Forgive me if this sounds like a slightly retro testimonial, but the crockpot will change your life.
No, really. I mean it. If your only impression of crockpots is 1960s casseroles made out of cream-of-glop soup, you need to move on into the 21st century. You can use a crockpot to cook perfectly normal, real food, with real, identifiable ingredients.
If you’ve never used one, a crockpot (that’s a brand name; the generic name is actually slow-cooker) is basically a ceramic dish, with a lid, that fits into an outer shell. When you plug it in, that shell heats up (but only to a fairly low temperature), warming the ceramic dish, and slowly cooking whatever dinner ingredients you’ve put inside. The lid creates a seal, locking in liquid and moisture, and keeping the temperature steady.
Because it’s a sealed cooking environment, it’s brilliantly suited to wintry dishes–soups, stews, braises–things that want a long, slow, moist cook. The beauty of it is that you dump your ingredients in, plug it in, and six or eight hours later you have dinner. Because the cooking temperature is so low, you don’t have to be right there to turn it off at a specific time; if you sit down to eat half an hour later than you had planned, it’s not usually a problem. Your pot of chili will still be right there waiting for you, piping hot.
Amazon has several sizes and brands, from the most basic, to the fanciest programmable ones. I use this one the most (although, mine could be 6 quarts; I’d double-check, but I’m writing this at Starbucks. Also, mine is not red–there is nothing red in my kitchen, but I guess that’s another story for another day), but I have a smaller one, as well. I also have several slow-cooker cookbooks, and while I’ve figured out how to adapt some of my stovetop recipes to the crockpot, I like having a whole bunch of recipes that I know will work. First thing in the morning, when I’m trying to pack lunches and drive carpool, I don’t need to be figuring out how to rewrite a recipe.
And it’s particularly useful in a heart-healthy diet, since the things it does best–like soups–are often totally healthy to begin with, requiring little-to-no modification. Minestrone, anyone?
I love my crockpot.
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I had one in college and during one of my moves it disappeared. I am going to get another I miss mine.
The slow cooker rocks. Everyone should have one!