There are many ways to cook in a yurt. Basically it depends on how “off-grid” you are and how much space you have. There are some 30-foot yurts that are hooked up to gas and electricity and have a full kitchen. In other instances you’ll have a 12 ft yurt with just a small wood burning stove that you can boil water on and cook other small and simple meals with. We don’t have a “kitchen” to speak of in our yurt, but, as we have electricity, we do have some essential appliances that we use: a small dorm-sized refrigerator with a true freezer compartment, an electric water boiler kettle, a hot plate, a toaster oven, a pancake griddle, and a crock pot.
The fridge is a must-have for us until we are able to create an underground refrigerating cellar. I also need to get better at meal planning and shopping/harvesting, so that there is less need to store food in the fridge. Right now in the fridge we have some veggies, pesto, jam, cheese, butter, almond milk, and a couple miscellaneous bottles of sauce.
The water boiler is a great appliance to have, because it boils 2 liters of water in under 7 minutes. This is great for dishwashing, hand washing, hot chocolate, getting a head start on boiling water for pasta, or just anything else you use hot water for!
We don’t use the hot plate very often, usually only when we want to cook pasta. But to be honest, I don’t really like cooking pasta in the yurt, because there is a lot of steam and water happening, and we already are going to have a hard enough time keeping water out of the yurt! I also use the hot plate when I want to cook eggs or sauté veggies for a crock pot recipe.
The toaster oven can be used for anything a regular oven can be used for, just in smaller batches. I like to toast english muffins, bake cookies or biscuits, make “coconut bacon”, make egg/veggie dishes.
I use the pancake griddle for making big batches of pancakes to freeze and making quesadillas (I like to add refried beans and spinach so it’s not just cheese). Now that I think of it, I don’t actually know what else I use it for! But it’s worth it for a freezer full of frozen pancakes.
The crock pot! As many of you know, the crock pot is the best and most magical appliance for easy meals. I’ve made all kinds of soups, stews, lasagna, enchilada casserole, grain dishes, seitan, rice pudding, mulled cider...I have a cookbook dedicated to vegan crock pot recipes so I am getting a lot of ideas from that. I’m going to try to make granola in the crock pot next. Seriously though, just google your favorite recipe and add “crock pot” and you’ll surely find something. It just takes a little practice to get used to your individual crock pot’s heating nuances to adjust the recipes.
I also have a food processor and a blender, but I haven’t once used either of them. Dyrrt used to use the blender a lot to do raw food shakes in the morning, but we just haven’t gotten back into the habit of that yet. So we’ll keep the blender around, but I’ll probably end up getting rid of the food processor.
Here is a picture of my dry food pantry! This is where I keep staples such as beans, grains, preserves both canned and dried, popcorn, spices, and oils. I also store other kitchen essentials such as storage containers, glass jars, appliances, aluminum foil, etc.
So that’s how we cook in the yurt. I have to admit, it’s very hard for me to not have a full kitchen! I’m adjusting though, and learning to make meals more simply, but just as deliciously.
