Slow Cooked: 200 exciting, new recipes for your slow cooker (25 page)

Both my mother and the French adore making remoulade with them. Celeriac is thinly shredded before being dressed with mayonnaise, mustard, crème fraîche and parsley and served as a winter salad. The tanginess is perfect with the gentle flavour of this humble root. This soup omits the mayonnaise, but keeps the essence in a much more warming way.

SERVES 2 WITH LEFTOVERS (REHEATS WELL FOR LUNCH)

1 whole celeriac, peeled and chopped into 5mm chunks

1 onion, finely diced

2 stalks of celery (optional)

2 tablespoons wholegrain or Dijon mustard (not English)

500ml hot vegetable or chicken stock

3 tablespoons crème fraîche or cream cheese

handful of chopped fresh parsley, to serve

salt and pepper

Peeling a celeriac is easier than you’d think from looking at its
Doctor Who
villain-like visage. I usually look for the smallest, least knobbly one I can find, but if I can only get a tendril-y one, I chop them off. I then double peel, taking off the outer layer and then the first layer of the naked celeriac to get rid of any persistent lumps or bumps and give it a good wash after peeling. Use a heavy knife to chop it into even pieces.

Put the celeriac chunks into the slow-cooker crock along with the onion and the celery. I love the extra oomph of flavour these add, but if you don’t have any handy, don’t worry. My friend The Skint Foodie drew my attention to just how tricky the ‘1 stalk of celery’ in recipes is on a budget. I got round that for a while by growing celeriac and using the shoots and leaves until my neighbour ‘tidied’ up and threw them out.

Season well with salt and pepper. Add the mustard, stir well and cover with the stock. This soup works well as a vegetarian dish as long as you use a good veggie stock. Cook on low for 7–8 hours or high for 5–6 hours.

The celeriac will be slightly darker in colour when it is cooked and tender, but don’t worry about this. Using a hand blender, blitz the soup until as smooth as possible and then add the crème fraîche or cream cheese and allow to melt in. Blitz briefly again to make the soup light and creamy. If you are a mustard fiend, add a touch more, but I like the mellow note from slow cooking it. Serve garnished with the chopped parsley.

One of my favourite quick standby dinners is a bowl of steaming hot chowder. Basically a chunky soup rich with potatoes and milk, it’s both easy to make and incredibly fortifying. It uses store cupboard and freezer essentials to the fullest effect, all with very little effort and when cooked in the slow cooker, very little washing up. I think this might be my favourite everyday soup recipe.

SERVES 2 WITH JUST ENOUGH FOR LUNCH LEFTOVERS

2 sweet potatoes

1 medium potato

1 carrot

200g frozen and thawed sweetcorn

1 dried chilli

½ teaspoon ground mace

500ml hot vegetable or chicken stock

200ml milk

salt and pepper

Peel your sweet potatoes and cut into 2cm cubes. Do the same with your potato and carrot and place them all in the slow-cooker crock along with the thawed sweetcorn. Add the salt, pepper, chilli and mace and pour the hot stock over it all.

Put the lid on and cook on low for 7–8 hours. At this stage, ladle about one-third of the soup out of the crock and set it aside. Blend the remaining two-thirds of the soup with a hand blender or mash well with a potato masher.

Add the reserved soup back into the crock to give a lovely balance between a smooth and chunky texture. Pour the milk into the soup, put the lid back on the slow cooker and warm the soup through for another 30 minutes. Serve.

The soup is very filling so you won’t need anything with it. You’ll feel a bit like your dinner has given you a hug.

This soup was just made for the slow cooker. Slow-cooked onions, rich beef stock, a warm kick of brandy and soft melted cheese all mingle together to create the kind of meal that makes simple ingredients into something that feels very luxurious and decadent. I always used to make a big pan of this on Christmas Eve and I now can’t think why I stopped because it’s one of the best winter soups around.

SERVES 4

500g onions (not red)

25g butter

1 teaspoon brown sugar

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

2 tablespoons plain flour

½ teaspoon mustard powder

900ml hot beef stock

100ml vermouth

25ml brandy (optional, but excellent)

4–6 round slices of baguette, about 3cm thick

150g Emmental or mature Cheddar cheese, grated

salt and pepper

Start by caramelising your onions. Peel, halve then slice them into half moons about the thickness of a pound coin and add to the slow-cooker crock with the butter and sugar. Put the lid on the slow cooker and cook on low for at least 4 hours, or up to 6 hours.

At this stage, add the chopped garlic, plain flour, mustard powder and salt and pepper and stir well to combine with the melted butter and lovely oniony juices from the caramelising onions.

Pour the stock and the vermouth over the onions and stir well to make sure there are no lumps. Put the lid back on the slow cooker and allow it all to cook for 4 hours.

About 20 minutes before you are ready to eat, add the brandy (if using), put the rounds of bread in the crock, sprinkle the grated cheese over them, then put the lid back on to allow the cheese to melt and the bread to soak up some of the soup as is traditional. They don’t sink!

Scoop the bread out with a slotted spoon into bowls and ladle some of the soup over it. Serve with a generous helping of the soft sticky onions from the base of the crock. A glass of chilled white wine on the side doesn’t go amiss.

This is the kind of soup you don’t say very much about save a contented sigh or two while you eat it. But then you make it at least once a week because it’s just so good and so simple and actions speak much louder than words.

SERVES 2 (REHEATS BEAUTIFULLY FOR LUNCHES)

1 red pepper

1 yellow pepper

1 medium red onion

1 sweet potato

1 small fresh red chilli or ½ teaspoon chilli powder

1 teaspoon brown sugar

1 teaspoon paprika

1 × 400g tin chopped tomatoes

1 heaped tablespoon tomato purée

500ml hot chicken or vegetable stock

50ml single cream, to serve (optional)

Start by preparing your peppers. Cut the tops off and then halve. Scoop the seeds out and remove any of the white pith remaining as this can make them bitter. Cut the peppers into slices about 2–3cm wide and then cut each slice in small chunks of about 3cm. Dice the onion and the sweet potato to the same size.

Add them all to the slow-cooker crock. Cut the fresh chilli in half and remove the seeds if you don’t want too much heat. Add into the crock and sprinkle the sugar and paprika (and chilli powder, if using) over them all. Stir well to combine. Tip the chopped tomatoes, tomato purée and the hot stock over it all and stir again.

Put the lid on the slow cooker and cook the soup on low for 4–5 hours. When you are ready to serve, use a hand blender to blend the soup in the crock. The vegetables should be smooth without any lumps. Add the cream, if using, stir and serve with crusty bread on the side.

We spent time in Tuscany on holiday when we were kids and one of the best things we used to do was attend the
sagras
, or local food festivals, in the town near our friend’s house. We tried delicacies such as frog (like very, very small chicken legs), trout and wild boar, but my favourite was the
zuppa Etruscan
. It was a rich, tasty bean soup, thickened with stale bread and served with a generous scattering of Parmesan. I loved it, had two bowls and became a convert to bean soup forever as nobody does beans better than the Tuscans.

This soup is cooked twice, hence the name, meaning ‘re-boiled’. It can be made thick and stew-like to begin with and then loosened with water to go even further. Just don’t use fresh bread or it will become sticky. Stale bread is essential here.

SERVES 4 AND GETS BETTER WHEN COOKED AGAIN

1 onion

1 leek

2 carrots

2 stalks of celery

3 cloves of garlic

1 heaped tablespoon tomato purée

1 × 400g tin chopped tomatoes

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 litre hot vegetable or chicken stock

1 × 400g tin or 200g dried haricot, borlotti or butter beans

175g cabbage, kale or cavolo nero, finely shredded

150g stale bread

1 Parmesan rind (optional)

50g Parmesan, grated

salt and pepper

Start by chopping your vegetables to the same size so they all cook evenly. You want a dice of about 2cm. Chop the garlic as finely as possible, then add to the crock too. Put all the diced vegetables into the slow-cooker crock.

Add the tomato purée and the chopped tomatoes. Scatter in the dried oregano and the salt. I find the black pepper is best added toward the end here. Pour the hot stock over it all and add the beans.

Put the lid on the slow cooker and cook the soup on low for 6–8 hours. About 45 minutes before the end of the cooking time, add the shredded cabbage and the black pepper. You could eat the soup at this stage, but it’s so worth the second cooking to give it the rich flavour associated with the dish.

Allow the soup to cool down in the crock. You can leave it in there with the lid on and outside the fridge for about 6 hours. If you are leaving it longer, put the cooled soup in the fridge and transfer it back to the crock when you are ready to cook it again.

For the second heating, or ‘re-boiling’ as the name suggests, tear the bread into the soup and add the Parmesan rind to impart a savoury flavour (omit the Parmesan rind or use another Italian hard cheese instead to make this dish vegetarian). Put the lid on and cook on high for 2–3 hours. Do not cook for longer or the bread will be soggy. Serve in deep bowls, scattered with the grated Parmesan.

If you don’t have time to cook it again, cut the bread into rounds, place in the base of the bowl, ladle the soup over it and sprinkle with grated Parmesan.

I am one of the few people I know who came back from Amsterdam having really enjoyed the food. Most people dislike Dutch food’s reputation for stodge and cabbage, but I loved it. Similar to Irish food, but with more canals and pork, it enhanced my trip hugely. I came home with a particular love for this
erwtensoep
, or thick split pea and pork soup. Incredibly filling, very frugal and simple to make, it is the most effective antidote I know to cold and damp winter days. Kids especially love it, particularly when it’s called ‘hot dog soup’.

SERVES 6 AND REHEATS BEAUTIFULLY FOR LUNCH

2 pigs’ trotters

200g yellow split peas

1 pork spare rib chop

2 stalks of celery

2 potatoes, peeled

1 leek

1 onion

1 carrot

1 parsnip

½ celeriac

75g bacon, cubed

½ smoked pork sausage or 4–6 frankfurters, sliced

1 litre water

fresh flat-leaf parsley, to serve

salt and pepper

This dish is so simple to make. Start by putting your pigs’ trotters in a large pan of cold water on the hob and bringing it to the boil. Boil for 10 minutes and then drain and rinse any froth off them.

Layer half the split peas on the bottom of the slow-cooker crock and set the pigs’ trotters on top of them at each end of the crock. Nestle the pork chop in between both of them. Season well.

Prep your vegetables. You want them all finely diced to 2cm cubes so they cook evenly and at the same rate before breaking down to thicken the soup. Put half of them on top of the trotters, then layer the bacon and smoked sausage on top of the vegetables. Finish the layering with the remaining vegetables. Season well.

Pour the water over it all. The meat in the soup will create a wonderful thick, glossy stock so you don’t need to add any cubes or equivalent. Put the lid on the slow cooker and cook the soup on low for 8–9 hours.

Lift the lid off when you are ready to serve and remove the trotters. I discard mine as I love the flavour they impart, but don’t like the texture of the skin and cartilage. You may like it. Stir the soup together. The pork chop will have become so tender it collapses into the soup. Press the peas and the vegetables with the back of a spoon to break them up more and make sure the soup is lovely and thick.

Serve with a scattering of flat-leaf parsley. You don’t usually need any bread to accompany this soup as it is incredibly filling.

Of all the recipes in this book, this one gives me the greatest excitement to put in print. Not just a recipe for soup, it’s a little piece of family history for me as it originated with my great-grandmother, passing down through my granny Connie to my dad and then on to me. There’s something quite touching about a recipe that started off orally, then progressed to being scribbled on scraps of paper, making it into a proper published book. This is the only dish I remember my granny making as she died when I was six and it’s nice to have the connection with her.

The recipe has lasted this long because it’s really good. Thickened with pearl barley and split peas, it’s hale and hearty as well as frugal and filling. I make a big batch of this and have it for lunch in cold weather. It’s as comforting as pulling the curtains and curling up on the sofa on a cold winter’s night.

This soup is so simple to make in the slow cooker I’m sure my family won’t mind too much that I’ve tweaked it a little bit to be specific to this way of cooking.

SERVES 4 AND REHEATS WELL IF SERVING FEWER PEOPLE

400g beef shin

1 leek, sliced in half moons

1 onion, diced

1 carrot, diced

2 stalks of celery, diced

2 spring onions, sliced

1 bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce