Who doesn’t like pasta? But who likes to stand over the pot to make sure the pasta doesn’t stick together and the pot doesn’t boil over? Those days are over with thermos cooking.\Our instructions will make more sense after you quickly read through our thermos cooking basics.
Basic Recipe
Ratio: 2-3 servings of pasta to enough water to fill your thermos
Salt: a pinch
Cooking Time: 10 minutes (approx.)
Directions
- Boil enough water to fill up your thermos. I like to use an electric kettle, but use the stove or whatever else you have.
- While it’s heating, get your ingredients ready.
- Fill up your thermos with boiling water, close the lid, and set aside.
- Boil 3-4 cups of water to cook the pasta.
- Measure out your pasta.
- When your measured liquid is about ready to boil, pour out the water from the thermos.
- Dump the pasta into the thermos.
- Pour the boiling water into the thermos until it is an inch or so from the top, add a pinch of salt, close it up, give in a few shakes, and lay it down on the counter.
Timing depends on what kind of pasta you are cooking. The pasta needs the same amount of time to cook in the thermos as it does on the stove. The nice thing about doing it in the thermos though, is that you don’t have to watch it or stir it. Just set the timer and continue with dinner prep or go relax for a few minutes.
You can cook any kind of pasta in the thermos. You can cook larger quantities of smaller pastas and you may have to break long pasta in half to fit in the thermos. Cooking pasta in the thermos saves energy and gives you a bit of a break – how great is that?!
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#1 by kathy desjardins on May 16, 2010 - 3:24 am
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can I use 61oz nissan thermos for making oatmeal
#2 by Dave on June 11, 2010 - 2:26 pm
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Absolutely. Just be ready to feed a whole family with it.
#3 by Oliver L. Shaw on March 8, 2011 - 11:11 am
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“Who doesn’t like pasta?”
Well I am not over keen on it, for a start, although I use it very occasionally.
#4 by Donna on July 8, 2011 - 2:35 pm
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Nice work with the recipes. I’m new to bicycle touring and have just started looking for thermos recipes (hot tip from a fellow cyclist). I’ll be heading out next week on a little adventure up the CA coast and don’t want to have to rely on greasy cafes and limited vegetarian options along the way. Looking forward to seeing more great ideas here!
#5 by Julien on October 15, 2011 - 8:53 pm
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How long can you leave it in the hot water for? any ideas for school lunches? would the pasta stay warm for 4 hours? what sauce recipes are easy and can just be thrown in a thermos and left for a few hours?
#6 by luca on October 16, 2011 - 12:51 am
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Clever idea. But this is anathema to any Italian… Particularly the idea of breaking spaghetti…
#7 by Todd on October 17, 2011 - 9:38 am
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I don’t get how this saves energy.
1) You want me to boil water put it in the thermos.
2) Boil more water.
3) Discard water from thermos.
4) Replace with new water
5) add pasta and wait
It takes me about 10 minutes to boil water. Your method requires boiling two pots of water which is 20 minutes of cooking time (20 minutes of time the GAS on my stove is on).
If I cook pasta in a normal pot it takes 10 minutes to boil the water and about 10 minutes to cook the pasta.
Either method require 20 minutes of time the GAS is on and your method takes an 10 minutes of time at the end.
How does this save energy?
#8 by Cameron on October 17, 2011 - 12:19 pm
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Todd – He suggests using an electric kettle, this will only take a few minutes to boil as opposed to using a gas hob. Now if you want to get really energy efficient boil the water in a microwave (remember no metal) depending on the power of your microwave this may take as little as a minute!
#9 by Steven on November 3, 2011 - 7:38 am
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Hi! This site is awesome! Tonight i am trying out the pasta.
Here is a thought:
Instant polenta in a thermos bottle.
Should work well, no?
#10 by Stave on December 29, 2011 - 5:23 pm
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Can one cook meat in a thermos?
Specifically, I would be interested in the thermos being a slow cooker for hiking/backpacking. I have a jetboil. I would like to jetboil water, mix some ingredients in the thermos and place into it in the morning. As I hike to the next spot, let the food cook in the thermos in my pack.
Can you please test some different meats and see if this is possible?