Easy and fast to cook foods for stove without oven and slow cooker?

[Bonaccorso]

When I didn't have an oven for three years, I cooked loads of things on the stove top. I also had a large electric skillet with a tall domed lid. That can be used as a sort of oven. I have baked cakes in electric skillets and baked potatoes, as well as making English muffins in one. Then I got a toaster oven and that was a decent substitute for a regular oven.

Oh, electric skillet looks very interesting. Maybe one day I'll buy it, I never thought about them before!

 

[Bonaccorso]

Since you are Italian, I assume you already do pasta dishes. You only need two pans, one for the sauce, and one for the pasta. Add the cooked pasta to the sauce, with a little pasta water to add some starch to the sauce, and you have a quick, easy meal.

I know there are one-pot pasta dishes, where you cook the pasta in the sauce, but I've never made one.

CD

I just live in Italy, I'm an immigrant there

But yeah, I do cook pasta often. Though I don't think it's too healthy, in summer I prefer to have some basic salads instead (very basic - like, I just chop tomatoes and yellow pepper, and add salt and olive oil, very nice), and some meat.

 

[Bonaccorso]

Welcome to the forum!

Omelettes were one of the first things I learned to make when I was away at school, to make a fast, nutritious meal with various ingredients in it. Rice was something I used a lot, too - pilaf type things with many types of meats and/or vegetables, then the rice and water added, and cooked 20-25 min, until the rice is cooked, and liquid is absorbed. Heavy Dutch oven type pots are good for stovetop, and another type of pan I use a lot for one pot dishes is a sauté pan - like a skillet, but straight sides, and a lid, and many things can be browned in it, then removed, a sauce started in it, meat returned, and simmered, then served with rice, pasta, etc.

Do you have a microwave, to reheat these types of things? And are you looking into getting the slow cooker? Sounds like you might be, when you stated "Right now I don't have it." If so, I would look into getting one of those multi-cookers, like an Instant Pot. This is something I have made countless "one pot meals" in, and one good thing about it is that you don't have to keep watching it so closely. You can brown the onions, and meats, then add other ingredients, and either use it as a slow cooker, a fast slow cooker (which is basically like a simmer on a stovetop), or speed things up with the pressure cooker. Also has a rice cooker mode, which is a low pressure cooker. You might be able to buy a used one at a yard sale, or something like that, that has hardly been used at all, because some people just don't want to learn how to cook in them. I wish I'd had one in my early days, in those school kitchens!

Thank you for the advice! And yes, maybe I'll buy it, I'm not sure yet but I'm open to ideas how to diversify foods I can cook at home, and this is among the solutions

I don't have dutch pot now but few times I used to cook pilaf in kind of normal deep pot. It wasn't too bad but a bit complicated, and hard to find proper heat level on induction stove - it's much more powerful than normal ones. Like, 4-5 there is 9 on my old electric one. But for meat it's nice, sometimes takes less than a minute to get well done level beef.

 

[KatyCooks]

I don't know if it is easy to get one in Italy, but since I got my pressure cooker, I can cook virtually anything that used to take hours in the oven on the stove top, and in far less time. I was a bit scared of it when I first bought it, but now I use it all the time - saves both time AND money and meat and chicken come out super tender. Same size as a large saucepan, so won't take up a lot of space either.

 

[caseydog]

Oh, electric skillet looks very interesting. Maybe one day I'll buy it, I never thought about them before!

I had one in my dorm room in college. That and a mini fridge. The cafeteria in my dorm was closed on weekends, so I either had to walk to the central cafeteria, or cook my own meals those days. The guys across the hall had a mini fridge and a microwave oven. We shared our resources.

CD

 

[pepperhead212]

I got a cheap, used 12 cu ft upright in college, too. Unfortunately, no microwaves back then! But I learned to like freezers because my parents always had a large chest freezer, and Mom would stock up on deals, and things at the commissary - sometimes would freeze leftovers, but again, well before microwave ovens made re-heating so easy. Even back then, I would keep a record of everything that went in and out of the freezer.

 

[rodentraiser]

If you can do bechamel or or any other sauces, a cheese sauce or something like that, there's a lot of things you can add to it to make a meal, like potatoes and ham. Also I make garlic shrimp with lemon juice, butter, parsley, and a pound of shrimp in one pan. I have a huge 12 inch pan and they only take about 3 minutes to cook.

 

[Badjak]

You can make almost everything on the stove top.
I've cooked for years with just 2 burners.
But the question is for easy meals:
Stir fries
Noodle soup and other soups
Curries, Thai, Indian and others
Stews, boeuf bourgignon, coq au vin etc
Pasta
Fried rice


Your only problem would be "au gratin" dishes as far as I can see.

You can make toasted sandwiches, wraps, flat breads etc on the stove top.

And pizza, but it will just look a bit pale, same for lasagne, pies etc. but it is possible

 

[GinnyPNW]

Here in the USA, we have a sandwich restaurant called Firehouse Subs, I use there menu for inspiration. A LINK to the menu is here. For their hot sandwiches, they steam the meats and cheeses before they build the sandwich. They have a machine, but it is easy to do with a pot of boiling water and a steamer basket. Hmmmm....I think I know what I'm having for lunch today!

 

[Kathleen]

Welcome to DC!

A few years back, we discussed one-pot meals "wonderpots." I posted a few links and believe others did as well. They were great and generally reheated well. Perhaps they could be helpful.

There are a lot of ideas online for One-Pot Meals. Some have pasta, rice, or neither of those. The ones that I posted were fast to make, which was important since I was working then and had little time.

 

[Aunt Bea]

Here is a stove top oven that might be nice for one or two people.

Omnia

www.omniasweden.com

 

[Aunt Bea]

Another thought would be steamed brown bread or pudding recipes.

Old-Fashioned Boston Brown Bread

Have you heard of this New England classic??

12tomatoes.com

 

[dragnlaw]

If I was still camping I would have bought an Omnia for sure - if I could have afforded it. With 4 kids I doubt it but still - lovely idea.