Slow Cooked: 200 exciting, new recipes for your slow cooker (21 page)

Start by preparing your aubergine. Peel and cut it into 4cm cubes. Put in a colander and scatter with about a tablespoon of sea salt. Cover the top of the colander with clingfilm and allow the aubergine to drain for 30 minutes. Rinse the salt off once the aubergine has developed moisture on its surface. The salting removes the bitterness in the aubergines, but you don’t want to replace it with saltiness. Let the aubergine dry slightly. Add to the slow-cooker crock.

Add the diced onion and garlic and tip the chopped tomatoes over them all. Pour in the water and drizzle half the olive oil over it all. Aubergines love a bit of oil and usually soak up so much when you’re cooking them that the cost really adds up, so this version is a relief!

Season well, put the lid on the slow cooker and cook the aubergines on low for 8–9 hours. The dish is cooked when your aubergine is soft and silky. I sometimes squash mine down a little with a potato masher to help it out.

Add the torn fresh basil as you are ready to eat the dish, drizzle with the remaining olive oil and serve.

I adore beetroot. Doesn’t matter whether it is pickled or grated or roasted. I love its earthy sweetness, but it always seems to take forever to cook in the oven or in a pot. Anytime I’ve tried to make it sweet and glazed, it has ended up singed and acrid round the edges, so it seemed sensible to make a virtue of cooking it slowly to prevent disappointment.

You will end up with tender beetroot with a beautiful glaze that enhances its natural attributes. I do a big batch this way and use it as a side dish on roasts, heap into salads with a sprinkle of goat’s cheese or turn into soup like the Borscht
here
or the Orzotto
here
. I think pink around dinner quite often in fact…

SERVES 4

1 bunch of beetroot, approximately 600g

1 teaspoon vegetable oil

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1 teaspoon brown sugar

4 sprigs of fresh thyme

Remove the leaves and stalks from the beetroot if you are able to get them with the foliage still on. Keep these as the stalks make good pesto and the leaves can be eaten like spinach. Scrub the beetroot well under running water. Top and tail the beetroot and then cut them into quarters (or eighths if particularly large.)

Put the oil in the bottom of the slow-cooker crock and toss the chopped beetroot in it. Drizzle the balsamic vinegar over them evenly. I use the versions from the discount German retailers, which are excellent, inexpensive and last forever. If you don’t have balsamic vinegar, use white vinegar with a dash of gravy browning and a tablespoon of brown sugar instead.

Scatter the sugar and the sprigs of thyme over the beetroot and coat well. Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8 for tender, glossy beetroot that is utterly delicious and very similar in taste and texture to those pricey pots of rosebud beetroot from deli counters.

You can simply double the amounts to batch cook this. It will keep in a sterilised jar (see
here
) in the fridge for up to a week.

This lovely dish is very popular throughout Eastern Europe, but for some reason hasn’t gained the same fondness here. I am, of course, a bit obsessed with stuffing vegetables, but these are a particular favourite and one of the first things I wrote about when I started blogging. I make them frequently as they are very easy to make as well as frugal. The slow cooker also prevents any cabbage smells lingering in the house, which is an added bonus!

I like to use a Savoy cabbage for these as the leaves are big enough to roll easily and robust enough to cook well. I also think there are few more handsome veg than a crinkly green Savoy.

SERVES 4

8 cabbage leaves

75g pearl barley

100g lamb mince

1 onion, finely chopped

1 carrot, finely chopped

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

150ml hot stock or water

1 teaspoon tomato purée

½ teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

1 × 400g tin chopped tomatoes

salt and pepper

Remove any tough or damaged outer leaves from the cabbage and then gently peel away each leaf separately. You want them to be whole, so go carefully. Cut the thick rib out of the base of each leaf to make them easier to roll.

Bring a pan of water to the boil and drop two leaves at a time into it and blanch the leaves for about a minute. Remove with tongs and lay them on a clean tea towel to dry out slightly.

Retaining the cabbage water, add the pearl barley to it and boil for about 10 minutes. Drain the barley well and tip in to a large bowl. Make the stuffing by adding the raw mince, chopped onion, carrot, garlic and the cinnamon. Mix it all through well and season generously.

Lay the cabbage leaves out flat and add about a tablespoon and a half of the stuffing to the middle of each one. Roll the leaves up from the base so that the opened end tucks under the top. Add a bit more stuffing in if you can and tuck the sides in too, making a little cabbage parcel. I find using uncooked mince keeps the stuffing in a better shape when lifting them out later.

Place the stuffed cabbage leaf parcels into the slow-cooker crock, making two layers if needs be. Pour the water or stock over the cabbage.

Mix the tomato purée, sugar and paprika into the chopped tomatoes (or simply add some paprika to a batch of the Tomato Sauce from
here
) and pour it over the cabbage as a sauce.

Put the lid on the slow cooker and cook the cabbage leaves on high for 5 hours. Serve them with some Pickled Beetroot from
here
on the side and plenty of the paprika-infused sauce. They really are a fine one-pot meal!

Few vegetables say ‘winter warmer’ better than the red cabbage does. It adds colour and flavour to a plate in the grey months of winter and some festive cheer to a Christmas ham. It’s economical, utterly fabulous and, unlike many vegetables, perfectly suited to the slow cooker. Once I had a slow cooker, I fell in love with this recipe all over again and make it all the time.

SERVES 2 WITH LEFTOVERS

1 red cabbage, approximately 1kg

1 onion (I like a red onion here, but I match my bag and shoes too)

2 cloves of garlic

1 large cooking apple or 4 tablespoons Apple Butter (see
here
)

100g cranberries (optional)

2 whole cloves

1 tablespoon brown sugar

3 tablespoons red wine or cider vinegar

150ml hot stock or water

salt and pepper

Remove the very outer leaves of the cabbage and cut it in half. Remove the core and then shred the cabbage a bit finer than a pound coin, but not tissue-fine.

Slice the onion and garlic cloves too. Cut the apple the same way. Put it all in the slow-cooker crock, along with the apple butter if you are using it.

Add the cranberries, if using, the cloves and brown sugar. Season well and add the vinegar and the stock or water. Put the lid on the slow cooker and cook on low for 7–8 hours.

The cabbage will darken as it cooks and soften down beautifully. The fruit will collapse into it all and the whole thing will reduce in volume, looking almost jam-like. It is delicious served hot or cold and it keeps for up to 3 days in the fridge.

The humble cauli gets a bad rap. Seen as dull or just something to be drowned in cheese sauce, it has fallen out of favour. But treated well, it’s a wonderful vegetable. It’s racier than you’d expect and loves strong spices or curry flavours. I’ve rubbed it with yoghurt, aromatics and spices and steamed it whole.

I buy my spices in big bags from the Asian grocers near me and, to make them last better, I decant some into glass jars and keep the opened bags in the freezer. If you don’t have access to an Asian grocer, look in the ‘world foods’ section of your supermarket and you’ll often see bags of spices much cheaper than in the spice aisle.

SERVES 2–4 AS PART OF A MEAL

1 whole cauliflower, outer leaves removed

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 teaspoon coriander seeds

1 teaspoon caraway seeds

1 teaspoon onion seeds

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon ground ginger

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon chilli powder

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

150ml plain yoghurt (see home-made Yoghurt
here
)

Remove the outer leaves from the cauliflower. These can be eaten along with cabbage or greens, so you don’t have to throw them out. Slice the base of the cauliflower so that it is still whole, but able to sit flat in the slow cooker.

Toast the cumin, coriander, caraway and onion seeds in a dry frying pan. This intensifies the flavour and softens them to become aromatic.

Add them in with the remaining spices and crush using a pestle and mortar or blend with a hand blender. Combine with the oil and the yoghurt. You want a texture that is easy to rub over the head of the cauliflower. Add a touch more oil if need be.

Line the slow-cooker crock with a piece of reusable baking liner. Set the cauliflower into it and then rub the spiced yoghurt over it all. Try to coat it evenly.

Put the lid on the slow cooker and cook on high for 3 hours or low for 5 hours. Lift the liner out when cooked and break the florets up with a knife to serve.

Serve with rice, plain yoghurt and flaked almonds or make the Buckwheat, Cauliflower and Tahini Salad
here
.

This is the kind of dish that was on every dinner party menu in the seventies, but has spent the last forty years being ignored and maligned. I’d forgotten about it until my friend Rebecca posted a recipe for it on her blog
Dinner Document
and I was reminded how simple it was to make. It was serendipity since I just bought a whole bunch of leeks for a pound in the market and wasn’t quite sure what to do with them all beyond just soup. Rebecca is the vegetable whisperer and, thanks to her inspiration, I tweaked this dish for the slow cooker.

SERVES 2 AS A MAIN MEAL OR 4 AS A SIDE DISH

4 leeks

3 sprigs of fresh thyme

2 tablespoons cider vinegar

300ml hot vegetable stock or water

4 eggs

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

salt and pepper

Start by making sure your leeks are spotlessly clean. Peel off the very outer leaves and then split the green tops along the natural creases with a sharp knife. Gently pull the layers back and wash inside them well, shaking them upside down to dry them out.

Trim the very tips of the green part of the leek and remove the root. Cut each leek in half from top to bottom and then cut each half across to make quarters with a flat base. Layer the leeks into the slow-cooker crock, flat base downwards. You will probably have two layers.

Season the leeks well. Sprinkle the fresh thyme and the cider vinegar over them all. Cover with the stock or water so none of the leeks are poking out. You may need more or less liquid depending on how hefty your leeks are. Put the lid on the slow cooker and cook the leeks on high for 6 hours or low for 8 hours.

While your leeks are cooking, hard boil your eggs on the hob. Lower the room-temperature eggs into a pan of boiling water. Bring the water back to the boil and cook the eggs for about 8 minutes. Lift out of the water and run under cold water, then allow to cool enough to be able to peel the eggs, then chop them into small pieces.

Make your vinaigrette by pouring the olive oil and the balsamic vinegar into a jam jar. Season well and add the mustard. Put the lid on the jam jar nice and tightly and shake to emulsify it all.

Lift the cooked leeks out of the slow cooker with a slotted spoon. Put on a plate or into a serving dish and drizzle with the vinaigrette. Top with the chopped hard-boiled eggs and eat warm.

I was first drawn to the traditional Scottish dish of skirlie because it’s just the most glorious word to say as it dances across your tongue. But like all the best things, it’s substance over style as well. Made from toasted cooked oats, it’s a little like a chewy, nutty risotto, if you can imagine risotto made from brown rice. Warm, filling and very easy, it’s a great alternative to breadcrumbs and the texture is lovely here with the soft mushrooms. Even the most mushroom-jaded vegetarian will enjoy this dish.

SERVES 2 AS A MAIN MEAL OR 4 AS A SIDE DISH

4 large flat mushrooms

1 leek

4 spring onions

25g butter

2 sprigs of fresh thyme

4 leaves of fresh sage

1 sprig of fresh rosemary

200g oats

400ml water

salt and pepper

Begin by preparing your mushrooms. Scrub them clean, if needed, but don’t peel them, then remove the stalk. Chop this finely and set aside. Line the slow-cooker crock with baking liner and set the mushrooms on it.