What’s Cooking: First Edition

Cooking in OurRamblinVan has been a learning process. Some ideas work great, others…not so much. As far as cooking apparatus goes, we are well set up for living in a van with the exception of an oven. We have a built-in single burner induction cooktop. We chose this stove because it is energy efficient, easy to clean and we like its safety features. This kind of cooktop requires specific cookware, basically, if a magnet sticks to a pan, it will work on the burner. An electromagnetic field below the glass cooktop surface causes the magnetic cookware to heat up. If there is no magnetic pan on the burner, it will not heat, even if the ‘on’ button is accidentally touched, the surface remains cool, only the pan heats. It also does not create condensation when in use like a propane stove.

In addition to our cooktop, we have a cute little teensy 0.7 square foot Black and Decker 700-watt microwave oven, an Agreea 1.5-quart mini pressure cooker, and 1 each: MyMini brand air fryer, mini waffle maker and single slice toaster. For outdoor cooking we have a fold out propane camp stove, a jet boil, a fold out grill-top and a lightweight anodized aluminum Dutch oven. Yep, we found a place for all these things, and we use them all. The meal plan and method we choose depends on whether we are on shore power or boondocking. You can convert any of the recipes I post to the type of cookware you use. You can substitute ingredients according to your supplies and tastes. I like the mini pressure cooker a lot and mostly cook indoors right now. That is because OurRamblinVan is wintering over in a campsite in Colorado, where it gets a bit chilly for outdoor cooking and we have shore power. However, when we begin our travels, we will rely more on outdoor cooking methods.

This soup is a mini pressure cooker recipe, if you don’t have one of those, you can make it in a pot on the stove or over a camp stove. Follow instructions using a sauce pot, but after adding the broth and marinara sauce, bring the ingredients to a boil and then add the pasta, reduce heat and cook an additional 12-15 minutes at a low boil.

Tip: When you purchase your ingredients, divide the jar of marinara and the packages of Italian sausage into halves and freeze the unused portion for the next time you make this soup. If you are making your soup in a larger pot, just double the ingredients.

Quick Italian Soup:

Ingredients:

½ pound ground Italian pork sausage

2 links aidells Italian style smoked chicken sausage, sliced

1 chopped shallot

1 chopped red bell pepper

1 tsp dried basil

1 small can cut green beans, drained

2 cups prepared chicken bouillon

1 cup marinara sauce

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1/2 cup uncooked penne pasta

1 tbls olive oil

½ tsp garlic powder

½ tsp dried basil

½ tsp Italian seasoning

Salt and Pepper

Place uncooked pasta into a zipper bag and add oil and seasonings. Seal and massage bag until the dry pasta pieces are fully coated with the oil and seasonings. Set aside.

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 Turn on pressure cooker to the sauté setting and brown the ground sausage with the shallot, basil and chopped pepper. Once the crumbles are cooked through, add all the remaining ingredients, including the pasta, to the pot. Seal the lid and set the cooker to the rice setting (10 minutes).

This is good topped with parmesan cheese and cracked black pepper. Serve with crusty bread.