3 easy slow cooker recipes you need to try this week

With us all (quite rightly) staying at home for the forseeable, there’s no better time to discover some delicious new recipes to add to your culinary repertoire. So, if you’ve got a slow cooker hidden away in the back of your cupboard, now’s the time to dig it out…

Slow cooker scouse recipe

Let’s start with Liverpool’s most iconic dish; scouse. Warm, hearty, feel good food that you can essentially bung into your Ninja and forget about until your whole house smells delicious.

Ingredients

•  450 grams mutton or beef
•  1 medium onion
•  3 potatoes
•  2 carrots
•  1 litre beef stock
•  half a tsp salt
•  half a tsp white pepper
•  1 splash Worcester sauce

Method

• Cut the meat into large cubes (remembering that they’ll shrink slightly) and fry in the vegetable oil or saute in your Ninja multi cooker until lightly browned all over. If you like, add a splash of Worcester Sauce while they’re browning for a bit of flavour.

• Chop the carrot into medallions and layer them on top of the meat. Peel and then finely dice your potatoes, and layer 3/4 of them on top of the carrots.

• Add you beef stock to your Ninja, or if you don’t have any, fill it with cold water until it’s half full an sprinkle 3-4 oxo cubes into the mix.

• Add salt and pepper for seasoning.

• Let your Ninja simmer gently for two hours, stirring occasionally.

• The large pieces of onion will start to break up and the potato will become soft making the scouse nice and thick.

• Add the rest of your potatoes and another splash of Worcester Sauce for the kick.

• Simmer for another two hours.

• And Voila, serve piping hot with red cabbage, beetroot, pickled onions and crusty bread. Scouse just like ye nan used to make.

Slow cooker recipes: One pot chicken cacciatore

Add a bit of Italian flair to your midweek meals with a one-pot chicken cacciatore.

Ingrediants

• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 500 grams bone in and skin on chicken thighs
• 50 grams plain flour
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 150 ml red wine
• 2 peppers, cut into strips
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 sprigs of rosemary, needles finely chopped
• 5 anchovies (optional)
• 200 ml chicken stock
• 1 x 400g tin plum tomatoes
• 100 g pitted olives

Method

• Rub plain flour over the chicken then, using half of the oil, place the thighs skin side down and brown both sides until golden.

• Remove the chicken, and leave it to rest on a separate plate.

• Using the rest of the oil, fry the onion for around five minutes, then turn the heat up and add the wine.

• After a few minutes, stir in the peppers, garlic, herbs and anchovies, and cook for a further two minutes until the anchovies start to melt.

• Pour in the chicken stock and plum tomatoes, and bring to a gentle boil.

• Throw your mixture into the slow cooker and places the chicken thighs on top.

• Cook on high for 3hours.

• Stir in the olives and season to taste – to thicken the sauce, reduce over a high heat for 5-10mins and serve with rice.

Slow cooker coca cola ham recipe

Coca cola… and… ham? It might sound a bit strange, but trust us when we tell you this recipe is going to change the way you have Sunday dinners.

Ingrediants

• Large boneless gammon joint
• 2 litres of coca cola
• 150g dark brown sugar
• 4 star anise
• 10 black peppercorns
• 1 tbsp. treacle
• 1/2 tbsp mustard powder
• 50 ml (2 fl oz) honey

Method

• Put the whole joint of gammon into your slow cooker, and add the coca cola, sugar, star anise and black peppercorns. Add a few splashes of water and cook on high for 4 hours.

• Whisk together the treacle, mustard powder and honey, then once the ham is cooked, drain the cola and allow the ham to cool.

• Preheat oven to 200°C and remove the skin from the ham, leaving some of the fat behind and score it. Brush over the glaze mixture and put into oven.

• Cook for 25-30min until golden brown. Keep brushing the glaze over regularly until it is all used up. Remove from the oven and allow to cool before slicing.

So there you have it, three warming slow cooker meals with plenty left over for tomorrow’s dinner!