Ten terrific vintage vegetarian recipes (that are ideal for summer!)

Summer calls for lighter fair. Few of us want to spend hours in the kitchen with the stove radiating heat, if we can avoid it. We'll cook or bake a little sure, and flock to the grill like seagulls to a French fry, but ultimately, more often than not, we’re in the mood for meals that are a cinch to whip up and that take advantage of some of the season's best produce – which, if we’re especially lucky, hails from our own garden.




With amazing fruit and veg out in full force, summer (much like late spring and early fall) is a particularly delicious time if you're a vegetarian. I'm not one myself, but I do eat meatless meals sometimes and have both vegetarians and vegans in my family. I know that many of you are such yourself and I've strived since day to provide vegetarian and/or vegan alternatives for many of the vintage recipes that I've shared over the years (some of which where meat-free or even vegan as they stood right out of the gate).

I have not, however, devoted a post just to vintage vegetarian recipes, so with a little over a month left (on the calendar at least) of summer and plenty of that scrumptious, juicy, daydream-about-it-in-January produce still on the trees and grocery store shelves alike, I wanted to dedicate today's vintage recipe post to dishes that are completely meatless.

In most cases, if canned or frozen veggies are called for, as they so often wear in the mid-twentieth century, but all means please sub in fresh ones, if you’d prefer. Likewise, a good many of the following ten vintage vegetarian recipes can easily be made vegan by omitting or substituting ingredients (such a soy/rice cheese for the daily version) for ones that are completely devoid of any animal products.

There are countless reasons - personal, medical, cultural, and religious all very much included - why people opt, or need, to be a vegetarian/vegan, and no matter yours, of if you're a carnivore who just enjoys meat-less meals sometimes, I hope that you'll all enjoy and these fun, filling vintage vegetarian recipes this summer!




1. A slew of healthy, fantastic veggies team up in this filling 1940s green salad recipe, for which you could easily swap in peas, corn, canned beans (pinto, kidney, black, etc), olives, or chickpeas in favour of the lima beans, if so desired.




2. If you can get your paws on fresh apricots, which are still in season in many areas that grown them (my own corner of Canada very much included), by all means use fresh fruit instead here in this charmingly pretty - and very tasty sounding - 1950s recipe for Apricot Baskets.




3. Scrumptious Italian flavours mingle marvelously in this classic red tomato sauce, pasta, and cheese dish from 1954 that tastes as delicious cold as it does warm (I've made a GF version before and it's always a big hit with everyone at the table).




4. This 1960s recipe for Lemon Butter Sauce would be perfect on grilled vegetables, drizzled over baked potatoes, tossed with pasta or quinoa, used as a dunking sauce, you name it!




5. What would any well balanced roundup of mid-century recipes be without at least one gelatin salad inclusion? This example - which has a distinctly Christmassy colour palette - is full on 1950s and includes such beloved ingredients of the era as tomato juice, mayonnaise, and pimento - you've always got to have the pimento! :D It is, like many Jell-O salads, vegetarian, and honestly, if you like veggies in your gelatine, I think it sounds rather nice. I could see being a delicious side dish to a plate of grilled corn or veggie tacos. *Edit* If you don't eat animal based gelatine, swap in a vegan substitute like agar instead here.




6. Serve this dead simple vegetable soup cold, pureed or whizzed in the blender first, and you've got an easy-peasy, no fuss take on that Mediterranean warm weather gem, gazpacho.




7. This filling recipe from 1945 for Stuffed Eggplant is especially well suited to cool summer evenings, Sunday dinners, and when the weather starts feeling decidedly like fall again.




8. Four ingredients is all it takes to make this quick, super easy, splendidly tropical inspired vintage fruit salad/dessert (that would be great for breakfast or brunch, too!). If Miracle Whip isn’t your favourite thing, why not use sour cream, whipped cream, mayo, Cool Whip, yogurt, or even ice cream instead?




9. The inclusion of bell peppers in this simple mid-century potato salad is really, really appealing and would give it a great hit of crunch.




10. Summer would not be summer without at least one rich, flakey, wonderfully classic cherry pie. This recipe from 1950 sees the unexpected and very appealing addition of pineapple. Yum-yum!!

{To learn more about a specific image, and in most cases, for a larger version of a given recipe page, please click on it to be taken to its respective source.}

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If we take desserts and (some) salads out of the equation, many vintage cookbooks and recipe ads were, how shall we say, spartan with the number of vegetarian recipes they included (save for some meat/dairy/egg-free recipes that were commonplace out of sheer necessarily brought on by rationing during the war years).

That said, there are a small number of actual (dedicated) vintage vegetarian cookbooks out there, as the practise of eating meat and/or animal product free has been an important part of many cultures and religions for hundreds, and sometimes even thousands, of years now.

Then as now though, there were plenty of amazing dishes that did not need meat in the slightest and it's worth pouring over such sources when you come across them for recipes that fit the meat-less bill or which can easily be made vegetarian/vegan.



{It's practically a crime not to avail of all the fantastic array of in season produce that is available during the summertime. Load up and go to town on these and other fabulous vegetarian and vegan recipes while such offerings are still at the peak of freshness.}


Plus, you can always whip up your own 21st century vegetarian/vegan take on classic dishes, too. From potato salad (use dairy/egg-free mayo, such as those from Earth Balance and Follow Your Heart) to caesar salad, ice cream to trifle and scores of other summertime menu staples that more than hold their own when they're free of any meat and/or other animal products.

I hope that you enjoyed these recipes. If you have any other favourite vintage vegetarian or vegan dishes that you'd like to share here, please don't be shy. I know that plenty of my readers scan through all of the comments on my posts and your impute would be very welcome by many a savvy veggie adoring vintage epicurean.