How the Russian war is putting unfashionable food back on plates

The war in Ukraine is making an impact on food exports. Photo / Getty Images

Are you ready for devilled kidneys fried in lard, served with a helping of homegrown greens, followed by a fruit crumble? In the midst of the largest ground war in Europe since 1945, which has had a disastrous effect on food imports, coupled with an energy crisis that's pushing up prices like it was the 1970s, "ration food" is suddenly à la mode.

Putin's invasion of Ukraine, "the breadbasket of Europe", has disrupted one of the world's biggest exporters of cereals. The cost of staple foodstuffs such as bread, potatoes and pasta – and even beer – is expected to rise by upwards of 20 per cent amid wheat shortages.

Given that we in the UK already import nearly half of all our food, from around the world, the war – which coincides with a time of soaring inflation that had already prompted a squeeze on spending – means British households are having to reconsider how we feed ourselves.

Could a return to the healthy old favourites of our grandparents' generation be the answer?

Certainly, as a nation, we've managed to tighten our belts before. Prior to World War II, Britain imported about 55 million tons of food a year from other countries. When the Germans did their best to disrupt this trade, it was necessary for the government to introduce rationing, and make us 'Dig for Victory'.

The so-called ration diet was very healthy, says food historian Dr Annie Gray: low in meat, low in sugar, relatively low in fat and bulked out with fruit and vegetables. It is often said that children born shortly after 1945 were part of the fittest generation ever. By the time wartime rationing formally ended, in July 1954, the typical British male was 5ft 7in (1.7m) tall, weighed 73kg and had a 34in waist; the average woman was 5ft 2in (1.57m), weighed 62kg and was a size 12.

But, says Gray, the restricted diet was also "really boring": "It certainly has limited appeal for a nation that now has more catholic tastes in cuisine."

However, with a range of labour-saving gadgets – both modern and from yesteryear – at our disposal, and larders full of culinary add-ons, it is possible to take the core principles of wartime and crisis-era rationing and make this most unfashionable of diets fashionable again.

Invest in energy-saving gadgets

The pressure cooker is back. Having been consigned to the kitchen cupboard some time in the 1980s, the fearsome slow cooker has resurfaced in a new guise. John Lewis has reported that sales of Instant Pots at £100 ($192), a new-generation pressure cooker/slow-cooker hybrid ('set it and forget it'), are up 93 per cent on this time last year. Aldi, meanwhile, sells a 5.6 litre capacity electric pressure cooker for £49.99.

Catherine Phipps, author of Modern Pressure Cooking: The Comprehensive Guide to Stovetop and Electric Cookers, admits the original contraptions were "quite scary – a gadget that you needed to keep an eye on".

But the new models – which use up to three-quarters less electricity than a traditional oven – are now a must-have for healthy, energy-saving one-pot meals. In hers, Phipps cooks everything from dhal to an all-in-one macaroni cheese. "A lot of people still associate pressure cookers with grey meat and overcooked vegetables. But they're particularly amazing for bean and lentil dishes."

When it comes to saving energy, microwaves are also more versatile and efficient than they used to be. Green vegetables microwaved with a splash of water saves on stovetop cooking time; this way, they also maintain vibrant colour and their 'snap'.

Freezers, the most expensive kitchen appliance to run, are very useful when it comes to batch cooking, and are more efficient when full. Chest freezers – which no suburban home in the 1970s could do without – have a much larger capacity than drawer models, and are useful for storing batch-cooked food for longer.

Label everything, keep a note of what is in the freezer on the outside (to save opening it to check), put newly frozen food at the bottom/back (to maintain an efficient use-by cycle); and try a mix of reusable soft and hard containers to fill up every bit of space.

Is it time for the humble pressure cooker to make a comeback? Photo / Getty Images

Embrace more frugal food

Confirmed carnivores can do their bit by cooking with less fashionable cuts of meat, such as lamb neck, pork belly or beef cheeks. Offal, which has been back on restaurant menus for a long time now, needs to make a comeback in our home kitchens. Lard, a by-product of the meat industry, is Gray's preferred fat for frying, due to its high smoke point.

We'll also need to get used to soaking overnight the pulses that we're used to buying conveniently in cans. "You can cheat-soak them by boiling them in water three times," says Gray.

Something we can all do is waste less. Buy and cook only what you need. In the 1940s, the idea of throwing away 30 per cent of our grocery shopping would have horrified everyone. Plan your shop, ration-style, so you're not left with half an aubergine at the end of the week, and take up batch cooking, which is energy efficient, uses up everything and saves you time in the long run.

"There's never an excuse to throw away bread, because it's so versatile," says Gray. "We don't eat puddings like we used to, but bread and butter or fruit and batter puddings were invented to use up leftover slices. It's the same with rice. I can't conceive of throwing away leftover rice; it's so versatile, from kedgeree to fried rice."

If you have leftover cake, Gray says, make a crumble. Leftover veg? Make a curry.

A chicken isn't just a chicken; it's stock from the carcass and crisps made from the skin. A lamb joint is roast dinner, minced scraps for shepherd's pie, and the bone for a stock or curry. "Ham is infinitely versatile," adds Gray. "There's nothing you can't reuse in some way."

Our ancestors certainly knew this. "There are whole sections in 19th century cook books devoted to the subject of reusing cold cuts. And there isn't this connotation of leftovers being somehow inferior. It's cold meat cookery, or réchauffer, which just means reheated."

The perfect word for giving that rehash of last night's dinner a fashionable makeover.

Pick wild garlic, blend into pesto or purée, and freeze in ice cube trays for pasta sauces or seasoning roasted vegetables. Invest in new spices to bring alive duller produce.

When potatoes and pasta go up in price, use more available crops like celeriac or cauliflower to bulk up dishes. Ditto pulses – put brown or green lentils in cottage pie to save on mince. But don't be tempted to buy huge bags, as they lose their potency over time.

Cold cuts from the freezer are useful for risotto, in a pie or terrine and represent better value than buying mince or portioned cuts of meat.

Pickling and preserving have had a renaissance, and there are several good books available with which to eke out more life from vegetables and fruit when they are in a glut.

Start growing your own

For Professor Tim Lang, author of Feeding Britain, the Ukrainian war is a timely wake-up. "Britain has a disproportionate reliance on others to feed ourselves," he says.

On a collective level, he would like to see farmers cutting grain-fed animal production and quadrupling vegetable production. "Why is 40 per cent of our grain being used to support intensive animal production in a totally unnecessary way?" he asks.

"I understand the cultural and economic significance of cattle, particularly in UK uplands," he says, "but we need more horticulture. The UK only produces about 13 per cent of its fruit consumption and just over half its veg consumption. We need less agriculture and more horticulture."

Lang isn't advocating a return to a diet of turnips and cabbage, though. "We cannot grow mangos or bananas, but we could widen our production enormously, while at the same time massively increasing consumption for health. The brilliant Hodmedods brand has shown we can grow pulses in Britain. Why on earth aren't we growing more?"

In 1939, the government's Dig for Victory campaign called for every man and woman in Britain to keep an allotment. Lawns and flowerbeds were turned into vegetable gardens. More than 10m instructional leaflets were distributed to the British people, and it was estimated that 1,400,000 people had allotments (there are an estimated 330,000 now). People were encouraged to keep chickens. Others kept rabbits and goats. Pigs were especially popular as they could be fed on kitchen waste. We're probably too squeamish to butcher our own animals, but a return to a better system of abattoirs could help individuals as well as larger-scale farming.

Lang is a keen gardener and advisor to BBC Gardeners' World on sustainability, and is a firm believer that lawns are a waste of space where we could be growing veg.

"There are 22 million gardens in Britain and, in theory, nine million active gardeners. We need to start taking the joy of growing our own food, and the resilience and short supply chains it creates, seriously."

If you want to grow your own, then it's important to be realistic, says gardening writer Cinead McTernan, author of City Veg. "A container on the balcony isn't going to make a difference, but having a few herbs is still worth doing and can make a difference to making a meal special. If you've got a sunny windowsill, grow your own chillies."

If you've got a bit more space, you could do worse than courgettes. "I know they're boring," she adds, "but you end up with loads and they keep going." Potatoes, which need lots of space, probably aren't worth growing; although the news last Friday that prices are likely to rise by at least 30 per cent in the coming weeks may cause many to reconsider. For tomatoes, go for 'baby' over larger varieties, which may struggle to ripen. Look out for special offers on seeds – then check YouTube tutorials to achieve growing success.

With commercial fertilisers anticipating price hikes, start a compost corner to fertilise your soil with kitchen scraps. Find out if there are any vacant slots in local allotments, or if an owner wants to go halves on a plot (or give you cuttings).