After a long day of work, is there anything better than the mouth-watering smell of a home-cooked meal? That’ what we love most about the slow cooker. Plus, its low-temperature cooking helps tenderize tougher (and more affordable) meats, such as beef cubes and blade roast. Simplicity and savings? Yes, please!

A few basic rules for using a slow cooker

1. Roast your pieces of meat in a pan to give them a nice colour, and deglaze them with a little water, broth, or wine, and add this liquid to your slow cooker. This step helps enhance the natural flavours. If you like a thicker sauce, you can lightly coat your meat with flour before roasting it; this provides a smoother texture.
2. Place the ingredients that take longer to cook, like root vegetables (parsnip, turnip, carrots, potatoes, etc.) at the bottom of the slow cooker, and add your meat on top. More delicate vegetables, on the other hand, like snow peas and spinach, as well as fresh herbs, should only be added in the last hour or so of cooking time.
3. Add seasonings and liquid (broth, wine, juice, etc.) to cover the ingredients half or 2/3 of the way. This step is important as it keeps your meat from drying out.

Pro tips

1. Do not remove the lid during cooking: the steam will escape, slowing it down.
2. To limit the risk of food poisoning, never use frozen meat, as it will need much more time than fresh or thawed meat to reach a temperature at which bacteria stops growing. To learn about safe thawing techniques, click
3. Never let your food cool off in the slow cooker before putting it in the fridge or freezer—it will take much too long. To avoid bacterial growth, quickly transfer your food to a glass or plastic container designed for this purpose and put it away.

You’re all set! You can leave for work with complete peace of mind. Your meal will be ready and waiting for you when you get back, given that it generally takes 7 to 8 hours to cook a meal in the slow cooker.

A few slow cooker recipes

What’s great about the slow cooker is that you can use it for so many different recipes, from soup to stew to ribs to a tasty vegetarian dish. Even chicken thighs will become super flavourful and flake easily with a fork. Here are some favourite recipes you can easily modify to your liking.

• Vegetable, wild rice, and tofu soup
• Whole chicken with sage butter and onions
• Pork short rib chili
• Slow cooker chicken fajitas to freeze
• Indian-style lentil curry to freeze

Look out for specials on meat in your flyer or opt for bulk formats, like Prix Club products: the slow cooker is the best tool for making large quantities of food to be canned or frozen.