20 Meatless Dishes That Fed Families During Wartime

In April 1941, with imported food increasingly difficult to obtain because of German submarines, Britain’s Ministry of Food under Lord Woolton promoted a hearty vegetable pie devised by Savoy Hotel head chef François Latry. Known as Woolton Pie after its Ministry backer, the dish consisted of diced swede, cauliflower, potato, carrot and spring onion under a potato or wholemeal crust. It was filling but not considered very tasty.

Fruit desserts and even lemon custard pie were a thing of the past once the Civil War kicked off. With a Union blockade making it nearly impossible for Southern cooks to obtain white sugar and fruit, they came up with vinegar pies to fill their families’ craving for dessert. Desperation pies, as these vinegar pies came to be known, were concocted by combining apple cider vinegar, cornstarch, sugar or sorghum molasses, and sometimes even a knob of butter. Once the mixture thickened, cooks poured it into piecrusts made with vegetable shortening. While the pies’ flavor may have been a bit off, vinegar certainly lent the pies some of the tang Southern families once got from lemons.

During World War II, a recipe known as “Mock Duck” was popular in Great Britain for stretching the rationed supply of meat. Sausage meat, usually pork, was flavored with grated cooking apples, onion, and sage, then formed by hand into the shape of a plucked duck. It was brushed with vegetable oil to make the skin crisp, and served sliced, with onion gravy.

In an effort to help families stretch their meat rationing points during World War II, USDA home economists turned to an old recipe from a 1916 bulletin written by George Washington Carver, an agricultural scientist at the Tuskegee Institute. Carver suggested 105 uses for peanuts, including a velvety peanut butter soup. To make the soup, brown the onion and celery in fat, stir in peanut butter and vegetable stock. Add milk and season with salt, pepper, and paprika.

When chocolate was virtually unobtainable from shops during World War II, carrot fudge was invented as a substitute. Rationing at the time meant people were only allowed eight ounces of sugar a week, so the home economists working for the British Ministry of Food hit upon the idea of using carrots to make fudge. Boiled carrots were mashed until smooth and simmered with a little gelatin and a small amount of concentrated orange juice. A dollop of margarine was also added. Once set, the mixture could be cut into little squares. It was orange in color, but tasted faintly of citrus rather than chocolate.

Glamorgan sausages had been a Welsh specialty since the 1850s, and they were also made during World War Two. Consisting of grated Caerphilly or sharp cheddar cheese, finely chopped leeks, breadcrumbs, mustard powder, and an egg yolk, the mixture was made into sausage shapes, rolled in more breadcrumbs, and fried until golden. Despite their name, Glamorgan sausages do not contain meat, only cheese and leeks. They became very popular in Britain during World War Two as they did not require meat coupons to make them.

When it became increasingly difficult to find geese and turkeys to serve for Christmas because of disruptions to shipping during World War II, the British Ministry of Food recommended a recipe for a dish known as Mock Goose. After the red split lentils were boiled, they were mixed with wholemeal breadcrumbs, fried onion and dried sage. This was spread in a dish, sprinkled with a little rationed cheese and baked until firm. It was served at the table just like the real thing!

In August 1917, President Woodrow Wilson named Herbert Hoover to lead the newly created U.S. Food Administration. Hoover did not introduce rationing coupons, but he did encourage people to observe voluntary Meatless Mondays. Local food boards handed out recipes for meatless fare like peanut loaf: peanuts or peanut butter were mixed with celery, breadcrumbs, rice, mashed potato, and milk, and baked in a loaf shape that could be sliced and served with tomato or white sauce.

When the U.S. got involved in World War II, Victory Gardens sprang up in backyards all over the country. By 1944, there were an estimated 20 million Victory Gardens producing roughly 8 million tons of produce, possibly as much as 40% of all fresh vegetables in the U.S.! People were encouraged to grow Victory Gardens so that more of the commercially produced food could be sent to feed troops abroad. Simmer fresh tomatoes, corn, green beans, carrots, and herbs to make this hearty Victory Garden Soup!

During wartime, Britain’s naval blockade meant canned crab and fish were not available to the population. In order to create a substitute for these foods, the British Ministry of Food created this Mock Crab Spread recipe, which contained no fish or seafood. Grate part of your two-ounce weekly ration of cheese. Combine grated cheese with melted margarine, dry mustard powder, a little vinegar, salt, and some breadcrumbs. Eat as a salad topping or on toast. The tang of the vinegar and mustard stands in for the taste of crab meat.

A Homity Pie is an open pie filled with cheese, potatoes, leeks, and onions. The Women’s Land Army, which took over many British farms while the men were away fighting in World War II, is said to have popularized the dish. Their rations included eight ounces of cheese, as opposed to two ounces for the general public, so plenty of it made its way into their pies. Curiously, the first Homity Pie recipe didn’t appear until 1961, in a cookbook associated with a London vegetarian restaurant.

During World War II, cheese was rationed to two ounces per person per week in Britain. Britain’s Ministry of Food therefore produced many recipes to help make the most of rationed ingredients, released in numbered recipe leaflets. In Potato and Cheese Pie, layers of sliced boiled potatoes, chopped onions and grated cheddar cheese are built up in a pie dish. The potato mixture is then covered with vegetable stock or milk and sprinkled with breadcrumbs (or covered with mashed potato). After baking until golden, the pie could be served as an entire family meal, seasoned with all of that week’s cheese!

During World War I, many markets did not have fresh meat to sell as there were fewer animals to slaughter. This resulted in Trench Stew, also known as Bonza Stew, becoming a common dish for families to prepare at home in Britain. While back home families were cooking up Trench Stew, the men in the trenches were subsisting on tinned food such as Maconochie stew or bully beef. Trench Stew consisted of half a tin of corned beef, which provided a protein-heavy base to the dish. This was cooked with turnips and carrots and could be left to simmer for up to two hours.

Potato Pete, the Ministry of Food’s mascot, was keen to promote potato dishes, as potatoes weren’t rationed. Potato floddies, a dish that had been popular in Northern England prior to World War II, was therefore given a wartime makeover with no eggs or milk. Grate the potatoes and squeeze out all the moisture, then add flour, salt and pepper. Spoon the mixture into a little vegetable fat in a frying pan and fry till crisp. Eat with green veg or baked beans.

In 1917, the U.S. Food Administration, headed by Herbert Hoover, issued a number of bulletins encouraging home consumers to go easy on the meat to help the soldiers in France. One recipe suggested in their Meatless Monday plan was Bean and Potato Stew. Simmer dry navy beans (preferably soaked overnight) in tomato juice with onion, paprika, salt, and vegetable fat until tender, and serve the stewing liquid, still hot, over boiled potatoes. No meat or even a ration book was required, just beans.

Also known as Emergency Spice Cake, Cold Water War Cake dates back to 1917 and was revived in popularity during World War II. During wartime, staples like eggs, fresh butter, and milk were often rationed or sent to military hospitals. So in order to make something that could still be called a cake, a raisin “cake” was boiled with sorghum or brown sugar, vegetable shortening, spices, usually cinnamon and cloves, and water. This mixture was allowed to cool, and then flour and baking soda were added before being baked in the oven. The boiled raisins helped make the cake moist, but don’t expect this to be a rich cake in any way.

During the war years (from 1942 to 1945), beef and pork were strictly rationed to make sure there was enough meat to ship out to US and Allied soldiers. Home economists with the USDA traveled the country encouraging Americans to eat soybeans. One popular soybean dish was called the Soybean Loaf: cooked soybeans were mashed and mixed with bread crumbs, tomato sauce, celery, onion, and seasonings. The mixture was then baked in a loaf pan and served with tomato gravy, much like beef meatloaf. This wasn’t some side dish. It was the main course.

As part of the U.S. Food Administration’s World War I food conservation efforts, food writer Eugene Christian published a cookbook in late 1917 entitled Meatless and Wheatless Menus. The book included recipes for dishes that mimicked meat and bread dishes. Christian’s celery and nut roast, designed to stand in for roast beef, was made by combining diced celery with chopped walnuts or peanuts, toasted bread crumbs, milk, and seasonings. The mixture was baked in a loaf pan until set and served hot, sliced, with tomato sauce. Recipes like Christian’s celery and nut roast were also frequently reprinted in community cookbooks.

Served with root vegetables and a vegetable gravy, oatmeal cutlets made a hearty and satisfying supper during World War I and World War II in Britain, when home cooks looked to them to use up breakfast cereal and provide a tasty meat alternative. Rolled oats were simmered in a vegetable stock until very thick. Next, chopped onion, salt and pepper, and thyme and sage were stirred in. The stiff porridge was shaped into patties, rolled in breadcrumbs, and pan-fried until brown and crisp. Oatmeal cutlets were a popular supper dish, featured in many government recipe leaflets and magazines.

Apple slump, or dried apple pie, was a Civil War-era recipe born out of Southern necessity. Thanks to Union naval blockades, it was difficult for Southern towns to access sugar, imported baking fat, and fresh fruit. Dried apples, on the other hand, could be preserved from a previous season, rehydrated in boiling water, and baked into a pie. Sorghum syrup or molasses provided sweetness, cinnamon provided flavor, and the apples were baked between simple vegetable-oil crusts, or under a biscuit topping. But no matter the blockade, there was always dessert.

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