vegetarian slow cooker

[golemmings]

Or at least a slow cooker for a vegetarian.

Now that we have 2 children, bed time seems to take all night. DH gets home from work in time for bedtime and we end up starting to cook about 8/8.30ish and eating ridiculously late.

For the time being we can slow cook stuff in the oven 'cos I'm on mat leave and I'm here to make things like cottage pie/pasta bake which we can shove in the oven on low and eat when we're ready.

We were wondering whether a slow cooker might be a wise investment, especially when I'm back at work so we can just shove food in it and not worry about it.

As a vegetarian, would I be reduced to a life time of tomato, bean and veg stew? Don't get me wrong, I like stew but not every night and if that was the offering, dh would ensure that the slow cooker would get put at the back of the shelf along with the his pasta maker, his the fondue pot etc... I am so rude about his habit of buying and not using kitchen gadgets that I cannot afford to lose the moral high ground by buying something that we won't use!

Any advice and recipes gratefully received!

I don't have a slow-cooker. I have an oven with a timer but don't use it much except for casseroles. I'd suggest you get yourself a big selection of freezer/oven/microwave friendly serving dishes and, when you have some time on your hands say at the weekends, fill them with lasagnes, stuffed peppers, bakes and similar. When you're pressed for time, get one out of the freezer and heat it through. Rest of the time, develop your skills for sub 20 minute meals. Really easy for a vegetarian to whip up frittatas, stir-fries, quick pasta dishes, salads, risottos.

I do veggie stuff in my slow cooker - daals, soups, stews. They are pretty cheap, so I think it would be worth it. Batch cooking is a good idea too, as I wouldn't want to eat slow cooked food every night. And having a handful of 15 minute recipes (fresh pasta with pesto is a good standby).

On the other hand, by the time you finish your mat leave, don't you reckon that bedtime will be slicker? Or that one of you can finish it while the other goes and cooks?

Thanks. Bed time might be a little slickery. Dd was reliably in bed by 7 (7.30 on nursery days) and it will be quicker when we can bath them together and when DS feeds for less time.

What I probably ought to do, cogito, is more bakes. You're right.

We're a bit stuffed for batch cooking at the moment. We froze loads of stuff just before DS was born but he has reflux which was greatly improved by me eating nothing spicy or containing dairy... Which is most of the freezer full! still it won't be forever!

Another idea (not veggie myself but eat a lot of veggie dishes) is to soak and cook up a few bags of different dried beans and chickpeas. When cooked allow to completely cool and then freeze in a thin layer in a very big freezer bag. You end up with bags of ready-to-use cooked beans/chickpeas that can be turned into all kinds of quick meals like Pasta Fagioli, Chickpea Burgers, Bean Salads.

Maybe I don't know how to use a slow cooker to cook beans. But ones I tried are undercooked and hard even after a full day at the office, ie around 10 hours. I have a thermos cooker from Asia which I use to cook dried beans. It doesn't use power since its a thermos but can actually cook the beans to soft which I guess is because it takes it up to boiling at the start.

I wasn't suggesting using a slow-cooker to cook beans. :) They all need 10 mins of rapid boiling to get rid of toxins before a lengthy simmering, so 10 hours over a lightbulb really won't do the job. Big saucepan and lots of water, old school.

Oh that's for explaining! Yes I indeed boil 10 mins in the inner pot of the thermos cooker, then put the thing into the thermos for some simmering. The thing is brilliant!

Hi there,

Bigbadbear - could you post a few of your tried and tested veggie slow cooker recipes please? I never seem to have any luck using mine. We are mixture of meat eaters and veggies, and as I've ended up with 2 slow cookers, should really get into doing one meat meal and one veggie one.

Thanks,
Liz

I made a shepherd's pie filling last week using Quorn mince, which was surprisingly nice.

I just chucked a load of stuff in the slowcooker (no frying etc first) and left it alone all day -

packet of quorn mince
a chopped onion
3 carrots sliced into half moons
2 sticks of celery - finely chopped
a big slug of red wine
some marmite
some fresh rosemary and thyme
some gravy granules
lots of black pepper
and a bit of water

It would be easy to turn this into a pasta sauce, I think, by ignoring the Marmite and gravy granules and putting passata in instead plus some garlic and oregano/marjaram/basil.

Next week I'm going to try something similar to make chilli.

Mmm remus, that sounds lovely.

Still in two minds about the slow cooker but appreciate your comments.

I will post a couple of recipes here over the next couple of days Liz.

Thanks Bigbadbear.

Liz