Today I had a go at the “Lentil Roast” from the Good Fare Wartime Cookbook”. Mostly because I had lentils and split peas to use as I start my 3rd week of living for a month on WW2 food rations. Although the recipe calls for lentils only, I used 2 oz of lentils and 2 oz of split peas (as I didn’t have enough lentils). I chucked lots of seasoning in and simmered the lentils and split peas in a vegetable stock until they were tender.
I used half the ingredients in the recipe and it made enough for 2-3 people. I have some slices left for a protein filled sandwich tomorrow! I would have loved to have thrown a bunch more spices in but tried staying true to the original recipe.
Here is the recipe for you. Add plenty of seasoning and if you don’t want to be 100% authentic think about adding some extra herbs and spices in!
Here are some extra photos below showing a few stages. It was easy enough to make.
The 1940's Experiment 
That looks yummy 😊
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Hi Carolyn, The lentil roast does look good and I suspect will manage your hunger better than all those potato based meals. (I haven’t seen this recipe before, on the rare occasions I’ve made a lentil roast it’s usually also packed with mushrooms and walnuts – definitely not a ration meal!)
Over recent days I’ve actually been thinking about your comments on too many meals that are mainly potato. I think it would have been difficult for vegans and also vegetarians (given the egg shortage) to get sufficient protein in their diet on the 1940s ration. The only way around this seems to be to allocate more points to dry legumes and to try and incorporate some almost every day. I’m sure that would get very boring after a while too.
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Leanne,
Vegetarians got 3oz. more cheese, 1 more egg or packet of dried eggs, and when nuts weren’t available, more oats in their rations than meat-eaters.
There were around 50,000 registered vegetarians in 1940, so rations were altered accordingly.
One vegetarian wartime cookbook I’ve had access to suggests the following “weekly meal plan” for the main meal’s source of protein:
2 bean or pulse-based days
2 cheese-based days
2 veg-based days
1 egg or nut-based day
All those starch dishes were to be accompanied by a salad and either a sweet, fruit-based starch or simply plain fruit when in season. And you were to only eat one starch-based meal a day.
Lastly, vegetarians were encouraged to use their “points” rations on dried fruit, especially raisins; dried or tinned beans, lentils, or peas; and tinned tomatoes to help get as much nutrition per point as possible.
I hope that eases your mind and clears things up a bit, too.
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That was of immense interest to me as a vegetarian! Thank you for this information. In my 1940 cookbook there are quite a few recipes that include nuts. I got the impression people used nuts in recipes more than we do today. I like nuts and have been buying more bags of them for recipes.
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I’ve got a cookbook from 1940 and there are a few that made use of nuts. I made the Savoury Nut Pudding and it was very nice! I did a post about it on my blog.
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This recipe looks very tasty. I’ve a nice bag of green lentils in my cupboard that would do very nicely for this recipe, and I also have a jar of dried mixed herbs I can use. I will have to get a gluten free loaf from Tesco, but the milk is a problem, as being lactose intolerant I have to buy a plant based one, but I drink only 2 cups of black decaff coffee a day, and hardly ever buy gluten free cereal because it’s so expensive, so half of the plant milk goes to waste. Maybe I could just add some water to some plain soya yoghurt ( I do buy this quite a lot) and use that instead? Otherwise it means either wasting a lot of oat or almond milk, or–forcing myself to make and eat porridge each day—
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