Slow Food
May 25, 2015 8:48 AM Subscribe
What are your favorite slow cooker recipes that (a) rely on fresher ingredients instead of canned or frozen, and (b) are practical for single-person portions? Difficulty level: no beef or pork.
I'd like to use my slow cooker more. However, so many slow cooker recipes are just "dump some canned and frozen things into a pot". The results tend to be bland, not to mention very high in sodium.
The one killer app I've found so far is cooking dried beans—I may never buy canned beans again.
But what else can I do with my slow cooker? Note that I prefer healthy things: vegetables, lean poultry or seafood, whole grains, and not too much added fat or sugar.
I don't mind a bit of additional prep work, such as browning meat. I'm also okay with harder-to-find ingredients—I'm a pretty adventurous and resourceful eater. I'm really just looking for healthy, flavorful recipes that exploit the strength of the slow cooker: the ability to develop deep, rich, complex flavors by simmering all day long. Any cuisine or type of dish is fair game.
Brown rice dishes? Turkey or chicken chili? Vegetable stews? Soups? Indian dishes? Slow-cooker doro wot? Pollo guisado? What you got?
I'd like to use my slow cooker more. However, so many slow cooker recipes are just "dump some canned and frozen things into a pot". The results tend to be bland, not to mention very high in sodium.
The one killer app I've found so far is cooking dried beans—I may never buy canned beans again.
But what else can I do with my slow cooker? Note that I prefer healthy things: vegetables, lean poultry or seafood, whole grains, and not too much added fat or sugar.
I don't mind a bit of additional prep work, such as browning meat. I'm also okay with harder-to-find ingredients—I'm a pretty adventurous and resourceful eater. I'm really just looking for healthy, flavorful recipes that exploit the strength of the slow cooker: the ability to develop deep, rich, complex flavors by simmering all day long. Any cuisine or type of dish is fair game.
Brown rice dishes? Turkey or chicken chili? Vegetable stews? Soups? Indian dishes? Slow-cooker doro wot? Pollo guisado? What you got?
Check out Slow Cooker from Scratch.
A green chili with turkey and fresh tomatillos is delicious and freezes beautifully.
posted by kathryn at 9:04 AM on May 25, 2015
A green chili with turkey and fresh tomatillos is delicious and freezes beautifully.
posted by kathryn at 9:04 AM on May 25, 2015
The Gourmet Slow Cooker series of books is basically made for this question. The author does feature beef and pork in some recipies, but there's also a vegetarian volume.
I have made a lot of these, and they are all good.
posted by jeoc at 9:06 AM on May 25, 2015
I have made a lot of these, and they are all good.
posted by jeoc at 9:06 AM on May 25, 2015
I don't have a slow cooker myself, but I've heard they can be really good for caramelizing onions.
posted by litera scripta manet at 9:16 AM on May 25, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by litera scripta manet at 9:16 AM on May 25, 2015 [3 favorites]
Caramelizing onions is like the best thing you can do with a slow cooker, yes. Very easy, no work at all past chopping them, and at the end of it you have tasty tasty caramelized onions you can eat on whatever you like or freeze for later or make french onion soup out of. Budget Bytes has some good recipes--you might enjoy this slow cooker black bean soup in particular.
posted by sciatrix at 9:46 AM on May 25, 2015
posted by sciatrix at 9:46 AM on May 25, 2015
Chicken and vegetable stew all the way. Just chuck all the chopped up vegetables, chicken chunks, whatever seasoning you want, and boiling water. If you chuck a handful of rice or pasta around 20 minutes before eating, then you have even nicer stew.
posted by Katemonkey at 10:47 AM on May 25, 2015
posted by Katemonkey at 10:47 AM on May 25, 2015
Not a specific recipe, but something I do a lot when I use my slow cooker is to add packets of other stuff that will result in a complete meal AND allows me to reduce the amount of the main slow cooker item while still having my slowcooker work optimally. For example, right now at home I have a pork roast in my slow cooker, but it is a smaller pork roast and there is just three of us for supper. Lots (too much) space left in my slowcooker to be optimal for cooking, so I wrapped up some potatoes (and butter) in foil and tossed those in the slow cooker as well to cook. This allows me to make smaller portions of the "main" since the foil packets take up some room. And since your slow cooker does best at being 3/4 full this is pretty useful information if you ask me.
Also, man alive the potatoes ended up so amazing the past time I put a foil packet of potatoes in with a beef roast. Some of the beef juices made their way into the packet (despite my careful sealing and double folding) which added a bit of tasty extra oomph while still tasting like potatoes! Huzzah!
So my suggestion is to use your slowcooker to cook multiple parts of the meal at once by creating little packets using tinfoil or similar techniques.
posted by PuppetMcSockerson at 10:57 AM on May 25, 2015 [2 favorites]
Also, man alive the potatoes ended up so amazing the past time I put a foil packet of potatoes in with a beef roast. Some of the beef juices made their way into the packet (despite my careful sealing and double folding) which added a bit of tasty extra oomph while still tasting like potatoes! Huzzah!
So my suggestion is to use your slowcooker to cook multiple parts of the meal at once by creating little packets using tinfoil or similar techniques.
posted by PuppetMcSockerson at 10:57 AM on May 25, 2015 [2 favorites]
Seconding the carmelizing onions advice (I note with some amusement that the comment where I tell you how to do that is one of my most favorited on this site).
I've also had great success making apple butter in my slow cooker - you need low and slow heat for that anyway, but doing it in a slow cooker also saves you the step of having to stir all the time. I made a wonderful apple butter in my slow cooker out of just apples and a shake of cinnamon and nothing else. And the best part is, you can use the same technique with any fruit (I made a peach butter spiked with bourbon once which was A.MAZ.ING.). It does make a lot, but a lot of fruit butters are freezeable; or you could try canning some. Here's a recipe for a peach and mango butter which discusses how to freeze the extra for later use; most fruit butters are indeed as easy as "dump fruit into crock pot, stir every once in a while, and wait."
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:26 AM on May 25, 2015 [1 favorite]
I've also had great success making apple butter in my slow cooker - you need low and slow heat for that anyway, but doing it in a slow cooker also saves you the step of having to stir all the time. I made a wonderful apple butter in my slow cooker out of just apples and a shake of cinnamon and nothing else. And the best part is, you can use the same technique with any fruit (I made a peach butter spiked with bourbon once which was A.MAZ.ING.). It does make a lot, but a lot of fruit butters are freezeable; or you could try canning some. Here's a recipe for a peach and mango butter which discusses how to freeze the extra for later use; most fruit butters are indeed as easy as "dump fruit into crock pot, stir every once in a while, and wait."
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:26 AM on May 25, 2015 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Funny enough, I just pulled out this Chicken, Mushroom, and Brown Rice Slow Cooker Casserole recipe to make tonight. It's really delicious.
posted by radioamy at 12:35 PM on May 25, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by radioamy at 12:35 PM on May 25, 2015 [1 favorite]
But what else can I do with my slow cooker?
Borrow or buy a copy of Slow Cooker Revolution. The recipes are good, but more importantly, it gives you a lot of info about how best to do things with slow cookers, with enough experimental background it seems trustworthy. I haven't made any duds using those recipes. Plus, good photos and descriptions, so the recipes sound appealing enough to bother with. It's especially good with the chicken recipes (though they're pretty firm about not overcooking it, and a lot of recipes found elsewhere encourage that.)
I've also had good luck with Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook (the recipes have good descriptions), but I'd go with Slow Cooker Revolution first.
posted by asperity at 10:18 AM on May 26, 2015 [1 favorite]
Borrow or buy a copy of Slow Cooker Revolution. The recipes are good, but more importantly, it gives you a lot of info about how best to do things with slow cookers, with enough experimental background it seems trustworthy. I haven't made any duds using those recipes. Plus, good photos and descriptions, so the recipes sound appealing enough to bother with. It's especially good with the chicken recipes (though they're pretty firm about not overcooking it, and a lot of recipes found elsewhere encourage that.)
I've also had good luck with Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook (the recipes have good descriptions), but I'd go with Slow Cooker Revolution first.
posted by asperity at 10:18 AM on May 26, 2015 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Following up three months later: thanks, all! So far I've only tried phatkitten's chicken noodle soup, but it's fabulous—a classic soup that makes your kitchen smell like grandma's, but full of light, fresh flavors. In fact, I just put some in the slow cooker this morning—I can't to chow down this evening.
I'll mark other answers as I have a chance to work through them. Summer is starting to give way to fall, so hopefully there will be more slow-cooking in the near future.
posted by escape from the potato planet at 8:27 AM on August 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
I'll mark other answers as I have a chance to work through them. Summer is starting to give way to fall, so hopefully there will be more slow-cooking in the near future.
posted by escape from the potato planet at 8:27 AM on August 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
We make a fair amount of stuff from the Indian Slow Cooker. The dill chickpea recipe is amazing (and left overs can turn into an Indian-themed hummus), as is the spiced cauliflower and potato.
posted by damayanti at 8:54 AM on May 25, 2015 [4 favorites]