Solar Pepper Quinoa with Steamed Kale

Hot weather continues - perfect for a solar cooked dinner!  A present some years ago, my solar cooker still does a fine job.

I put the quinoa, liquid and accompaniments into an orange pepper. I placed the pepper in a small pyrex dish to keep it stable. And this dish was placed in the black kettle that I use with the solar cooker. I also included in the cooker a salmon fillet.

Put the cooker in the sunshine at 1pm. Brought it in at 4:30 pm. 

Mix in a bowl

1/2 cup Quinoa
1/4 cup onion, chopped
1 Tbsp, ginger, raw and minced
1 clementine orange, peeled and sectioned
1 Cup water
1.5 Tbsp white wine (finishing off the little bottle)
1 Tbsp lime juice

Assemble

Cut the top and inside seeds from an orange pepper.
Place about 1/2 of the mixture in the prepared pepper.
Place in the solar cooker.
Cook for 2.5 hours.

Serve

Steam 1+ cup of kale for 2 minutes or less.
Place on plate
Put the stuffed pepper on the kale.
Add a dash of Worcestershire sauce.
Eat some kale with every bite!

Rated a 4.71 on the Kale Scale.

Solar Cooked Couscous with Kale

Today was solar cooking day. I cooked salmon, corn on the cob and coucous in the solar cooker. I put it out in the yard about 12:30 and collected it for dinner about 6 pm. During day, moved it around to capture the best sunlight. The cooking pot got so hot, I needed pot holders to keep from burning my fingers. The reflective material of the cooker was so bright, I had to wear sunglasses to work with it.

I found an interesting way to cook corn on the cob via solar cooking. The jist of it is you cook the corn in the husk and silk. There's enough moisture in the husk, so no water is needed. After the corn is donw, you cut off the stem end, and the corn "slips" out of the husk and silk. Pretty neat discovery!  I was going to cut the kernels and put with the couscous, but had to try the corn on the cob, and just kept trying until it was all eaten.

In the solar cooker, in a glass container, place:
1/3 cup dry couscous
1/3 cup onion, chopped
A little wine
A little pomergranate juice
Pepper, Mrs Dash

Cook until done (couple hours).

Steam in microwave, 2 minutes:
1 cup Kale, ripped to bite size pieces

Cook in microwave, 1 minute:
Stir the Kale, fluff and add the couscous.
Add 2 Tbsp Mango Salsa from Whole Foods

Rated a 4.71 on the Kale Scale.