Apparently slow cookers coat 18p

[MarmaRell78]

DH has rushed into tell me that running a slow cooker costs only 18p for 8 hours, so this will be how all our meals are cooked!
With that in mind, does anyone have a good suggestion for a recipe book for vegetarian slow cooking?
Or failing that good vegetarian/ vegan recipes Thanks!

Lentil recipes are amazing in the slow cooker. Buy the Good Food BBC slow cooker recipes. Not all veg but has a vegetarian section.

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/vegetarian-slow-cooker-recipes

Tips for both veg and/or meat dishes:
~ use less liquid than a recipe states
~ scrunch up a piece of greaseproof/parchment paper and place directly on top of the food in the slow cooker then put the lid on. This stops the condensation running down and back into the food, making it too wet/sloppy.

A problem we have is lots of articles going back years quote insane prices for energy use.
One I saw yesterday had 10/kwh as a unit price. Oh how I laughed.

We each need a spreadsheet to show the energy use of our appliances with a input box for the current rate from our energy company. This would then show you the current cost of everything.

I agree with a Ninja

I use mine all the time, roast potatoes take 20 mins, like most vegetables, you can steam, bake, roast, slow cook, sauté etc
Mines the 14 in 1 as a large family. It has a rack so you could cook fish and veg at the same time.

I am veggie and have been since 1984.

I have had a slow cooker and got rid as the meals were definitely lacking in flavour.

However I do have a remoska, which is a little more outlay, but I've never had a dud meal from it. You put your veg in as you chop it, and just leave it, maybe a stir when you add stuff but genuinely it is the most superb cooked I've had. When we had no oven we just had a hob and a remoska and used it almost every day. I still use it several times a week now.

I also have an air fryer which again is blooming marvelous.

It's excellent for some things, but they are usually pretty similar kinds of meals.

I recommend it for soups, especially mushroom, and you could probably benefit from batch cooking big stews, curries etc for freezing in portions, but again, when making most soups, I'd fry onions, carrots etc. soft first, and put it all into the cooker hot rather than from cold.

Slow cooker lasagnes are supposed to be good (possibly not like an ovened one though), but have never tried this.

I love my remoska! I've just ordered an air fryer oven thing to save heating up the large range style, double electric oven to only cook a garlic baguette or a tray of hash browns etc.

'Apparently slow cookers coat 18p'

I was intrigued by the thread title and thought it must be a special coat (at a bargain price) that you used for cooking jacket potatoes whilst out and about. Presumably by just putting them in the pockets?

It depends on the size of your slow cooker and how many people you are cooking for as to wattage and running cost. A Morphy Richards sear and stew 3.5L is 163w but a 6.5L is 290w.

I love my slow cooker but we are not veggie. Love my instant pot but again I cook pulled pork, frozen raw chicken breasts etc. I think this comes down to what you usually cook and whether there is a way to not use an oven to do it. Batch cooking would be a much better use of oven time.

Agree with the comments already made.

I use our slow cooker for pulled pork, slow cooked beef, beef nacho mix, lentil soup, and ragu. It's also good for a large gammon joint.

Once or twice I've made luxury hot chocolate in it, so it was ready when we got home from a long walk in the Winter.

This is actually how we are doing most of our cooking these days. Batch cook and then reheat in microwave. Standard recipes include veg curry (4hours cook time), bolognese, sausage/chicken/beefcasserole, Turkey chilli. My slow cooker is larger than average but it’s enough to give 3-4 meals per cook for a family of 3. The way I see it one cook in slow cooker is better than cooking one meal a night on the hob/oven.

reduce amount of water or add some flour to thicken towards the end.

We don't have the traditional oven with hob at all any more. Mainly because we moved to France and one of the things we bought from the owners was a gas hob/elec oven which was a royal PITA so we used it til the calor gas bottle ran out and then moved it to the garage until we find someone who wants one.

We now have a 2 ring hob, the air fryer, the remoska and a small table top oven. And all of them are so much quicker and easier to use, all have good ratings and food is cooked so much quicker. The kitchen is cooler as the oven isn't going on for an hour just to spend half of that heating the whole thing up.

I mainly use the hob at the moment for cooking down the avalanche of tomatoes that we are harvesting. So once they have stopped It will go into a cupboard and only come out when we need it, as I'll do most cooked veg in the air fryer.

how do I cook pulled pork in a slow cooker please? I fancy giving this a go.

@carefullycourageous

”always boil water in a kettle not the pan”

I’ve always done the same. However I’ve had a re-think!

Do you mean a kettle on the hob? If using a gas hob it’s actually cheaper to heat the water in a pan on a gas hob than in an electric kettle especially if you put a lid on it.

I am considering repurposing my camping whistling gas hob kettle 😉

Is it? I read the opposite, but always happy to be re-educated! How do you work out it is cheaper, what is the sum?

My slow cooker is ancient (1970's one that I inherited) and the wattage is 60w on low, 120w on high- I'm surprised newer ones are higher wattage! I thought thw whole pull of a slow cooker was that it cost the same or less than a traditional non-led light bulb for the same amount of time? Mine would cost 24p for 8 hours on low on the new October cap, and 42p on high for the same amount of time. So definitely cheaper than the oven!

This book is good!

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/132821569124?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=f3QKBIWDTg6&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=yLTKADRGQfa&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Thank you for the feedback. I used to use my slow cooker all the time when I ate more meat, but it hardly gets used now. I take on board pp about filling it all the way up, I'm definitely going to do that and freeze even more.

But consensus on lots of threads seems to be about air fryers. I have to say I'm very tempted. We don't really have the space for more gadgets out in the kitchen, but maybe I could store it in the oven as apparently I'll never turn it on again!

How do you find out the wattage on each appliance? Is it on the CE label?

www.recipetineats.com/slow-cooker-marinara-sauce/

This is a very versatile sauce and it tastes fantastic.

@BoJoSecretGF Mine was on a sticker underneath with the product number/ all the technical bits. Most appliances will have it somewhere, or you can google the product number and it should be available online somewhere.

Thanks Dinosaur will take a look and create a spreadsheet.