Beef Stew

A slow cooker is one of those kitchen appliances that might not seem essential at first, but once you own one, you wonder how you ever managed without one. From professionals to shift workers to busy mothers, a slow cooker can be the answer to time-poor people who don't want to sacrifice the quality of their meals to their busy lifestyle. A slow cooker will allow you to throw in some carefully selected ingredients and come home to a meal that has simmered slowly over a long time. Anyone who knows about food knows that this will always result in an excellent meal.

Making dinner on a budget can be harder when you are eating fast and low fat meals, because it relies on high grade ingredients and fresh preparation. Cooking on a budget however, will often mean that the food needs to be cooked a little longer to tenderise cheaper cuts of meat and allow simple flavours to deepen, which is why a slow cooker is perfect for cooking on a budget. Cheaper cuts of meat are often more tasty than more expensive cuts. Lamb shanks, osso bucco, chuck steak and pork knuckle are renowned for their flavour and often appear on restaurant menus.

Cooking on a Budget

Beef bourguignon - using chuck steak, a basic selection of vegetables, wine and bacon you can cook a French classic.

Moroccan Lamb Tagine - with lamb shanks, a basic selection of vegetables and some carefully selected spices you can have an exotic and tasty feast.

Traditional Italian Ragu - using pork and beef mince you can rustle up an authentic Italian bolognaise using tomatoes, onion, carrot, wine and stock. The long, slow cooking will allow the flavours to develop into the best tasting spaghetti bolognaise you've ever made.

Irish Stew - you can use cheap cuts of lamb or beef to make this pub classic. Again, all you need is some basic vegetables, stock and lots of time in a slow oven and you will be enjoying this tasty, economic meal when you get home.

Soups

Most soups benefit from long, slow cooking and this is why a slow cooker is the perfect way to achieve warm and tasty winter meals.

Try these suggestions for soups that will benefit from a slow cooker;

Mulligatawny Soup, an English curry soup; Beef and Barley soup, using chuck steak that will become melt-in-your-mouth; Italian Minestrone soup that will develop a rich and flavoursome base from long cooking, or a rustic bean soup using dried beans that will become creamy after slow cooking.

Desserts

Who would have thought a slow cooker could make a dessert? In fact, just like an oven it can turn out creamy rice puddings, light and crumbly apple cakes, or how about chocolate fudge pudding? Any traditional English steamed puddings will cook nicely in a slow cooker.

Just as with the savoury meals, slow cookers are only limited by your imagination. So get online and search the endless recipes that suit slow cookers from meaty stews to breads and puddings.

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