Quick and Easy Vegan Slow Cooking (4 page)

BONUS TIME

When making a set-and-forget dinner, you are freed up and released from the kitchen so you can do other things, like take a long soak in the tub or update your Facebook status. Or, perhaps, even go to work.

ORGANIZATION

You’ll need to plan ahead for meals, which leaves you more time for more important things like friends and family. You may be so pleased with the extra time you save through organizing that this habit will spill out into other areas of your life.

WORKS WELL WITH MENU PLANNING

You’ll know in advance what is needed to start the slow cooker on any given day. This knowledge can save you time at the grocery store, preparation time, and money spent both on groceries and on that late-day takeout splurge—dinner is already ready.

MONEY SAVING

I haven’t done the math, but especially if you’re using dried beans, seasonal local vegetables, and grains bought in bulk, slow cooking ends up being a fairly economical way of feeding yourself and your family.

COMPLETELY COHESIVE FLAVORS

The long cooking time allows flavors to completely mingle—even without an initial sauté to soften the aromatics. Whatever flavors and nutrients leach out of the food are incorporated into the dish. You’re not throwing away nutrition or flavor with the cooking liquid.

GREAT FOR A CROWD

Slow cooking is an easy way of making (and keeping warm) a large quantity of food with little stress. Lowering stress levels is always a positive! You can take a dish in your slow cooker to an event and plug it in to keep the food warm the whole evening. If you’re attending (or hosting) a vegan potluck, these recipes are sure to impress.

EVERYONE CAN DO IT

The instructions for many of these recipes are chop, put in the slow cooker, stir, and set—which even the most kitchen challenged among us shouldn’t find too hard to complete. For the novice as well as for the more experienced cook, slow cookers are a wonderful way to do it all yourself.

MINIMAL EFFORT REQUIRED

For those days when you are feeling under the weather, you can still get a healthy warming dinner on the table. Slow-cooked soups are especially good on the days when you’re not feeling great.

CLEANS UP EASILY

Even cooked-on gunk usually wipes off after a soak in hot water—and most inserts are dishwasher safe. (If you do have a slow cooker that sticks more than you like, spray with a little nonstick spray prior to filling and you’ll find cleanup is even easier.)

LEFTOVERS

Slow cooker recipes usually make enough to ensure you have leftovers. You can freeze them for the day when you’re cooking on the spur of the moment. Pull a leftover meal out of the freezer, defrost, reheat, and—
voilà
!—dinner is on the table.

THE SMELL

It’s glorious to walk in the door after a stressful day and be enveloped by the wonderful aroma of goodness! Smell may be the biggest plus of all.

Getting Started with Your Slow Cooker

Working with your slow cooker to create delicious meals, ready when you want them, is not hard if you take note of my handy hints.

PLAN

Read the recipes in advance, make notes of what you want to make when (creating a daily and/or weekly menu plan), and ensure you have all the ingredients.

Count back from the time you want to eat to decide when to start cooking, factoring in preparation times as listed in recipes.

PREPARE

Ensure all ingredients are in the form specified in the recipe (e.g., “soaked,” “chopped,” “thawed,” etc.).

If asked to fill the slow cooker in a specific order and not stir, then please do so—items that need longer cooking will be at the bottom.

In most instances the slow cooker will be filled between one-half and three-quarters full.

COOK

Use the specified temperature setting. If pressed for time, you may cook on HIGH for about half the time recommended for cooking on LOW, although flavors generally won’t develop as well.

Periodically turn the insert during the cooking time, if at all possible, to move the insert off any “hot spot.”

Be flexible: Not every slow cooker will cook at exactly the same rate.

Add additional stock (¼ cup at a time and stirred in) and increase the cooking time by half-hour increments if the contents seem too thick before being fully cooked.

To extend the cooking time by an hour or so, prepare everything in advance and hold in the fridge overnight to chill. Place in the slow cooker still chilled, and it will have to come to room temperature in the slow cooker before it can start cooking.

Lift the lid and stir the dish in the last half of the cooking time only, and make sure the lid is off for as short a time as possible.

BE SAFE

Check the manual that comes with your model for specific safe usage requirements. Some inserts cannot be used chilled, on the stovetop, or under the broiler, while others can.

Always touch and move the heated insert wearing kitchen mitts to protect your hands from burns. Take care with the outer casing, as this, too, may be hot.

Do not immerse the outer casing in water: The electrical systems could get wet and become faulty, or even give you an electric shock.

Never leave the cord dangling over the counter, where it may get caught up and pull the slow cooker over.

Don’t start the slow cooker if you’ve just taken the insert out of the fridge; let it come to room temperature first to avoid cracking.

Limit the time you leave food on the WARM setting to no longer than 2 hours. Not only may the food dry out, it may not be kept hot enough to retard bacterial growth.

Do not use the slow cooker to reheat previously cooked food, as the food will not get hot quickly enough to kill bacteria.

STORE AND REHEAT LEFTOVERS

Cool your portioned slow cooker meals to room temperature in shallow containers so the food cools quickly, minimizing time for any bacterial growth.

Once completely cool, cover and transfer to the fridge or freezer. Remember to label any food going into the freezer with the name and date of cooking. As a general rule, store food in the fridge for up to 5 days and in the freezer for up to 3 months.

Slow cooker meals get better over time as the flavors meld and develop. Reheat leftovers completely in the microwave, a saucepan, or the oven at 375°F, until piping hot. Don’t refreeze, and don’t reheat more than once.

Check the chapter introductions for more ideas for using up leftovers.

CLEAN

The inserts and lids are generally dishwasher safe (check the booklet for your model), but they can be hand-washed very quickly anyway. Ensure very hot water is used to remove any possible bacteria.

Wipe the outer casing with a damp cloth once unplugged.

ADAPT FAVORITE RECIPES

Adjusting recipes to or from the slow cooker usually involves adjusting one or more of the following: the liquid, oil, spices, beans, or cooking time. Read the manual that came with your model for more hints, but here are some basic guidelines:

LIQUIDS
: Usually, liquid quantity is less in slow cooking, about half the recommended amount for conventional cooking methods. Use this “rule of half” as a starting point, although the conversion will vary depending on the water content of your ingredients.

OIL
: Many conventional recipes start with a sauté of the onion and garlic (or other aromatics) in oil. Personally, I haven’t found this necessary for most of my slow cooker
recipes, as I find the longer time in the slow cooker draws out the flavors in these quite nicely.

HERBS AND SPICES
: Ground herbs and spices need to be increased to at least 1½ times the amount called for in conventional recipes when converted to slow cooking. You should taste and adjust seasonings, if necessary, just prior to serving. Remember, it’s much easier to add spices and herbs than to take them out.

BEANS
: Use precooked beans (canned, or soaked and boiled at home) when converting a slow cooker recipe to the stovetop.

COOKING TIMES
: A very rough rule of thumb is to multiply your conventional recipe time by 8 and start with that as the slow cooker time on LOW heat (or by 4 if you want to cook on HIGH heat), checking doneness and adding more time as required.

Equipment

Let’s look in more detail at the slow cooker itself and the other equipment you’ll need to make the recipes.

SLOW COOKER

Whether it be old-fashioned or up to date with more features than you know how to use, your slow cooker will be perfect for the recipes in this book. Because of their construction, slow cookers, even the really old ones, are generally safe to use while you are away from home or sleeping. They use many small electrical coils, each emitting very little heat, and use very little energy to do so, making them a very low fire risk. Most models cook at a temperature of 200°F on the LOW setting and 300°F on the HIGH setting. They provide a long, slow, moist cooking environment that essentially braises the ingredients, infusing them with flavor. Slow cookers’ snug-fitting lids and the thick walls of their ceramic inserts maintain moisture by locking in steam, so they need less liquid to cook the food.

All the recipes in this book were developed and tested with medium-sized (roughly four- to six-quart) slow cookers. Because all brands, makes, and models are of slightly different dimensions and even shapes, you may need to make slight tweaks and adjustments to the recipes to suit your specific slow cooker. I also found that all slow cookers (even ones of similar ages) cook at slightly different rates, so please bear in mind that the recipes were created using a modern, relatively rapid-cooking model, which the times noted will reflect. You may need to make minor timing adjustments to suit your model.

If your slow cooker is new to you, please carefully read its instruction booklet to familiarize yourself with specifics on operation, safety, timing, and special features.

TIMER

If you plan to use your slow cooker while you are away from home or asleep (and who doesn’t?), I really recommend you purchase a timer switch for the outlet you’ll use in your kitchen. Timers are small devices that plug into the wall outlet into which you plug your slow cooker. They all work in a similar way: Set the current time and the time to start (and in some cases stop) the power flow. Turn the slow cooker to the setting specified in the recipe; when the timer reaches the start time you have set, the power will flow and the slow cooker will start the cooking process. I bought mine from the electrical items aisle (with the surge protectors) at a department store, but they are also available from hardware stores and are inexpensive.

A few things to remember when using these switches:

Make sure you turn on your slow cooker to the desired heat setting
prior to
plugging into the timer switch. If you haven’t turned on the slow cooker, the power will come through the switch but the slow cooker will not cook. (Yes, I’m speaking from experience.)

If you set an off time for the switch, remember to ensure there is enough time to cook your items as the slow cooker will stop cooking at the off time set on the timer switch regardless of how cooked the food is (again speaking from experience, unfortunately).

These switches do not work with all models of slow cookers,
such as those with electronic control pads and settings. Check your model and the instruction booklet it comes with.

Other items that I use often include:

IMMERSION BLENDER

For blending super-smooth soups in the slow cooker. If you don’t have an immersion blender (also known as a stick blender or a handheld blender), you’ll have to blend in batches in your blender, very carefully.

FOOD PROCESSOR

Used for making nut meal, blending tofu and liquids, and, if you wish, chopping vegetables.

SPICE GRINDER

Not only for grinding spices! I also use mine to grind small quantities of nuts and seeds. If you don’t have one, use a mini food processor, coffee grinder, or blender. A pastry brush makes it easy to get out the last few bits of ground spice.

SKILLET AND SAUCEPAN

Used for stovetop sautéing and ingredient preparation if your slow cooker insert is not stovetop safe. If you buy only one, make it a 10-inch skillet, which should serve all your needs. If you’d rather use a saucepan (which is also used in several recipes), use a medium-size one.

KNIVES

A good quality 8- to 10-inch chef’s knife is really all you need, but a smaller paring knife (for fine fruit and vegetable work) and a serrated knife (for bread and acidic items) are handy, too. For some recipes a mandoline is handy for making perfectly even vegetable slices.

MICROPLANE GRATER

Very handy if you’d rather not mince garlic and ginger by hand. This rasp-shape tool is also great for zesting citrus. If you don’t have one, a box grater does the trick.

BOWLS AND MEASURING EQUIPMENT

Have a variety of different-size bowls for different mixing uses. Always choose a bowl to use that is one size larger than the one you think you’ll need; it’ll make mixing much easier. You’ll also need standard measuring equipment—spoons and cups.

WOODEN SPOONS, WHISKS, AND SPATULAS

You’ll need these, or something similar, to mix items together. Note that flexible silicon spatulas are better than wooden spoons for removing the last traces of mixes from bowls.