5 reasons you should buy a slow cooker

Neglect air fryers for a second – in the case of really useful kitchen home equipment that can prevent time, cash and even show you how to increase the vitamin in your loved ones’s weight-reduction plan, it must be the sluggish cooker. 

Certain, they have been round endlessly, however there are a lot of causes to like cooking ‘low and sluggish’ with this unsung kitchen hero. 

For those who do not but personal one, enable us to share why a sluggish cooker is a superb addition to your kitchen arsenal.

1. It will prevent cash

Among the finest issues a couple of sluggish cooker is its capacity to show cheaper cuts of meat – chuck steak, oyster blade steak, silverside – into succulent, substantial and sustaining dishes. 

A fast worth comparability for instance: Coles No Added Hormone Beef Scotch Fillet is at present $47/kg and the Coles No Added Hormone Oyster Blade Steak is at present $26/kg so swapping out your steak evening for a slow-cooked steak dinner evening is saving you greater than $20 per kilogram in your meat.

Swapping out your steak evening for a slow-cooked steak dinner evening can prevent greater than $20 in your meat

In case you have a bigger sluggish cooker, it is easy to make meals comparable to soups, stews and curries in massive batches, leaving you loads of leftovers or inventory for the freezer, which implies you are much less prone to resort to costly takeaways. 

And as it is easy to bulk out these form of meals with cheaper grains and legumes (versus meats), that may imply much more financial savings in your grocery invoice.

You may make your personal low-cost and nutritious inventory that solely has the flavourings you resolve go in it

Sick of paying round $4 per litre for grocery store rooster inventory that is stuffed with sugar, salt and components? With a sluggish cooker, you may make your personal low-cost and nutritious inventory that solely has the flavourings you resolve go in it. 

Use a leftover rooster carcass or ham bones and add to your sluggish cooker with leftover veg – carrots, onion, garlic, celery, leeks (would not matter if they seem to be a bit wilted) – then cowl with water and simmer all day. It prices a fraction of the value, tastes higher and is a lot better for you.

Gradual cookers make mealtime magic with cheaper cuts of meat.

2. It is handy – nice for each entertaining and on a regular basis

Dinner that principally cooks itself is a no brainer for busy folks. Many sluggish cooker recipes require minimal prep – you simply have to cut up a couple of components and add to the bowl, high with water, add the lid and off you go, no stirring or monitoring required. 

The fantastic thing about a sluggish cooker is which you can actually depart the home and go about your day whereas it cooks on a low setting, coming residence to a kitchen stuffed with tempting aromas and dinner able to go. If that is your dream, it is best to decide on a sluggish cooker with a timer setting that can change to ‘hold heat’ (versus a handbook switch-off) so your dinner would not get overcooked in the event you’re caught on the workplace.

For a Christmas in July celebration, you possibly can even hold a warmed, fragrant batch of mulled wine on the go 

This additionally makes a sluggish cooker the right serving to hand for whenever you’re entertaining. Put together your spectacular korma curry within the early afternoon and have it cooking away when you put together all the things else or prepare, then it’ll hold your meals heat all through the evening till you are able to serve your friends. For a Christmas in July celebration, you possibly can even hold a warmed aromatic batch of mulled wine on the go.

Some slow-cooker meat recipes require you to sear the meat first (this helps seal within the juices and add flavour). Whilst you can simply do that in a frying pan and switch to your sluggish cooker, some fashions such because the Breville Searing Slow Cooker allow you to do that straight into the pan or bowl of the cooker. This protects on washing up and helps hold all these scrumptious flavours within the one pot. Try our professional slow cooker reviews to search out out which fashions have a sear perform.

You possibly can choose up a advisable sluggish cooker for lower than $100.

3. They don’t seem to be costly to purchase

Gradual cookers value from round $20 to $250 (or extra), relying on the model and options. CHOICE residence economist Fiona Mair has put dozens of sluggish cookers by means of their paces and has discovered you should purchase a good mannequin that can carry out effectively for underneath $100. 

We’re capable of suggest eight fashions that value underneath $100, and several other of those value lower than $50

CHOICE residence economist Fiona Mair

“For those who simply need a very fundamental sluggish cooker, there are good choices out there even in the event you’re on a funds. In reality, we’re capable of suggest eight fashions that value underneath $100, and several other of those value lower than $50,” Fiona says.

“These are very fundamental fashions that will not embody among the options that costlier fashions have, comparable to ‘hold heat’ or searing settings, however they nonetheless rating effectively in our checks on cooking efficiency.”

4. You will develop your recipe repertoire

The breadth of recipes you may make in a sluggish cooker is infinite. You most likely know they’re nice for stews, soups and casseroles, however they’re additionally wonderful for vegetarian dishes comparable to dhal or issues comparable to jacket potatoes, porridge, desserts comparable to sticky date pudding, and even drinks comparable to sizzling chocolate (and a scrumptious mulled wine as talked about above).

Some fashions include recipe booklets, and there are lots of of devoted sluggish cooker cookbooks round to offer you inspiration.

“Gradual-cooked meals has an exquisite depth of flavour that you just simply cannot get some other approach,” says Fiona. “Gradual cookers are wonderful for making hearty, sustaining dishes in winter however you too can use them to cook dinner a pot roast or one-pot meal in summer season, or corned beef for sandwiches, with out heating up the kitchen like an oven does.” 

Be impressed so as to add extra nutritious veg, grains and pulses to your weight-reduction plan.

5. Simple-to-make, low-fuss more healthy meals from scratch

For those who’re seeking to eat much less meat to scale back the affect your weight-reduction plan has on the surroundings, otherwise you simply need to enhance the vitamins in your weight-reduction plan, a sluggish cooker will likely be your new finest pal. The type of meals it cooks low and sluggish to perfection – curries, soups, stews, casseroles and many others. – are good for bulking out with further nutritious (and low-cost!) legumes, beans and pulses. Or you possibly can ditch the meat fully. 

You could possibly sluggish cook dinner carrots with lentils and spices to make a soup, for instance, or sluggish cook dinner tinned kidney beans and black beans with a variety of greens, spices, inventory and tinned tomatoes to make a vegan chilli. The probabilities are infinite. 

For those who add spices and aromatics comparable to bay leaves and garlic, you may nonetheless get attractive wealthy flavours even in the event you’re not including meat

Fiona Mair, CHOICE residence economist

“For those who add spices and aromatics comparable to bay leaves and garlic to your sluggish cooker, you may nonetheless get attractive wealthy flavours even in the event you’re not including meat,” says Fiona. “Be aware that lengthy hours of cooking could make your meals look boring and pale, so add vibrant garnishes of herbs to serve, or yoghurt in the event you’re making a chilli or curry.”

Fiona additionally advises: “For those who’re seeking to make massive meals for a household, you must decide for a bigger 5 to eight litre mannequin. For those who’ll be cooking for 2, all you may want is a 3 to 4.5L mannequin.”