Celebrate “VE Day” with Potato Pete and an Authentic WWII Recipe: “Whit Salad”. You might be surprised to know that this ration book salad recipe is egg-free but doesn’t skimp on flavour!
*Paid collaboration with The Potato Council*
VE Day – Victory in Europe Day
The 8th May is VE Day – Victory in Europe Day, and 2015 when this recipe was originally published, marked the 70th anniversary of the end of war in Europe.
8th May 2020 sees the 75th anniversary commemorated and the republication of this post.
The occasion will be commemorated with events across the UK, including the lighting of over 100 beacons and WWII style street parties. As regular readers will know, in 2013, I lived off WWII rations for a week, and you can see my week of ration book cookery (and recipes) at the bottom of my post today.
Of all the ingredients I relied on the most when I lived off rations for a week were potatoes……so, when the Potato Girls (from the Potato Council) asked me to come up with a WWII potato recipe, either a a twist on an original WWII recipe or another original recipe of my choice from the 1940’s, I was delighted to accept the challenge in the spirit of the 70th anniversary celebrations and commemoration.
Potato Pete
One of the characters that encouraged people to eat potatoes during the war, was Potato Pete; and, he (and his recipes) appear in many of my WWII cookbooks and recipes leaflets.
Potatoes weren’t just healthy, with research showing children get more Vitamin C, B1, B6, Folate, Iron, Magnesium and Potassium from potatoes than from the 5 super-foods; beetroot, bananas, nuts, broccoli and avocado combined, but they weren’t rationed and being home-grown, they saved the fleet, insofar as there was no need to ship them from overseas to Great Britain.
As part of the Potato Council’s VE Day 70th anniversary commemoration, five 1940’s recipes were brought up to date for the modern family to enjoy whilst celebrating their heritage; these comprise: Sole Otero, Scotch Hotpot, Potato Piglets, Oxford Potato Soup and the infamous Woolton Pie.
Wartime Potatoes & Eggs
Now, I have already made Woolton Pie, and several other 1940’s potato recipes, so it was time to do some research for less well-known potato dishes that were on the healthy side too.
I finally discovered the recipe I wanted to replicate in the Victory Cookbook by Marguerite Patten; this fabulous publication is a compilation of three of her wartime recipe books, “We’ll Eat Again”, “The Victory Cookbook” and the“Post-War Kitchen”.
It’s a nostalgic cookbook covering war-time rationing, food and recipes and is a wonderful resource of period recipes, as well as facsimiles, cartoons and photos from the era.
My recipe was featured in the “snacks and supper dishes” chapter and it intrigued me so much I had to make it. As eggs were heavily rationed during the war, so the recipe sets out to replicate them as mock eggs, in a rather brilliant way, as you can see from the photos, and at the same time make good use of the humble spud.
What Is Whit Salad?
The salad is very impressive to look at and is VERY filling, as we found to our cost, with no bread needed to accompany it.
It was fun to make and very tasty, with a selection of cooked potatoes and raw vegetables on the platter.
A simple “salad cream” style dressing is made for the salad, and I worked out that each portion was about 300 calories per person, which is remarkably low for such a tasty and filling salad.
The original recipe says it feeds 4 people, but I’d say that it would feed 5 to 6 people with ease.
I URGE you all to try this recipe, it makes a wonderful family supper dish and will fox the children when they see the mock eggs! I have shared the recipe AT THE END OF THIS POST, as well as some step-by-step photos how to assemble the salad. Karen
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Step By Step Instructions
You’ll find the full and printable recipe at the end of this post.
- To make the potato eggs, mix the grated carrots and cheese together to form balls, like egg yolks; add a little of the mashed potato to bind them if necessary.
- Wrap the balls with a layer of mashed potato, and then cut in half, so they resemble hard boiled eggs.
- Arrange the salad ingredients on a large serving platter – lettuce first and then the carrots, cabbage (or celeriac), diced potatoes with snipped chives.
- Arrange the tomatoes and mock egg halves around the outside of the salad.
- Make the dressing by whisking all the ingredients together and drizzle over the salad.
Even More Wartime Ration Book Recipes:
Other VE Day Recipes
Janice from Farmersgirl Kitchen also made a VE Day recipe and also shares a Pinterest Board with me, which is all about Ration Book Cookery, so make sure you check her and the board out too!
And, if you fancy some delicious potato vareniki, then pop over to see Galina’s recipe, who also cooked for this VE challenge and has a wonderful family story to share
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Whit Salad Recipe
WW2 Whit Salad (Mock Egg Salad with Potatoes and Vegetables)
Print recipe
| Serves | 4 to 6 |
| Prep time | 15 minutes |
| Allergy | Milk |
| Dietary | Vegetarian |
| Meal type | Lunch, Main Dish, Salad |
| Misc | Child Friendly, Pre-preparable, Serve Cold |
| Occasion | Birthday Party, Casual Party, Christmas, Easter, Formal Party |
| Region | British |
| From book | Victory Cookbook by Marguerite Patten |
Ingredients
Mock potato eggs
- 225g grated carrots
- 50g grated Mature Cheddar cheese
- 450g cooked mashed potatoes (Desiree)
Salad
- 450g cooked, diced potatoes (Charlotte or Maris Peer)
- 1/2 small cabbage, grated (or celeriac)
- 2 - 3 carrots, grated
- baby gem lettuce leaves
- 12 small (cherry) tomatoes, halved
- fresh chives, snipped
Salad dressing
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- pinch of white pepper
- 1 teacup of milk (about 120mls)
- 1 tablespoon vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon English mustard powder
- 1 teaspoon sugar
Note
An authentic WW2 salad recipe where the eggs (which were rationed) are made with carrot, a little cheese and mashed potatoes! This salad looks very attractive and feeds four people with ease. Potatoes, that were home-grown, are put to good use in this salad recipe, which is very healthy due to many raw vegetables. The name "Whit Salad" is thought to be derived from Whitsun, which is an important holiday in the church calendar and was celebrated as a public holiday with picnics, fêtes, galas, walks, dances and church suppers.
Directions
| Step 1 | To make the potato eggs, mix the grated carrots and cheese together to form balls, like egg yolks; add a little of the mashed potato to bind them if necessary. Wrap the balls with a layer of mashed potato, and then cut in half, so they resemble hard boiled eggs. |
| Step 2 | Arrange the salad ingredients on a large serving platter - lettuce first and then the carrots, cabbage (or celeriac), diced potatoes with snipped chives; arrange the tomatoes and mock egg halves around the outside of the salad. |
| Step 3 | Make the dressing by whisking all the ingredients together and drizzle over the salad. |
| Step 4 | NB: Any root vegetables can be used in place of the cabbage and carrots, and commercially made salad cream can be used too. When watercress is in season, decorate the salad with watercress. |
Janice says
I just love those faux hard boiled eggs, rationing certainly made for creativity!
Karen Burns-Booth says
Thanks Janice – I ahd HUGE fun making them too! 🙂
Sue says
Karen, I have many wartime cookbooks including the Marguerite Patten books and I often think how wonderful it would be to have a book of wartime recipes with modern photographs. Please write one for me:-) I love how this recipe looks in your photos, it’s one I’ve often read and wondered about. Thank you so much for recreating it.
Karen Burns-Booth says
Thanks so much Sue! Well that is quite spooky, as I am in the process of making lots of WWII recipes that have no photos, and may publish them in a book too, an eBook or with a publisher I am in talks with now 😉 DO try this Whit Salad, it is fun to make the mock eggs, and it was VERY filling as well as being attractive to look at too, a sort of Sunday Best salad! Karen
Galina V says
I’m very impressed by these mock eggs! I have never heard of this salad, what a creative way with potatoes. Great photo as usual! I’ll buy your book, Karen!
Galina V says
Also added a link to your post. 🙂
Karen Burns-Booth says
Thanks, am on iPad now and it’s a devil to add links, but will link up to you when I am on my laptop later. Karen xxx
Karen Burns-Booth says
Hahaha – thanks Galina, I am working on lots of recipes in my spare time. Loved your post and am glad you like this recipe, Karen
Johanna GGG says
I am fascinated by this recipe because I have never liked eggs and never eaten a boiled egg but they always look so pretty – I almost passed over this recipe because I thought it was actually boiled egg. I will have to try it. I saw another recipe online for vegan deviled eggs – so interesting to see that these sort of recipes are not as recent as I had thought.
Karen Burns-Booth says
Thanks Johanna, I had a feeling that this would appeal to egg haters and I have to admit to being very pleased with this old WWII recipe and as you can see, these faux eggs look almost like the real thing! Karen
Emma @ Adventures of a London Kiwi says
I am absolutely fascinated by war time recipes – I guess it’s easy to when we’re not actually not on rationing!
Karen Burns-Booth says
Thanks Emma, I am too, and the thing is this, they are FAR more imaginative than we might think, and also very healthy too, as this recipe highlights I think! I actually enjoyed my week on WW rations when I did it, and would love to do it again. Karen
Jacqueline Meldrum says
That sounds wonderful. Don’t know if I could be bothered shaping it into eggs though. A layered pie would probably be more my thing. It looks good, I just couldn’t be faffed making it look like eggs. I’m fasting today and all I can think is I want to tuck in.
Karen Burns-Booth says
OH I don’t know Jac, I’ve seen you and Cooper baking and making wonderful things and shaping the mock eggs is fun and not a “faff” at all! Go on, have a go! 😉 Karen
Alison says
What a really clever idea, bet it was great fun to make. I love old cookery books, must dig though some of mine and try the recipes
Karen Burns-Booth says
Thanks Alison, it was fun to make and it was also very tasty too!
Choclette says
You had me completely fooled when I first looked at your fabulous photos. I had to go back and look all over again when I read the recipe. How very clever. I guess they had to be an innovative lot when protein was scarce.
Karen Burns-Booth says
Hahahaha! See how good these mock eggs look! I love some of these old recipes as they are so clever with scant ingredients!
Charlotte Oates says
I had no idea those weren’t real eggs until I got about halfway through your post. What an ingenious wartime idea! My four-year old isn’t a huge fan of eggs but loves potatoes, carrots and cheese so I suspect he’d actually much prefer this version.
I’d always imagined wartime food being very dull due to rationing but this look delicious.
Thanks so much for joining #FoodYearLinkup. I hope you’ll come and join again soon x
Karen Burns-Booth says
Hahahaha! Another person fooled – thanks so much for popping over Charlotte and I will be a regular #FoodYearLinkup participant! Karen
Dominic Franks says
those potato eggs TOTALLY fooled me! I’m still not 100% sure about them but they are brilliant in their way. Aren’t folk inventive though? So fascinating. The Viking says this picture is what salads looked like in his house full stop! Great post!
Karen Burns-Booth says
Thanks Dom, and I know what you mean, cold mashed potato etc, BUT we all eat cold potato salad and the taste it pretty much the same!!! The Viking is right, as always too! 😉 Karen
Robert says
Hola, Karen:
I´m glad to have found your delightful website!
I am working on a dieting website myself, without a clear idea of where I´m going with it. I started reading up on Brits WW2 diets a few days ago and was amazed at the sheer brilliance of the way the war rationing system was put in place and worked. I also acquired a new hero – Lord Woolton, whose charm must have been extraordinary for him to remain so popular. I, too, was born abroad and remember quite vividly a holiday in England in 1947. Rabbit every day, which seemed like eating cat, and loads of corn beef and spam.
I hope you don´t mind if I recommend your site for war-time recipes to any readers I might eventually have.
Karen Burns-Booth says
Hello Robert,
Thanks so much for your wonderful and interesting comments and welcome to Lavender and Lovage!
Rabbit was hugely popular and my dad remembers eating it all the time too…..as his family in East Anglia bed them for eating.
I would be delighted if you recommend my site and recipes, that is brilliant, and it’s nice to share.
Karen