I LOVE TO COOK. I’ve cooked since childhood, taught first by my mother and then by careful attention to cookbooks, magazines, newspapers and friends. Food, and cooking, are a big part of my life. Now, I’m fortunate to write about cooking as well, but I’m also challenged as I’ve never been, by three things.
First, health: As I get older, I have to be really careful about what I eat. In the last year, it seems, I gained weight just by looking at food, but my appetite and my tastes didn”t slow down. As a result, I’ve got some serious weight to lose, and for a foodie like me, that’s a big bummer. Second, persnickety eaters: My kids, both the sister and brother, have palates leaning toward “white” and “ice cream.” And last but not least, time: The demands of kids and work keep me from having anything resembling a leisurely time to prepare dinner for us all.
One of my other writing outlets is a weekly recipe column for a local “what’s doing” website, Rural Intelligence. Prompted by requests from friends and readers, I decided to explore slow cookers–you know, Crock-Pots®. I had never owned one before, though I remember my mother having a brief flirtation with one sometime in the late 1970s. I bought the cheapest one I could find that also had a timer, and I’m slowly, with some hesitation, falling in love.
This is a slow-cooker adaptation of one of my favorite (super healthy) soups. It’s made from carrots (one of the very few vegetables on my kids’ “acceptable” list) and flavored with curry and, if you have it, a bit of fresh basil. (It’s delicious without the basil, too, and one of the great things about this recipe is that it uses things we tend to have on hand.)
The original stove top version of this soup is the creation of a wonderful friend, with whom I’ve lost touch, and every time I make it, I think of her, making it the perfect dish to make for sisters. So I served this for lunch when the TSP sisters came to my house for a recent meeting, and they loved it–I hope you will, too.
If you have suggestions for healthy, slow-cooking foods–bring ‘em on. Share your recipes here, with your sisters.
Curried Carrot and Tomato Soup
Serves 81 Tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
4 cups carrots: peeled, cut into 1 to 1-1/2 inch chunks (or just cheat, and use “baby” carrots)
1 Tablespoon curry powder
1 28-oz. can peeled plum tomatoes, drained
4 cups vegetable broth, chicken broth or water
1/3 cup slivered fresh basil leaves
coarse salt and freshly ground pepperIn a skillet, heat olive oil until shimmering. Add onion, and sauté over medium heat until golden and soft, about 10 minutes. Add carrots and curry powder, and continue to cook for ten minutes more, until the carrots just begin to soften. Add the mixture to the slow cooker along with the tomatoes and broth. Cook on high for 4-6 hours. (Slow cooker temperatures vary somewhat. If you’ve used yours, you’ll have some sense of how much time you need to a “hard” vegetable like a carrot. “High” in my slow cooker keeps the mixture at a slow simmer.)
Using a hand blender, purée the mixture. (Alternatively, you could do this in batches in either a blender or a food processor.) If it’s too thick, add more stock or water to thin. Bring back up to high heat before serving.
Stir in fresh basil, season to taste with salt and pepper, and serve.
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So funny you should post this – last winter a group of us invested in slow cookers and we all love them. We have to be careful not to overdo the stews for the kids but on the whole they are a great hit…
Thank you for sharing this – I will be trying it this coming winter!
Welcome, Mary! So the big question is–what are those stews you try not to inflict too often on your kids? I bet they’re delicious!
I have recently invested in a slow cooker and I fell in love with no hesitation! I had one many years ago when I was married and my kids were small, but never really made use of it, and eventually sold it at a yard sale.
Lately though, my sister made a couple of slow cooked meals for me and they were so delicious I began to give the humble appliance a second thought. And I, too, am in the process of taking off some weight, so a healthy meal waiting for me when I get home from work is a wonderful way to combat bad meal decisions based on hunger and tiredness. I have always loved one pot meals, and I believe the slow cooker adds flavour and intensity to them, and there are so many great recipes out there.
Here in Toronto we’re having a bitter cold and snowy winter. My new slow cooker is making the season more enjoyable!
So glad you stopped by, Jennifer. Can you and your sister share some of your recipes? I think I’m going to try a risotto in my SC today–any tips?
Sure, happy to post my recently used recipes. In the meantime, I’ll recommend a slow cooker cookbook my sister used for the recipes she made, (including the luscious pot roast on the front cover).
http://www.amazon.ca/Gourmet-Slow-Cooker-Lynn-Alley/dp/1580084893/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1233157046&sr=8-1
Ps – I love your blog, and am now a regular visitor.
The slow cooker is great for stewed chicken tacos.
2-3 lbs boneless skinless thighs
1 tsb chili powder
1/2 chopped onion
a few dashes of hot sauce (depending on how spicy you like it I use El Yucateco http://www.elyucateco.com/ Red Habanero, which is very spicy but not if you don’t use too much)
1 chopped jalapeno
1 can Ro-Tel tomatoes
1 cup chicken stock or water
Combine and cook on low for 6 hours.
I use the flour tortillas from Adams Market in Kingston, NY, which are good (for the Northeast) if you don’t want to make your own (the Joy of Cooking has an easy recipe for good flour tortillas).
Shred the chicken and serve with a little broth.
Use avocados, lettuce, cheese, or whatever you like to garnish.
Hi Norah,
Now this is my kind of recipe! As a displaced Angeleno, transplanted to the rural northeast, Mexican food is missing in my life, at least most of the time, and unless I do the cooking. This looks like a great recipe, and I can’t wait to try it.
I did oatmeal this morning. Old fashioned rolled oats with salt, cinnamon and raisins, for an hour: 1 part oats to 2 parts H20. Yumm… Last night turkey stew: actually used the huge turkey neck I froze since Thanksgiving with tons of chopped veggies and a can of whole tomatoes, french lentils salt, pepper and cumin. Put it on in the morning and had it for dinner. Delish with crusty bread on a cold night. Look forward to trying some of the these others, too! Thanks, Paige! :)
OK, I have to confess, too. I bought one last fall, my first. A Cuisinart, the 4-quart size, no floral decals on the side, just stainless. I wanted to make apple butter, and just couldn’t deal with the stirring for 1,000,000 hours (or so it seemed). It was so easy–just make plain applesauce and then keep cooking it down till it colors up dark and rich-tasting, with the lid ajar late in the process to really thicken it.
I love mine. We live on beans and rice, rice and beans – and I actually had to used a slow cooker and a rice cooker instead of a stove for more than a year many years ago. I use mine for chicken and biscuits and for what we call “pantry supper” – whatever veggies are around, whatever herbs and or spices are around, rice… The current favorite is a curried sweet potato thing. The key is to put the oil, herbs and anything bulb-like (eg onions, garlic) first on high for a little while. Then throw everything else in, including some good broth. Try and ignore it while the smells fill up your house.
I need someone to convince me that it’s good for a vegematarian working mom who can’t see straight in the morning, much less plan and execute a crock-pot meal for the evening…
Thanks, Jennifer, for the nice words and welcome back Elizabeth and Rebecca. I laughed reading your comment Elizabeth–I made rice and beans for dinner tonight for my kids, though neither in the slow cooker, because I was testing a risotto recipe in it! (Which, by the way, I won’t repeat. Didn’t hold a candle to real risotto, which I find easy to make.) Rebecca, maybe you need to go back on caffeine? Seriously, it’s great for some things that can be started in the morning. For others, not worth the trouble. But for soup, stew, etc.–totally worth 10 minutes in the morning, imho.
Hey P,
Love my slow cooker–it’s a busy lady’s friend! Your recipe sounds so virtuous; I lean on slow-n-low for comfort foods (dunno why craving those so much right now)–pulled pork, chicken taco filling, chili. We had a bunch at Martha’s Everyday Food http://twurl.nl/ymu134, and I’m always up for trying a new recipe that’ll save me time. Come to think of it, now that I’m back on Martha Stewart Living, will have to see what we have to offer! Meantime, maybe tonight I’ll ready your carrot soup and turn it on in the a.m.–by the time I’m home from work, dinner will be hot and ready! xo. see ya on twitter–@debpuchalla
Rebecca – just google “vegetarian slow cooker recipes” and if you’re not convinced by what you find, then slow cooking is definitely not for you.
Also – I understand. I could NEVER plan any meals in the morning, let alone a slow cooked one that henceforth needs to be chopped, opened, mixed… It’s not the kind of planning/preparing that is done off the cuff in a busy morning bustle.
BUT – if you find a recipe you like, you stock up on the ingredients, and the night before do as much prep as possible. You can chop the veg, open the cans, measure out the herbs, etc. Then, in morning, all you have to do is dump it all in the crock, switch it on low and Bob’s your uncle!
Hi, I’m visiting your commentbox via Mary’s commentbox, I read your comment on her last post and thought I’d drop by.
I am intrigued by the “sisterhood” theme!! I have a younger brother but no sisters…well…until I discovered blogging. My blogging sister is Eurolush (she’s on Mary’s blogroll), actually…I nagged and nagged until she agreed to adopt me. Eurolush is one of FOUR sisters, and one of them is her twin, I think you’d love her blog (she’s an American living in Germany).
Two other bloggers also came to mind when I first read about your Sister Project. Anna is a blogging friend of mine from Sweden, she has three daughters and one son(the oldest girl is just about to turn 18) and her posts about family life are simply wonderful (a link to her can also be found via Mary). Then there’s my blogging friend Esti from Spain, she is an artist whose last series of drawings/collages featured a “Magical Forest” filled with women. She is also the mother of two girls, and she takes wonderful photographs of them. You can find a link to her on Anna’s blogroll (or mine).
I haven’t yet had a chance to truly delve into your blog, my kids just arrived home from school….but I just had to jot these ideas down in case they might be of interest to you.
Warm, sisterly regards from Sydney (Australia).
P.S. I agree with you about Mary’s photographs, aren’t they superb? I met Mary in person after discovering her blog, and she is fabulous!!
Rebecca,
Single mom here, not a complete vegetarian. I eat fish. My daughter eats chicken and biscuits and smoked turkey. She is 12 and I suspect she will announce they are off her menu soon. Anyway, the Crock Pot is perfect for me, not for every day but for one or two nights a week. I use dried beans, and if you put them in the night before for the soak, you can rinse them in the morning and then cook them while at work – throwing in whatever sofrito (sp?) or veggies you use. My kid loves split pea soup, and the Crock Pot is great at that – no soaking required. (Warning: last time I bought dried peas, I didn’t pay attention and it came with a little plastic packet of “ham flavoring” – what the heck is that?) With the exception of the aforementioned chicken and biscuits, I’ve never put meat in mine. Potatoes and sweet potatoes, chopped up the night before, cook nicely during the work day in vegetable broth. Frozen peas are best thrown in when you get home from work. They cook in no time. Borrow one from a friend (sister?) and give it a test drive. You may be convinced. While it does add 5 or 10 minutes to your morning routine, it is SO nice to come home from work and have dinner ready. And it is wonderful to walk in the door and smell dinner cooking. It’s like a little present to yourself.
Margaret gave me a slow-cooker for Christmas and then chided me in public, here, http://thesisterproject.com/roach/the-re-gift-that-keeps-on-giving/ for not mentioning it. Ah, big sisters. With one hand they give you the perfect gift while with the other they straighten you out.
Thanks for all the ideas–now I’m going to go google “vegetarian slow cooker recipes” and see if I get something I can share here. (And with Rebecca.)
I scare myself, but these sound pretty good. They’re as I found them on the web, and if I had written them, I’d like to think they’d be clearer. I also think I’d omit the canned, fried onions from the pasta recipe, and cut the amounts of sour cream and cheese by at least half, though. And knowing me–it would be fontina cheese, not Jack. As for the stew–it’s always worth an extra fifteen minutes to salt and drain eggplant. But seriously–the idea of a creamy spinach pasta dish, or a spicy vegetable stew–both sound pretty tasty.
Monterey Spaghetti
* 4 oz of spaghetti, (break in pieces)
* 2 eggs
* 1 c sour cream
* 1/4 c Parmesan cheese, grated
* 1/8 tsp garlic (crushed)
* 3 c of Monterey Jack cheese
* 10 oz frozen spinach, (thaw & drain)
* 6 oz French fried onions
1. Cook spaghetti in large pot, drain.
2. In a separate bowl, combine sour cream, garlic and parmesan cheese.Beat eggs in small bowel and pour into above mixture. Pour into greased crock pot or slow cooker.
3. Combine finished spaghetti, 2 c Monterey Jack cheese, spinach, & 1/2 of the French fried onions and add to slow cooker. Blend contents in slow cooker.
4. Cover & cook six to eight hours in slow cooker, or cook on high for three to four hours.
5. In final 30 min. of cooking, place cooker on high if cooking on low. Add the rest of Monterey Jack cheese and French fried onions on top of the casserole. Serve with melted cheese.
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Slow Cooker Mediterranean Stew
* 1 butternut squash (peel, seed & cube)
* 2 c eggplant (cubed w. peel )
* 2 c zucchini (cubed)
* 10 oz frozen okra (thaw)
* 8 oz tomato sauce from can
* 1 c onion (chopped)
* 1 tomato (chopped)
* 1 carrot (slice thin)
* 1/2 c vegetable broth
* 1/3 c raisins
* 1 clove garlic (chopped)
* 1/2 tsp ground cumin
* 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
* 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
* 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
* 1/4 tsp paprika
1. Pour all of the ingredients into the slow cooker. Season the mixture with red pepper, cinnamon, cumin, paprika and turmeric. Cook for 8-10 hours on low. Make sure the vegetables are well-cooked and tender.
And, p.s. I’ve never heard okra described as “Mediterranean.”
And, for real exhaustion/exhaustiveness (is that even a word?), go here: http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/search/label/vegetarian.
I know crock pots are frowned upon, but I love them. I have been using them for more than 20 years, when I was working with with horses, I would put my supper in the pot in the morning and come home to a hot meal. In the winter it was so great to walk through the door cold and tired and have a home cooked meal waiting for you. I do not use it as much as then, but still often. Lamb shanks are one of my favorites made in a crock pot.
You know, even Epicurious has caught the slow cooker bug. See the Epicurious primer http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/howtocook/primers/slowcooking
They use the slow cooker to bake chocolate chip cookies (hmmm) and to poach salmon. Not so sure about that, but the potato, cheddar, chive soup sounds good, as does the spicy chickpea and spinach dish.
I think the most delicious meal I have from the slow cooker is corned beef – place the beef in the cooker, add bay leaves, brown sugar, malt vinegar , some sliced onion,cover with water and turn on the on switch!
In other words – cooked exactly as you would on the stove but eight hours leaves the meat outrageously tender!
Wow, I managed to miss a whole bunch of you–belated welcome and/or welcome back to Mary Ann, Deb, Eleanor, Susan and Mary.
Mary Ann-I would never have thought of using the SC for oatmeal–totally brilliant.
Deb–So happy to see you here and virtue has nothing to do with my recipe choice. Forty pounds heavier than when I got pregnant with my first kid has EVERYTHING to do with it. I’m going to have to go to the EF/MS archives to keep searching for the silver bullet recipe for vegetarian Rebecca.
Eleanor–Thanks for the blog reco’s. One of the great joys of doing this has been all the great sites I’ve found thanks to visitors, so I’ll absolutely go visit your friends. And I agree about the blogosphere sisterhood-I’ve made some amazing friendships, all online, including lovely Margaret Roach–we like to joke that we met on match.com,but in fact it’s true, that we first met on our respective blogs.
Susan–so great to see you back. Can you share that lamb shank recipe? I adore lamb, and maybe a slowcooker is the answer to my current dilemma which is, is it possible for me to keep horses, and my and my family’s sanity, at the same time? Advice welcome!
Mary–so glad you came back. I have never made corned beef, though I’m sure my carnivorous kids would love it. I may have to jump in. But, dumb question: what cut of beef do you use?
Hi Paige,
First, I hear you! I’m a foodie too and it’s taken its toll on my hips and thighs, so I’m trying to lose, too. What a drag.
I’ll share a recipe I got out of Reader’s Digest a couple years ago — a slow twist on Polenta that we love on a cold Sunday night. I’ve doctored it a little to fit my (spicier) tastes, as noted.
Rustic Polenta
3 TBS olive oil
7 cups boiling water (I use broth)
2 cups course-ground cornmeal
2 cloves garlic, peeled (I use chopped garlic and more!)
1 small onion, minced
4 links sweet Italian sausage, cut into bite-size pieces (I always use turkey or chicken sausage and mix them up, some sweet, some hot, some exotic — asiago, for example)
1 red bell pepper, cut into bite-size pieces
2 cans chickpeas, drained (I used cannellinis last time and it was great!)
2 tsp. salt (I never use more than 1 tsp)
1 tsp. freshly ground black peper.
Use 1 tablespoon of olive oil to grease sides of slow cooker. Add water (broth), and then remaining ingredients. Stir and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours. Serves 6.
Before anyone moves ahead and tries to make Epicurious’ chocolate chip cookies in their slow cooker (and really, why would you?) – read the comments. Not one person had a good outcome. Actually, one person had an OK outcome, but that is because they misread the recipe. But overall, the community advice was to stick with the oven when making chocolate chip cookies.
The Today Show reported that there will be 7.5 million Super Bowl parties. With a projected 1 billion viewers, that’s a whole lot of hormones per room, leaving me wondering if I might bring something to the mix that leaves the hormones at home.
I think my slow-cooker bison chili is the ticket. In my house, we eat a lot of bison, the only red meat in America to which no hormones have ever been added, as stipulated by federal law; no hormones, and no unneeded antibiotics–ever. So for these hormone high holy days, I offer a slow cooker recipe I call, “Keep Your Damn Hormones Chili.” My best friend prefers to call it “No-Ho Chili,” which works, as well.
Call it what you like, sisters, but crock on!
Keep Your Damn Hormones Chili
By Marion
*3 tbs olive oil
*2 medium onions
*3 cloves garlic
*2 pounds ground bison
*2.5 tbs chili powder
*1 tsp cumin
*1 tsp allspice
*1 tsp cinnamon
*1 tsp coriander
*2 15.5-oz cans red kidney beans
*1 28-oz can crushed tomatoes
*1 28-oz can diced tomatoes
*1 4-oz can tomato paste
*1.5 tbs red wine vinegar
1. Sautee bison in large frying pan until done. Remove with slotted spoon, and transfer to slow cooker.
2. Wipe out frying pan.
3. Add olive oil to frying pan.
4. Pulse together onions and garlic in food processor until chopped.
5. Transfer to frying pan and add spices. Sautee on medium heat for five minutes or until onions are soft.
6. Transfer to slow cooker.
7. Add remaining ingredients to slow cooker and set for 6 hours on low or whatever suits your schedule.
(I add a dollop of organic plain strained or Greek yogurt to mine before eating. Also, all the beans, spices and oil are organic in my version, but that’s your call).
Hi Paige – we call it silverside – you might call it round I think – same general end of the beast!
A quick note to those pressed for time in the morning… if you have energy the night before, put everything in the carafe and put it in the refrigerator. In the morning drop it in the pot, turn it on and walk out the door. We’ve been doing this in my home for about 7 years thanks to my lovely wife as I did not grow up with a slow cooker. My mother’s trick was a pressure cooker (I haven’t adopted that one)
Paige,
Thanks for the crockpot365 link – that woman is a crockpot goddess! (And she, of course, has a book contract.) I am going to try her Jamaican Pumpkin soup and her Baba Ganoush and, perhaps first, her Crock Pot Cracker Jacks. I even sent the link to my *sister.
Christine–that polenta sounds AMAZING.
Elizabeth–don’t worry–nothing in the world could convince me to make cookies in the slow cooker. And yes, that 365 site is incredible. It’s a great, thorough resource.
Marion–ditto AMAZING re your chili. I’ve never tried bison, but am going to look for it at the market. Your no-hormones argument is persuasive beyond belief.
Mary–thanks for the cut o’ meat update.
Leslie–I knew I liked your wife :-) And as for pressure cookers–I love mine. That’s a recent acquisition for me, as well, and I’m a total convert. You can read about my PC cooking adventures here.
I think most people pass right by the bison assuming it’s ground beef. It’s in both of my regular supermarkets, nothing fancy, right there in the red meat section, both ground and in steaks. Along with presenting those hormone and anti-biotic pluses, bison also has less fat and cholesterol than beef. So go ahead and eat your bison.
Margaret,
apple butter in a slow cooker? You are a genius!!! I love apple butter (I am from PA) but i can’t get it in california. i will make some as soon as the apples are in…
Thanks
Chris
I made Marion’s NO-HO CHILI on Saturday and it was YUMMY! I added a little extra meat & spices. Couldn’t find Bison (guess it’s “not in season” right now), so I used grass-fed beef instead.