Cooking tips for the summer

If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen is advice we come across often, but like most advice, it’s not very helpful or practical. Kitchens are inherently hot places at any time of the year, but while spending time in a warm kitchen is enjoyable in the winter, cooking in the summer becomes an exceptionally tiring and exhausting chore, as ambient heat combined with conventional stovetop heat gas makes the kitchen an oven. Things get even more complicated in cities with high humidity, where the heat and sweat make cooking an exceptional challenge in the summers. Fans are of no use as they interrupt the burner flames, leaving the cook in dire straits and in desperate need of relief from the heat. Fortunately, there is help, we have compiled some tips that you can follow to beat the heat in the kitchen.

• Ensure adequate ventilation: Investing in a good exhaust fan has two important benefits. First, it removes cooking odor and smoke to freshen kitchen air, and second, it creates airflow in and out of the kitchen, lowering temperatures to comfortable levels.
• Skip the oven: Running appliances that generate heat, such as ovens, is not a good idea in the summer, as they generate heat and increase the temperature. Leave baking for a more pleasant climate, or use your oven wisely during cooler hours, such as morning or evening.
• Prepare well to reduce cooking time: Finely chop your ingredients so they cook faster and reduce the time you spend in the kitchen.
• Eat foods that do not need to be heated: Fresh salads, cold soups, and fruit are not only lighter, healthier summer meal options, they also reduce the heat generated by cooking food. Standing over a wok of hot oil to fry food can be especially annoying, so do yourself and your waistline a favor and avoid fried or oil-laden foods in the summer.
• Get an induction cooker: This is by far the easiest way to enjoy summer cooking. With an induction cooker, you can cook to your heart’s content with the fan running at full speed since it has no flame. It also consumes 90% of the heat generated, unlike conventional gas stoves that filter around 70% of the heat generated to the environment, thus increasing the temperature. Year induction cook it also consumes very little electricity, something that is important to consider during hot summers when electricity consumption is already high. Cooking is instant and cool touch features make induction cooktops easy to clean, further reducing time spent in the hot, sweaty kitchen environment.

So, as you can see, cooking in the summer can not only be easy but also a very pleasant task. Happy cooking!