Monday, June 09, 2008

It's Hot Enough to Cook Chickpeas Outside, Literally

The forecast called for searing heat in NY today. There was no way in the world I was turning on a stove. I set up a pot of dried chickpeas and a pot of dried kidney beans in my solar oven. Neither type of bean was presoaked and I filled the pots with cold water. I figured the kidney beans would cook and the chickpeas could finish cooking tomorrow.

Imagine my surprise when the chickpeas were fully cooked after 6 hours in the solar cooker! I really was flabbergasted, chickpeas take forever to cook!

I also wanted to make a quick breakfast food. Using the scone recipe from The Tightwad Gazette as my base, I divided the batter into a cast iron muffin tin and topped with cinnamon sugar. Since there was no room to be had in the solar cooker, I put these in a black covered roating pan. Baked goods always come out a little on the gooey side in the solar cooker, its a lot like the slow cooker, but they were clearly cooked. A quick go round in the toaster oven tomorrow morning and I think they'll be pretty good.

So what to do with these freshly cooked chickpeas? I mixed up a batch of Sesame Miso Vinagrette from La Dolce Vegan (of course I was out of rice vinegar and substituted plain white vinegar...), shredded some spinach, finely diced a very small onion and tossed in a few of the cooked kidney beans for color. I mixed this well and served it over lettuce and whole wheat couscous. Everyone devoured it, and the kitchen stayed cool.

I'll bet you noticed the lettuce and spinach. All I can say is horray for the CSA! Now, I'd better start planning for tomorrow's dinner right now since its supposed to be hotter than hell again!

5 comments:

katecontinued said...

We of the north coast of San Diego are in June gloom period - grey weather due to marine layer or some such seasonal thing. (It followed grey May.) So, I am sad to say I haven't been using my solar oven.

Anonymous said...

Ugg--you have my sympathies! I have family in NY and I have heard all about your heat wave!

I am intrigued by your solar cooker...what is it?! I mean, I get the gist from the name, but is it something you made? Purchased?

Thanks!
Courtney

Katie said...

Good point Chile, lowering the gas factor is a good thing. Although I don't notice it being as much of a problem with chickpeas.

I don't have any tips on solar baking although I was thinking that putiing a cloth napkin under the lid of the baking pot might help. A quick go through the toaster oven helps immensely.

June gloom, what I would give for a little cloud cover!

I didn't make my solar cooker, although there are certainly a ton of websites out there that tell you how to. Check out http://solarcooking.org/plans/ for a variety of ideas.

I have an SOS Sport check out their website http://www.solarovens.org/

I also have a Sun Oven. Their website is http://www.sunoven.com/

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the resources!

Courtney

Meg Wolff said...

Thanks for the solar oven links. I feel like I'm missing out! I'm in sunny, but cool, Maine.