5 Vegan Sandwich Recipes From the Past for Your Next Picnic

As summer heads towards the fall, make the most of the season with a vintage-inspired picnic which wouldn’t be complete without sandwiches. Here are 5 vegan-friendly sandwiches from the past to add a unique flair to your next picnic.

#1 Peanut Sandwich

Peanut sandwiches, an ancestor of the classic PB&J, were a trendy recipe in the late Victorian era. Featuring a layer of crushed, roasted peanuts between buttered slices of bread cut into dainty shapes, they were considered the perfect accompaniment to tea. The 1896 cookbook Fat of the Land gives a vegan alternative to the butter used in the standard recipe in their own version — a new commercial product called peanut butter, here described as a nut-based butter substitute.

Peanut Sandwiches need no recipe, being already so well known and popular, but there is a form of nut butter which flavors so strongly of peanuts that it will make an excellent substitute for dairy butter to spread the bread and hold the crushed nuts in place. (p.154)

#2 Bean Paste Sandwich

Potted meat was a popular sandwich filling in the 19th century. Spreads made from beans were a vegetarian and vegan alternative to this type of sandwich. An example of this type of sandwich filling can be found under the heading “Bean Paste” in the 1908 edition of the vegetarian cookbook A Friend in the Kitchen.

Soak one cupful of white beans overnight in cold water; put to cook in the morning in boiling water, and cook to a pulp, and till the water is quite absorbed. Rub through a colander, then add a tablespoonful of finely minced onion one teaspoonful of powdered sage, one saltspoonful of celery salt, the juice of one lemon, two or three spoonfuls of tomato juice, if at hand, and salt to taste. Simmer together for a short time, then use cold to spread on toast or bread as a relish, or in the place of butter, or for making sandwiches. (p.20)

#3 Sweet Pepper Relish Sandwich

The fusion of global cuisines in vegetarian recipes was already noticeable over 100 years ago in recipes, including this one, from a 1922 vegetarian cookbook. The sweet red peppers used in the recipe, a native plant to Central and South America, Mexico, and the Caribbean, were introduced to Europe in the late 15th century. English and American vegetarians likely took inspiration from Indian cuisines that had been introduced into Britain. In the 18th century, recipes for spiced, pickled vegetables entered into English cookbooks, like Hannah Glasse’s recipe for “Paco-Lilla”, originally published in 1758, were inspired by Indian pickled and preserved vegetable condiments. Relishes like the recipe below, recommended as a sandwich filling, are derivative of chutney, Anglicized from the Hindi word chatni.

Sweet Pepper Relish. Take 6 sweet peppers, remove seeds and rinse thoroughly in cold water; chop fine with 2 apples and 1 medium sized onion. Add a little sugar and lemon juice. This also makes a good sandwich filling. (p.80)

#4 Fruit Sandwich

Dried fruits were considered to be more nutritious than animal products to vegetarians in the past. Vegetarian periodicals often contained ads for sellers of dried fruit alongside other vegetarian pantry staples. Dried fruit also had the advantage of being available year round compared to fresh fruit. This sandwich recipe combines almond butter with a variety of dried fruits, which have been chopped and re-hydrated with fruit juices.

Fruit.–Chop finely one-fourth pound each candied cherries, seeded raisins and dates; add one-fourth pound cocoanut, two tablespoonfuls grape juice, and juice of one-half orange; mix well. Spread almond butter on slices of bread, follow with fruit, then lay together.

#5 Chocolate Sandwich

Cocoa and chocolate were heavily marketed to vegetarians as a health food and tea alternative. William Horsell, an 19th century advocate for veganism, and proprietor of the Victorian equivalent of a health-food store, sold his own brand of cocoa in the 1850s. Vegetarian periodicals from the 19th and early 20th centuries were littered with ads for a variety of cocoa brands. This recipe, found in a 1913 non-vegetarian cookbook that contained a section of vegetarian recipes uses cocoa powder to create a sweet sandwich filling.

Chocolate sandwich (sweet). Mix till smooth five tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar, two of Baker’s cocoa, two of boiling water, and half a teaspoon of vanilla. When cool spread between slices of bread, or thin water biscuits.

Vegetarians and early vegans have been adapting popular recipes for their own use, as well as developing new recipes for plant-based fare as they were able to access new ingredients for more than a century. Try one of these recipes to take a bite of history.

Thank you for reading!

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Next Week: In the Shadow of the Potato — Skirret: A Botanical History