Vintage Vegetarian Recipes
Celebrate freedom, and enjoy fruits of the United States.
We have not tried any of these old recipes. They are posted for historic purposes. For those interested in vegan variations, here are notes for recipe substitutions and options:
Sugar and honey substitutes include stevia, maple syrup, barley malt and rice syrup. Ask your natural foods grocer for information on how to use these sweeteners.
Poultry powder or seasoning doesn’t contain poultry
Non-dairy alternatives are available for most salad dressings, cheeses, and even for cream; check labels to be sure the product is indeed vegetarian or vegan as not all non-dairy products are free of animal-derived ingredients
Non-dairy milks include soy, rice, and almond milks. Some do not boil well and may sour. Vegetarian Worscestershire sauce is available Sauté rather than fry, and use water or vegetable stock instead of fat or oil
from The Vegetarian and Fruitarian July, 1928 Volume XXVII Number 7
Strawberry and Orange Cocktail
2 oranges
1 cup small strawberries
3 tablespoons lemon juice
6 tablespoons powdered sugar
Peel and remove membrane from oranges, cut segments in halves. Hull strawberries and cut in halves. Mix with orange pulp and add lemon juice and sugar.
Avocado-Orange Cocktail
Cut medium sizes avocado in half, remove stone, peel, and cut the pulp in small cubes. Sprinkle lightly wih lemon juice and put in a cool place for half an hour. Peel and cut oranges in small pieces the same size as the avocado cubes, using an equal amount of avocado and orange, mix lightly together with three tablespoons of orange juice and a teaspoon of honey and serve in glasses.
Something Different by Lota Goodeats
Vegetarian food is often called flat. It needn’t be with a dash of human brains mixed with other things. Use your brains and turn insipid food into tasty morsels.
Put a generous portion of any non-animal fat in skillet, heat piping hot, fry slices of onion golden brown, add liberal amt. sage, thyme, bay, etc, or prepared poultry powder, move from fire, strain. You have enough highly flavored grease for several dishes requiring peping hot. If you eat cheese, common lettuce salad becomes uncommon by blending into the dressing some Roquefort, pimento or tangy cheese.
Spinach, the healthy, is to some but spinach, nothing more. Fry onion golden brown, add hot tomato sauce is liked. Add to spinach and boil. Don’t cook it to death tho. Chop fine – some strain, but chopped leaves make fine whisk broom for bowels – add milk if you use it not creamy, add dash of worscestershire or soy bean sauce Salt and pepper to taste. This hearty tasty soup sticks to the ribs.
Spinach loaf is a meal alone. Fry onion delicate brown, add bell pepper, tomato and fry slightly. Add 1 lb. spinach. Cook all til tender and chop. Have ready two cups cooked rice. Mix with cooked spinach thicken or not with cream and flour, put in dish, grate cheese over top, brown in oven.
String beans taste different cooked in skillet after first frying and onion. Add tomato or hot sauce.
Likewise Italian or other flat tasting summer squashes. This means to use little water, cover and steam over low fire. Unless the water is intended for vegetable soup stock, it is sinful waste to cook in quarts of water and throw out all the valuable mineral salts.
Recipe from The Vegetarian and Fruitarian magazine, February 1928
Bean Rolls
Note- use raw, unsalted nuts , may omit vegetable oil, use without baking.
One cup cooked Lima Beans, mashed, one cup dried whole wheat breadcrumbs, one-half cup nut meats, put through a kitchen grinder, or through Climax grinder third cup vegetable oil, season as desired – less the better for health – A spoonful of minced parsley adds flavor or if liked a bit of sage or garlic – later, must be very sparing with, or offend family sensibilities – If too dry, add a little water in which beans have cooked, Never soak beans and throw aside the water. Instead wash clean, soak if needed—but s not—save the water for other cooking purposes. Mix well, shape into rolls, brush with oil and lay in pan—brown in hot oven. _ A good dish for those just leaving meat and feel need for substitute.
From New Delineator Recipes, 1929. Although not a vegetarian cookbook, like many cookbooks of the era, it contains a vegetarian section, attesting to the interest at that time in the idea and practice of abstaining from animal flesh
from the vegetarian chapter:
Vegetable Luncheon
1 pound kidney beans 1 cup diced carrot 1 green pepper 1 large onion 2 cups cooked tomatoes, fresh or canned 1/2 cup rice 1/2 dozen large mushrooms Soak the beans in cold water overnight. Drain and cook in bolling water slowly for about four hours. (VegMuseum Note: recipe writer suggests here that ham-bone or cooked bacon adds flavor, therefore, we suggest you add a miso or tamari to taste, or just omit this ) Drain, and add chopped carrots, pepper, thinly sliced onion and tomatoes. Simmer until tender. Boil rice seperately in salted water, drain and add to vegetables. The rice water should be saved to use in soups or gravies. Garnish with sauted green peppers and mushrooms. (Writer the suggested serving with milk, egg or cheese dish. Instead, serve with a baked potato, lettuce and red cabbage salad, and whole wheat bread)
from the salad chapter:
Coconut Fruit Salad
1-1/2 C mixed diced tart apples and celery 1/2 C sgreed coconut 1 tB lemon juice 4tBS oil (VegMuseum note: may omit) 4 Tbs orange juice salt (may omit) paprika (may omit) lettuce leaves currant or plum jelly Mix the apples, celery, and coconut. Sprinkle with lemon juice. Add a French dressing made from oil and orange juice, with salt and paprika to taste. Line a salad bowl with lettuce and pile chilled salad in center. Dot with current or plum jelly.
Vegetable Loaf
1 C ground peanuts , 1 C breadcrumbs , 1C cooked rice
1 C peas , 1C carrots , 1C tomatoes
Mix ingredients, turn into greased tin, and bake 3/4 hour in moderate oven.
Recipe from One Hundred Meatless Dishes
by Alice G. Schirmer - 1924 - The Bacon Press, Boston, Massachusetts
Spanish Rice
Two cups washed rice, 4 cups strained tomato, 4 cups hot water, 4 small onions, 4 sweet peppers, chopped fine; add salt to taste and cook in double boiler until tender.
Recipe from Natural Foods of California by Otto Carque’ (vegetarian advocate)
1920 Carque’ Pure Food Co. Los Angeles, California
For the next recipe, vegans and other health-conscious cooks may substitutie
vegan butter or olive oil for the butter – or add nothing at all.
Savory Lentils and Rice
1 C lentils
2C boiled rice
1 Tbs minced onion
1C stewed tomatoes
1Tbs minced celery (or ¼ tsp celery salt)
Sprinkle of sage
Prepare lentils -- soap overnight cook until tender.
Cook onion and celery in 1 TBs butter, then add drained lentils, salt to taste
(optional), add rice, tomatoes and sage. Let it boil well, and serve with a
sprinkling of parsley on top.
Recipe from One Hundred Meatless Dishes by Alice G. Schirmer 1924
The Bacon Press Boston, Massachsuetts
---
Nut Butter
Grind pecans, walnuts, Brazils, or any other nuts throygh a food mill. If there
is not enough oil in the nut to make it of the right consistency add a little
olive oil.
---
For the next recipe, vegans and the lactose-intolerant may substitute vegan
whipped cream for dairy-based cream.
Banana Cup Custard
Grind four bananas through a food chopper or mill. Stir into it one-half cup of
grated or shredded cocoanut. Serve with whipped cream.
Two Recipes above are from The Vegetarian Magazine September 1905 Chicago,
Illinois
