Slow cooker recipes to make life easier

WHEN you think of slow cookers, you might imagine stews cooking for eight hours, or your grandparents’ vintage version from the 1950s. But the classic (and thankfully updated) appliance is having a resurgence - and going seriously viral.

Belfast TV chef, cookbook author and content creator, Nathan Anthony (right) knows a thing or two ing the slow cooker in interesting ways. His Instagram, Facebook and TikTok s, @boredoflunch, have blown up with easy meal ideas to make in both slow cookers and air fryers. Simply sticking a Camembert in an air fryer got 100 million views, and his Thai mango chicken curry in a slow cooker earned up 50 million.

So why is slow cooking suddenly so popular again?

 “You literally load it up and go,” says the 33-year-old. “If you have a busy nine-to-five, or you have kids, [if you want to] meal prep, plan ahead, they’re healthier as you don’t need to use oil in them.”

And this style of cooking could save you lots of cash, he reckons. “They’re better for your energy [usage, they run pretty much on a light bulb’s energy, so people are saving an awful lot of money when they’re cooking their meals in them.” 

The initial outlay isn’t much either. 

“You can get some for €30 or €40 on Amazon and they last a lifetime - they’re very inexpensive, they’re very durable.”

Plus, really filling them up and batch cooking for other days can be a lifesaver when it comes to counting the cents in January, and beyond, and saving time spent in the kitchen.

“Working habits and lifestyle in the office has changed, people are working from home more,” notes Anthony, a regular on ITV’s This Morning and Channel 4’s Steph’s Packed Lunch, and this means we’re all around more to throw ingredients together earlier in the day, to bubble away and be ready to eat at dinner time.

Who wants to waste time standing and stirring? 

My followers absolutely love slow cooker recipes, it just makes life easier for people.

“My granny always had one but now we’ve seen a huge surge in students and people who just want really simple easy recipes - there’s been certain times of the year where we’ve seen a massive uplift in of sales around Freshers’ Week.”

His third cookbook, Bored Of Lunch: Healthy Slow Cooker, Even Easier, seeks to prove just how quick and simple lots of nutritious meals can be to prepare - the ethos being, just five minutes prep and under 500 calories a portion.

The pea and mint soup, for example, doesn’t even involve much chopping before throwing it all in the slow cooker and clicking it on.

The Irish farmhouse chicken soup is inspired by his mum’s cooking (“It’s just a taste of Ireland and something my mum would have made growing up”) and the chorizo and seafood chowder is a nod to the amazing seafood available on the coasts of Northern Ireland.

Nathan wants to challenge what people think a slow cooker can do. There’s chicken pad Thai, sticky whisky BBQ ribs and mussels with nduja in a creamy sauce.

Even baking isn’t off limits; Anthony’s no-knead olive and rosemary bread couldn’t be more simple, and the chocolate and peanut butter lava cake looks delicious for when you want a bit of balance to your healthier diet this January.

Anthony didn’t actually cook himself until university. 

“I’ve just been around good home cooks my whole life. 

I think Irish people are traditionally really good home cooks and I have some phenomenal cooks in the family - my auntie was a chef in New York, my granny is a phenomenal cook, my mum is a great cook as well. 

I’d always watch them. (His mum, he says, had all boys and would never let them cook, “She always said, you’ll burn the house down - I’m doing it!”).

At university, he surprised his housemates with how natural a cook he was - and both a slow cooker and an air fryer featured heavily in his student days (“When you’re living with six people, everyone’s fighting over the hob”). After that, and into his corporate career, it just stuck.

It was in lockdown that Anthony started posting dishes online and by the end of the pandemic, he had 30,000 followers on Instagram. Six months later it was 100,000. 

“It started to multiply at a scary rate. This time last year on I had about 900,000 followers. Since Christmas last year, there’s now another million on Instagram alone,” he says.

Last June, he left his senior management job to focus on his new-found food career. 

“I really didn’t want to leave, I loved it, loved my team. I just thought I’d write two cookbooks [Bored of Lunch: The Healthy Airfyer Book and Bored of Lunch: The Healthy Slow Cooker Book] and be like, ‘Wow, what a cool thing to do’.” 

But he hadn’t predicted the books’ success.

So my life is is totally different to what it was before - I feel like I’m living someone else’s life a lot of the time to be honest!

For those who want to pay closer attention to calories, each recipe in the new book “politely” states them

“I’ve always calorie counted just because I’m in to my fitness, it works for me and these recipes fit around my nutritional goals and needs as well. But there's a real degree of healthy balance, you can have a pie on a Wednesday, then a lighter meal like tomato arrabbiata the next day - I’m not a fan of restricting.”

Try three of his recipes below...

Bored Of Lunch: Healthy Slow Cooker Even Easier, by Nathan Anthony is published by Ebury Press. Photography by Dan Jones. Available now

Slow Cooker Steak and Guinness Pie

THIS rich pie is perfect on a cold day.

“Being Irish, it won’t be a surprise that I love Guinness or that I love pies,” says Nathan Anthony. “Traditionally made pies can be a bit of a labour of love, but this is the easiest pie recipe you’ll ever make - just throw it in, let it cook away during the day, add a pastry lid and serve. It’s honestly that easy.”

Ingredients (serves 6)

800g beef steak or rump (or 1kg brisket), chopped

440ml can of Guinness

200ml beef stock

1tbsp tomato puree

1tsp dried rosemary

1tsp dried thyme

1tsp dried oregano

1 bay leaf

1tbsp brown sugar

2 carrots, roughly chopped

1 red onion, chopped

1 celery stick, chopped

1 heaped tbsp cornflour

3 garlic cloves, crushed

1 sheet of ready-rolled puff pastry

1 egg, beaten, to glaze the pastry

Salt and pepper, to taste

Tenderstem broccoli, and carrot and parsnip mash, to serve (optional)

Method

• 1. Threw all the ingredients, except the pastry and egg, in the slow cooker.
• 2. Cook on high for four hours or low for seven to eight hours. Discard the bay leaf.
• 3 Preheat the oven to 200˚C. Top the beef filling with the puff pastry, tuck it round the pie, then brush with the beaten egg.
• 4. Pop the ovenproof slow-cooker pot (without the lid) into the oven for 25 minutes until golden and crisp. If your slow-cooker pot isn’t oven-safe, decant the filling into an ovenproof pot, cover with the pastry, brush with the egg and bake as above.
• 5. Serve with Tenderstem broccoli, and carrot and parsnip mash, if you like.
• Tip: To get the pastry the right size, put your slow cooker lid on top of your puff pastry sheet and cut round it before adding to the slow cooker.

Slow Cooker Red Pepper Bruschetta Pasta

A mash up of two classics, this is the recipe Nathan Anthony came up with when trying to decide between two favourite dishes: bruschetta and pasta.

“The result is this soft pasta with lots of flavour, crunchy croutons and a drizzle of balsamic: stunning. I do enjoy making my own sourdough croutons in the air fryer or the oven, but shop-bought croutons work very well if you don’t have the time,” he says.

Ingredients (serves 3)

2 x 300g jars of roasted red peppers, chopped

15 cherry tomatoes, quartered

700g ata

1tsp dried oregano

4 garlic cloves, grated

Generous handful of fresh basil

250g fresh lasagne sheets, cut into thick strands

Salt and pepper, to taste

4tsp balsamic vinegar

Croutons

50g grated vegetarian Parmesan cheese, to serve

Method;

• 1. Add the peppers, tomatoes, ata, oregano, grated garlic, salt and pepper and most of the basil to the slow cooker. Cook on high for two hours or low for four hours.
• 2. Add the lasagne strands and cook for a further 20-25 minutes (if cooking on low, you may need slightly longer).
• 3. Plate up and top the pasta with the balsamic vinegar, croutons, Parmesan and remaining fresh basil.
• Tip: To make your own sourdough croutons, cube a couple of slices of bread, toss them in olive oil and put in the air fryer at 200˚C for six minutes, or on a baking tray in a 200˚C oven for 10-12 minutes.

Slow Cooker Overnight Carrot Oats

OVERNIGHT oats are a great way to get ahead for the next day.

Usually served cold out of the fridge, this warm version of overnight oats made in the slow cooker is next level,” says Nathan Anthony. “[It’s] a sneaky way to get veggies in at breakfast, while at the same time tasting of carrot cake.”

Ingredients (serves 4)

500ml skimmed milk

150g porridge oats

1tsp vanilla extract

1tbsp ground cinnamon

1tsp ground nutmeg

Handful of dried fruit (around 50g), chopped

200g Greek yogurt

2 large carrots, grated

To serve:

25g chopped walnuts

Zest of 1 orange

4tbsp honey

Method

• 1. Mix all the ingredients, except the walnuts, orange and honey, in your slow cooker. Cook on low for eight hours. If you’re an early riser, throw it all in and cook on high for three hours.
• 2. Serve with the chopped walnuts, orange zest and a drizzle of honey.
• Tip: If it looks a little dry at any point, add a splash more milk. If cooking overnight, add a few extra splashes at the start so it doesn’t dry out.