6 REASONS TO USE A SLOW-COOKER

If you’re familiar with my recipes, you’ll know that I love my slow-cooker! My Grandma sent one to me at my university accommodation via mail order in 2001, and it’s still going strong 19 years later so I thought I would put together my 6 reasons to use a slow-cooker for you.

WHAT’S SO GREAT ABOUT A SLOW-COOKER

The joy of a slow-cooker is that it’s very ‘hands off’ cooking, often you can just add the ingredients straight in and leave them to cook. Sometimes however you do need to give them a little pre-fry, but you can make a meal that only takes 5 minutes to put together, but tastes like you’ve spent hours on it!

These are the best bits about slow-cooking:

Come home to a hot meal: At the weekend I love to pop something in the slow-cooker before we go out- there are lots of great meals that only take 5 or 10 minutes to prepare- so that when we come home we walk in to a hot meal, with the house smelling fantastic.
Simple meals taste great: There’s no need to be an experienced or skilled cook, you can make a great-tasting meal from scratch with no issue at all.
Low cost: As the slow-cooker is low wattage, it’s a much more energy efficient- and therefore cheaper- way to cook then cooking for longer times in the oven.
Healthy meals: It’s easy to make low-fat meals in the slow-cooker, as you tend to cook foods in stock or sauce and poach or braise meats rather than fry. Trimming away excess fat from your meat before adding them to the slow-cooker can keep the meals nice and lean.
Batch cooking: You can make a big batch in a slow-cooker, and then freeze some portions for another day. It’s also a great way to cook for a group of friends or family as you don’t need to spend all of your time in the kitchen!
Great for cheaper cuts of meat: Because of the long, slow-cooking, cheaper cuts of meat which might have otherwise been tough will emerge tender and delectable!