Slow Cooker - Cooking Tips and Tricks

Cooking over a slow cooker/crockpot is the best way to preserve nutrients as well as enhance the natural tastes of the cooking foods. And this is one of the best time saving appliances one can have in their kitchen.

To get started with a crock pot there are a few tips and tricks:

Try and buy crockpots with a removable liner. They are much easier to clean and maintain. Food normally cooks at approximately 140 degree F so initially you can raise the temperature to speed up the cooking process and later reduce once the temperature is achieved.

Do not life the lid frequent to see the cooking. Or else the heat will escape and the cooking time will get prolonged. Cut hard vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower etc in bit size pieces and place at the bottom of the pot for quicker cooking. While place softer vegetables like tomatoes, zucchini, mushrooms etc towards the end of the process (last 1/2 hour) so that they don't get over cooked.

Add liquid (1/2 to 3/4) in the pot as it helps keep the food tender and moist.

Avoid frozen foods in the crockpots. Always defrost them before cooking. Stir in spices during the last hour of cooking. If added earlier with the rest of the ingredients, they will lose flavour due to prolonged cooking time. However, dried herbs will add to the intensity of the flavour such as bay leaves.

Add dairy products towards the last half an hour, unless specified by the recipe. Sauces such as Tabasco or cayenne turn bitter if cooked for long. So add less quantity and that too towards the end (last half an hour). Foods like pastas and rice turn up far more flavour in crockpots.

By following these tips and tricks you can turn out wondrous recipes from your slow cooker.

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Been a vegetarian through out my life and since I have had a keen interest in cooking I have come up with several recipes across cuisines.

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