Should I get a slow cooker?

[LawyerMumAsia]

Hello I work full time with half the week from home in a fairly demanding role. I would really like to cook for my family as I often bung things in the microwave and feel like really rubbish mum! Would a slow cooker give me the ability to whip up something nice without me having to spend ages in the kitchen? Including cooking time and washing up (I really don’t have the time to stand in the kitchen in the middle of the working day but I can run down to mix or whatever it is and leave it to do its thing). Will a slow cooker support someone with very little cooking skills? Is there a really good recipe book for non expert cooks that I can look at before I buy a slow cooker to get a feel for the type of food I could make? Thank you!

Yes, they're brilliant for stews and soups. I use mine a lot in the winter.

You can just throw the ingredients in and put it on high for a few hours then drop to medium or low. Or you can fry the meat in it, add the veg and stock, heat to boiling then put it on low/medium.

I favour the ones with metal pots, not ceramic, so you can cook on the hob when starting the stew. Morphy Richards is the brand I have, get the big one, you don't have to fill them up, but I found the small ones too small.

There are lots of recipes online, just Google slow cooker recipes. They're very easy. Beef stew, chicken casserole, etc.

I love mine, I put it on first thing in the morning and leave on low all day. The only bad thing is being driven mad by the delicious smell!

There's loads of recipes designed for them. I use pre-cut frozen onions in mine to save time. Takes me about 15-20 minutes to get everything in.

I really like mine! The Taming Twins one pot cookbook is great.

We are having chicken and chorizo orzo today done in the slow cooker.

Oh and the Poppy Cooks slow cooker book is really good too.

Thanks so much. How about for my in office days : (two or three days a week) it possible to switch it on at 8am and then come
home at like 6pm to turn it off without any safety risks?

And for those days where I leave it unattended the whole day, are there recipes where there is only one session of doing stuff (without having to fry stuff or do something half way through)

@doodleschnoodle ooh sounds yummy

Sorry me again : what is a recommended brand? Generally flexible on budget up to say £200 ish

Yes, ours is often on while we come and go. And plenty of recipes where you put everything in at once and that's it till it's ready. Ones with pasta you usually add the pasta for the last 20 mins or so, but otherwise you mainly just put stuff in it, switch it on and off you go.

Yes! Even just for batch stewing meat! I stew beef, freeze it in batches, defrost when needed to make chillis, Bolognese etc.

@LadyAmroth that sounds great. I grew up in a house where mum would cook all day and have these big dinner parties and so I think I just ended up thinking that cooking lovely curries was for people who had lots of time but I have heard that slow cookers assist working Parents by enabling us to cook unattended

Get an Instant Pot…it is an electric pressure cooker with a slow cooker function too.
absolute game changer! For me I find it better than slow cooker, with the SC you have to prep the meal in the morning/night before and sometimes when busy at work that isn’t always easy.
the IP pressure cooker means that you can make a meal v quickly. My lifesaver is chicken fajitas with frozen chicken breast!! All in less than 10
minutes.

We've got a Morphy Richards currently. No complaints. £56 in Black Friday sale on Amazon for a 6.5l one just now.

You don’t need anything fancy. £20-£30 is enough.

I think ours was £14 about 20 years ago.

They're great. I bought mine for £5 in a charity shop about 15 years ago (thinking I didn't want to waste money on something if I wasn't going to use it). I've definitely had my moneys worth out of it!
Originally I used it as a working single mother, now I'm disabled and can't stand/cook for long, it's been useful in both situations.
Frying meat and spices first does help the flavour if you have time.
If it's too watery leave on high with lid off for last 30 minutes.
Lots of recipes on line. I used my ordinary recipes and just reduced fluid when I first started.
Get the biggest one you can, I double my recipes and freeze extra so I have lots of meals readily available in the freezer.
I do a lot of chilli's, currys, bolognaise, soups, joints of meat etc.
My teenagers can all use it too, following the recipe (dc3 is a dab hand at chilli that makes about 20 portions she makes it once a month and we usually have it ever Saturday night with different sides).

Personally I much prefer my pressure cooker to a slow cooker. I find it much more energy efficient (perhaps I have a bad slow cooker but mine seems to leak heat something terrible!) and I also am not always organised enough to forward plan for a slow cooker so the pressure cooker suits me better! Great for stews, bolognaise, cooking veg like beetroot, pulses, stocks and many more things. I'm also not very keen on leaving the pressure cooker while I'm out so I prefer the short and sweet method of 20 minutes in the pressure cooker.

I couldn't be without my slow cooker. I also recommend the Bored of Lunch series of recipe books as endless stews can get a bit boring and they have plenty of variety.

Mine is a Morphy Richards one nowhere near £200.
I'd recommend a rice cooker too, a cheap cook works one is fine.

I make curry etc in my slow cooker, turn it on at 8 and come home to it fully cooked. Switch the rice cooker on for the rice and chuck broccoli or whatever into steam and 20 mins later you have a full nutritious meal.

Ideally you'd brown any meats first but I rarely bother and if you are going from microwavable to slow cooked your family won't notice. If I'm making a stew I just chuck the meat in, often chopped carrots and onions and water and stock pot, any herbs and bay leaves add dumplings towards the end. Similarly for chilli add chilli beans if using canned at the end too.

Make sure you buy slow cooker liners, super cheap and mean no scrubbing of the pot afterwards - that has been a complete game changer for me.

Pressure cookers are far superior to slow cookers in every way but you can get Instant Pots that have a slow cooking function so you’d get the best of both worlds.. even though, if I'm being honest I’ve never used the slow cooking function on mine as I’ve never eaten anything with a nice flavour or decent texture that’s come out of a slow cooker.

I used to be very anti slow cookers as I had an awful one years ago which meant that the meals were tasteless and very watery.
I bought this one by Russell Hobbs and love it. As it's a multi cooker you can do extras with it like cook rice and sauté before putting the slow cooker function on.

We use ours quite a bit in the winter, our favourite is gammon (just put in a pan of water and bring to the boil first to get rid of excess salt).
chop 6-8 tomatoes and put in base of slow cooker, add 2 sliced onions, add gammon that’s been brought to boil and 30ml of water. Pat a bit of brown sugar on the gammon and leave low for 6-8 hours.

gammon goes lovely and tender, serve with either chips or mash and steamed veg.

we just have a cheap Tesco one that we got about 15 years ago and it works fine.

Yes, get one.

I'm a "shove it all in, switch it on then leave" kind of slow-cooker person.

Shove some potatoes in your slow-cooker stew too and you've got a complete meal in one, ready when you walk in the door.

At the weekend we maybe have a bit more time to brown the meat first then shove it all in and head out for the day. During the week I don't bother with that step. Just shove in an go.

If your budget can stretch to it, get one with a sauteing/ searing function so you don't even need to do any browning in a separate pan. Get one with a removable crock pot that can go in the dishwasher after too.

You'll feel like you're winning at life!

Ours is a Sage (Multicooker or something).

I've had one for years. Very handy to ensure you have a good, nourishing meal without having to start when you finish work. There are lots of really good recipe books available, so maybe get one cheap of ebay and browse.

I would not be without a slow cooker. I use it mainly in the Winter months. It is so easy to make hearty stews, and puddings, such as rice pudding, stewed fruit, jacket potatoes. I did a lamb stew the other day, I just put a half shoulder of lamb, carrots, onions, and stock, along with some herbs in. I made mash potatoes, and brussel sprouts for my vegetables. Easy, healthy, and enough portions to freeze for when I do not want to cook, am feeling unwell, or whatever. My one cost under £30.

When working full time I used to do all the prep the night before (rough chopping), sling it all in the pot and put the pot in the fridge.

Before work I switched on the slow cooker, took the pot out of the fridge and into the cooker and out the door.

Came home to dinner made.