Slow Night

The thing I love most about my slow cooker – oh hi! Didn’t see you come in; have a seat, grab a coffee. *ahem*. As I was saying, the thing I love most about my slow cooker is that it allows me to prepare food on a weeknight that I would normally never have time for. I mean, I work, people. Yes, it is an early schedule, and I am home before 5, but the last thing I want to do when I get home (and the last thing my kids want me to do) is rush past them into the kitchen so that I can start cooking.

This means that I was forced have learned to master two things – 1) the art of the 30-minute meal, and 2) the use of the slow cooker. I know, I’ve gone on about my slow cooker before, but besides the obvious benefits – dinner is ready when you get home; you always have leftovers; dinner is ready when you get home – using the slow cooker means that not only is dinner ready when you get home (have I mentioned that one?), but it can be a dinner that you would otherwise never attempt to cook on a weeknight when you get home at 5 and you need to cuddle your kids for a while before you can even fathom heading into the kitchen.

I mean, I don’t really need to use the slow cooker if I’m making, say, fajitas, because I could do those on the stove in less than 20 minutes. If I’m making fajitas in the slow cooker, it’s purely for the convenience factor of – say it with me – dinner being ready when you get home. Same thing for oatmeal. Oatmeal is traditionally not something that one would allot 12 hours for the preparation of. But it’s fun to plug the oatmeal in at night and then eat it in the morning.

 Anyway, what I’m talking about is the pure decadence of eating something like a whole roast chicken on a weeknight. Or a pot roast. (which I made for Monday night’s dinner. Yumm.) Or roasted root vegetables, mine and my family’s favourite. Never would I attempt to make roasted root vegetables on, say, a Tuesday, because my kids would probably have mutinied by 6:30 pm, by which time the roots would probably be little more than halfway cooked.

Enter the slow cooker, and voila! Roasted roots on a weeknight. Stir up a little quinoa and some steamed broccoli to go with it (15 minutes, total), and comforting decadence is yours. Well mine, actually, because it’s been a long day, and I don’t feel like sharing.

Roasted Roots in the Slow Cooker

Large slow cooker

(I do all the prep the night before, and keep the stone in the fridge until morning)

• 5-6 lbs of a variety of roots (I like carrots, parsnips, sweet potatoes, onions and rutabagas), peeled and chopped into about 1 ½-2” pieces.
• Salt
• Pepper
• Garlic (optional)
• Basil (optional)
• Chopped fresh parsley (optional)
• Olive oil

Put all ingredients in your slow cooker stone, and using your hands, toss everything together to coat.

Cook on low, 8-9 hours, or on high, 4-5 hours.

Don’t tell your children that they are eating rutabagas.
***
*SoundBITE*

Turn your leftover roasted roots into a delicious soup by simply pureeing the veggies while adding enough chicken or vegetable stock to suit your texture preference. You’ll probably need to add a little more salt and pepper, and then dig in to this vitamin-packed, nutritionally-dense  meal.

Comments

[No Mother Earth]

Okay, gonna have to try this one. I like root vegetables, and I am getting so sick of the same veggies over and over again because I have no imagination.

[Don Mills Diva]

I am definitely going to try this one - pureed into soup - YUM!