In continuing our goal towards self sufficiency and some day moving off the grid, we started looking into alternate cooking options. We had already found a beautiful antique wood stove that we have installed in our screen room (this will likely be used for canning during harvest season). We turned our sites towards the sun since it has been so generous to us in providing power over the last few years to our off-grid property. Solar cooking is not a new technology but it has been improved upon over the years. Looking for something that cooks a little faster than 8-12 hours, we stumbled upon GoSun. We watched as many videos as we could but as they say the proof is in the pudding, so we found a great deal on the entry level Solar Oven Kit and anxiously awaited its arrival. Surprisingly it arrived very quickly so we were able to take it with us on our trip to work on the cabin. Knowing that it was an entry level model and it had a very small tray, we decided to make a simple recipe.
You can see here where we cut the brussels sprouts, potatoes, garlic and onions into very small pieces and stuffed the tray as full as we could. We tried to fit as much as we could but in the end it was around 3 small yukon golds, 4 brussels sprouts, 1/4 of a chopped onion, a clove of garlic and of course no Florida meal is complete without a dash of Everglades Seasoning.
Before placing the tray in the tube, our curiosity got the best of us and we stuck a finder in to see if it was even warm. Much to our surprise, it was already hot! We looked at each other and said “This thing may actually work!” So we slid the tube into the glass chamber and put the silicone lid on the end to seal it up. The seal is not great on this model as a heads up but we assume that is so the food can vent without blowing up the glass tube (apparently that is a thing when using frozen food so don’t do that or you will have a mess). We set a timer for 20 min and went back to work putting up roofing panels over the screen room.
Here we are after the 20 min mark, the potatoes were not quite done yet after stabbing them with a fork so I decided to go inside and make the sauce/gravy for the meal. This is not a requirement but the recipe I found for this had an optional sauce so I was eager to try it too. I slid the tray back into place and decided once the sauce was complete enough time would have passed to pull it from the solar oven.
As you can see the vegetables are nicely browned and ready to plate. The sauce/gravy also came out delicious so I poured a little on the plate, took the photo below and then poured more over the top because who doesn’t love gravy in the south! We were both incredibly impressed with the ease of use, cooking quickness, food flavor and clean up of this little solar oven. The only issue is that it is difficult to assemble/disassemble the solar inserts so we left it all intact and stuck it the top cabinet that never gets used in our RV.
Since then, GoSun has offered an open box sale and we jumped at the opportunity to purchase the Fusion model with is a solar hybrid oven. We can hardly wait to try it out and share different recipes with our fellow adventurers 😁
To purchase your own solar oven, visit the GoSun Website https://gosun.co/
(We are not an affiliate of GoSun, we just like to share useful products with our fans)
Garlic Brussels Sprout Potatoes
Ingredients
GoSun Oven Kit/Go Model
- 3-4 yukon gold potatoes, peeled (optional) and quartered
- 1 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 cup onions, chopped
- 4 Brussels sprouts, cleaned and quartered
- 1/4 cup coconut or olive oil (We use coconut oil for almost everything)
- salt, pepper to taste (Everglades Seasoning Optional)
White Sauce/Gravy
- 2 Tbs olive oil
- 3 Tbs flour
- pinch of nutmeg
- 1 Tbs nutritional yeast
- 1 cups almond or oat milk
Instructions
- Set up solar oven so that the solar fins are in direct sunlight.
- Cut potatoes and brussels sprouts into inch-sized chunks. Chop up 1/4 of an onion and 1-2 garlic cloves.
- Add chopped vegetables to gosun tray and drizzle with oil, season to taste
- Add gosun tray to solar oven and cover with silicone cap. If making sauce, Set timer for 20 min so you have time to check the vegetables before making the sauce/gravy on the side. (We have a little propane cooktop that we used for the sauce/gravy.
- After about 30-40 min, remove from go sun oven and plate with sauce.
*We hope to expand on this recipe after we try out the new Fusion oven and get a feel for how much more it will hold.
The Blue Riverhaus 