The current heatwave in Paris is not all bad news 😂 https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cw7qowVNfH6/ #SolarCooking #SolarOven #Heatwave #Paris

This week's #SolarOven project: beef bourguignon. 3.5 hours for crock pot recipe. (Takes 5-6 hours in the crock pot.)
#SolarCooking #cooking

Made a pretty loaf of #bread in the #SolarOven today. Cheater sourdough with poppy seed top.

"Cheater sourdough" is what I call it when I add a pinch of citric acid to my simple overnight no-knead bread. It just adds a little tang without the work of maintaining a sourdough culture. #SolarCooking

@gay_milhouse
Good for you, not part of that system is a start
🥰

One of the people I follow for #SolarCooking is @ordinoides

"Doesn't solar cooking take forever? Who has time for that?"

Well, yes and no. And maybe you do!
This is my usual solar cooking schedule:

11 pm the night before:
2 minutes putting beans, water and salt in my bean pot
5 minutes stirring together flour, salt, yeast, and water for no-knead bread dough

10 am on cooking day:
put bread dough into greased cooking pan
Put bean pot and bread into solar oven (about 10 minutes active time)

1 pm on cooking day:
Put brown rice and water into lidded black pot
Remove bread pan, put rice in its place, close it up, adjust to sun angle (about 10 more minutes active time)

4 pm on cooking day:
Remove beans and rice from solar cooker, taste for doneness and seasoning, eat right now or put in fridge for later. (10 minutes)

Total active time: 37 minutes to make a loaf of bread, a pot of beans, and a pot of rice. Enough cooked food for a small family for a whole day.

If you're not at home midday, you could skip the middle step and start all three in morning and leave the reflectors angled toward the midday, not the morning sun, which would cut out some time.

Most of the rest of me and my partners diet is fresh fruit and veggies, plant based "dairy" and cold cereal, so I don't have to turn on the stove if I don't want to.
#SolarCooking saves time, not wastes it.

@glightly
I feel your pain on this! I can't cook at my apartment because my balcony is shaded during peak sun hours. I do my cooking in the community garden because it has a fence with a locked gate, and I've told the other gardeners what the solar oven is, so they don't throw it away as trash (people throw garbage into the garden on the regular, frustrating). People see me carrying pans with my hot mitts walking down the street, they probably think I'm crazy, lol. #solarcooking

4-ingredient #vegan #blueberry cobbler baked in my diy low cost #SolarOven with free sun energy! #SolarCooking

Ingredients:
3 cups fresh or frozen #berries
1/2 cup water, divided
Juice of half a small lemon (about 1 tablespoon)
3 tablespoons plant-based butter (any brand you like)
yellow or white cake mix, 1 and 1/4 cups (any brand as long as it's vegan, I used Betty Crocker)

Instructions:
1. Mix the berries with the lemon juice and water in your baking dish (skip the lemon juice if berries are very tart)
2. Add 1/4 cup of cake mix to the berries, mix to combine
3. Dot the berries with butter (about 1 tablespoon)
4. In separate bowl, mix 1 cup cake mix with 1/4 cup water to make thick batter
5.Spoon the cake batter over the berries in the baking dish, dot with more butter (about 2 tablespoons)
6. Put the cover on it and place in the solar oven, bake until done (cake is cooked and berry juice is bubbling around the edge, thickened and translucent)
7. Serve warm or cold with ice cream or whipped cream if you want.
#veganfood #food #vegandessert #easydessert #simplecooking

Want to make it in a regular oven? Bake uncovered at 350°F 30-40 minutes or until done

Today's #SolarCooking bounty: perfectly cooked brown rice and loaf of 5-seed bread. For new folks, I made my own solar oven out of trash almost for free, and all it needs is sunshine to cook without heating my kitchen, and anyone can do it! Check out my pinned profile posts for more info.

I skipped #SolarCooking for a few days- it was too overcast. Back on my usual today, it's still partly cloudy but hopefully will get enough #solar radiation to cook dry pinto beans and a loaf of bread. Sources I've read say that you can still cook if you get at least 20 minutes of sunlight per hour at midday (so about 67% cloud cover or less.) #SolarOven

Wanna put this weather to work for you instead of fighting it?
Wanna reduce your electric bill?
Want your air conditioning to be more effective?
Wanna try a fun and different way of cooking food?
Do you have a car windshield sunshade and a sunny location?
Then you can make a solar cooker that really works! This might be easiest #diy #SolarCooker to build!
https://solarcooking.fandom.com/wiki/Windshield_Shade_Solar_Cooker
I haven't tried this one yet (not my photo) but I love how simple it is. If you're on the fence about #SolarCooking because of how complicated a lot of the designs are, maybe give it a go. Free energy that doesn't heat your house or pollute anything.

Looks like fried chicken but it's not! 😆 It's shortcake (dense buttery mildly-sweet cake, for the non-Americans) I made for #StrawberryShortcake. I love this #dessert but baking during strawberry season is usually a recipe for heating your house too. Baking it outdoors in my #SolarCooker using only sunlight solves the problem!
The funny shape is because I tried to take it out of the pan too early, it stuck to the pan and broke so I put it back in to cook longer. Sometimes timing in the #SolarOven is a bit of guesswork, I didn't get it right, whoops.
It turned out really good though! The extra cooking time made it turn really brown with a deep caramel -y flavor. Very good with sliced #strawberries macerated in sugar, and a little scoop of #vegan vanilla ice cream.
#SolarCooking #VeganBaking #VeganFood #OutdoorCooking #Solar #Sustainable

Yellow #potatoes cooked in the #SolarOven. The long cook at relatively low temp (about 4 hours at 200°F) makes them a totally different creation than ordinary baked potatoes! They become translucent and custardy inside instead of dry and flaky, and the potato flavor and smell is really strong. Really excellent cooled and cut up for salad. #SolarCooking

Hey! It looks like a lot of people are doing #introduction and reintroduction posts because of the ongoing exodus from other social media.
I don't go by my real name on here, and I prefer not to give any pronouns for the sake of anonymity- refer to me however you like! My avatar is
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind from the film of the same name. #SolarPunk
I toot a lot about #SolarCooking because it's a free, zero pollution way to cook that is ideal for summer cooking because it doesn't heat your home or strain the electric grid. And it's fun! I'm looking to test the boundaries of weather and seasons for solar cooking in my region.
I made my own #SolarOven / #SolarCooker out of free materials (cardboard boxes from the recycling, plastic bags, a scrap piece of clear acrylic) and some cheap supplies that tend to get used once and thrown away. (Glue, tape, aluminum foil). Pics attached (I've made two of them so far!)
People ask me sometimes for plans, and I usually direct them to the Solar Cooking Wiki. https://solarcooking.fandom.com/wiki/Solar_Cooking_Wiki_(Home) That's where I learned most of what I know now (plus my own first hand experience). If you like paper books, Cooking With Sunshine by Lorraine Anderson is an excellent reference. I'm also in the process of writing a zine about solar cooking that I'll distribute for free once it's done!
All the food I make in the solar cooker and otherwise is #vegan because I feel strongly that it's the fairest and most sustainable way to eat. I also focus on making real food from scratch (especially #beans and #bread) to show how useful the solar oven is. It's not an Easy Bake Oven! (Though I have baked a cake in it).
I also toot and share stuff about the #ClimateCrisis, #veganism, #urbanism #ebikes and #libraries, among other things... It's all linked together. I want to be part of a fair and sustainable world for all people. Proud to be an anarchist, #NoGodsNoMasters #NoBorders

First time cooking #vegetables in my diy trash #SolarOven- kinda funny I hadn't tried it yet!
It's a summer veggie stew inspired by Emmymade's recent "Glop" video (except #vegan). Corn, tomato, zucchini, green pepper, onion and garlic, with homemade #seitan beefy chunks. Seasoned with salt, pepper, oregano and olive oil.

It took a long time for the onion and peppers to soften, but it's pretty good. I put some of my solar-cooked pinto beans in when I ate it. Excellent!

The only time I've used any heating appliances in my kitchen today was the kettle for my morning coffee because the #SolarCooker was doing it instead. So cool! (Literally)
#SolarCooking #OutdoorCooking #Solar #StayCool #VeganFood #SeasonalFood

@Sine if you look at my other post in this thread you'll see a picture of it, or look through the #SolarCooking hashtag- most of it is me, lately! (At least on the servers I can see posts on)
My first solar cooker was tiny and could only fit a little 1-quart mini dutch oven, but it worked GREAT.

@greeen
I made my own #SolarOven out of cardboard, aluminum foil, tape, glue, and a square of acrylic (Plexiglas) I saved from the garbage. Almost free. It's pretty durable - I painted the outside of the box and taped the seams and the whole bottom with packing tape so it resists water and abrasion (though I wouldn't leave it out in the rain). I've been #SolarCooking beans, rice, potatoes, cake, cinnamon rolls, all kinds of stuff in black pots inside it.

@futurebird whoa awesome that's as much space as a large suburban house lot, and full sun too! Wanna try #solarcooking? It's my latest obsession and I'm trying to spread the word- it's easier and more versatile than most people know.

Another home run for #SolarCooking and #VeganBaking! #vegan chocolate #cake (recipe from most recent Joy of Cooking) baked in my homemade #diy low cost #SolarOven. So cool to bake a cake on a hot summer day without heating up the kitchen! (And it's free energy!)
I was a dingdong and forgot to take a picture before digging into it, so in the photo it has a big wedge already taken out. #BadFoodPhotography Oh well, it's proof that the middle was cooked, right?
Eaten in the lid of my cooking vessel (a stainless steel dog bowl) with vegan vanilla ice cream and fresh raspberries from the garden.
#SustainableFood #SolarPunk #DirectSolarEnergy

@Yakkafo
Hi! I've been posting a lot about my #solaroven stuff lately, and I have to say, don't knock the basic box oven design yet. They don't get as hot as more focused types (parabolic mirror and lens) but don't need to be adjusted constantly and are much safer. And much easier to build with free/cheap materials! I've been cooking almost every sunny day since mid May here in Oregon. You can increase the power of a box oven by making reflectors on 3 sides rather than the typical single reflector of old school designs. Picture of my "Sunven" with three reflectors attached.
If you want to do food for a big group, it's easy enough to make multiple ovens rather than one huge one. Mine can cook a full meal for 6 people though, and it's not that huge, I used a medium moving box as the outer shell. #solarcooking

A 46-oz Steinfeld's pickle jar painted black with one line masked out for viewing the food through the side: a great bean pot in the #solaroven! Frijoles de la olla del sol. I could have used a traditional bean pot (olla de barro) as long as it's dark colored on the outside, but I don't have one, and I did have this.
Looks kinda weird but they turned out extremely tender with no split #beans or tough skins, and the broth is delicious (I brined the beans overnight first). Also no electricity, gas, or wood, and no stirring or checking needed. Dry beans are the cheapest high protein food (#vegan and otherwise!) , but few people cook them because it takes so long and uses a lot of energy. A great choice for #solarcooking to #feedtheworld. #diy #solar #cheapfood #solarpunk