Cooking without heating up the flat

[Cuwins]

We are in an upstairs flat that gets very warm and the idea of turning on the oven over the next week does not appeal!
Our appetites are not hugely affected by the heat like alot of people but I dread cooking.
So ideas for things that don’t need the oven or long on the hob. 2 adults and 1 fairly fussy 3 year old with a dairy allergy.
Thanks

I did some (frozen) garlic/herb king prawns in a griddle pan tonight, steamed some broccoli and nuked a pouch of vegetable rice, mixed it all together and added some chopped spring onions. took 12 mins from starting to eating.

I do occasionally use the oven but as pp suggests only early in the morning, I throw everything in though then we can eat it cold later.

Any meat, whole chicken, beef joints etc
Pizza, kebabs etc. all fine to eat cold I. Sandwiches, wraps or with a salad later. Cold boiled potatoes can be used in a similar way.

Agree with pp. Can you get a plug in hob similar and do you cooking on a balcony?

Tbh I enjoy lots of cold food in the summer.

Potato salad, coleslaw, cold roast chicken, boiled eggs, cold sausages.

I do make lots of cold salad options. Grated carrot salad with coriander, cucumber yogurt and dill salad, tomato salsa

Hob options. Quesadila, grilled cheese (butter the outside of a sandwich and fry on both sides, lush!!) stir-fry, cook on a high heat to minimise cooking time.

Noodles? Boil a kettle, pour it over, 4 minutes (check you have got the right sort). Make a Thai or Chinese dressing with sesame oil and have them with thinly sliced spring onions and red pepper, thinly shredded or grated carrot, peanuts, lime juice. There are a lot of fully cold noodle recipes too so you could cook early and keep in the fridge.

Halloumi and salad

Salmon fillets in the microwave are easy, maybe pasta or better yet couscous

Potatoes cut into quarters or eighths steam quickly - again, cook early and keep in fridge

I boil a gammon joint for 15 mins then cover it in bubble wrap and coats for 3-4 hours. Then put it in the fridge , slice thinly and serve with salad.
Using a couple of tins of tuna to make a salad Nicoise also works and involves no heat at all.

https://www.tamingtwins.com/honey-garlic-chicken/

Made this with rice and veggie sticks today was yummy! Anything in slow cooker or air fryer or stir fry on the hob. Rebecca Wilson also has a batch of good recipes across various books

Pressure cookers don’t produce a lot of heat x

You cover it with bubble wrap and coats???

You can cook gammon in a pressure cooker too, quick and the heat and steam are contained.

Get an instant pot.

It cooks with the heat it already has- you wrap the whole pan in bubble wrap then cover with coats or other material- it's the same principle as a hay box.

Agree with everyone else that you need meals where the cooking part is quick. we eat a lot of things like a quick seared steak/piece of fish/chop with salads and new potatoes at this time of year or with sort of dips on flatbreads. We're having salmon tonight but I'll probably have to do a quick stir fry as we finished off all the salad and I need to shop.

Or I might do something like a fajita mix of onions and pepers and spces in a break at lunch, then leave that on the stove then at dinner it's a quick fry of some halloumi while the rest of the mix heats up quickly and into a tortilla. Or mince with sour cream/avocado/salsa etc.

My other go to are quick pasta/gnocchi sauces. The kind that don't need lolng slow cooking, often with a cream/creme fraiche based sauce. this week we did crumbled sausages, fried, added spces and lemon zest, and fresh tomatoes then milk and wine mix and a packet of baby spinach then a swirl of creme fraich. Done.

ooh, actually, I wasn't feeling inspired by the salmon stir fry and just realised I could do flaked salmon into pasta if I throw some frozen spinach in the pasta to cook at the end (if I have some - I think I do) and the mix the last of the creme fraiche and some grlic and lemon and maybe cream cheese and bang, that could be a quick pasta sauce with almost no cooking. Mmm, interesting.

Greek salad. Cucumber, tomatoes, leaves, spring onions, feta olives. Air fried Lamb chops

Caesar salad , olives, Parmesan, boiled eggs, air fry chicken wings

boiled potatoes, air fry green beans, spring onions and good tinned tuna.

enjoy.

I have an older DH who is very set in his ways and determinedly anti-salad which is a bit of a pain in hot weather. The only veg he actually likes is frozen peas, which fortunately cook without heating up the flat.

Please don't reply by telling me I should give him salad, he hates it, and brassicas actually make him vomit! Yes, I should have thought about this before I committed to a married life full of frozen peas, but too late now...

I tend to keep in a lot of things that can be just chucked on a plate in hot weather. Those Merchant packs of grains, baking potatoes (for microwaving ), salads of various sorts, pulses in tins, coleslaws, cottage cheese, hummus, cooked fish, boiled eggs, cheeses, sometimes leftovers eg roast chicken, pittas or flatbreads. Dressing ingredients.

(Not all for eating at once 🙂)