It's too hot to cook, but here are 5 ways to cook in the heatwave

The UK is experiencing its fourth heatwave of the summer, and let me tell you, it’s hot hot hot. During the scorching hot temperatures, the last thing you want to do is sweat over a stove to cook your dinner, but the whole ‘needing to eat to survive’ thing means you have to push through.

Despite it being far too hot to cook in the heatwave, I’ve found five ways for you to still cook your meals without overheating or drowning in sweat as you do so.

1. Use an air fryer

It’s far too hot to be cooking on a hob or putting things in the oven, so what’s the next best thing? An air fryer. Due to their size and air circulation method, air fryers cook food extremely quickly and release less heat than larger appliances. Not only does this result in fast yet tasty meals, but using an air fryer over an oven can bring down the temperature in your kitchen – handy during a heatwave.

2. Cook outside with a pizza oven

Rather than labouring over a meal in a small or enclosed kitchen, take the cooking outside. I’d suggest cooking your meals using a pizza oven – you don’t just have to use it for pizzas as pizza ovens can cook meat, fish, vegetables and even bread and desserts.

Both a pizza oven and a barbecue give off heat, but the former tends to have an enclosed mouth to keep the heat in, compared to an open flame grill. This more closed-off cooking area should hopefully keep the heat off you, too.

3. Make hot sauces using a blender

Due to the speed and spin of a blender’s blades, some high power blenders can actually generate heat. While you should steer clear of blending hot foods, if you start with cold or warm ingredients and blend them for a few minutes, the friction and speed of the blades will heat up your sauce or soup without you having to use any external heat.

4. Meal prep ahead of time

This next tip takes a bit of foreplanning but meal prepping can take the stress out of your meals, and can also keep you cool during a heatwave. An air fryer, multi-cooker or rice cooker will be your best friends here, as they generate little amounts of heat and depending on their size, they can make huge batches of food at a time which you can chill or freeze for another day.

If you meal prep ahead of time, you can heat food up in the microwave which doesn’t give off too much excess heat or take much time at all, or you can eat your leftovers cold.

5. Switch to cold meals

Speaking of cold, switching to cold meals during a heatwave is a great way to keep cool. As it’s summer, the most seasonal produce is best eaten cold anyway, like berries, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, sweetcorn, peas, courgettes and more. Salads are quick and easy meals, and I’ve recently been seeing cold noodles everywhere, so they’re also worth a try!