Whether you’re participating in a Daniel Fast or need a week of meals that you don’t have to plan, my Daniel Fast meal plan is for you!
I’ve curated breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack recipes for seven days. This guide is complete with a menu, grocery list and full recipes so you can focus on more important things than what to put in your body for 21 days. These Daniel Fast recipes can be repeated each week for the full 21 days and swapped around to fit your schedule.
The goal of this plan is to focus on other aspects of your health. While you may find you lose weight and gain energy by eating this way for 21 days, the goal is to focus on your spiritual health. So let this guide help you do just that!
Table of Contents
What is the Daniel Fast?
The Daniel Fast is based on the biblical book of Daniel, found in the Old Testament. Daniel was a prophet that was placed under the rule of King Nebuchadnezzar. In defiance, Daniel and a few others chose not to eat the food the king provided and instead temporarily turn to a diet consisting of whole food, plant-based meals.
Thousands of years later, people still partake in this ‘fast’ to help focus on their spiritual journey. I created a meal plan based on the criteria for those who want to participate. First, let’s figure out what can and can’t be eaten while on this plan.
What to Eat on the Daniel Fast
Daniel Fast recipes focus on WFPB: whole food, plant-based ingredients. This means you can load up on:
- Fresh fruit
- Fresh vegetables
- Legumes
- Nuts and seeds
- Natural sweeteners
- Whole grains
- Water
- Vegetable oils such as extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil and avocado oil
Foods to Avoid
While on this temporary meal plan, avoid the following food groups:
- Meat + fish
- Dairy
- Animal by-products like eggs and honey
- Added and artificial sweeteners
- Yeast
- Processed foods
- Certain beverages including coffee, alcohol, soda and kombucha
Download: Free Daniel Fast Meal Plan
A traditional Daniel Fast is 21 days long. The below meal plan I created is for seven days, then can be repeated for the full three weeks. I want to make this as easy as possible for you, so the dinner recipes will be made once and then enjoyed for lunch the next day as well. That way you aren’t cooking two meals each day.
Breakfast is a daily green smoothie. While some of these Daniel Fast recipes may be new or different, try them! You never know what you might learn to like. Yet if there is a recipe you can’t do, then swap it with another one on the list. If you need ingredient swaps, just drop a comment so I can help!
Click here for the Daniel Fast Meal Plan.
Energy Fueled Breakfasts
When changing your eating habits, even temporarily, starting the day off right sets you up for success. I chose seven different smoothie recipes that are fast to make and start your day with a variety of whole food ingredients.
Boost them with a plant-based protein powder that has no added sugar to help you stay full until lunchtime.
- Meal Replacement Smoothie
- Pineapple Mint Smoothie
- Creamy Blueberry Smoothie
- Banana Oatmeal Smoothie
- Berry Protein Smoothie
- Clear Skin Smoothie
- Savory Tomato Smoothie
Easy Plant-Based Snacks + Desserts
Snacks might not be part of your normal menu, yet when you change what you eat, your body changes how it reacts to and metabolizes food. So you may have a daily snack yet you find yourself hangry at 3:00 pm, or needing a glucose stabilizer after dinner.
That’s where these Daniel Fast snack or dessert recipes come in! Have them on hand if you need a little extra fuel in the morning or for an afternoon energy boost.
- Homemade Granola Bars
- Strawberry Snack Bowl, featured in the Autumn Cleanse.
Savory and Satisfying Dinners + Lunches
I want to make this meal plan accessible to those who are on the go or not able to spend all day in the kitchen. So I’m using the magic of leftovers! For the majority of these recipes, you make them for dinner and then enjoy the second portion for lunch the next day. That way you cook once, eat twice and focus on eating well.
- Simple Green Veggie Bowl, featured in Simple Green Meals
- Plant-Powered Cacao Chili, featured in Simple Green Meals
- Broccoli Rice Bowl
- Plant Power Wraps, featured in the Spring Cleanse
- Vegetable Barley Soup
- Creamy Potato Curry
- Plant-Powered Nachos, featured in Simple Green Meals
Daniel Fast Meal Plan FAQs
I’ve created a menu, shopping list and full recipes for seven days that can be repeated each week of your Daniel Fast. This menu includes produce-rich smoothies, delicious snacks, and meals that you make once and eat twice.
Focus on whole food, plant-based ingredients. Avoid meat, dairy, processed food, added and artificial sugars, beverages including coffee, alcohol and soda, and food products that include yeast.
This ‘fast’ is completely whole food, plant-based. This means no animal products including foods like honey and eggs. However, don’t fear about not getting enough protein! You’d be surprised how much protein comes from leafy greens, nuts and seeds, legumes and more. You won’t go hungry following this plan.
Meal Plans Fueled by Plants
Once you’ve finished your Daniel Fast, you may wonder what’s for dinner. Well, let me help with that! I’ve got more free meal plans powered by plants and ready for you to use to keep the good food vibes strong:
Hello,
My two cents. Daniel crucified his flesh. He did not enjoy a vegan fest, he was faithful to the Word, even though that meant that he would have to suffer for the sake of God. Daniel did not ask for / get kosher alternatives to the unclean foods from the king’s table. He received the same things as everyone else, but chose to consume only what would not defile him. I would be very surprised if Daniel’s meal plan was filled with energy-fueled breakfasts, with satisfying lunches and dinners, with snacks and desserts. For example, there was only one safe beverage: water. Also, apparently, the menu was such that, had it not been for God’s protection, he would have certainly harmed himself very quickly by sticking to vegetables and water only. Hence the objection in Daniel 1:10, “I fear my lord the king, who assigned your food and your drink; for why should he see that you were in worse condition than the youths who are of your own age? So you would endanger my head with the king.”
I am quoting from Isaiah 58: “2 Yet they seek me daily / and delight to know my ways, / as if they were a nation that did righteousness / and did not forsake the judgment of their God; / they ask of me righteous judgments; / they delight to draw near to God. 3 ‘Why have we fasted, and you see it not? / Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’ / Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, […] / 4 […] Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high. / 5 Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself? […] Will you call this a fast, / and a day acceptable to the LORD?” Fasting is not pleasant to the flesh, it is humbling. The people around Daniel were probably wondering why he was only eating some vegetables and drinking only water, and they certainly had no desire to do as he did because it was a sacrifice. Imagine a vegan who is placed in an non-vegan household. The person must take all her meals with the others and does not receive any accommodation. When there is for example rice with a meat sauce, she only has plain rice. When there is a meat lasagna, she skips a meal. And she has to do this graciously. This goes on for years; she does not know when, or even if, she will be allowed to leave that non-vegan household. That is what I picture under a Daniel fast. There is a difference between fasting and just tweaking your diet for a while.
I got here looking for smoothie recipes. Normally, I would not write a comment. But you are a Christian and you seem well intentioned, that is why I am sharing my thoughts with you – from Christian to Christian. I hope that you will take the matter to God in prayer. Try to ask Him, LORD, will you call this a fast?
Hey Jen! I noticed on the plant powered nachos recipe, it seems to be incomplete . In the instructions it lists making avocado crema and vegan Parmesan cheese but those ingredients and measurements aren’t listed on the left and the recipe also seems to stop mid recipe. I know those recipes can be found online and in your cookbook (which I have and love)but for the sake of having the complete recipe on one page I just thought you might want to know. Thanks for all the hard work you and your team put into making these delicious recipes and for sharing all the knowledge!
Hi Melody! Thanks for letting me know!
I love love love this fast. Sounds great.will try it out definitely
Hi Jen,
Thank you for your meal plans, they are a great guide for a healthy life style.
Jen regarding the Daniel’s meal plan; Daniel did not defy king Nebuchadnezzar.
Here’s the reason why Daniel didn’t eat the royal foods.
Daniel was a prophet, chosen by God.
Daniel and his friends were Israelites captured by king Nebuchadnezzar, the king’s service chose them. They where from the Israeli royal family and the nobility-
Daniel 1:3-4
Daniel had never touched nor eaten unclean foods(pork, meats, or wine offered to idols) therefore, Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal foods.
Daniel asked to be tested for 10 days “please give us vegetables to eat and water to drink”
Then compare us within the ten days if we are not in accordance, then we will eat the royal foods. The king’s service granted Daniel’s request. For their obedience to the Lord, Daniel and his friends at the end of ten days looked healthier and better nourished then any of the other young men eating the royal food!
So, they were granted to eat vegetables and water throughout their captivity of
70 years! Daniel 1:11-16
The book of Daniel Is a prophetic book, it demonstrates Daniel’s obedience to the Lord, the Lord’s protection and the future of things to come.
Pretty cool!
That’s the history.
Jen, read the book of Daniel entirely, to see all the other amazing ways the Lord used Daniel ♥️
Have a great afternoon.