Solar Cooking Recipes and Tips

Below are some tried-and-true recipes I use in my solar cooker throughout the summer, followed by a few tips. For more on solar cooking, see Cooking with Sunshine or Solar Cooking for Home and Camp.

Sun-Nutty Granola

Adapted from Simply in Season

Mix together in large bowl:

3 ½ cups rolled oats

½ cup ground flaxseeds

1-2 T xylitol (or brown sugar)

1 ½ t ground cinnamon

¼ t salt

½ cup sesame seeds

1 cup sunflower seeds

1 to 1 ½ cups chopped pecans, almonds, and/or walnuts

In a small bowl, mix:

¼ cup oil

1/8 to ¼ cup honey

¼ cup fruit juice or water

1 t vanilla

Add to the oat mixture and mix well. Spread on a dark pan and place on two loaf pans to elevate inside the cooker. Bake uncovered several hours in the solar cooker with the lid propped slightly open. Stir once or twice throughout the baking time. Granola is done when it is dry.

Oven instructions: Bake at 250 degrees for a few hours, stirring every 20-30 minutes.

---

Sunttata
This flexible frittata adaptation is a great way to use up small amounts of leftover vegetables and make use of whatever herbs are in your garden. You can even use potatoes you've precooked in your solar cooker earlier in the week. Experiment with different combinations of vegetables as they are in season.

Note: Only one of us eats cheese, so we put the grated cheese on half the eggs, but you can also add it right to the egg mixture.

6 eggs
1-2 cups vegetables, choosing from:

--diced precooked vegetables, such as asparagus, potatoes, green beans, greens
--chopped raw vegetables, such as peppers, chilies, zucchini, green onions, mushrooms

handful of chopped herbs, such as parsley, thyme, chives, etc.
salt and pepper
grated cheese as desired

Oil a dark 8-inch square or 9-inch round baking pan. Beat the eggs and add a little water. Beat again until fluffy. Add the other ingredients, reserving or omitting the cheese if desired. Pour into the pan, cover well with foil, and set in the solar cooker with a dark cloth on top. Bake for 3 hours or until dinnertime.

If you have reserved the cheese, you can uncover the dish an hour before dinner and spread the cheese on top, then re-cover and set back into the cooker to let the cheese melt.

---

Sol-Posole (New Mexican Hominy Stew)

Adapted from Extending the Table and Cooking With Sunshine

2 pounds pork necks

6 cloves garlic, minced

1-2 onions, finely chopped

1 bay leaf

water to cover

Place in dark pot, cover tightly, and set in solar cooker (bringing to a boil first on stove if desired). Cook 2 to 4 hours, until meat is cooked. Remove from the solar cooker and cut meat from bones, returning the meat to the pot, along with:

2 20-oz cans white hominy, drained

1 t salt

2 T chili powder

2 T tomato paste, or to taste

1-2 chili peppers, chopped (optional)

2 T ground cumin

1 t oregano

½ t thyme

Mix well and return to solar cooker. Cook 2 more hours, or until dinnertime. Just before serving, top with:

½ cup chopped cilantro

Serve with rice or warm flour tortillas. Garnish with lime wedges if desired.

---

Pie-in-the-Sky Plum “Pie”

(or apple, peach, berry, etc.)

Adapted from Simply in Season’s Fruit Platz recipe

1 cup flour

½ cup whole wheat pastry flour

1 ½ t baking powder

¼ t salt

Combine.

½ c butter or oil

½ c milk, water, or juice

Mix in butter until crumbly. Add liquid. Mix with fork until a ball of soft dough forms. Press into greased 9 x 13-inch baking pan.

4 cups plums, cut in half (or use other seasonal fruit)

2 T (or more) xylitol or sugar

Mix, then place the plum halves cut side down in rows on top of the dough.

2 T (or more) xylitol, sugar, or brown sugar

½ cup flour

¼ cup whole wheat pastry flour

1 T butter

1 t cinnamon

½ t nutmeg

Mix and spread over fruit.

Cover tightly with foil and bake in solar cooker (ideally raised up on loaf pans to be close to the glass) for 3-4 hours.

Oven instructions: Bake uncovered in preheated oven at 375 degrees for 30-45 minutes.

Solar Cookery Tips

My cooker’s so bright…I gotta wear shades.

Protect your eyes from glare! Wear sunglasses when placing food into or removing it from your solar cooker, and keep your back to the sun.

Keep one eye on the weather report…and don’t believe the radar.

Sometimes the radar shows zero precipitation, but a sudden downpour can come along and soak your cooker. Best to check out the window now and then, and stay near home when solar cooking on “iffy” days.

Solar cookers take flight.

When solar cooking or drying lightweight foods, like granola or tomatoes, be sure to put something heavy in the bottom of your cooker. A glass casserole dish or bread pans help keep the cooker from taking flight in a gust of wind.

Mistakes were made. (Learn from mine.)

• Poorly covered food steams up the glass and reduces the inner temperature of the cooker.
• Overloading the cooker with too many food items at one time may result in half-cooked food.
• Overcast days are not viable cooking days, and no amount of fist-shaking at clouds will make a difference.
• Remember to choose thin cooking pots; glass, cast-iron and other heavy materials take too long to heat.