Do any of your New Year’s resolutions involve saving money and eating healthily? If so, a slow cooker just might be your new best friend.
If you can plan ahead and put a few simple ingredients into one of these appliances, it’s the perfect way to avoid the temptation of eating out, ordering takeaway or relying on ultra-processed convenience foods.
By divorcing the preparation from the end result and cooking a dish slowly over time, it feels like you’ve given a gift to your future self. You can also make the most of cheap, nutritious ingredients like root vegetables, beans and lentils, chicken thighs and beef cheeks and have a warming meal ready to go, no matter what time you arrive home.
It’s not difficult to cook a decent meal in a slow cooker. Cooking a great meal, however, involves taking a few extra - but uncomplicated - steps and that’s where a good cookbook comes in.
Food writer Charlotte Pike, who trained in Ballymaloe Cookery School and is based in south west England, has just released Quick Prep, Slow Cook (Hamlyn). It’s a collection of more than 100 recipes to take your slow cooking meals to the next level.
“The book has lots of simple ideas,” says Charlotte. “They’re not revolutionary, but they are reliable.” She’s conscious that people do not want to waste their time or money on unusable recipes.
“It’s an amazing privilege that people trust you enough to buy your book and cook from it. I feel a huge responsibility towards them. There’s nothing more disappointing or discouraging than a recipe that doesn’t work.”
Slow cooker season
Charlotte’s latest cookbook.
Charlotte finished work on the book last January, a time of year that she feels is the ideal slow cooker season.
“I’m here for slow cookers in January. You can feel a bit flat after the festive period and it is still cold so everyone wants warm, nourishing, cheering food. I think you need uplifting food on cold days, and it works beautifully in a slow cooker,” she says.
“There’s a lot of traditional, quite heavy food at Christmas. After the festive season, I want to have some real zing and more lively flavours. There are loads of recipes in this book that are more lively on the palate, dishes like chicken, ginger and tomato curry, dhal, soups. There’s a Yucatán citrus chicken broth that is absolutely amazing. Lots of nourishing and lighter recipes.”
She also has a great selection of vegetarian recipes – Brazilian black bean stew, for instance, or mushroom and chestnut bourguignon – a how-to for cooking dried pulses, all kinds of stocks and even a slow cooker soda bread. There is also a sweet chapter, with tempting recipes for chocolate and tahini pudding, cheesecake with coffee and hazelnuts and poached apples.
For Charlotte, the motivation behind this cookbook - her sixth, including a series of three student cookbooks - is about getting people to cook from scratch. “What really motivates me is finding recipes and suggestions for people that are achievable and rewarding.”
Lamb shoulder curry. \Charlie Bard
When writing recipes, she’s looking for dishes that will work “on a wet Wednesday when you haven’t been shopping and you’re busy and tired. These are all dishes that people can slot into their lives with the ingredients they know they’ll have – or will be able to get easily – and they will produce something that is really nice without too much effort.”
Charlotte believes that making it easy is “the key to getting people to cook from scratch and eating better food at home. People have the idea to do more complex things, but that doesn’t translate to everyday food.”
A long-term fan of slow cookers, Charlotte loves how they can “give you meals that are almost greater than the sum of their parts, needing very little effort and energy to produce them.” She sees this method of cooking as a continuum of the way many people used to cook dishes in a low oven in the past.
“For my family, my mum and grandparents, they would have slow-cooked casseroles and things in the oven. That would be the kind of food that I grew up eating and thoroughly enjoy cooking.”
When it comes to the question of cluttering up the kitchen with more appliances, slow cookers are an easy win: they don’t take up much space, can be unplugged and put away when they’re not being used, are easy to clean and – for bonus points at a time when energy bills are high – don’t use much electricity while cooking your dinner.
My mum and grandparents, they would have slow-cooked casseroles and things in the oven. That would be the kind of food that I grew up eating and thoroughly enjoy cooking
“You can make a complete meal in one appliance,” says Charlotte, “so it is cost-effective. This way of cooking is really practical. It takes time, but not hands-on time, and lots of slow cookers have time settings so you can get everything prepared and then delay the start of cooking time to work for you. You don’t even need to be there to do it, so that’s very practical for modern life as well.”
For people without easy access to a kitchen, she points out that this is a very adaptable way of cooking. “A few years ago, I had no oven or hob so there is a place for this kind of cooking if you’re living in different circumstances.”
With five slow cookers on the go while testing the recipes for the cookbook – “it was chaos! Every single plug was used” –Charlotte got to work with many different appliance styles to ensure that the recipes worked across the board.
She has some pointers to keep in mind if you’re thinking of making a purchase: “I have a simple entry level one with a switch that just says high, low and keep warm. That’s a basic type of machine that works really well. The keep warm function is especially useful if you’re dashing out and want to keep everything at the right temperature. Those are not expensive, maybe €25-35.
"I also have a more elaborate slow cooker with a non-stick bowl and a sear function. That’s extremely useful to give the ingredients a nice blast [of heat] at the start without having to transfer ingredients from a pan on the cooker to the slow cooker.
“The other thing that I really liked is the Instant Pot Duo Crisp with air fryer. It’s a more advanced, more expensive piece of kit but it’s fantastic. It gives really good results.”
Basics on a budget
Pasta e Fagiolo. \Charlie Bard
While you don’t need to spend a lot of money on a slow cooker and you can pick a basic one up in many supermarkets for less than €30 – my own much-used Aldi version cost just €20 and is still going strong after five years – the advanced models can be fun to play with.
“If you find functions useful, it’s well worth the investment,” says Charlotte, “but don’t feel under pressure to spend over budget. People can be confident that the basic slow cookers are more than adequate for the job and do it extremely well.”
With experience cooking in Ireland while she was on the 12-week certificate course at Ballymaloe in 2014, Charlotte continues to be a frequent visitor to these shores for her food writing research. She knows the difference that good ingredients can make to a dish and she’s very much a fan of Irish food.
“I think that Ireland is perfectly set up for slow cooking. You have the very best of ingredients: amazing fresh local vegetables, the best meat – beef, pork, lamb, and chicken - all fantastic,” she says. “So honestly, I think Ireland is the perfect place to really enjoy the recipes in this book because you’ve got the best of everything.”
Quick Prep, Slow Cook: 100 slow cooker recipes by Charlotte Pike (€24.65) is published by Hamlyn.
Charlotte’s slow cooker top tips
Working from home? “Some people use their lunch break to prepare their evening meal and put it into the slow cooker.” Keep your greens until last: “You have to be careful with anything green. It can heavily deteriorate if cooked for too long, turning sludgy and yellow. If you want to add kale or spinach, add it almost at the end so that it doesn’t overcook.” Avoid slow cooking fish: “I found that it wasn’t possible to do fish dishes as I couldn’t get the best out of them. I just didn’t get results that I was entirely satisfied with.” Sometimes it’s important to start high: “If I recommend to fry ingredients at the start of the recipe, that’s because it will make a real difference. If you bung it all in, you won’t get the best out of the ingredients. I tested it both ways.” In a hurry or have issues with dexterity? “Use frozen chopped vegetables like onions and squash.”Don’t miss out on puddings! “There’s a rice pudding and a date and treacle sticky toffee pudding in there, which work really nicely in a slow cooker. Traditional steamed puddings work well too. You can even steam next year’s Christmas pudding easily without even having to top up the water while it cooks.” Make it easy: “I wanted these recipes to involve as little fuss and washing up as possible. I’ve carefully pared back the ingredients in a way that doesn’t compromise flavour. Ground spices that can go right in are great for this kind of cooking.”
Do any of your New Year’s resolutions involve saving money and eating healthily? If so, a slow cooker just might be your new best friend.
If you can plan ahead and put a few simple ingredients into one of these appliances, it’s the perfect way to avoid the temptation of eating out, ordering takeaway or relying on ultra-processed convenience foods.
By divorcing the preparation from the end result and cooking a dish slowly over time, it feels like you’ve given a gift to your future self. You can also make the most of cheap, nutritious ingredients like root vegetables, beans and lentils, chicken thighs and beef cheeks and have a warming meal ready to go, no matter what time you arrive home.
It’s not difficult to cook a decent meal in a slow cooker. Cooking a great meal, however, involves taking a few extra - but uncomplicated - steps and that’s where a good cookbook comes in.
Food writer Charlotte Pike, who trained in Ballymaloe Cookery School and is based in south west England, has just released Quick Prep, Slow Cook (Hamlyn). It’s a collection of more than 100 recipes to take your slow cooking meals to the next level.
“The book has lots of simple ideas,” says Charlotte. “They’re not revolutionary, but they are reliable.” She’s conscious that people do not want to waste their time or money on unusable recipes.
“It’s an amazing privilege that people trust you enough to buy your book and cook from it. I feel a huge responsibility towards them. There’s nothing more disappointing or discouraging than a recipe that doesn’t work.”
Slow cooker season
Charlotte’s latest cookbook.
Charlotte finished work on the book last January, a time of year that she feels is the ideal slow cooker season.
“I’m here for slow cookers in January. You can feel a bit flat after the festive period and it is still cold so everyone wants warm, nourishing, cheering food. I think you need uplifting food on cold days, and it works beautifully in a slow cooker,” she says.
“There’s a lot of traditional, quite heavy food at Christmas. After the festive season, I want to have some real zing and more lively flavours. There are loads of recipes in this book that are more lively on the palate, dishes like chicken, ginger and tomato curry, dhal, soups. There’s a Yucatán citrus chicken broth that is absolutely amazing. Lots of nourishing and lighter recipes.”
She also has a great selection of vegetarian recipes – Brazilian black bean stew, for instance, or mushroom and chestnut bourguignon – a how-to for cooking dried pulses, all kinds of stocks and even a slow cooker soda bread. There is also a sweet chapter, with tempting recipes for chocolate and tahini pudding, cheesecake with coffee and hazelnuts and poached apples.
For Charlotte, the motivation behind this cookbook - her sixth, including a series of three student cookbooks - is about getting people to cook from scratch. “What really motivates me is finding recipes and suggestions for people that are achievable and rewarding.”
Lamb shoulder curry. \Charlie Bard
When writing recipes, she’s looking for dishes that will work “on a wet Wednesday when you haven’t been shopping and you’re busy and tired. These are all dishes that people can slot into their lives with the ingredients they know they’ll have – or will be able to get easily – and they will produce something that is really nice without too much effort.”
Charlotte believes that making it easy is “the key to getting people to cook from scratch and eating better food at home. People have the idea to do more complex things, but that doesn’t translate to everyday food.”
A long-term fan of slow cookers, Charlotte loves how they can “give you meals that are almost greater than the sum of their parts, needing very little effort and energy to produce them.” She sees this method of cooking as a continuum of the way many people used to cook dishes in a low oven in the past.
“For my family, my mum and grandparents, they would have slow-cooked casseroles and things in the oven. That would be the kind of food that I grew up eating and thoroughly enjoy cooking.”
When it comes to the question of cluttering up the kitchen with more appliances, slow cookers are an easy win: they don’t take up much space, can be unplugged and put away when they’re not being used, are easy to clean and – for bonus points at a time when energy bills are high – don’t use much electricity while cooking your dinner.
My mum and grandparents, they would have slow-cooked casseroles and things in the oven. That would be the kind of food that I grew up eating and thoroughly enjoy cooking
“You can make a complete meal in one appliance,” says Charlotte, “so it is cost-effective. This way of cooking is really practical. It takes time, but not hands-on time, and lots of slow cookers have time settings so you can get everything prepared and then delay the start of cooking time to work for you. You don’t even need to be there to do it, so that’s very practical for modern life as well.”
For people without easy access to a kitchen, she points out that this is a very adaptable way of cooking. “A few years ago, I had no oven or hob so there is a place for this kind of cooking if you’re living in different circumstances.”
With five slow cookers on the go while testing the recipes for the cookbook – “it was chaos! Every single plug was used” –Charlotte got to work with many different appliance styles to ensure that the recipes worked across the board.
She has some pointers to keep in mind if you’re thinking of making a purchase: “I have a simple entry level one with a switch that just says high, low and keep warm. That’s a basic type of machine that works really well. The keep warm function is especially useful if you’re dashing out and want to keep everything at the right temperature. Those are not expensive, maybe €25-35.
"I also have a more elaborate slow cooker with a non-stick bowl and a sear function. That’s extremely useful to give the ingredients a nice blast [of heat] at the start without having to transfer ingredients from a pan on the cooker to the slow cooker.
“The other thing that I really liked is the Instant Pot Duo Crisp with air fryer. It’s a more advanced, more expensive piece of kit but it’s fantastic. It gives really good results.”
Basics on a budget
Pasta e Fagiolo. \Charlie Bard
While you don’t need to spend a lot of money on a slow cooker and you can pick a basic one up in many supermarkets for less than €30 – my own much-used Aldi version cost just €20 and is still going strong after five years – the advanced models can be fun to play with.
“If you find functions useful, it’s well worth the investment,” says Charlotte, “but don’t feel under pressure to spend over budget. People can be confident that the basic slow cookers are more than adequate for the job and do it extremely well.”
With experience cooking in Ireland while she was on the 12-week certificate course at Ballymaloe in 2014, Charlotte continues to be a frequent visitor to these shores for her food writing research. She knows the difference that good ingredients can make to a dish and she’s very much a fan of Irish food.
“I think that Ireland is perfectly set up for slow cooking. You have the very best of ingredients: amazing fresh local vegetables, the best meat – beef, pork, lamb, and chicken - all fantastic,” she says. “So honestly, I think Ireland is the perfect place to really enjoy the recipes in this book because you’ve got the best of everything.”
Quick Prep, Slow Cook: 100 slow cooker recipes by Charlotte Pike (€24.65) is published by Hamlyn.
Charlotte’s slow cooker top tips
Working from home? “Some people use their lunch break to prepare their evening meal and put it into the slow cooker.” Keep your greens until last: “You have to be careful with anything green. It can heavily deteriorate if cooked for too long, turning sludgy and yellow. If you want to add kale or spinach, add it almost at the end so that it doesn’t overcook.” Avoid slow cooking fish: “I found that it wasn’t possible to do fish dishes as I couldn’t get the best out of them. I just didn’t get results that I was entirely satisfied with.” Sometimes it’s important to start high: “If I recommend to fry ingredients at the start of the recipe, that’s because it will make a real difference. If you bung it all in, you won’t get the best out of the ingredients. I tested it both ways.” In a hurry or have issues with dexterity? “Use frozen chopped vegetables like onions and squash.”Don’t miss out on puddings! “There’s a rice pudding and a date and treacle sticky toffee pudding in there, which work really nicely in a slow cooker. Traditional steamed puddings work well too. You can even steam next year’s Christmas pudding easily without even having to top up the water while it cooks.” Make it easy: “I wanted these recipes to involve as little fuss and washing up as possible. I’ve carefully pared back the ingredients in a way that doesn’t compromise flavour. Ground spices that can go right in are great for this kind of cooking.” 
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