“Very Brown Rice”
adapted from a recipe in Frances Moore Lappe’s Diet for a Small Planet
This is still one of my children’s favorite vegetarian meals (they’re now omnivores, 30 and 31), with combined proteins. It requires a start (cheat!) on a conventional stove, to give the rice special flavor.
1 1/2 C brown rice
1/2 onion, chopped
3 T oil
3 1/3 C water
1/2 C lentils
1 1/2 t salt
1 1/2 T butter or margarine
Brown the brown rice and onion together in hot oil. Stir frequently, and then constantly as it browns, enjoying the aroma! When rice is as brown as it can be and you’re beginning to worry about it burning, add the water (have it handy nearby). Then add lentils, salt and butter or margarine. Put the lid on, turn off the heat, and carry outside to your waiting Sun Oven (set it up while you’re cooking indoors, so it’s heating). Within the hour, you’ll probably know when it’s done because you’ll smell it when you go outside. Don’t stir. If you need, open the oven and peak under the lid. The lentils and onions will have risen to the top, but the rice you can see will be popping open.
More to come: Easy foods, tricky foods, more recipes.
Feel free to share yours!
Basically I use all my usual oven recipes and many of my stove-top recipes that don’t require constant stirring.
Tricky: To cook the broccoli family, lay a plate on the pieces to make sure they stay under the water. And then be careful to not overcook. Check back frequently - when you notice the aroma (without even opening), remove and enjoy!
Pasta cooked in water can be tricky because it has to be taken out at the exact right time. But it can be done: bring your water to boil in your solar oven at the same time that you heat the pasta beside it, dry in a dish. When the water boils, add the hot, dry pasta and time it perfectly. You can also begin the pasta on the stove top, then move it outside to a waiting, pre-heated solar oven and, again, time it perfectly.
Breads: Open the door now and then toward the end, to release the steam and let the bread brown.
Everything else: easy, easy, easy.
Check back for more tips later!
Thanks~
More super easy dishes:
- Sweet potatoes: Lay them on a plate and watch for them to lose their shape, and notice the delightful aroma. Ditto for other potatoes.
- Carrots and beets with rice (this is fun and brilliant): Cut up carrots and beets, and put in a casserole dish with 2 cups water, 1 cup brown rice and 1 t salt. When done, you’ll smell the gorgeous rice aroma, and see the grains all red and puffed. Don’t worry about overcooking. Serve with butter and margarine.
- Chicken: Because of safety issues regarding raw poultry, beginning solar cooks are encouraged to experience cooking chicken first on a bright summer day or to “cheat” by starting the dish on the stove, to get everything hot before transferring it out to the pre-heated solar oven. (Soon, you’ll be able to “read” the day, and will cook poultry confidently. For more on food safety and cooking temperatures related to solar cookers, the book at left is excellent.)
Put whole bird or parts in an open dish, plain or dressed with stuffing and vegetables, and keep the oven directed toward the sun until you smell it and see it beginning to fall off the bones. Delectable!
Also check out these two wonderful solar cookbooks, one featuring southwestern dishes, another vegetarian:
- The Solar Chef: A Southwestern Recipe Book for Solar Cooking, produced by Solar Ranch. This 50-page, 8.5 x 11, spiral bound book includes an overview of different types of ovens, 2 pages of cooking tips (plus more scattered throughout the sections), and 78 recipes (most with meat, cheese or eggs) in these categories: omelets & egg dishes, casseroles and vegetable dishes, soups and stews, main courses, snacks and drinks, breads and desserts, with quite the range, from “Turkey and Rice Casserole,” “Baked Ham” and “Herb-Crusted Pork Roast” to “Gingered Sweet Potato Bisque,” “Grandma Huser’s Banana Bread,” and “Snickerdoodles!” Each recipe indicates whether it’s appropriate for a full sun or partly cloudy day. $14.95
The Sunny Side of Cooking: Solar cooking and other ecologically friendly cooking methods for the 21st century, by Lisa Rayner. This 122-page, 5.5 x 8.5, spiral bound book is the most comprehensive vegetarian solar cookbook I could imagine, with fourteen recipe sections devoted entirely to vegetarian food. Rayner has an eight-page section on selecting the right solar cooker from every style that’s ever been designed (she uses the Sun Oventm and depicts it on the cover), and discusses the basics and methods of cooking thoroughly in 16 pages! She also covers canning and pasteurization, making ice(!), and other energy-saving cooking methods to use on cloudy days. $14.95
