Slow Cookers can often feel like a gem for a busy family, eliminating excessive preparation time and ensuring that your delicious dinner is ready for your return. Rather than slaving over the stove, you can simply piece together all of your ingredients and let the appliance do the rest.
If you haven’t yet witnessed the wonders of a slow cooker, then there are so many available on the market for every eventuality and budget. You can even make sweet bakes with them.
We’ve picked out some of the best family recipes that are easy to prepare and are tasty for the household. You can cater for everyone with vegan friendly meals, meaty portions and some of your favourite spices.
Meatballs
Everybody loves a meatball meal but it’s even tastier when you can sit and watch the flavours manifest- use the slow cooker meatball meals and it’ll be ready for your home arrival. Spend more time with your kids whilst the meal prepares itself. This is not only one of the fan-favourites but it is also one of the simplest ones to put together.
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp. rapeseed oil
- 2diced carrots
- 2 diced celery sticks
- 1 finely chopped onion
- 2 thinly sliced garlic cloves
- 2 tbsp parsley
For the Meatballs
- 400g lean mince turkey
- 4 tbsp porridge oats
- Pinch paprika
- 1 crushed garlic clove
- Spray of oil
Recipe
- The method can be carried out in two steps. You can heat the oil in a non-stick frying pan and add your prepared onion, carrots, celery, garlic and fry them together for one minute. You can then add tomato passata and parsley before transferring it to the slow cooker.
- In order to make the meatballs you will need to add oats, paprika, garlic, black pepper and use your hands to mix it all together. You can then roll this into your meatballs and should gently cook with a little bit of oil. Once they have browned you can then add them to the tomato base and cook on a low temperature for five hours.
You can then serve it up with a green salad and spaghetti that will take no longer than 15 minutes to fix up.
Chicken Fajitas
Who’d have thought that you can enjoy succulent chicken fajitas cooked from your slow cooker? Fajitas are never too much of a difficult task but they are just so nice when given time to marinate. You can mix the paste, spices and chicken for six hours; ready to be served when you’re back from work.
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp chilli powder
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- ½ tsp paprika
- 500g chicken breasts or fillets
- 120g tinned tomatoes
- 2 crushed garlic cloves
- 1 red onion
- 3 sliced peppers
- Torilla, coriander and sauce
- Get your hands on spices such as chilli powder, ground cumin, paprika- then rub it onto your chicken.
- Add tomatoes, garlic, onion and peppers to the slow cooker, then add your chicken.
- Let it cook on a low temperature for around 4-6 hours.
- Cut your chicken into small pieces and serve with tortilla wraps, salad, coriander and a sauce of your choice.
Vegan Coconut Curry
If you’d prefer to enjoy a healthy vegan option then you should tuck into the coconut curry. This seems to be one of those popular meals that many people are enjoying at the moment, and you can have yours ready ASAP. Cook all of the flavours throughout the day with mushrooms, creamed coconut and spices.
Ingredients
- 4 tsp virgin coconut oil
- 1 tbsp cumin seeds
- 1 tsp turmeric
- Handful of spinach
- 1 tsp coriander
- 2 tsp fresh ginger
- 1 can of rinsed chickpeas
- 1 carton of tomato passata
- 2 sweet potatoes
- 1 tsp chilli flakes
- 1 creamed coconut block
Recipe
There are so many potential greens and spices to add to this meal and many may wish to add some favourite flavours to the dish. This nutritious meal can be made within an hour but if you would like to let it slow cook, then you can let the flavours run wild.
- Heat oil on medium heat, add your cumin, onion, salt and cook for three to five minutes. You can then add the garlic ginger, turmeric and coriander.
- Add the sweet potatoes, chickpeas, tomato passata and the creamed coconut block. Heat these up for ten minutes.
- You can then transfer the contents to a slow cooker and the potatoes would have slowly softened.
- Add the remaining ingredients and let it stew for three hours.
Thai Chicken Curry
Popular Thai Cuisine can be embraced from home with so many different pastes now available at local supermarkets. It only takes around forty minutes to prepare on the hob or you can choose to enjoy
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp Thai green curry paste
- 800g chicken thighs
- 1 chopped aubergine
- 2 lemongrass stalks
- Piece of sliced ginger
- Lime leaves
- Tinned coconut milk
- Can of rinsed chickpeas
- Thai basil
- Rice and coriander
Recipe
This is a simple meal to prepare and can be mostly cooked from your slow cooker, although it will take a little bit of prep’ beforehand. Follow these instructions to create your enjoyable Thai meal.
- Firstly, tip your green paste, coconut milk and chickpeas in the slow cooker.
- 2. You can then heat up your vegetables on the pan and add them to your paste.
- Cook your chicken thighs in the pan until they are light brown, you can then add it to the paste.
- Let it cook for six hours and then serve with rice and coriander.
