This revised edition of The Vegan Slow Cooker comes almost ten years after the first one. I always get asked if I still love my slow cookers, and I answer with a resounding YES.
A versatile appliance, the slow cooker goes way beyond preconceived limitations. It can even stand in for a rice cooker or an oven in a pinch. It’s a great way to extend your kitchen during the holidays, and it can double as a buffet server, too.
I fell in love with slow cookers when I was a busy and poor grad student. I moved from North Carolina to Missouri with what I could pack in my car. Of course, that included my Mom’s old slow cooker and, lucky for me, a huge box of beans and grains from the co-op I worked in.
While I was in grad school, I could throw things together in the morning and come home to a ready-to-eat dinner. Cooking beans from scratch is so much cheaper than buying canned. Eating at home every night saved a ton of money, too.
It’s true that I’ve added even more appliances to my kitchen arsenal since then. I also love my air fryer for crispy food and my Instant Pot for quick and easy meals. (If you’ll be slow cooking in an Instant Pot, be sure to read the section about them shown here)
I always say that slow cookers and Instant Pots make daily cooking fit into your life better. Deciding what works best for you often comes down to personality or the way you schedule your day. Maybe you prefer chopping up a few things the night before and throwing everything in your slow cooker before you leave for work. Or maybe you have zero time in the morning and still have a little energy when you come home. For most of us, a slow cooker and a pressure cooker are not an either/or choice—it’s one you make day by day. That’s how I am, and I value the Instant Pot and the slow cooker for making it so much easier to eat at home on a regular basis without spending a fortune!
The slow cooker is a perfect tool for a vegan kitchen. Instead of buying cans of beans, you can cook yours without all the salt while you’re at work or asleep. Soups and stews really meld well together after cooking all day, and you can even make pasta and rice dishes in it. You may just find yourself as enamored with your slow cooker as I am with mine. But try not to accumulate as many slow cookers as I have. People will start to talk!
Going beyond the kitchen, slow cookers come in handy in other places, too. They are great on camping trips (assuming you have a power hookup). It’s so much fun to go out on a hike and come back to lunch or dinner ready to go. Slow cookers can also increase your cooking power on big holidays such as Christmas. For great, no-oven holiday dishes try Holiday Tempeh and Sage Loaf, the Whole-Wheat Rosemary Rolls, or the Butternut Squash Pie.
All in all, a slow cooker can make a vegan’s life easier—and keep it tasty too!