• Homepage
  • Medieval Food Glossary
  • Links
  • Cookie Policy
  • Privacy Statement
  • Disclaimer

Medieval Recipes - Medieval Food

  • Medieval Food
  • Recipes
  • The Medieval Kitchen
  • Medieval Garden
  • Medieval Banquets
  • Banquets Today
  • Blog

Vegetable Recipes

cart laden with vegetables and fruit

Medieval Fruit and Vegetable Stall

For most medieval people vegetables were their staple diet as they could not afford much meat. Consequently, vegetables became regarded as a poor man’s food and meat dishes were much more prestigious. We see this reflected in the books written about medieval cookery w
ich were targeted at the rich who could afford food luxuries. The books made little reference to recipes with vegetables as a key ingredient. They focused more on meats, fish and sauces to help improve the taste.

Carrots were certainly available in England and generally across Europe in the Middle Ages. One variant of that time was a tasty reddish-purple carrot. A less prestigious green-yellow type of carrot was also eaten. Many kinds of legumes, like peas, chickpeas and fava beans were also common and important as a cheap sources of protein for the poor. It is safe to say, however, that  legumes were generally associated with the kind of food that would not be eaten by the rich. Also, the upper classes frequently associated this kind of vegetable with flatulence and so this would lower their opinion of them even further!

Recipe Variations

Vegetable dishes were generally very simple back in the 12th century. Boiling was the usual method of cooking.

Cabbage a common vegetable in medieval times

Cabbage

Vegetables were of course easy to cook and most commonly used for making pottage. However, they were also popular when boiled (sometimes in water and butter) and served to be eaten with bread.

Amongst the most common vegetables grown and cooked in medieval times were:

cabbage, leeks, onions, peas and celery

Fresh garden peas were enjoyed when in season and dried for use in winter when people would refer to them as ‘white peas’. Here is a medieval-style recipe for mashed peas that you can try for yourself at home. The forerunner to ‘mushy peas’ as the English call them.

Many recipes which used vegetables also contained herbs as these added much needed extra flavour, texture and colouring.

Recipe Guide Links

  • Recipe Guide
  • Medieval Bread Recipes
  • Meat Recipes
  • Pottage Recipes
  • Fowl Recipes
  • Fish Recipes
  • Vegetable Recipes
  • Sauce Recipes
  • Salad Recipes
  • Dessert Recipes
  • Cake Recipes

Medieval-Recipes.com

Food and recipes from medieval times
© 2010-2023 medieval-recipes.com
Download Brochure

Website by Dark Sea Web

Manage your privacy
We use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. We do this to improve browsing experience and to show personalized ads. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
Manage options
{title} {title} {title}
Manage your privacy
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
Manage options
{title} {title} {title}