8 Advantages to Using a Slow Cooker

Like it or not, the slow cooker is making a comeback.  It may be a hideous counter-marring appliance, but it has a lot of advantages especially if you’re short on time and low on funds.

Below are some of the many ways using a slow cooker will save you both time and money, plus a few recipes to get you started!

1. For working couples a slow cooker can be a life saver. Throw your ingredients in before you leave for work, even frozen meats and come home to wonderfully fragrant house and a homecooked meal.

2. A slow cooker uses much less energy than a stove or hob.  It takes approximately 200 watts to run a slow cooker versus about 3000 to run an oven.  So even if it’s on for 8 hours, you use half the electricity you would by running your conventional cooker for one hour.

3. If you’re cooking a big meal, it will free up space in your oven, microwave or on your hob.  Think Christmas here, wouldn’t it be great to know the mashed potatoes are nice and warm in the slow cooker without having to worry about re-heating them or keeping them warm?

4. Soup and stocks are a cinch! After you’ve cooked a big roast or even just a few chicken pieces on the bone, toss the leftover bones in the crockpot with a few roughly chopped carrots, celery stalks, a halved onion and some herbs and leave it overnight and you’ll have a wonderfully flavoursome stock when you wake up.  The same goes for soups.

5. You can use cheaper cuts of meat. A slow cooker will allow you to braise and tenderise cheaper tougher cuts of meat, saving you money.  Think pot roast, ham hocks, stewing steak etc.  You can turn a cheap cut of meat into a fabulous tender meal.

6. Cut down on fat! Using a slow cooker virtually eliminates the need to add fat to a dish.  Cuts of meat generate their own juices almost self-basting if you will.  Depending on the dish, you will generally need to add some sort of liquid, but fat is not necessary.

7. Roast Chicken has never been simpler.  I throw whole frozen chickens into my crockpot all the time.  I put a few sprigs of celery on the bottom and just toss in the chicken breast side down.  In 6 hours I have a perfectly cooked chicken without so much as a glance.  Granted, you don’t get that beautiful golden colour you’d get from the oven, but the meat is moist and wodnerful without any work!

8. Clean up is easy.  Only one dish to clean saves on more electricity, water and time!

I made a quick and easy fruity curry in my slow cooker yesterday.  It’s more or less my regular recipe, but with no oil required and frozen chicken.  Here’s what it looked like before:

Ingredients:

• 3 frozen chicken breasts
• 2 granny smith apples, peeled and chopped
• 1 large tin coconut milk
• 2 onions, chopped
• 3 tbsp of your favourite chutney (I used pineapple and mango)
• 2 tbsp tomato paste

Add all ingredients to crockpot, give it a quick stir.  Place lid on and leave for 6 hours on low, 3 on high.  Remove the chicken and slice before serving if desired.   Serve with steamed or boiled rice.

Do you use a slow cooker?  If so, what do you cook?  Any great recipes you can share in the comments?

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Tags: Braising, Cooking, Crockpot, Slow cooker, Tips