Tag: crockpot

Slow Cooker Sunday: Boxing Day Hearty Vegetable Soup

I’ve eaten so much I won’t have to eat again till 2013!  We didn’t have a turkey this Christmas as we’re only a small family of 3, we opted for beef,  so luckily we aren’t dealing with the ridiculous amounts of left over bird.

However, on Boxing day we planned a day out, Geocaching and building forts and if I’m honest I couldn’t face more food so I thought I’d put on a hearty soup to come home to.

NOTE:  LENTILS NEED TO BE SOAKED THE NIGHT BEFORE!  The reason I put that in capitals is because I missed this step.  However, I managed to salvage dinner.  I put it all on and then noticed that they needed to be soaked.  I got around it by turning the slow cooker onto high and cooking for about 8 hours.  However, in future, I may by tinned lentils.

 

Slow Cooker Sunday: Boxing Day Hearty Vegetable Soup

Recipe Type: Main
Cuisine: Soup
Author: Mediocre Mum
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 1 TBSP of oil oil
  • 1 onion finely chopped
  • 50g of yellow lentils
  • 50g of green lentils
  • 50g of red lentils
  • 1 tin (400g) butter beans drained and rinsed
  • 80g pearl barley
  • 1 large carrot, peeled and diced
  • 2 potatoes, peeled and diced
  • 1 parsnip, peeled and diced
  • 1 litre of vegetable stock
  • Salt and pepper
  • Dried Parsley
Instructions
  1. Heat the oil in a frying pan and sauté the onions for about 3 minutes until soft.
  2. Transfer to the slow cooker
  3. Add lentils, butter beans, barley, carrots, potatoes, parsnip, stock and season with salt and pepper. Stir, cover and cook for 8 hours on low. Add a pinch of dried parsley, ladle into bowls and serve with crusty bread.

 

It was a lovely, thick hearty soup.

Do you have any recipes to share?

Slow Cooker Sunday: Eva’s Slow Cooker Mince Meat Pies

slow cooker mince piesI was inspired by @utterlyscrummy to have a go at making mince pies using my slow cooker.  I’ve never made mince pies in my life and I almost chickened out when I saw you can buy a box of them for a £1.  However, the end result was much better than I expected and we all had fun making them.

I roped in my neighbour ‘Eva’, an aficionado in the kitchen, to give me a hand.  We’re very different in the kitchen.  I tend to follow recipes like a science experiment but she just bungs everything in similar to the Muppet’s Swedish Chef.

However, this is the recipe we cobbled together in the end.

Makes:  12 Mince Pies

Ingredients

Filling

  • 1 tsp of Clementine Zest (approx ½ a Clementine)
  • 5 small dessert apples or 2 large cooking apples.  Cored and roughly chopped.  We used Royal Gala.
  • 2 Cardamon pods (Big Brown ones) cracked to release the flavour
  • 1 tsp of cinnamon
  • 2 tsp of mixed spice
  • 4 cloves
  • 500g of Dried Mixed Fruit
  • 1 TBSP of Light Muscovado Sugar
  • 1 TBSP of Dark Muscovado Sugar
  • 125 of Apple Juice

Pastry

  • 500g Dessert Pastry Block you could also use regular shortcut pastry.

Method:

1.)  Throw all of the ingredients into the slow cooker, mix well and cover and cook overnight.  Approx 10-12 hours.
2.)  Roll out the pastry block on a lightly floured surface until it is 2-3mm in thickness.  Try not to handle the pastry too much or it becomes tough.  Use a fluted edge cutter to make the bases.  It should be a 2-3 cm bigger in diameter than the openings in the muffin tins.  Gentle encourage them in.flutedcutter
3.) Fill the bases about 2/3 full of the filling.

4.) We used a selection of star cutters to make our tops.

starcutter

5.) Pop in the oven for 20 minutes at 160 degrees.

startops

6.) Remove from tin while still warm and place on a cooling rack.

7.) Use a sifter to sprinkle icing sugar on top.

Mince Pies

They tasted so much better than store bought ones!  Enjoy!

Will you be using your Slow Cooker over the holidays?  Pop your recipes below.

Don’t forget we’re also on Pinterest with over 80 Slow Cooker Recipes to inspire you.

Merry Christmas and All the best in 2013!



Slow Cooker Sunday: Banana Bread (2 Dec 12)

I was inspired by an entry on Slow Cooker Sunday last week to have a go at making Banana Bread in the Slow Cooker.  As a family we don’t tend to eat a lot of pudding and I don’t often bake, unless it’s a rainy day and struggling to find something to entertain my daughter.

Aly from plus2point4 is always doing fantastic puds in her slow cooker and I’ve been meaning to have a go for a while.  I was stunned, it worked brilliantly.  You may be wondering what the advantages to doing it in the slow cooker are as it takes longer.  I found it was much more moist than when I have made the same recipe in the over, plus, we could go out and do something else while it was cooking.  I wouldn’t leave a cooker unattended but I don’t worry when it’s the slow cooker.

I believe the recipe is originally American so the measurements are in volume rather than weight.  However, I do think any Banana Bread Recipe would work.

 

Slow Cooker Banana Bread

Recipe Type: Dessert
Cuisine: Slow Cooking
Author: Mediocre Mum
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 6
Ingredients
  • 435 ml plain flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ¼ tsp baking soda
  • 82 ml butter or margarine
  • 165 ml sugar
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 3 ripe bananas, mashed
Instructions
  1. Grease and flour the slow cooker.
  2. Sift the flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda into bowl.
  3. Cream the butter and sugar in a separate bowl, and then mix in the eggs and banana.
  4. Gradually fold in the dry ingredients.  Don’t over mix.
  5. Pour into the slow cooker.  Cover and cook on high for 1.5-2 hours.  Mine took closer to 2.  To check if it’s ready insert a tooth pick and if it comes out clean then it should be ready.
  6. Let cool then invert onto a plate and ice if you want.

Now it’s your turn to inspire!

Don’t forget a more extensive list of recipes featured over the weeks can be found on Pinterest – Slow Cooker Sunday.



Slow Cooker Sunday: Lentil and Sausage Casserole 25 Nov 2012

Slow Cooker Sausage CasseroleHere is my offering for Slow Cooker Sunday, where we come together to share our favourite recipes.

This recipe came from one of my new Recipe Books, ‘The Slow Cook Book’ by Heather Whinney.  I really like it because each recipe has instructions for using in a slow cooker but if you don’t have one it also has the traditional method listed.

The original recipe called for Toulouse sausages but I just used regular Cumberland Sausages, I think.  It doesn’t look appealing but I can assure you it was very tasty.  We served it with crusty bread and a dollop of Sour Cream.  Perfect winter food.

Serves 4-6

Temp:  Low

Time: 6-8 hours

Ingredients

  • 2 TBSP of Olive Oil
  • 6 Cumberland Sausages, roughly chopped
  • 1 onion finely chopped
  • 2 carrots, peeled and finely diced
  • 3 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 140g Chorizo Sausage, diced
  • Pinch of dried Rosemary
  • Pinch of Thyme
  • 200g Puy Lentils, rinsed
  • 175ml red wine
  • 500ml Pork Stock you can use Chicken if you don’t have any
  • 1 Red Chilli left whole

 Method:

  1. Heat 1 TBSP of oil in frying pan, fry the sausages for about 5 minutes. Remove from the pan and set aside.
  2. Heat another TBSP of oil, add the onion and carrot and cook for a couple of minutes.  Add the garlic, chorizo and herbs give it a stir.  Return the sausages to the pan and stir in the lentils.  Add the wine, bring to a boil and cook for a minute.
  3. Transfer everything to the Slow Cooker and add the stock and chilli.  Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours.
  4. Prior to serving remove the Chilli.  If you prefer your dish with a bit of kick you could chop the chilli and add it.

Now it’s your turn.  Add your recipes by simply using the Linky below.

Don’t forget we’re also on instagram #scsunday and all of the recipes can be found on our Pinterest Board



Slow Cooker Sunday: Chinese Style Pork and Noodle (18/11/12)

Slow Cooker PorkI have a small confession to make.  This was originally supposed to be Chinese Style ‘Beef’ and Noodles but for some strange reason I bought pork.  However, I had a quick look at the ingredients Spring Onion, Ginger and 5-spice and thought it might work with Pork and it did.  The picture really doesn’t do it justice.   The only changes I made were the Pork of course and I substituted Pork stock instead of Beef Stock.

This recipe originally came from SOUPS FOR YOUR SLOW COOKER by Diana Peacock

Ingredients:

  • 1TBSP of vegetable oil
  • 5 spring onions, chopped
  • 3 cm piece ginger, grated
  • 4 cloves of garlic, chopped
  • ½ tsp of 5-spice powder
  • ½ tsp chilli flakes
  • 2 TBSP rice wine
  • 2TBSP dark soy sauce
  • 1 TBSP hoisin sauce
  • 1 litre of pork stock
  • 1 TBSP of vegetable oil mixed with 1 TBSP sesame oil
  • 400g pork cut into bite sized pieces
  • 200g egg or rice noodles

 

Method

  1. Heat the oil in the slow cooker on High.  Then add all of the ingredients from the Vegetable Oil to the Hoisin Sauce.  Mix well.
  2. Add the stock and stir.
  3. Heat the second portion of oils in a frying pan, add the pork and cook until sealed.  You could season with salt and pepper but I wasn’t sure how salty it would be with the stock and soy sauce so I didn’t. Transfer to the slow cooker, cover and cook on LOW for 5-7 hours.
  4. An hour before finishing, add the noodles to the cooker.  We served it in large soup bowls accompanied by store bought Prawn Toast.

Join in

So, what have you been up to with your slow cooker this week?  Please leave your links below a moment to check out the other recipes.  If you don’t blog you can always leave your recipes in the comment section.

We’re also on instagram #scsunday and featured recipes can be found on our Pinterest board.