Slow cookers have been standard equipment in many American kitchens since the original avocado green and harvest gold models were introduced in the 1970s. For decades, cooks turned to their trusty slow cookers when preparing chilis, stews, soups, and hot dips, and the recipes they used usually included the canned soups, fatty meats, and melted cheeses that were so typical of those dishes. These same ingredients, however, are also chock full of harmful sodium, saturated fats, cholesterol, and calories. Today we are looking for a fresh, healthier approach to slow cooking—one that offers new options to create a full range of creative, delicious, and nutritious dishes that make it easy to follow a healthy diet.
In American Heart Association Healthy Slow Cooker Cookbook, you’ll find modern, health-savvy ways to use this popular culinary device. The long, slow simmering of slow cooking is ideal for transforming the leanest meats into tender bites, and it allows the savory flavors in vegetable-rich stews to blend and mellow. Your slow cooker is also capable of gently cooking fish and seafood, steaming breads and desserts, and simmering complex sauces that can make a simple dish outstanding and heart healthy.
We understand that there are times when it makes sense to dump everything in the crock and leave it alone for hours—and other times when it’s important to take time to attend to a few details. Prepping ingredients, browning meats, layering foods appropriately, preparing pasta or rice separately—these small steps may take a little extra time or effort, but they can make a big difference in your final product, yielding richer flavor and better texture. With this cookbook’s wide assortment of recipes from appetizers to desserts and everything in between, you’ll discover just how much your slow cooker can do.
In the pages that follow, “Enjoying the Benefits of Slow Cooking” discusses the advantages of using a slow cooker for your health, your budget, and your convenience. “Understanding How Slow Cookers Work” explains the technical aspects of slow cooking and how the differences in sizes and shapes can affect the process. “Getting the Best from Your Slow Cooker” covers the basics of effective slow cookery. These tricks of the trade will help you deliver the best results for your culinary efforts. In this section, you’ll also find general slow cooker guidelines and information on flavor development and food safety. “Making Healthy Choices” outlines how to eat wisely and how a slow cooker can help.
And, finally, the 200 recipes starting here demonstrate the wide variety of dishes you can cook in a slow cooker. The best way to ensure that healthy, mouthwatering food comes out of your cooker is to pay attention to the ingredients you put in it. When you start with lean proteins, wholesome grains, and vegetables and fruits—without adding a lot of sodium, unhealthy fats, or sugar—you will enjoy both the health benefits and good flavor of the foods you prepare. We invite you to try any of the delicious and nutritious recipes in the pages that follow and let the tantalizing aromas from your slow cooker welcome you home tonight.
Slow cooking offers several significant advantages: It’s a great way to turn healthy ingredients into satisfying meals, it’s economical, and, of course, it’s convenient.
The slow process of cooking with moist heat at low temperatures produces succulent lean meats and poultry of falling-apart tenderness with little or no added fat—a great health bonus. Nutrition-rich vegetables often cook right in the crock with the protein source, so they’re more likely to be part of your regular meal planning instead of being overlooked or a last-minute afterthought. Slow cookers are excellent for cooking legumes such as lentils and dried beans, those heart-healthy essentials that are full of fiber and protein but often are underused in the typical American diet. A slow cooker also makes easy work of preparing homemade stocks and long-simmered sauces to use in other recipes, such as soups and pasta dishes. Making your own soups and sauces allows you to control the amount of sodium and other additives in those foods.
By using your slow cooker, you can also save money on both food and energy costs. Because slow cooking breaks down the connective tissue in less-expensive cuts of meat, you won’t need to spend an arm and a leg to enjoy a savory stew or roast. Slow cookers also can help you go green, since they require less energy than a traditional stove or oven. You can further reduce your kitchen “footprint” by cooking once and eating twice: Make large quantities of your favorite dishes, eat some now, and refrigerate or freeze the rest for a quick meal at another time.
Slow cookers also let you enjoy the many benefits of home-cooked meals with a minimum of hands-on attention. Because the heating elements are encased in a protective housing, the slow cooker doesn’t need tending. Except in certain cases, you shouldn’t stir the food, and you don’t need to watch it or worry about it burning. You can simply leave the kitchen—and even the house—while your dinner is cooking. Slow cooking is also great for warmer months when you don’t want to turn on the stove and heat up your kitchen.
Slow cookers surround food with low, steady heat, resulting in long, slow cooking without burning. The outside metal housing contains low-wattage electric coils that heat to a designated temperature. As the coils heat, they transmit indirect heat to the inner crock (usually stoneware). Covering the crock with the lid creates a moisture-proof seal that ensures that the heat and steam released by the contents remain in the crock. This seal is important to maintain a steady temperature inside, and it also helps distribute and blend flavors as vapor condenses on the lid and returns to the food in the pot.
Temperature Modern cookers have low, high, and warm heat settings. Most cookers set to low heat reach temperatures ranging from 185ºF to 200ºF, depending on the individual cooker; on high, they reach temperatures between 250ºF and 300ºF. In actual practice, the internal temperature of different cookers can vary quite a lot from brand to brand; the age of the cooker also can make a significant difference because new models are made to reach higher temperatures than most older ones. (See the section on Keeping Food Safe for information on how to test the cooking temperature of your slow cooker so you’ll know how to best estimate accurate cooking times.) For most recipes in this book, we’ve provided you the option of cooking on either low or high. Since the low setting can often take up to double the time to cook as the high setting, these options give you choices that work with your schedule. When the recipe calls for only one setting, then the alternate temperature is not recommended for that particular recipe.
Size Today’s slow cookers come in several different sizes, each of which has its advantages. It’s important to use the right cooker for the recipe you are preparing; the size of the cooker affects not only how much food you can cook but also the timing of your recipe. For effective cooking, the food should fill the crock enough to adequately cover the heating coils embedded in the sides of the cooker. If the cooker is too large, with a lot of empty space left, the food will cook too fast. If the cooker is too small for the total ingredients of your recipe, the crock will be too full and the food will not cook properly. If a recipe in this book requires a specific size for best results, that is noted. Most recipes, however, offer a range of recommended cooker sizes.
Shape The shape of your cooker affects how the heat is distributed, as well as what will fit comfortably in the crock itself. Round cookers are perfect for casseroles, stews, and soups and for recipes cooked in round baking pans. If you want to serve a whole fish, a large chicken or roast, or a recipe that cooks in a longer pan, such as meat loaf or bread, you need an oval cooker long enough to accommodate the food or the pan. When it is important to use a particular shape, it will be indicated in the recipe.
When slow cookers were first introduced, most recipes instructed the cook to open a few cans, dump their contents into the crock, and leave the food to cook for about 8 hours. Quick assembly and hands-off cooking still will be your top priority sometimes, but when you put in a little extra effort, your slow cooker will amply reward you.
The best ways to escalate your slow cooking from so-so to super are to learn a few basic slow cooker do’s and don’ts, know how your own cooker works, and observe basic food safety rules.
As you prepare meals in your slow cooker, take the time to get the best flavor results. As the recipes developed for this book demonstrate, incorporating a few simple prep steps and knowing when to add ingredients can make the difference between ho-hum and extraordinary. Here are a few flavor tips to keep in mind when using a slow cooker.
Slow cooking is safe and effective as long as you observe the safety guidelines that are specific to the slow cooker.