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Dear reader, I don’t know what your life is like, but I do know that if you work during the day you’re probably not all that interested in slow cooker recipes that require less than eight hours of cooking time or some sort of intermediate attention during the cooking process. You’re probably not going to need a bunch of slow cooker recipes for shellfish, or desserts, or side dishes, either.

What you need, I’m guessing, are recipes for slow cooker main dishes that can cook completely unattended for at least as long as the typical workday, that are delicious and family-pleasing but also interesting and varied. And you probably wouldn’t mind some easy, streamlined accompaniments and suggestions for rounding out each meal. You probably want dinners to come home to.

If this is an accurate representation of your needs and desires, you’ve opened the right book.

All the main dishes here can be put in the slow cooker in the morning, left unattended for at least eight hours, and finished up in the evening (or just served without further ado). The very simple side dishes and accompaniments—breads and grains, vegetables, salads, toppings, and sauces—can either be made in the morning and stashed in the fridge or be thrown together in the evening just before serving. Some of them are so simple that they really don’t need a recipe at all, while others are just a little more involved.

I’ve tried to match slow cooker main dishes with accompaniments in such a way that the timing makes sense: If you’re doing a fair amount of prep on one of them, whether in the morning or evening, ideally you won’t have to do too much work on the other at the same time; if you have to puree a sauce in the slow cooker or do some other finishing task in the evening, a side is either already waiting or roasting quietly on its own in the oven. In short, you’ll never have all the burners going, literally or figuratively.

As you flip through these recipes, you’ll note that some dishes will need a bit of attention just before serving. Please don’t feel discouraged because you know how exhausted you will be by the time you get back to your kitchen. Here’s a mental trick I’ve learned over the years that’s really helped me cook better, more complete and interesting meals on a reasonably frequent basis: It’s easier to motivate yourself to finish up meal preparations if you have a plan, and especially if that plan is already in motion when you walk in the door. There will be food—a lot of food, a finished meal or an almost-finished meal—waiting for you in the slow cooker, and all you have to do is this and this…and look, the bowl and immersion blender you need to do that are out and ready, the brown rice to accompany the slow cooker dish has been parboiled and is already in the steamer basket (thank you, barely caffeinated morning self!), and all you have to do is move it to the stove and turn on the heat …

The point is to free yourself from having to make decisions and develop a dinner strategy after a long day of work. If I had to do that every day, my brain would implode and I’d probably declare make-your-own-sandwich night or order delivery more times than I’d prefer. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with sandwiches and delivery food (I adore both options and invoke them pretty often), but I think we all can benefit from as much culinary variety as we can manage, and improving our home cooking organizational and planning skills is a fine way to do that.

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

At the risk of this becoming incredibly goofy and awkward, let’s walk through a recipe together. How about the first one in the book, Eggplant Tian—my version of a classic French vegetable casserole that’s usually baked forever in the oven, the cook pushing it down with a spatula every half hour or so. Here it’s paired with a side dish of olive-marinated fresh mozzarella, but there are other accompaniments throughout the book that might go well with it too, so I’ve listed those just after the recipe title. If on any day another side dish in the book appeals to you more than the one that accompanies the recipe, use a cover flap to mark it.

After a little introduction, you’ll see “the plan,” a skeleton version of the recipe that tells you the main tasks the recipe will ask you to complete in the morning and in the evening. You’ll see that, to make this tian, in the morning you’ll load up the cooker (pretty easy), and in the evening you’ll be sautéing some bread crumbs (also easy, but it does require the stovetop).

Still on board with the tian? Okay! Round up the ingredients. The recipe instructions begin with your “morning” tasks. Do those, and set the slow cooker for eight hours on low. You’ve had a cup of coffee by now and are feeling energetic. Any other “morning” tasks listed? Nope, all clear. Check your side dish recipe. Anything you can do in the “morning”? Yep, go ahead and do those tasks, too.

Now, what I’d do before heading off to work is skim the “evening” instructions to see if you’ll need any skillets or spoons or spatulas to finish up your meal when you get home. In this case, you can see you’ll need a skillet and a spoon, so dig those out so they’re ready when you walk in the door. You can even measure out your bread crumbs and display them—hint, hint—near the skillet. Keep this beautiful book propped open and out on the counter too.

When you get home, you’ll be greeted by the ridiculously enticing aroma of basil and garlic and roasted peppers and fruity olive oil. You’ll suddenly remember you put a tian in the slow cooker, and be pleased with your foresight. Don’t forget there’s a tangy-salty mozzarella salad marinating in the fridge; pull it out and set it on the table to warm up a bit, maybe sneaking a shred as you do—it’s been a long day. You’ll notice next to the stove a little cup of what looks like … bread crumbs? What the—? And you’ll remember your plan: Quickly fry those up for a crunchy topping for your tian, which smells even better when you finally lift the lid of the slow cooker to take a peek. It’s a little watery, which is understandable because it’s been simmering here under a lid all day, so you scoop off some of the liquid: now, perfect. Let the tian settle a bit while you set plates and forks out and pour drinks, spread those toasty bread crumbs over the top, and dig in.

CHOOSING A SLOW COOKER

All the slow cooker main dishes in this book were developed for 3½- or 4-quart (3.3- or 3.8-L) slow cookers, which I find to be the most useful for a small family. Our family of three always has leftovers from dishes cooked in a cooker of this size, and rarely do I cook a slow cooker meal that requires more than three or four pounds (1.4 or 1.8 kg) of meat. I do use a larger, 6-quart (5.7-L) slow cooker for making stocks (this page), since it doesn’t make much sense to prepare small batches of stock.

If what you have now is a larger slow cooker, and you don’t wish to donate that one to charity and replace it with a smaller model, consider increasing the quantities in these recipes by at least 50 percent to keep the ingredients from cooking too quickly.

I’ve tried out many, many slow cookers over the years, and, honestly, the different makes and models are all pretty comparable in terms of the finished product, so you should just choose the one that has the features that are important to you: a countdown timer, say, or an automatic keep-warm setting, a lid that can be clamped down for leak-free transport (to the local bar if you live in the Midwest, for example), an extra-low “simmer” setting for more-than-eight-hour days, or an attractive housing.

Probably the most important extra to consider is the automatic keep-warm feature, which is helpful in two common scenarios: If you’re held up and can’t get home to turn off the slow cooker at the eight-hour mark, the cooker will switch to warm to keep the dish at a safe and ready-to-eat temperature for several hours without overcooking. And if there’s a dish that would be better if it didn’t cook for the full eight hours, you can set the cooker for, say, six hours and it’ll be fine if you’re away from the kitchen for longer than that.

One feature that I do not find useful for my purposes is a stovetop-ready insert—that is, a pot that can be used on a burner to brown ingredients (or in the cooker itself on a “sear” or similar hot setting) and then transferred to the slow cooker housing (or turned down to low) to finish cooking. The inserts are always nonstick-finished, and that limits you to medium heat on the stovetop—I like more firepower when browning. It also means using nonstick-friendly tongs and spatulas, which I find irritating because they’re not as stiff and sturdy as the stainless-steel ones. And nonstick pans are simply not as good at browning as cast-iron skillets or a heavy tri-ply sauté pan. But the main reason I don’t brown in stovetop-ready inserts is this: If your goal is to let the dish cook for a full day with no attention, starting the ingredients out in an insert that’s hot from the stovetop is a disadvantage—the food will come up to temperature more quickly and will be at much greater risk of overcooking. I prefer to brown in a skillet or sauté pan (deglazing will practically clean the pan anyway, so cleanup isn’t much of an issue) and transfer the browned food to a good old-fashioned ceramic insert for the slow cooking part of the process.

So which one should you buy? Short version: Slow cookers in the 3½- to 4-quart (3.3- to 3.8-L) size vary in price from about twenty dollars to sixty dollars, though some fancy (attractive, multifeatured) models can be more expensive. Buy the one that seems right for you, and it’ll work just fine.

Longer version: I currently own at least half a dozen of the suckers, and when I finish this book I’ll be paring the collection down to one or two, so I suppose I should tell you which ones I’ll probably be saving and why. I like the Cuisinart for a few reasons: On low, it cooks the lowest and slowest of all the cookers I’ve used, it has a countdown timer that shows me how much time is left in the cycle, and it auto-switches to the warm setting at the end of the set cooking time. I also like the Crock-Pot Smartpot: It too cooks quite slowly, and while it lacks a countdown timer, and the set time increments aren’t always the ones I want to use, I like that to set it for eight hours on low you just push one button three times; it also, of course, has the auto-warm feature.

At the insistence of several food-writer friends of mine, I recently purchased and have been experimenting with a 6-quart (5.7-L) Instant Pot, which is a slow cooker, pressure cooker, rice cooker, yogurt incubator, gaming system, Wi-Fi hotspot, self-driving car, and Neptune probe all in one. I’ll be retaining it along with the cookers mentioned above. Despite its 6-quart capacity, it has handled the recipes I’ve tried in it just the same as if they were cooked in a smaller traditional slow cooker (so feel free to use it for any of these recipes). It also does a great job making quark (this page), yielding a consistently creamy cheese with little risk of overcooking.

OTHER USEFUL TOOLS

Immersion blender This is a game changer for the eight-hour slow cooker enthusiast. Not only can you easily make smooth blended soups right in the cooker insert, you can also quickly smooth out certain sauces that separate or cook unevenly over a long period of completely unattended time—to be perfectly honest, when you come home and lift the lid what you see inside might look a little … rough. Don’t worry about it: As you’ll notice in a lot of recipes for stews and curries and similar dishes, I’ll suggest that you remove the solid ingredients from the pot, puree the sauce in the pot, and then return the solids to the sauce. The browned edges, the separated fats, the lumps all get reincorporated, and the fats emulsify with blending and thicken the sauce slightly—a bonus. You can do this with an upright blender—pour the liquid into the blender jar, let it cool for a few minutes, then put the lid on with the hole in the lid open and a towel over it to prevent an explosion—but an immersion blender will make the whole process so much easier, with much less cleanup. I strongly encourage you to acquire one if you don’t have one already.

Slotted spoon or skimmer Many recipes here will ask you to remove the chunks of meat or vegetables from the slow cooker (without getting too fussy about retrieving every little bit, of course) so you can more easily season or puree the sauce. This is the tool you need for that, so be sure you have one on hand.

Large granite mortar and pestle I bought a granite mortar and pestle set a few years ago to up my Thai cooking game, and I now use it almost every day. For small quantities, it’s less fuss than a food processor or blender (you don’t have to stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl), and the heavy pestle and rough interior texture make efficient work of pounding solids into pastes or powders. Use a mortar and pestle for spices; toss a few cloves of garlic in and tap them to remove the skins (if you want to keep your cutting board uncontaminated by garlic oils); crush nuts and seeds for toppings and sauces; mix marinades; make seasoning pastes with fresh or frozen aromatics. You can find them pretty cheap at Asian grocery stores. My mortar has a well that’s 4½ inches (11 cm) in diameter at the top, and it’s a good size.

Mini food processor I use this frequently for pulsing quick salsas and tart or spicy sauces and toppings for freshening up rich stews from the slow cooker. You don’t need one, but it sure makes things easier.

CHOOSING INGREDIENTS FOR LONG-HAUL SLOW COOKING

The beauty of the slow cooker is that you can transform less-expensive ingredients, like dried beans or tough cuts of meat, into delicious meals with little effort. While you can cook pretty much anything in a slow cooker (in my first book on the subject there’s a salmon recipe and a brownie recipe, for crying out loud), if your goal is to let the dish cook for eight hours or longer with no intermediate attention there are some limitations on what you can use. All but the most hearty grains and vegetables will break down too much; very lean meats can overcook and become somewhat dry or grainy. Following are some of the ingredients to consider using in your eight-hour slow cooker dishes, and the ones I rely on most in the recipes in this book. If you want to adapt standard long-cooked recipes for the slow cooker, look for ones that feature these ingredients.

Dried beans If you’re familiar with the way your particular beans cook in your particular slow cooker (see this page), and are confident they’ll be done in eight or so hours, go ahead and use dried beans in your dishes (but don’t cook them with anything acidic, like tomatoes or wine or vinegar, or they won’t soften properly). Otherwise, cook them separately (on the weekends, perhaps), so you can check on them occasionally and make sure they’re not under- or overcooked, and add them at the end of cooking. In my experience, black beans, all types of white beans, pinto beans, and cranberry beans are reliably done (and not overdone) after eight hours, so you’ll find those in some of the main dishes here. See this page for details about how to cook dried beans to keep in the fridge or freezer.

Lentils You can use just about any lentils in an eight-hour dish: Red lentils will break down almost completely and serve to thicken your dish; brown lentils will hold their shape a little more but also thicken the liquid a bit; green and black (beluga) lentils will stay firmer. Varieties popular in Indian cooking can be used too, of course: The smaller or split ones, without skins, will usually cook nicely in eight hours; the larger whole lentils (and beans) should be cooked separately in advance (so you can control the timing) and added to dishes at the end.

Grains Only the heartiest whole grains can withstand eight hours of slow cooking without breaking down completely: pot (hull-less but not pearled) barley (look for this in the bulk bins at the supermarket or in natural-foods stores), hard red or white wheat berries, rye berries, and spelt, for example. If you want a dish with very distinct, firm grains, and your recipe is vegetarian, replace some of the water in the recipe with ice to slightly delay the start of cooking (see this page for an example). Quicker-cooking grains, like millet and quinoa and white and brown rices, will become mushy over eight hours—good for thickening purposes or for porridges or congee (this page), but not if you want individual grains to be apparent in the finished dish. Cook delicate grains separately and fold them in at the end or serve them on the side.

Roots and tubers Waxy-type potatoes like Yukon Gold will still hold their shape after eight hours; russet, or Idaho, potatoes will tend to break down but will absorb more of the flavor of the sauce or broth they’re cooked in. Chunks of sweet potatoes will become very soft, and will not hold their shape well unless they’re being cooked in a very liquid mixture (though they’re excellent for sweetening and thickening purposes). Turnips cut into chunks will just barely hold their shape after eight hours. Carrots that are about the thickness of your thumb at the thick end will cook perfectly in eight hours—still with a little bite; cut them smaller and layer them in the bottom of the pot or make sure they’re well covered by liquid if you want them quite soft.

Winter squashes Any of them, peeled (if needed), seeded, and cut into chunks or wedges, will work fine. Butternut squash chunks will become nice and tender and will break down just a bit at the edges.

Green vegetables Most green vegetables (green beans, peas, summer squash, asparagus, broccoli, and so on) will become very soft with a whole day’s worth of cooking. Cook them separately, or adjust your expectations. Especially if you’re going to puree them into a soup or sauce, you can cook hearty greens like kale, turnip greens, mustard greens, or collard greens all day (and with broccoli it won’t matter if it’s too soft if you’re pureeing it anyway); if you want distinct pieces of the leaves, cook greens separately and add them in the evening. Add raw spinach at the last minute—the heat of the dish in the cooker will wilt the leaves in a few minutes’ time.

Go as far into the cooking process in advance

as possible:

Wash and spin-dry greens, chop them, if needed, and keep them in the salad spinner or another container in the fridge so they’re ready in the evening—I absolutely despise prepping greens right before finishing up a meal; it’s so much easier to do that task while the cutting board and knife are out in the morning, and when you don’t have a full day’s work behind you already. And while the cutting board is out, go ahead and chop fresh herbs, scallions, or any other last-minute additions to your dish and stash them in the refrigerator.

Measure spices in advance (or at least dig them out of the cupboard and have them handy).

Set out any pans and utensils you’ll need for finishing the meal so they’re ready to go in the evening; put a baking sheet in the oven so it’ll be in there when you turn on the oven to preheat for roasted vegetables as soon as you get home from work. Plug in the immersion blender (see this page) and have it waiting near the slow cooker with a slotted spoon and a bowl.

If you’ll be breading and frying anything in the evening—say, for fried okra (this page) or for the crisp chicken topping on the congee (this page)—go ahead and set up the breading station (minus the egg dip) with one plate of seasoned flour and another of bread crumbs, and have a plate lined with paper towels ready; pour the oil for frying into the pan.

Put oil and chopped garlic or spices—say, for a sautéed green side dish or for a spiced rice—in the skillet or saucepan in the morning and leave it on the stovetop; those will be fine at room temperature for the day.

Cauliflower Use large florets, which will become very soft but will hold up better than small florets; still they’ll likely just fall apart as you spoon out the dish. I use cauliflower mostly in dals and soups, where it’s fine if the florets sort of disintegrate into the liquid.

Onions Onions give off a lot of water as they cook throughout the day, which can throw off the consistency of your dish if you add them raw. In most recipes, and especially the ones that are meant to be more saucy than soupy, I prefer to brown the onions in a skillet, which cooks off some of that water (and also adds some nice browning flavor), before putting them in the slow cooker.

Chicken Choose thighs or leg quarters, with or without skin and bone. In eight hours, the meat of a drumstick will be falling off the bones, and because it might be difficult to extract from the dish that one tiny sharp bone from along the side of each leg you might wish to just stick to thighs. Chicken breast can dry out over long cooking, so I use it only in cases where the meat will be completely shredded into a soup or sauce and its leanness won’t be an issue; I use boneless chicken breast because the breast has small bones that can become dislodged and hidden in the dish.

Turkey Choose legs, with or without skin and bone. Turkey breast will dry out a bit, but it’s possible to use it if you’re sure to add plenty of fat to the dish. If you have a slow cooker model that runs hot—if your dishes are consistently boiling or simmering vigorously after four hours or so—I’d avoid it.

Duck Choose leg quarters. Avoid duck breast, the meaty part of which is too lean.

Pork Choose shoulder (preferably Boston butt), short ribs, baby back ribs, country-style ribs (which are usually cut from the loin but tend to have enough fat for slow cooking), or smoked ham hocks or neckbone. Loin and tenderloin and most chops are pretty lean, so use with care. Smoked sausage, in an eight-hour dish, tends to give up most of its flavor to the broth, so I sear and add it at the end of cooking; fresh sausages will become very tender but most will retain their juiciness (you might have to experiment with different sausages to find one you like in the slow cooker—the more fat content, the better).

Beef Choose chuck, stew meat, flank, brisket, short ribs, shanks, or oxtails; ground beef needs to be parcooked (browned briefly on the stovetop) so it doesn’t clump up unpleasantly in the cooker. Avoid most steaks, which are almost always better cooked hot and fast. Grass-fed beef may take longer to cook to absolute tenderness than grain-fed, so you might wish to factor that into your planning.

Lamb Choose shoulder, neck, or stew meat, boneless or bone-in; lamb leg or shoulder roasts are great in the slow cooker; ground lamb needs to be parcooked like ground beef. Avoid chops, which would be wasted in a slow cooker dish.

Goat Choose shoulder or stew meat, boneless or bone-in. Those are usually your only choices.

Ingredients that thicken slow cooker sauces or at least lessen the effects of long cooking in a closed, damp environment masa harina, toasted flour (see this page), caramel-colored roux (see this page; darker roux will add flavor but has little thickening power), curry roux (see this page), flour-and-water slurry, beurre manié (equal parts flour and soft butter mashed together and stirred in bit by bit), grated unsweetened coconut, tomato paste, coconut milk powder, bits of stale bread or corn tortillas, Maria cookies (see this page) or gingersnap cookies, mashed cooked beans or potatoes, filé powder (see this page).

A note on tamarind: I call for Tamicon-brand concentrate—the very thick, dark, smooth paste—because it works especially well in slow cooker recipes, adding a ton of flavor without excess liquid. Otherwise, your best bet is “wet seedless” tamarind that comes in blocks: Break off a chunk and soak it in warm water to cover until softened, then push the paste through a sieve to remove stray seeds and fibers. It’s not a concentrate like Tamicon; use at least ¼ cup for every 1 tablespoon Tamicon.

SLOW COOKER SAFETY

It may seem silly to say this, but I’ve been asked this question before, so, right off the bat: Yes, it’s safe to leave the slow cooker turned on while you’re not at home—it was designed specifically for that purpose. It doesn’t need to be watched or attended as it cooks.

Countertop location The outer housing of the slow cooker can get pretty hot, so make sure nothing is touching or within a couple of inches of it. The annoyingly short cord is that way for electrical-safety reasons and you shouldn’t use an extension cord with it.

Power outages If there’s a power outage, the slow cooker will turn off and not come back on even if power is restored. This is a safety feature. If you weren’t home when the power went out, you should discard the contents of the cooker—it might have cooled to an unsafe temperature. If you’re home when the power fails and the food isn’t done cooking yet, transfer it to a stovetop or grill-safe pot as soon as possible and finish cooking it over a burner (if you have a gas stove) or a grill. If the food is done cooking and the power goes out, eat it within two hours.

Doneness For the most part, in these recipes I don’t bother giving details about how to tell if a dish made in the slow cooker is done. If it’s been cooking for eight hours, it’s done. The meat will almost certainly be much hotter than the minimum safe temperature, and there’s nothing to worry about, safety-wise. For reference, though, in case you’re adapting or using other recipes—and if you’re cooking any of these for less than eight hours for some reason—the following are the recommended safe temperatures for meats, which you can check with an instant-read meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part and not touching a bone:

Again, these are minimum safe temperatures. For the slow-cooked meats in this book, the temperature will and should be much greater by the end of the cooking time (tough cuts of beef and lamb, for example, will be safe but not tender at the temperature above, and may need cooking to as high as 190°F/88°C).

Reheating leftovers Don’t use the slow cooker itself to reheat leftovers from the refrigerator; they won’t come up to a safe temperature quickly enough. Reheat in a microwave oven (without the lid) or in a different pot on the stovetop.

Frozen foods Frozen vegetables and beans and grains are fine to use in the slow cooker. For the best results and utmost safety, avoid using frozen meats, though: They can thaw and cook unevenly, and may not come up to the correct temperature within a safe time frame.

Care and cleaning Avoid running cold water into a hot ceramic insert—the sudden temperature change could cause the ceramic to crack. Clean the insert and the lid with regular dish soap or in a dishwasher. I’ve done a lot of experimenting, shall we call it, in my slow cookers and have occasionally ended up with the absolute worst stuck-on, burned mess in the insert. An overnight soak and a good scrubbing with a scouring pad, sometimes with some baking soda, have done the trick every time. I never use plastic slow cooker liners, because the ceramic pots are easy enough to clean and the liners just seem like more trouble than they’re worth.

Some ceramic inserts (never the lids) are safe to use in a conventional oven or microwave oven; check the manual that came with your machine. Ceramic inserts should never be put on a stovetop burner or under a broiler.

Don’t submerge the housing in water to clean it. Just wipe off drips and spills with a damp rag or paper towel.

Some Frequently Asked Questions

What if the food isn’t done when I get back to the kitchen?

This is a highly unlikely scenario given the eight-hour cooking time for these recipes, but in the event you open the slow cooker lid and find that the beef or the beans, for example, are not as tender as you’d like (see this page for more about using dried beans), you have a couple of options: Turn up the cooker to high and have a snack while you wait it out, or transfer everything to a Dutch oven or similar pot and simmer it on the stovetop until it’s to your liking. If you’re using an InstantPot, just flip the valve on the lid to “sealing” and cook on high pressure for 10 minutes or so.

These recipes use so many spices!

(Because that’s one of the best ways to extract deliciousness from the slow cooker.)

How do I cope?

Go to your local Indian or Middle Eastern store or online and find a masala dabba, a round, shallow lidded tin with seven smaller lidless stainless-steel cups inside and a cute little spoon. Put your most frequently used spices in the cups and keep the whole tin handy on your counter or near your stovetop; it needs to be kept flat (to avoid spillage inside the tin) and—I can’t stress this enough—within easy reach. My cooking process became much more streamlined and infinitely less hectic when I started using mine and had figured out which spices to keep in it, and I’d strongly recommend you try it.

Here’s what I keep in the cups: ground cumin, ground coriander, ground turmeric, paprika (sometimes hot, sometimes regular), whole cumin seeds, and brown mustard seeds. The seventh cup is variable, and will usually contain one of these: fennel seeds, ground fenugreek, whole coriander seeds, yellow mustard seeds, or ground cayenne. Crushed red pepper, ground cinnamon, garam masala (a dark spice blend often added to curries at the end of cooking), and dried hot red chiles are in separate jars in easy-access locations. Most of the rest of my spices are in freezer bags arranged more or less alphabetically in three plastic lidded containers in the cupboard. I refill the masala dabba and the freezer bags as needed from a bulk spices area of the pantry/laundry room.

Other Ideas for Rounding Out a Meal

CHAPTER 1

Vegetarian and Vegan

Creamy Pot Barley with Butternut Squash and Thyme
Baby kale salad with dates and pistachios

Fresh Tomato, Pinto Bean, and Ancho Chile Stew
Cucumber yogurt with hot cumin oil

Sagamité with Maple Syrup and Butternut Squash
Garlic sautéed dandelion greens

Eggplant Tian

WITH olive-marinated fresh mozzarella
ALSO GOOD WITH corn muffins (THIS PAGE) OR almond couscous (THIS PAGE)

I included a similar tian in my first slow cooker book, but have since simplified my approach a lot. When you layer the ingredients, they’ll come almost to the top of the cooker pot, but don’t worry: They’ll collapse and sink down after a couple of hours and their flavors will all meld, resulting in a dish that’s much greater than the sum of its parts.

IN THE MORNING

Layer the ingredients in the cooker.

IN THE EVENING

Fry the bread crumb topping.

1 large (1¼-pound/570-g) eggplant, peeled and sliced ¼ to ½ inch (6 to 12 mm) thick

MORNING

Use 1 tablespoon of the oil to coat the slow cooker pot. Spread the onion in the bottom of the pot and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Arrange layers of the vegetables on top, seasoning each layer lightly with salt and pepper: first eggplant, then roasted peppers and tomatoes; then basil, eggplant, peppers and tomatoes, basil, and eggplant; and, finally, peppers and tomatoes on top. Tuck the garlic cloves in around the vegetables. Drizzle with 3 tablespoons of the oil. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.

EVENING

In a large skillet or sauté pan, heat the remaining 1 tablespoon oil over medium heat. When it shimmers, add the bread crumbs and a pinch of salt and pepper and cook, stirring frequently, until golden and crunchy, 2 to 4 minutes.

If there’s a lot of excess liquid in the cooker pot, use a large spoon to press down on the layers of vegetables and scoop it out without disturbing the layers too much. Spread the fried bread crumbs on top and serve.

Olive-marinated fresh mozzarella

MORNING

With a mortar and pestle, pound the olives, garlic, and crushed red pepper to a paste (or use a chef’s knife on a cutting board, then scrape into a bowl). Whisk in the lemon juice and oil. Tear the cheese into rough bite-size pieces, put them in a bowl, and toss with the olive dressing. Cover and refrigerate.

EVENING

Kale, Potato, and Almond Soup

WITH fried baguette
ALSO GOOD WITH tangy potato salad (THIS PAGE) marinated bean and tomato salad (THIS PAGE)

This is a great way to get a whole lot of greens into a meal—the creamy potato in the soup is comforting and familiar, the lemon bright and fresh.

IN THE MORNING

Load the cooker.

IN THE EVENING

Add the spinach and lemon juice, puree the soup, and fry the almonds.

MORNING

Put the potatoes, ½ cup (70 g) of the almonds, 1½ teaspoons salt, the pepper, and 6 cups (1.4 L) water in the slow cooker. Wash the kale, then gather it back into a bunch and cut the leaves crosswise into 1½-inch (4-cm) lengths. Add to the cooker, packing it down so it fits. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.

MORNING OR EVENING

Coarsely chop the remaining ½ cup (70 g) almonds. In a skillet or sauté pan, heat the oil over medium-high heat. When it shimmers, add the almonds and cook, stirring, until they’re lightly browned, 1 to 2 minutes. Set aside.

EVENING

Add the spinach and lemon juice to the soup and use an immersion blender to puree until it’s as smooth as possible—this could take a few minutes. Season with more salt, if needed. Serve the soup, topping each serving with almonds.

Fried baguette

EVENING

Cut the bread into 2-inch (5-cm) lengths, then split each piece in half horizontally. In a skillet or sauté pan (the one you cooked the almonds in is fine), heat the oil over medium-high heat. When it shimmers, add some of the bread in a single layer, cut side down, and fry until golden, 1 to 2 minutes. Sprinkle with salt and repeat to cook the remaining bread. Serve.

Baked Sweets and Russets

WITH herb salad
ALSO GOOD WITH grizzled asparagus (THIS PAGE)
OR garlic sautéed dandelion greens (THIS PAGE)

Why not make a baked potato or sweet potato the center of your meal? Add a protein-rich creamy sauce (no need for butter here), lemony spiced almond chunks, and something green, and it’s a perfect light but satisfying meal.

IN THE MORNING

Foil-wrap the potatoes and, if you have time, make the almonds and tofu cream.

IN THE EVENING

Unwrap, split, and serve.

4 to 6 russet potatoes or sweet potatoes (as many as will fit in your cooker; you can fill it to the top)

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

CHOOSING A SLOW COOKER

OTHER USEFUL TOOLS

CHOOSING INGREDIENTS FOR LONG-HAUL SLOW COOKING

Go as far into the cooking process in advance

as possible:

SLOW COOKER SAFETY

Some Frequently Asked Questions

What if the food isn’t done when I get back to the kitchen?

These recipes use so many spices!

How do I cope?

Other Ideas for Rounding Out a Meal

CHAPTER 1

Vegetarian and Vegan

Eggplant Tian

IN THE MORNING

IN THE EVENING

MORNING

EVENING

Olive-marinated fresh mozzarella

MORNING

EVENING

Kale, Potato, and Almond Soup

IN THE MORNING

IN THE EVENING

MORNING

MORNING OR EVENING

EVENING

Fried baguette

EVENING

Baked Sweets and Russets

IN THE MORNING

IN THE EVENING