Peasant foods

Peasant foods are dishes made from accessible and inexpensive ingredients, as would have been eaten by peasants.

Studies on historical rural diets in Sweden indicates that peasant foods were predominantly grain-based. Periodic shortages in domestic grain production led to Sweden's reliance on imported grains while the Swedish peasants relied on locally available resources to survive.

In many historical periods, peasant foods have been stigmatized.

Common types

Meat-and-grain sausages or mushes

Ground meat or meat scraps mixed with grain in approximately equal proportions, then often formed into a loaf, sliced, and fried

Balkenbrij
Black pudding
Boudin
Daing, a style of sun-dried fish in the Philippines
Goetta, a pork or pork-and-beef and pinhead oats sausage
Groaty pudding
Haggis, a savory dish containing sheep's pluck (heart, liver, and lungs), minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and cooked while encased in a sheep's stomach
Knipp
Livermush
Lorne sausage
Meatloaf
Scrapple, a spiced mush of pig scraps, cornmeal and other flours fried up solid
Slatur

Pasta

Pasta con i peperoni cruschi, an Italian pasta dish from Basilicata, defined a true representative of cucina povera (Italian for 'cuisine of the poor')
Pasta e fagioli, a traditional Italian pasta soup
Pasta mollicata, Italian pasta dish from southern Italy, especially Basilicata, often known as a "poor man's dish"
Testaroli

Sauces

Agliata – a garlic sauce in Italian cuisine that has been a peasant food, and also used by upper-class people

Soups and stews

Acquacotta, an Italian soup that dates to ancient history. Primary ingredients are water, stale bread, onion, tomato and olive oil, along with various vegetables and leftover foods that may have been available.
Batchoy (Tagalog), a Filipino meat soup or noodle soup made with pork and pork offal in ginger-flavored broth, traditionally with pork blood added
Cassoulet, a French bean, meat, and vegetable stew originating from the rural Southwest that has since become a staple of French cuisine
Cawl, a Welsh broth or soup
Cholent, a traditional Jewish Sabbath stew
Congee, a rice-based gruel associated with rice-growing societies
Chupe, refers to a variety of stews from South America generally made with chicken, red meat, lamb or beef tripe and other offal
Duckefett, a German sauce
Dinuguan, a Filipino pork blood stew infused with vinegar
Feijoada, originally a Portuguese stew consisting of beans and meat; also a Brazilian dish originally made by slaves from leftover ingredients from their master's house
Gazpacho, typically a tomato-based vegetable soup, traditionally served cold, originating in the southern Spanish region of Andalusia
Minestrone, the meal in one pot of ancient Italy that is still a basic part of Italian cuisine
Mulligan stew, a stew often made by itinerant workers
Mujaddara, an Arabian dish of lentils, rice, grains, and onions
Pappa al pomodoro, a bread soup typically prepared with tomatoes, bread, olive oil, garlic, and basil
Pea soup or "pease pudding", a common thick soup, from when dried peas were a very common food in Europe, still widely eaten there and in French Canada
Pot-au-feu, the French stew of oxtail, marrow, and vegetables, sometimes sausage
Pottage, a staple stew made from boiling vegetables, grains and whatever was available, since Neolithic times in the British Isles
Ratatouille, a French stewed vegetable dish
Shchi, a traditional Russian soup made from cabbage, meat, mushrooms, flour and sour cream, usually eaten with rye bread
Scouse (food), a stew-type dish from Liverpool, which gives its name to the residents of the city, who are known as scousers
Zatiruha, an Eastern European soup

List of peasant foods

Baked beans, the simple stewed bean dish
Barbacoa, a form of slow cooking, often of an animal head, a predecessor to barbecue
Bulgur wheat, with vegetables or meat
Broken rice, which is often cheaper than whole grains and cooks more quickly
Bubble and squeak, a simple British dish, cooked and fried with potatoes and cabbage mixed together
Finger millet balls made from ragi flour which is boiled with water and balls are formed and eaten with vegetable gravy
Greens, such as dandelion and collard
Head cheese, made from boiling down the cleaned-out head of an animal to make broth, still made
Hominy, a form of corn specially prepared to be more nutritious
Horsebread, a low-cost European bread that was a recourse of the poor
Katemeshi, a Japanese peasant food consisting of rice, barley, millet and chopped daikon radish
Lampredotto, Florentine dish or sandwich made from a cow's fourth stomach
Panzanella, Italian salad of soaked stale bread, onions and tomatoes
Pierogi, a Polish dumpling filled with potato, cheese, mushroom, sauerkraut, meat, or berries.
Polenta, a porridge made with the corn left to Italian farmers so that land holders could sell all the wheat crops, still a popular food
Pumpernickel, a traditional dark rye bread of Germany, made with a long, slow (16–24 hours) steam-baking process, and a sour culture
Ratatouille, the stewed vegetable dish
Red beans and rice, the Louisiana Creole dish made with red beans, vegetables, spices, and leftover pork bones slowly cooked together, and served over rice, common on Mondays when working women were hand-washing clothes
Salami, a long-lasting sausage, used to supplement a meat-deficient diet
Soul food, developed by enslaved African-Americans, primarily using ingredients undesired and given away by their enslavers
Succotash, a blend of corn and beans
Tacos, cooked meats or vegetables wrapped in native maize tortillas in the Americas