Vegetarians and Slow Cookers

gemmaj

I did a veggie lasagna yesterday - aubergine, courgette, pepper, leek and passata, layer with lassagna sheets, top with white sauce and parmesan. V-good, but I gave it 4.5 hours and it was a little overcooked. Will try 3 hrs next time.

carrottopsuk

From all the threads that have been posted, I can see the benefits of a slow cooker if you eat meat. However, does anyone know whether it is moneysaving getting a slow cooker if you're vegetarian?

Thanks

BASIL

i use one - really good for cooking pulses also. a nice stew in the winter!

Ruby_Pudding

carrottopsuk wrote:

From all the threads that have been posted, I can see the benefits of a slow cooker if you eat meat. However, does anyone know whether it is moneysaving getting a slow cooker if you're vegetarian?

Thanks

Hand on heart I have to be truthful and say, as a veggie, I've found the slow cooker to be of little or no use to me. I know there are veggie casseroles you can do but they don't seem particularly inspiring to me.

Instead, I've given up on the SC and bought a medium sized casserole dish with a lid for a fiver (a fiver!!!! ) from Tesco and I bung some vegetables, beans, veggie sausages & pearl barley in that and shove it in the oven whenever I'm using the cooker for something else. Then I freeze what I make and defrost later on in the week or month when I just fancy a quick tea - I get 2/3 easy meals for hardly any effort and I don't have feel guilty for not using the slow cooker.

Snow_Angel

I'm vegetarian - I have oodles of recipes for stews and casseroles that I can do in a slow cooker - go to https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes, search recipes and put "vegetarian casserole" or "vegetarian stew" into the search engine.....heaps of ideas for things that can be done in a slow cooker, and that's just the start! I've used my mum's slow cooker before but never got one myself until last week! I got it from Freecycle and am chuffed to bits with it - it's 1.5 litres, so enough for me and to freeze some for later.
Fair enough it's just as easy to whack it in a casserole dish in the oven (and sometimes I do that), but I'm really busy and it's easy to prep the stuff at night, whack it in the slow cooker at breakfast, and then it's ready when you get home from work/uni!

martindow

Im vegetarian and used our slow cooker so little that it got taken and used for candle making one day. Really don't miss it at all.

I wouldn't recommend it for cooking food now unless you go for waxy flavours. They are excellent for melting candle wax as the thermostat can keep the wax at a perfect temperature.

Prudent

I was just about to post the same question. I saw a slow cooker (new in box) for £3 at the car boot sale this morning. I hestitated because my dd has turned vegatarian and I now cook just vegeatarian food as its easier. I am glad I didn't buy it now beacuse I have a tiny kitchen and storage is at a premium.

QueenB.

We are a family of vegetarians and we where brought a slow cooker one year. I used it a couple of times but that was it, then it just sat on a shelf for a few years until i gave it to someone.

Never saw the point of them really, never really used it and certainly don't miss it.

I suppose it depends on what style of food you cook the most.

Quackers

I'm a [STRIKE]vegetable[/STRIKE] vegetarian.

I dont use it at all in the summer at all but use it lots in the winter.

Its fab for soups. I love just chucking some veggies & stock in and blending it when I get home from work. If there are any leftovers I take it to work for lunch.

Also, veggie stews/casseroles are good too.

I suppose it depends on the person and what you eat.

carrottopsuk

Thanks to everyone for taking their time to reply to my question. It seems a pretty mixed response so I think I will try and see how I cope without the slow cooker at first.

Thanks again.