A warm and hearty stew with fresh bread outdoors, perfect for camping meals.

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6 Meatless Meals That Fed Families Through the 1930s

If you think skipping meat is a modern trend, the 1930s would like to have a word.

Back then, going meatless wasn’t about detoxing or saving the planet—it was about staying fed. Plain and simple. With the Great Depression squeezing wallets tight, families had to stretch every penny. And that often meant meals without a single bite of meat.

But they made it work. And not just with boring bowls of mush. Let me walk you through six meatless meals that filled plates and bellies during the toughest decade of the 20th century.

What Would You Cook in Wartime?

Step back in time and discover what you could make with limited wartime rations

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1. Hoover Stew

Cheap, chaotic, but weirdly comforting

You’d find Hoover Stew bubbling away in soup kitchens and battered saucepans across America. It was named after President Hoover—though not lovingly.

It was a mashup of elbow macaroni, canned tomatoes, corn, and sometimes, if luck struck, a few sliced hot dogs. But even without the meat, the dish held its ground. Warm, filling, and endlessly stretchable.

How to copy it:
Boil macaroni. Add a can of tomatoes, a cup of corn (frozen or canned), and salt. Simmer until it feels like stew. Done. If you want to be fancy, throw in chopped onion or garlic.

2. Depression-Era Peanut Butter Bread

The loaf that skipped eggs, milk, and yeast—and still turned out edible

Baking without milk, butter, or eggs sounds like witchcraft. But this peanut butter bread pulled it off. No yeast. No kneading. Just basic pantry stuff and a little faith.

It gave families a dose of protein when meat wasn’t in the budget and dairy was a luxury.

How to copy it:
Mix flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, peanut butter, and water. Stir, dump it in a loaf pan, and bake around 325°F until it smells good and a toothpick comes out clean.

Surprisingly tasty, especially toasted.

3. Water Pie or Vinegar Pie

When fruit was too pricey, people got… creative

Fruit pies were out of reach. So folks looked at their pantry, shrugged, and made pie with water. Or vinegar. Yes, vinegar.

These pies used sugar, flour, butter (sometimes margarine), and either water or vinegar to fake that sweet-tart filling.

How to copy it:
Make a basic pie crust (or use store-bought, no one’s judging). In a bowl, mix 1½ cups water, 4 tbsp flour, 1 cup sugar, a pinch of salt, and 2 tsp vanilla. Pour it in the crust and bake until it jiggles like a proper pie.

The vinegar version swaps the water for 1 tbsp vinegar plus water. It’s oddly good. Like lemon pie without lemons.

4. Mock Hamburger

Fake it till you make it—literally

People didn’t just skip meat—they pretended it was still there. Mock hamburger patties popped up in vegetarian cookbooks of the time, blending mashed beans, breadcrumbs, onions, and eggs.

Sometimes they used oats, rice, or even wheat germ. Anything that could look and feel like a burger got a chance.

How to copy it:
Mash a can of beans (kidney or navy). Mix in 1 egg, ½ cup breadcrumbs, diced onion, salt, and pepper. Shape into patties and fry in oil until brown. Slap it on bread with mustard and pretend it’s the real thing.

Honestly? It hits the spot.

5. Beans & Potatoes

The unbeatable duo of Depression dinners

This combo wasn’t fancy. But it was solid, reliable, and always available. Beans for protein, potatoes for bulk. You could mash them, fry them, bake them—whatever kept things interesting.

Families used canned beans, dried beans, even baked beans. Potatoes got fried into pancakes, mashed, or boiled to death. Sometimes topped with evaporated milk if there was any around.

How to copy it:
Make a simple hash: Chop and fry potatoes with onions, then add cooked beans and season to taste. Or mash beans into potatoes with some garlic and herbs. Super filling, and dirt cheap.

6. Scrap-Stretched Soups

When you thought you had no food left, soup said: Watch me

This wasn’t just one recipe—it was a lifestyle.

People saved everything. Potato peels. Carrot tops. Leftover pasta. A spoonful of rice. Bones went into broth if they had any. If not? Salt, grease, and whatever veggies they had did the job.

Home-canned veggies were gold. A single jar of tomatoes could turn a sad pot of hot water into actual soup.

How to copy it:
Chop up odds and ends from your fridge. Simmer with a bouillon cube or veggie broth. Add pasta, rice, or old bread. Season the heck out of it. You’re now living like it’s 1933.

The Bigger Picture

These meals weren’t fancy. They weren’t photogenic. But they worked.

Behind every dish was a mindset: Waste nothing. Make it work. Feed the family.

That thriftiness wasn’t just about money—it was survival. And weirdly enough, it’s something we’re circling back to today with all the talk of sustainability, food waste, and budget cooking.

So if you’re looking for inspiration from people who had way less but still made it through? The 1930s dinner table has some lessons worth stealing.

And hey, maybe it’s time to try vinegar pie. Just for the story.