Vegetarians and Slow Cookers

HopeElizzy

:hello: I have a SC which is used nearly every day as I don't come in from work until 7-8pm so there's always food ready when I come in the door. I'm a meat eater so make the usual chillis, curry, pot-roasts etc. My dilema is that my sister who is vegetarian is staying with us for 2 weeks soon and I want to be able to use the SC still.
Have any of you had experience of replacing meat with veggie alternatives so I can try using my usual recipes but with no meat?
Thanks

aimeelister

Hi, I use soya mince regularly instead of mince in the dishes i use in my slow cooker, such as chilli, spag bol, shepherds pie mince (i then add mash to the side of the dish later) I use either dry stuff that ive heard some people call TVP and make that up with stock cubes before i bung it in the slow cooker, or the frozen stuff which i make up as on the packet and bung in. No adverse effects and i think because its slow cookered it actually tastes better than making it in a saucepan!

HTH Aimee

twink

are these any use
stuffed cabbage
2tbsps oil, 2tbsps chopped onion, 1lb mince, could be soya
2 tomatoes skin and chop, 1oz cooked rice 12 med size cabbage leaves
14oz tin tomatoes, 101/2oz tin condensed tomato soup

fry onion in oil add mince stir in tomatoes rice and season, dip cabbage leaves in boiling water 2 mins and dry, put some mince in the centre and roll up, tuck the ends under place in cooker, heat soup and pour over
low heat 31/2 to 5hrs

oriental veg

1 small green pepper,thin sliced, 1 small onion sliced, 4 carrots thin slice

4 oz parsnips thin slice 1tbsp brown sugar, 1tbsp soy sauce,
1tbsp tomato puree 5floz orange or pineapple juice, 1tbsp flour

put all except flour in cooker, cook 8-10hrs blend flour and a little water add 30mins before serving, serve with rice

Hunterbabe

Hi,

You can pretty much make any 'meat meal' veggie using your sc. As previously mentioned, meat alternatives ie Quorn are excellent and I have made chilli, curry, stew etc without people noticing! Excellent if you have one veggie guest and several meaties!
Carry on and make your usual recipes and if you don't want to use the meat alternatives, just chop up loads of vegetables. Root veg is great for bulking up.. Veg curry with loads of cauliflower, potatoes, onions, mushies, spices and stock (and any other veg you like) is always a winner in my house!
Good luck

henhog

Hi,
You could borrow The Slow Cooker cookbook by Gina Steer from the library- it has a whole section on veggie slow cook meals like vegetable goulash, moroccon hot pot, spicy vegetables with coconut, winter vegetable casserole,three bean pasta, Tuscan bean stew. I bought mine from John Lewis, it cost £12.99 but it has been so well used it was worth the money. You could possibly get it cheaper on the internet.
HTH

HopeElizzy

:A Thanks everyone........I think I'll get some veggie mince and try a couple of things out. I was just a bit worried that the soya/quorn type things wouldn't work in the SC but it sounds like they do and with quite good results.:T

busymumof3

Thanks that was useful info. I have been debating getting a slow cooker but as husband is veggie we eat mainly veggie too and I did wonder how
soya mince would work in the SC. I normally make spag bol/chilli/mince once or twice a week.

When I make a regular curry I normally fry the onions off with a mix of spices. Do you have to do this before putting everything in the slow cooker or can you just bung everything in at the start?

aimeelister

I just bung everything in from the start - i'm just lazy, and it saves on the washing up! But I've heard with currys that you need to fry off the spices to "release" some of the flavour.

henhog

busymumof3 wrote:

When I make a regular curry I normally fry the onions off with a mix of spices. Do you have to do this before putting everything in the slow cooker or can you just bung everything in at the start?

You don't have to but I would - I think it really improves the flavour. I usually fry my meat / onions etc before putting them into the slow cooker - just lightly, mainly for colour more than anything else.

ladygrey_2

a bean chilli would taste good