Thinking of buying a SC- Are they any good for veggo recipes?

[SiarasMummy]

I've been thinking of buying a good slow cooker, especially as the mid year sales are on and they are quite cheap at the moment.
I am vegetarian and so is my Daughter but my Husband eats chicken and lamb and I cook it for him sometimes, but thought doing a big slow cooker meal once or twice a week would be a great idea as he could keep portions in the freezer, therefore I don't have to cook meat as often and it would just make it easier all round! He is happy to eat veggo most days but still likes his meat sometimes.

Meals always look so nice when they come out of a slow cooker but I am also wanting to know if vegetarian recipes turn out any good? If I buy one I want to be able to use it all the time and as we mostly eat vegetarian I wanted to know if anyone regularly cooks veggo meals in one and if they are good?

I am looking at the breville iKon slowcooker as most recipes I have seen ask you to brown things in a pan first and then transfer but the iKon has a pot inside that could also be used on the stove so that you only end up washing one pot!

[Phteven]

Vego meals turn out awesome in the SC. You do need to be aware however that it won't boil beans, chick peas, brown lentils etc at high enough temperatures to cook them so you will have to pre-boil or use tinned.

[Nai]

Subscribing as I would like to know too!

[SiarasMummy]

Awesome! I use lots of tinned lentils and beans etc so that won't be a problem at all, have you got any good recipes for when I get started?
What do I need to know about the basics of SC?
Do you just chuck in a load of ingredients and leave it on low for a few hours? What liquid do you use to flavour the veggies? Would you chuck in tinned tomatoes, a can of soup, veggie stock or all of the above?

[luna moth]

SC is SO awesome for vego food! Beans and lentils cooked from dried are waaaaaaay tastier and four times cheaper than the canned stuff, and better for you with much less sodium.
The other night I did a potato leek and cannellini bean soup in there. No quantities, really. Chucked in two good handfuls of dry beans, 1 leek, sliced, and four massive potatoes, peeled and chopped. Add stock until everything is covered +2cm on top. (was 2L in my case) Left it on "Auto" for 20 hours - you could do less, but we were particularly organised on this occasion. Came home, and the leek had completely disintegrated, the starch from the potato has all stretche dout and made it beautifully creamy, and the beans were so soft they were falling apart. Yumptious.

I think there are more vego SC recipes in the original Vegetarian Chatter thread.

Basics:
I think in the early days I used recipes, but now I just do it by feel.
If you have an "Auto" setting, then it is far and away the best as it sort of cooks by thermostat and will come on and off to maintain a constant temperature. High and low just get hotter and hotter. If we leave it one while we're out at work, we usually put in more liquid than necessary, on Auto, then flick it to High with the lide off for an hour before we eat.
Liquids - I use homemade vegie stock, sometimes wine, tomatoes, tomato juice, vegie juice, Massel chicken style stock powder (vegan) I don't use canned soups because I don't like the sugary taste of them.

[littlemissmountain]

Yes, I have found the slow cooker excellent for vegie meals so far!

In the last week I have made pumpkin soup and a spinach/split pea dhal in the slow cooker and I was very happy with both. I have only been using the slow cooker for a few months, but really found that I needed to get a cookbook specifically for it, as it's quite different to using the oven for slow cooking. After looking at heaps of books I ended up getting the AWW Slow Cooking book, which has so far given good results.

Using stock is great and plenty of herbs! Some recipes are tomato based (tinned toms) too.
I hope this helps

LMM

[meow]

I did some research that said it wasn't so good. Because dried beans should be boiled it's not good to have them in the slow cooker and I really didn't want to have to preboil first- defeats the purpose of lazy cooking in a SC! Also vegetables are not the best slow cooked as they lose a lot of nutrients. So really, a slow cooked seemed best for meat so we haven't bought one as we're vegetarian too.