After a long, blustery winter day, it feels as though there is nothing more luxurious than coming home after dark to the aroma of a warm dinner already prepared and perched on the kitchen bench top, just waiting to be devoured. Just shy of having someone there to serve it for you too, the next best option is to have it warm, fragrant and ready for ladling, spooning or general picking at without spending 20-minutes-to-an-hour preparing it. It's exactly this convenience that makes a slow cooker recipe so enticing.
Yes, you might have to spend a little extra time in the morning prepping ingredients, but all you need to do is add them all into a single crock pot, and you'll return, hours later to a comforting soup or stew with gloriously tender meat and supple vegetables.
In fact, the joys of the slow cooker know no bounds when the result of a minimal effort task is a warm, comforting bowl of something that has been independently bubbling away in the background for hours on end. It gives your ingredients a chance to really get to know each other – and soak up some deeper flavours along the way.
With the cold months arriving on our doorstep, now is the perfect time to bust out that bulky slow cooker from its dusty place on your top panty shelf, and get started with one of these delicious slow cooker recipes below.
1. Beef Ragu by Orla Hunt
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2. Soy-Ginger Chicken by Martha Stewart
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3. Marry Me Chicken by Sarah Pound
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4. Chicken Enchilada Casserole by Taylor Dadds
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5. Coconut Beef Curry by Dinner at the Bells
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6. Carrot and Parsnip Soup by Bored of Lunch
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7. Whole Chicken Soup by Harry Stockbridge
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8. Spinach and Riccotta Lasagna by Sarah Rossi
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9. Crockpot Beef and Noodles by Eat It or Go Hungry
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Looking for more comfort meals to add to your winter meal rotation? Try Miriam Al-Noah's recipe for a hearty, brothy minestrone soup. Or alternatively, check out our list of the best winter recipes for warming the soul.
