Set It and Forget It: Easy Vegan Slow Cooker Recipes

Irish Stew (A Virtual Vegan)

In this age of expensive food, a slow cooker (Instant Pots are also good that do several jobs including slow-cooking) is a great idea to save money on grocery bills, and prepare home-cooked comfort food. As long as you buy a new safe one and use it properly, it should keep you in good food for years.

If you worry about leaving the house, just put it to ‘fast cook’ and stick around for a few hours, while your food cooks. Although they are good for dried beans, know that kidney beans in particular have a chemical that needs boiling first for 10 minutes, so do this or use tinned (temperatures won’t get up enough to kill off the toxin).

Slow cookers use less electricity than ovens, so although air-fryers are good for quick meals, if you prefer slow-cooked stews and casseroles, these are a good idea. Place root veggies (that take longer to cook) near the heat source, and softer ones near the end of cooking cycles, so they don’t turn to mush.

Keep trailing wire on counters away from little hands and paws. Keep these recipes away from pets, due to unsafe ingredients (mushrooms, garlic, onion, shallots, spices, chocolate, fresh dough, citrus etc).

Unless you have a food waste bin (made into biogas), just bin acidic or spicy produce scraps like peppers, onion/garlic/shallot/leeks/chives (and lemon/rhubarb scraps), to avoid harm to earthworms and other compost creatures.

For tinned ingredients, rinse/remove lids (or pop ring-pulls over holes) then step on the can to pinch the inner rims together, to avoid wildlife getting trapped at recycling points.

Vegan Stew with Ale and Pearl Barley (The Veg Space) combines chestnut mushrooms and veggies with pearl barley in a thick beery gravy. You can also make this recipe on the stovetop.

A book of vegan slow cooker recipes

Vegan Slow Cooker Recipes is packed with simple recipes from breakfast to snacks to mains and sweet treats. All by a professional chef. Recipes include: