If you have a slow cooker collecting dust somewhere, it’s time to pull it out and start cooking! Slow cookers are great for making comforting soups and stews in the fall, but they can do so much more year-round.
1. Think outside the stew.
Slow cookers can do much more than the usual soups, stews, and roasts. You can use them for:
- Cooking corn on the cob
- Baking potatoes
- Making oatmeal or breakfast casseroles
- Cooking meatloaf
- Roasting a whole chicken
They’re more versatile than many people realize.
2. Use your slow cooker as a mini oven.
Yes, you can treat your slow cooker like a mini oven! The trick is to place a loaf pan on a rack or several balls of aluminum foil to keep it off the bottom of the slow cooker. In addition to baking in the slow cooker, you can also use it to keep food warm. This is a great trick for Thanksgiving when you're limited on oven space!
3. Make a mini slow cooker.
Instead of buying a separate mini slow cooker, you can place a two-cup heat-resistant glass measuring cup inside the one you already have! This trick is great for small batches of slow-cooked foods, like dips, toppings, or cooking for one.
4. Plan for leftovers.
A lot of slow cooker recipes—especially soups, stews, and roasts—taste even better the next day after the flavors had a full 24 hours to develop. These dishes are great to make ahead when you're entertaining or preparing several days' worth of meals.
5. Prep and chill.
Slow cookers are great to leave on while you are at work so you can come home to a fully cooked dinner. But that requires prepping everything in the morning. If you're not a morning person, prep all your ingredients the night before or over the weekend and store them in the fridge. Then in the morning, you can just pour everything in the slow cooker and go! Better yet, prep several meals worth of recipes and store them individually in the freezer. When you are ready to cook, pull one serving out the night before and place it in the fridge to thaw overnight. The next day, I add it to the slow cooker, and you are good to go!
Pro tip: Write all the cooking instructions on the container or freezer bag, including any additional ingredients needed to be added.
6. Time things perfectly.
If you let the slow cooker run while you are at work or out doing other things, there's always a risk that you won't get home in time and your food will be overcooked. To avoid this,
use the slow cooker timer that shuts the slow cooker off at a set time.
7. Thicken it.
For more concentrated flavors and a thicker soup, just remove the cover for the last 15 minutes of cooking time to allow some of the liquid to evaporate. You could also blend some of the mixture in a blender or with a hand-held immersion blender to make it creamier.
8. Get the most out of meat.
When you cook meat in a slow cooker, it traps all the juices and moisture in the meat. This means that even lean cuts of meat will be juicy after a few hours of cooking. The low and slow cooking method is also great for tough cuts of meat to make them tender. These cuts are often the least expensive.
Ready to get cooking? Check out this round-up of some of our favorite slow cooker recipes on Diabetes Food Hub.
