Since my sister gave me a slow cooker (on my request) two Christmases ago, I think I’ve only used it twice. So like Steph, I made a goal to use the appliance more this year. I mean, what incentive should I need more than the guarantee of a dinner prepared, without much effort?
Pasta e Fagioli
We started our slow cooker reacquaintance with one of Grandma Male’s favourite recipes – pasta e fagioli, from Company’s Coming (their recipes are almost impossible to find on the internet).
It’s an easy soup to throw together – I cooked the bacon and softened the vegetables the night before, put them in a bowl in the fridge, then combined everything in the machine in the morning. All I needed to do when I returned home from work was cook some pasta to add into the soup.
The bacon really makes a difference (especially when you start with the good stuff – Irvings Farm Fresh dry cured side bacon), but other than that, it’s a pretty light soup, chock full of vegetables and beans. With some crusty bread, it’s a hearty soup to come home to – literally.
Pasta e fagioli
Slow-Cooker Vegetarian Chili With Sweet Potatoes
Oh, this one could have been great.
A Real Simple recipe, it was easy to prepare the ingredients for the slow-cooker vegetarian chili with sweet potatoes the night before – I was intrigued by the inclusion of cocoa powder and cinnamon. When I got home (about 8 hours after the slow cooker had been set to low), I turned the machine to “keep warm” so Mack and I could have dinner together – at that point, everything in the pot looked great; the sweet potatoes looked tender, but still held their shape. Nearly two hours later, when I opened the lid again, it was a textural mess – it was little more than baby food at that point. I guess our the “warm” setting on our slow cooker is quite warm, so continued to cook down the vegetables.
Mack wasn’t as averse to the chili as much as I was, and what flavours we could discern were interesting, but not outstanding (we chalked it up to the cocoa). But more than anything, it was hard to get over the texture.
Vegetarian chili with sweet potatoes
Lesson learned: always watch the cooking time, even with a slow cooker! Next up: a meat stew of some sort.
Only Here for the Food 
TOOOO bad about the chili – it sounds really tasty and I love a hardy bowl of chili after a long cold day!
🙂
valerie
(you ARE the cooking Queen these days!)
The green onions are a nice touch, hopefully they helped with the texture! I have the same challenges with my slow cooker staying too hot on the keep warm setting, but Ive found with the ceramic insert (I think ceramic?) that the food stays HOT for at least 2 hours, after turned to “OFF”. I still use it a lot though as it’s so convenient, especially for beans.
That’s interesting with the cinnamon…………. I have Mark Bittman’s how to cook everything vegetarian and I remember a black bean chili with instant coffee but the cocoa is new to me
Keep up the great work! I use your site to find new places to try.
Thanks again.
Paul
Gord and I are slowcooker aficionados (because we’re pretty lazy). Try pulled pork; there are tons of recipes online and you can’t really screw it up. Honestly, a pork shoulder, can of (non-diet) coke or root beer, vinegar, spices and Worcestershire sauce is really all you need to impress people.
Valerie – it was my fault really, but I learned a valuable lesson!
Katrina – that sounds about right…the “keep warm” name of the setting is a bit misleading! Coffee makes more sense than cinnamon in a black bean chili I’d think, especially after trying this recipe.
Paul – thanks for reading!
Andrea – pulled pork is definitely on my list! And it’s not lazy – it’s being creative with whatever time you have. Still a home cooked meal :).