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Cooking Low & Slow

Friday, November 18th, 2011

The slow cooker is making a comeback for busy families to prepare home-cooked meals with ease. Use it to make one-pot meals, succulent roasts with vegetables or even desserts. Here’s how to slow-cook your way to hearty and comforting meals.

Get a Jumpstart

Get a jumpstart on dinner. Assemble all of the ingredients in your slow cooker’s removable stoneware and refrigerate overnight. In the morning, simply place it in the base and turn on the heat. Slow cooking for four to six hours naturally results in moist and tender dishes because steam is formed as the food cooks. If your recipe calls for added liquid, consider Swanson® Chicken or Beef 100% Natural Broths. Both varieties are perfectly simmered with garden vegetables and sun-ripened herbs to add rich flavor to soups, stews and more. Watching your sodium intake? Try Swanson® Natural Goodness™ Chicken Broth with one-third less sodium per serving than regular varieties.

Stretch and Save

Stretch slow-cooked meals and improve their nutrient quality by including healthful and affordable whole grains, beans and legumes. Weis Quality Whole Grain Brown Fast Rice heats in the microwave in just 90 seconds and without the addition of liquid. Each pouch contains two cups of rice with two grams of fiber per serving. Use it in any recipe that calls for cooked rice as a quick and easy way to eat more whole grains.

Cap the Salt

When slow cooking with recipe-ready canned foods, look for broth, tomatoes, vegetables and beans labeled “no added salt” or “less salt.” Season recipes with The Spice Hunter® Salt-Free Herbs, Spices and Blends that are sourced at the peak of flavor and freshness from the world’s best growing regions. For best results, add half the amount of dried herbs and spices at the start of the cooking cycle and add the remaining seasoning to taste just before serving. Try their Chef’s Shake and Granulated Garlic in this recipe for Slow Cooker Stuffed Peppers.

Simmer to Perfection

Slow cooking meats and vegetables with dried herbs and spices is a simple way to make a richly flavored meal. Add acidic ingredients like citrus juice, cooking wine or tomatoes to tenderize slow-cooked meats to a melt-in-yourmouth texture. Furmano’s® Tomatoes are packed within hours of being harvested and are seasoned with 100 percent natural sea salt to reduce the sodium content by half. Look for plain Diced, Crushed and Chunky Crushed varieties or those seasoned with Roasted Garlic and Olive Oil, Basil, Garlic and Oregano or Green Pepper and Onion.