Slow cooker for vegetarian/vegan food? Pointless or worth it?

[Bathrum]

Hi all

I bought a slow cooker yesterday (in Lidl - bargain ) as I've heard lots of good things about them and how they make life easier.

My DP thinks we should take it back because:

1. it's better for meat dishes (we're veggie/vegan);
2. we can achieve the same outcome (i.e. being able to leave food to cook slowly for a few hours) by just leaving a pot on the hob on very low heat - his point being the slow cooker is essentially an electric heat sauce with a lidded pot, which sounds like a fair point;
3. it's going to be hard to store, which will be annoying, especially if we don't use it much because of points 1 and 2...

I'm a fan of 'one pot' style cooking generally - eg chilis, curries, dhals etc so is this going to make a difference to me? In my mind, I like the idea of shoving everything in, turning the thing on and coming back to yummy supper but if it's not like that in practice (i.e. you have to fry everything off first or something) then I suspect he might be right and it'll be more hassle than it's worth.

What do people think? Is he right?

We use it for a lot of vegetarian versions of meat based one pot meals such as chilli, different types of curry, stews and casseroles. We've even made pizza in it! And slow cooker fudge is just divine!

We brown off the "meat" in the frying pan first and then just sling the rest in to chug along for the day while we're out. It's lovely to come home to a fully prepped and cooked meal on a cold winter's day too.

We only really use it in winter though.

I use mine a fair bit for vegan dishes. I think even veggie dishes like curry and chili taste great in the slow cooker.

its really good for cooking chickpeas or other beans overnight, nicer than tinned ones

Thanks, so if I wasn't going to use a meat substitute, I could just throw the veg, tins of tomatoes/coconut milk/kidney beans (or whatever) in the pot and turn it on?

Do you think you could achieve the same thing in the hob on a very low heat? (This is DP's main argument, you see, and never having used a slow cooker, I'm not sure if he's right about this)

I've just bought a slow cooker too op and tbh I'm not convinced NY them either.

I think they are good if you are out of the house all day and want to come back to a curry stew or whatever. I'd rather just batch cook at weekend and reheat.

You do seem to need to 'fry off' onions etc beforehand which to me defeats the sodding purpose? You could just use that pan....

Also, from what I've seen you don't get the same taste as when you cook something slow in the oven.
..

*By them, not NY them

Thanks, @grassisjeweled - this is exactly what I'm worried about. I really don't want to be frying things off and just essentially using the cooker like another hob. I won't use it if it's not tangibly making my life easier.

If I'm going to make a convincing case for keeping the thing, I want to feel pretty confident it's going to do what I hope it does... otherwise I can see it being a source of conflict in the future (or, rather, a source of conflict that I have no chance of winning - I'd rather be saying 'I told you it would be good', rather than DP saying 'I told you it's a pointless waste of space' ).

I've got a soup maker (actually eating soup made with it right now) and that makes sense to me - it cooks it and blends it all in one thing.

Also, I often use those pre-cut mixes from the supermarket (yes, I'm often a very lazy cook) and the onions in those are raw when they go in so this idea seems transferable to slow cooker cooking...?

And @grassisjeweled, it's the whole 'being out of the house all day' thing that is what I'm thinking about. I'm not a fan of purposeful batch cooking - I'll happily make lots more of something I'm already making and freeze the leftovers but the idea of spending a few hours cooking at the weekend for the week ahead isn't for me.

In my experience a hob even on the lowest setting will dry a dish out. A slow cooker loses next to no liquid (and in fact you need to be careful how much you add to start with as veg will give out liquid during cooking).
In answer to the perennial why bother if you still need to brown onions etc, the value is not that it removes the work of cooking, but that it moves when in the day you do it. I have time to cook in the morning, I do not have time in the afternoon, therefore I love my slow cooker. If you're imagining throwing some stuff straight in and then rushing out the door then no, it probably won't give good results.
In terms of vegan I've made some vegtable curries, and a mushroom lasagna using oatly/nush stuff which worked very well.

You definitely need to fry onions first or they have a funny taste.

Personally I think slow cookers are best for tough cuts of meat, and pressure cookers are better for beans and veg type meals.

If you are cooking dried beans (especially kidney beans) is you have to soak overnight and then fast boil them for 10 minutes before you cook them.
Top tip - If you throw the boiling water away and rinse them before cooking them, they aren't as farty

If you use tinned beans dont leave them in the slow cooker all day or they'll be mushy. Just add them at the last minute.

If you browse the Internet, there are lots of veggie & vegan recipes for the slow cooker available.

One of my favourite is a vegan mushroom & bean stroganoff.
Chunky soups also work well.

I think it’s more akin to having a casserole in the oven for a couple of hours.

We have one and I think the main gain is if you’re out of the house all day. If you are in and able to just chuck something on the hob or in the oven then you aren’t really gaining much.

I thought they were more energy efficient than the hob?

Also I like putting dinner on during my lunch hour and knowing I can completely neglect it and it will be safe for hours.

I think one of the big advantages of slow cookers is being able to put it on and not pay it much mind. Something on low heat on the hob always needs an eye kept on it (or maybe that's just me?). I'd often do the prep the night before (onions as others are mentioning) then put it all in the slow cooker in the morning.

Gloomer makes very good points, as do others. When you have something on the hob a long time, it can either dry out, or steam the whole place up with loads of condensation. I luffs mine. There is a FB group for slo-cookers, you can do cakes and all sorts. Just be careful in reducing liquid for conventional recipes (I generally use about 2/3 recommended in a conventional recipe). If you want to be really lazy, I use casserole mixes :)

I don't brown onions or anything else before putting in the slow cooker. The only thing I do separately is heat up the sauce/tinned tomatoes or whatever I'm using.
I find it's good for a root vegetable stew with lentils/pearl barley/beans whichever you prefer. It doesn't dry out or need stirring or checking as it would on the hob and is cheaper than a casserole in the oven.
A tomato sauce for pasta with veg. in has much more depth of flavour than my usual browning and cook for 30/60 minutes on the hob.
I'm a meat eater so do cook meat as well.
It does take up a fair bit of space and most meat tends to taste the same in it but for me it is definitely useful.

Thanks so much, everyone, lots to think about.

I'll do some recipe research next to see if that helps to sway me.

OK, sorry to keep banging on about this (I'm still undecided about whether to keep the thing or not!)... Those of you who like your slow cooker, are there any (veggie/vegan) recipes that you think you could probably just as easily do on the hob or in the oven? Or are there recipes that you think actually work best in the slow cooker?

I'm still trying to decide if it's just a gadget that I don't really need, or if it's something that is genuinely either going to make my life easier or make my dinners more delicious

I like it for vegetables dishes more than meat -- if it looks too watery, throwing in more lentils sorts it out.

I wouldn't say it does anything better than the hob but it makes life easier when lots going on after work

I don't do anything to anything, other than chopping, before it goes in the slow cooker, regardless of what the recipe says

Husband is a vegan, and I love chucking a stew in ours in the morning and ignoring it all day. I use frozen casserole veg mix to save time, plus I find veg that has been frozen cooks better, otherwise I seem to still have hard carrots and swede 10 hours later. I put veg, tinned tomatoes and usually lidls taco beans (mixed beans in a chilli sauce) with extra tomato puree plus a lump of frozen garlic and cook for as long as I'm out for. Other people probably cook better stuff but I'm all about lazy cooking with it, takes me less than 3 mins to put it on in the morning!

Thanks guys. You see @muddledmidget, that sounds right up my street... I'm all about the lazy cooking. As long as it's tasty and healthy, I'm game.

I'd take it back and swap for instant pot/pressure Coker type thing. You can use them as slow cookers, but I think they're better for veggie food-can do beans without presoaking, only takes about an hour, can do rice, pasta, noodles etc as well as soups, risottos, chilli, curry etc etc can chuck in stuff straight from the freezer.. think it's much more versatile so better use of space and more likely to use it more.

I’m vegetarian and only used our slow cooker occasionally and just didn’t see the point. I could just cook the same thing on the job and it took the same time 🤷🏻‍♀️