Solar-powered oven makes tasty meals

With Yuma’s bright sunshine and triple-digit summers, there’s no better place or time than here and now to harness the sun’s energy to make easy dinners in a solar oven.

Yuma resident Kat Summerchild cooks at least one to two meals per week in a solar oven she purchased about 20 years ago, and she’s surprised more people in Yuma aren’t doing the same. After all, solar cooking is free, it doesn’t heat up the house, and it’s very easy to do, she said.

“Just pull the pan out of the cupboard, throw in whatever you’re cooking, and throw it in the sun oven," Summerchild said. "When I got to Yuma, I was shocked that not everyone had a sun oven. And not only that, but most people haven’t even heard of sun ovens.”

Referencing electric and gas bills, she chuckled and said, “I cook for free!”

Summerchild got interested in solar cooking during a visit to her parents’ home in Texas years ago. They and all their RVing friends regularly used their solar ovens to cook everything from main courses to desserts.

“My mom used to make angel food cakes, biscuits, cookies, absolutely everything in it.” Summerchild, however, just makes main courses in hers because she can leave the cooking unattended for long hours, whereas baking takes less time. She cooks pot roast, chicken rice/vegetable casserole and an array of other foods in her solar oven.

“It makes dynamite ribs. They’re so tender they just fall off the bone, and of course, while they’re cooking for such a long time, they’re also marinating in the barbecue sauce, so they get extremely delicious. The sauce ends up being really good on baked potatoes.”

She simply places the ribs in a dark pan, sprinkles each rib with barbecue sauce, puts a lid on the pan and sets it in the solar oven to cook. “You can put it out in the morning, go to work, come back around 5, and dinner’s ready.”

Solar cooking requires the use of a dark pan, which will absorb - not reflect - the sunlight, she said. And like a slow cooker, very little liquid is used in recipes, which is why she barely sprinkles sauce on the ribs.

The solar oven temperature (250 to 325 degrees) and cooking time (six to eight hours) is very similar to a slow cooker as well, she said. Another similarity is the importance of not removing the lid from the pan, if possible, because heat escapes and more time is needed for heat to build up again, she added.  

Once it does heat up, there’s no worry about burning, she said. “For some reason, it doesn’t burn. It’ll get more and more tender, so tender that it’s falling off the bone and kind of shreds, but it doesn’t burn.” Plus, she never has to preheat her solar oven.

It is important, however, to place the oven in an area that will receive continuous sunshine. If it’s in a small space, it may be necessary to go turn it often, so that it catches the sun’s rays. In that case, a person could not go off and leave it to cook because it must be watched, she said.

Foil should not be used in solar cooking, as it will reflect heat away from the pan, she said. Also, the pan will heat up just like in a regular oven, so people must use potholders.

For readers who do not have a sun oven, a simple one can be made with reflective bubble insulation and duct tape. Following directions previously provided by Larry and Debbie Crutcher, owners of Starlight Solar, cooks can cut one short and two longer pieces of the insulation and tape them together (see photos). It only takes about five minutes to make, but manufactured solar ovens can be purchased at Starlight Solar as well as online and perhaps other local businesses.

The pork roast and vegetables in the photos was made from Summerchild’s following recipe.

“People will be astounded at how good the food tastes. All the meat is so juicy and tender, and it’s just great," she said. "You can get an inexpensive, tough cut of meat, and it’ll still come out nice and tender.”

Sun Oven Pork Roast and Vegetables

Toss a pork roast in a pan. Cut up some potatoes and carrots and onions. Flavor your roast like you would normally. Put the lid on the pan and place it in the oven. Then go off and come back six to eight hours later and have dinner.

When first experimenting with a solar oven, especially a homemade one, it may be best to stick around and watch it, to see if any adjustments are needed in the recipe or oven placement. The oven in the photo needed large rocks to hold the edges down, and the top had to later be propped up with a stick as a breeze had folded it over so that it couldn’t reflect sunshine onto the pan.