Best slow cooker recipe books for delicious, fuss-free family meals

Is there anything better than coming home to the smell of your dinner already cooking? Even better if you’ve only had to spend ten minutes in the morning throwing some ingredients into your slow cooker. 

Perfect for busy families, the best slow cooker can provide a tasty home cooked meal with minimal mess and fuss. What’s not to love? While stews and soups are the most common recipes for slow cookers, there’s loads you can do with them – from slow cooked meat and tasty sauces to desserts and even bread. 

If you don’t know where to start, there are loads of great slow cooker recipe books around to inspire you in the kitchen. From vegetarian-friendly dishes to tasty curries, there’s a cookbook to cater for every kind of taste.

To help you choose the best slow cooker cookbook for whipping up a feast in your kitchen, we've scoured the Mumsnet forums – home to the largest online network of parents in the UK – for tried-and-tested recommendations. We then collated Mumsnetters' favourites with the cookbooks loved by consumer reviewers and food industry experts and whittled them down a shortlist of the very best.

Looking for more Mumsnetter-approved kitchen buys? We also have comprehensive guides to the best microwaves and best food processors.

Best slow cooker recipe book 2026: at a glance

• Best overall: Bored of Lunch: The Healthy Slow Cooker, £9

• Best for experimental chefs: Whole Food Slow Cooked, £10

• Best healthy: Pinch of Nom Comfort Food, £9

• Best vegetarian: Slow Cooker Vegetarian, £13

• Best vegan: The Super Easy Vegan Slow Cooker Cookbook, £8

• Best for beginners: Good Food: Ultimate Slow Cooker Recipes, £13

Related: The best dual air fryers, tested by Mumsnet users

Related: The best bread makers for fresh loaves

Can you leave a slow cooker on all day? 

Slow cookers are designed to cook for a long time so you can keep it on low overnight or all day while you’re out as long as you follow the directions and the manufacturer's instructions. However, consider what it is you’re cooking. Most recipes suggest six to eight hours on low, so if you want it on for longer, it is best to keep an eye on it to ensure you get the best out of your recipe.

Do you need to brown meat before slow cooking?

You don’t have to brown your meat first, so if you're in a hurry, you can throw your ingredients in and you’ll still get a tasty meal out of it. However, if you have time, browning is better for adding more depth to your dish. You will get more rich, complex flavours from frying off your meat before cooking it in the slow cooker. 

Related: The best soup makers for tasty suppers

Are slow cookers energy efficient? 

Slow cookers are one of the most energy efficient kitchen appliances as they are designed to cook slowly and over a long period of time. In fact, they use only a bit more energy than a traditional light bulb.

What is the best slow cooker recipe book in the UK?

The number one bestselling book, Bored of Lunch: The Healthy Slow Cooker by Nathan Anthony is packed with 80 home-style recipes inspired by family favourites and takeaways. Thanks to easy-to-source ingredients for each meal, you can make up these delicious, healthy dishes with minimal fuss.

How we chose the best slow cooker recipe books

Recommendations from real parents

With lots of busy parents on our forums, we knew this would be a great place to start our research for the best slow cooker recipe books. We have over seven million users, so we know any products that come recommended will have been tried and tested at home and will cater for different diets and budgets. 

Authentic reviews

We also considered experts and consumers' reviews, on websites like Amazon, when compiling our list of the best slow cooker recipe books. This helps us work out what features are important, such as pictures and easy-to-follow instructions. We always take into account both negative and positive feedback to make sure we’re recommending the best products.

Celebrated best products 

Finally, we look at products that have received awards. This, combined with real parent recommendations, reviews and expert advice, helped us recommend a variety of slow cooker recipe books for fuss-free and tasty meals the whole family will love.

About the author

Gemma Wilcock is a freelance writer and copywriter. At Mumsnet, she creates content providing useful parenting advice, information and top products to make life easier – as a mother of two children herself, Gemma knows how important it is to get the right advice.

After working on women’s weekly magazines for nine years, Gemma turned to freelance writing to fit around family life, writing for a range of online and print publications, charities and small businesses. She loves writing about subjects that will be helpful to the reader – and herself! - including recommending top products on Mumsnet that help parents in their day-to-day life. Whether it’s a purchase for herself or her family, she knows how important online reviews are when it comes to buying online, so she always makes sure to thoroughly research every product so we recommend the best ones on the market. 

Why you should trust us

We work hard to provide unbiased, independent advice you can trust. We do sometimes earn revenue through affiliate (click-to-buy) links in our articles. This helps us fund more helpful articles like this one.

As a slow cooker fan herself, our writer Gemma is always on the lookout for family friendly meals so spent time hunting down the best slow cooker recipe books currently available, making sure to cater for all tastes, needs and budgets.

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