torbeck also serves lentils, but as a stew. That's another recipe we'll need to get!

One of our friends on Instagram can come cook for us anytime: she suggested Italian veggie soup with ditalini pasta on the side, topped with fresh Parmesan.

Other Meatless Ideas

Catholic Mom writer Bonnie Drury's Good Friday dinner includes bean and cheese burritos. Our writer Deanna Bartalini goes with breakfast for dinner — without any bacon, of course! Pancakes, or an omelette.

The Big Winner: Mac and Cheese!

So many who replied to the survey mentioned mac and cheese as a Good Friday tradition, among them one of our Instagram followers and my friend Peg Smith (who suggests stewed tomatoes as a side dish), plus Kate O'Hare and our writers Liz Lantigua, Carolyn Astfalk, and Patrice Fagnant-MacArthur.