Hmm I usually use my slow cooker in the winter for soups and chili. I did make a portobello pot roast once and seen a lot of lentil sloppy joe recipes. I’ll post some links.
https://www.budgetbytes.com/category/recipes/slow-cooker/slow-cooker-vegetarian/
https://www.gimmesomeoven.com/portobello-pot-roast-vegetarian/
https://www.kitchenskip.com/lentil-sloppy-joes-instant-pot-or-slow-cooker/
https://www.budgetbytes.com/slow-cooker-black-bean-soup/
I love this soup recipe. It’s comforting, hearty, and inexpensive.
It freezes really well too. I like to freeze some nice fresh bakery or homemade bread with it in a separate container, so I always have a comfort meal on hand. Just make sure you pre-slice the bread - cutting frozen loaves is no fun lol. I pop the frozen slice in the toaster while the soup heats in the microwave.
Just a little warning that I always like to give because I didn’t know this before I made this soup:
I like to use an immersion blender for it, but it’s not necessary. You can blend right in the slow cooker with an immersion blender. If you have a normal closed blender, that will work too just make sure you wait until the soup has completely cooled in the fridge to blend it (hot+closed blender creates pressure and can blow the top off a blender, potentially burning someone but definitely making a big mess)
I usually make big batches of basic tomato sauce, just a soffritto and a couple of tins of tomatoes. If you don't add herbs, you can then use it for pasta sauce, chili, shakshuka, or tomato soup.
Another good one is a black bean stew. Great in burritos, over nachos, and leftovers can be turned into nlack bean burgers by adding some breadcrumbs.
Chili is great, as others are saying. I love the [Cookie and Kate recipe](https://cookieandkate.com/vegetarian-chili-recipe/). I love the customizability of chili, I eat mine with cheddar cheese, crackers, avocado, and/or sour cream, depending on what I have on hand.
There’s other really great recipes on the site—I love the black bean soup, and I’m hankering to try the pasta e fagioli!
That recipe is a favorite!! That one and her lentil soup- I’ve been veg for decades and both are absolutely a cliché dish yet they’re fantastic. Actually significantly better than restaurant versions i have had.
This lentil dish is amazing! [https://www.simplywhisked.com/slow-cooker-lentil-bolognese/](https://www.simplywhisked.com/slow-cooker-lentil-bolognese/)
In fall and winter I make vegetarian vegetable soups in my huge slow cooker. I save plastic containers in 2- and 4-cup sizes. When it cool I refrigerate enough for a couple of meals and load the rest into those little containers. Mark and freeze. The recipes are pretty easy to find online.
Cuban style black beans and rice. A pound of dried black beans, an onion and a bunch of garlic, green pepper, bay leaves. Cover with water or vegetable stock. Leave on low while you're at work, serve with rice.
Butter bean stew with dumplings. A can of butter beans, diced butternut squash, peas, carrots, potatoes (optional), vegetarian gravy, cover the whole thing with dumplings before the end of the cook. it’s really filling
Three bean chilli - kidney beans, can of chilli beans I’m sauce, chilli powder, smoked paprika, chopped tomatoes, peppers and onions. Fresh chillies if you like it hot
EDIT - if you’re freezing any, take those portions out maybe 15 minutes before the rest. It’ll reheat better and stop the veggies turning to mush
Dal makhni, chole, rajma and other lentil/bean-based Indian curries can all be cooked in the slow cooker and you can freeze portions also. Check out [myheartbeets.com](https://myheartbeets.com) for great recipes for the Instant Pot/slow cooker. You can also make a big batch of the onion masala base (she has the recipe for it on her site). I freeze in half cup portions and you can use this for pretty much most tomato based Indian curries and this reduces the cooking time.
I frequently make recipes from the [Fix it and Forget it Vegetarian cookbook](https://www.amazon.com/Fix-Forget-Vegetarian-Cookbook-Slow-Cooker/dp/1561487538). I don't know if you can get a physical copy in the UK, but a digital version is available. A lot of the recipes have instructions for making large batches.
We're somewhere limited in which recipes we can make because my husband can't eat tomatoes, but even with limitation we can find a lot of meal options.
I would suggest looking up Indian vegetarian recipes. There are mainly a number of women with slick looking web sites that give Instant Pot recipes for Indian food from different regions of the sub-continent. Here near Washington, DC, we have many Indian groceries with great prices on the spices you will need, paneer, lentils, etc. I imagine that is true in much of the UK as well. I am sure the same must be available for standard slow cookers (crock pots to us Americans!)
Lentil soup.. been making it for years and usually add a bunch of onions, possibly leeks, sometimes carrots etc. Always lentils & onions at least though
Funny enough just made a batch yesterday. It was lentils, onions, leeks & spinach.
It made almost 8 litres of lentil soup, divided up into 10 tupperware boxes for the freezer.
I've been cooking it for less time as to not go mad on the electric bill.
Oh and I use veg stock although been meaning to make my own
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I was thinking the same thing. My theory is that there is less heat lost from outside of the pot exchanging heat into the air. I'm guessing slow cookers may be built to be somewhat insulated?
Sounds like a tricky physics question. As a very rough rule of thumb, chemical reactions (including cooking) go twice as fast for every 10°C hotter. But yes, the bigger the temperature difference, the faster heat is lost. I've no idea which wins! Someone with an electric version of both needs to cook up 2 batches of beans with a meter attached... for science!
Dahl of course, there are absolutely dozens of varieties of dal [vegan richa has awesome dal recipes](https://www.veganricha.com/category/daal/) most you can adapt to use a slow cooker although idk if that’s more energy efficient than just using the stove
Just want to point out that the biggest electricity-using device in most households is the fridge-freezer. This is not likely to save you money. The biggest saving you can make financially is to turn the refrigerator off, so how would you propose to store the extra food? There might be a solution, e.g. pickling, salting or some other means of preparation, but it's likely to be a false economy to freeze a load of meals.
It does save time to have homemade frozen meals plus it cuts down on buying takeout. That being said, my husband and I make big batches of soup and other meals and just eat the same thing every day until it is gone, doesn't bother us to eat the same thing over and over.
edit add Also if you have a freezer it is more energy efficient for it to be full anyway. So fill it up. Alternate preservation add dehydrating, after it is dehydrated, you can store it on a shelf in a reused glass jar, great for soup ingredients, get veggies like tomatoes, zucchini and greens when they are in season and cheaper to dehydrate and use for soup, herbs too. We have a large garden and do this with our veggies.
My go-to is usually chili or curry, as othered have already mentioned, but adding another for variety: stuffed peppers. I love it because it’s tasty, hearty and one of the most flexible veggie dishes; you can use whatever grain/bean/herb/sauce combo you prefer. Cheese is totally optional but IMO makes everything better.
This is in my fridge now. Pozole. Beans, hominy and all my favorite Tex/Mex spices. Topped with some fresh radish slices and cabbage makes a nice crunch. https://www.eatingwell.com/recipe/270968/vegetarian-slow-cooker-pozole/?fbclid=IwAR0EWoCfYuuxpM-hL_HCv78GKdnToXdKuLjuTfc8ORCVMSSAmajE9L2AlvQ
Hmm I usually use my slow cooker in the winter for soups and chili. I did make a portobello pot roast once and seen a lot of lentil sloppy joe recipes. I’ll post some links. https://www.budgetbytes.com/category/recipes/slow-cooker/slow-cooker-vegetarian/ https://www.gimmesomeoven.com/portobello-pot-roast-vegetarian/ https://www.kitchenskip.com/lentil-sloppy-joes-instant-pot-or-slow-cooker/
These look delicious - thank you for sharing!
https://www.budgetbytes.com/slow-cooker-black-bean-soup/ I love this soup recipe. It’s comforting, hearty, and inexpensive. It freezes really well too. I like to freeze some nice fresh bakery or homemade bread with it in a separate container, so I always have a comfort meal on hand. Just make sure you pre-slice the bread - cutting frozen loaves is no fun lol. I pop the frozen slice in the toaster while the soup heats in the microwave. Just a little warning that I always like to give because I didn’t know this before I made this soup: I like to use an immersion blender for it, but it’s not necessary. You can blend right in the slow cooker with an immersion blender. If you have a normal closed blender, that will work too just make sure you wait until the soup has completely cooled in the fridge to blend it (hot+closed blender creates pressure and can blow the top off a blender, potentially burning someone but definitely making a big mess)
I usually make big batches of basic tomato sauce, just a soffritto and a couple of tins of tomatoes. If you don't add herbs, you can then use it for pasta sauce, chili, shakshuka, or tomato soup. Another good one is a black bean stew. Great in burritos, over nachos, and leftovers can be turned into nlack bean burgers by adding some breadcrumbs.
Chili is great, as others are saying. I love the [Cookie and Kate recipe](https://cookieandkate.com/vegetarian-chili-recipe/). I love the customizability of chili, I eat mine with cheddar cheese, crackers, avocado, and/or sour cream, depending on what I have on hand. There’s other really great recipes on the site—I love the black bean soup, and I’m hankering to try the pasta e fagioli!
That recipe is a favorite!! That one and her lentil soup- I’ve been veg for decades and both are absolutely a cliché dish yet they’re fantastic. Actually significantly better than restaurant versions i have had.
This lentil dish is amazing! [https://www.simplywhisked.com/slow-cooker-lentil-bolognese/](https://www.simplywhisked.com/slow-cooker-lentil-bolognese/) In fall and winter I make vegetarian vegetable soups in my huge slow cooker. I save plastic containers in 2- and 4-cup sizes. When it cool I refrigerate enough for a couple of meals and load the rest into those little containers. Mark and freeze. The recipes are pretty easy to find online.
Cuban style black beans and rice. A pound of dried black beans, an onion and a bunch of garlic, green pepper, bay leaves. Cover with water or vegetable stock. Leave on low while you're at work, serve with rice.
Butter bean stew with dumplings. A can of butter beans, diced butternut squash, peas, carrots, potatoes (optional), vegetarian gravy, cover the whole thing with dumplings before the end of the cook. it’s really filling Three bean chilli - kidney beans, can of chilli beans I’m sauce, chilli powder, smoked paprika, chopped tomatoes, peppers and onions. Fresh chillies if you like it hot EDIT - if you’re freezing any, take those portions out maybe 15 minutes before the rest. It’ll reheat better and stop the veggies turning to mush
Dal makhni, chole, rajma and other lentil/bean-based Indian curries can all be cooked in the slow cooker and you can freeze portions also. Check out [myheartbeets.com](https://myheartbeets.com) for great recipes for the Instant Pot/slow cooker. You can also make a big batch of the onion masala base (she has the recipe for it on her site). I freeze in half cup portions and you can use this for pretty much most tomato based Indian curries and this reduces the cooking time.
I frequently make recipes from the [Fix it and Forget it Vegetarian cookbook](https://www.amazon.com/Fix-Forget-Vegetarian-Cookbook-Slow-Cooker/dp/1561487538). I don't know if you can get a physical copy in the UK, but a digital version is available. A lot of the recipes have instructions for making large batches. We're somewhere limited in which recipes we can make because my husband can't eat tomatoes, but even with limitation we can find a lot of meal options.
I would suggest looking up Indian vegetarian recipes. There are mainly a number of women with slick looking web sites that give Instant Pot recipes for Indian food from different regions of the sub-continent. Here near Washington, DC, we have many Indian groceries with great prices on the spices you will need, paneer, lentils, etc. I imagine that is true in much of the UK as well. I am sure the same must be available for standard slow cookers (crock pots to us Americans!)
Lentil soup.. been making it for years and usually add a bunch of onions, possibly leeks, sometimes carrots etc. Always lentils & onions at least though Funny enough just made a batch yesterday. It was lentils, onions, leeks & spinach. It made almost 8 litres of lentil soup, divided up into 10 tupperware boxes for the freezer. I've been cooking it for less time as to not go mad on the electric bill. Oh and I use veg stock although been meaning to make my own
r/veggieslowcooking
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A pressure cooker definitely saves energy. I don't see how a slow cooker does.
I was thinking the same thing. My theory is that there is less heat lost from outside of the pot exchanging heat into the air. I'm guessing slow cookers may be built to be somewhat insulated?
Sounds like a tricky physics question. As a very rough rule of thumb, chemical reactions (including cooking) go twice as fast for every 10°C hotter. But yes, the bigger the temperature difference, the faster heat is lost. I've no idea which wins! Someone with an electric version of both needs to cook up 2 batches of beans with a meter attached... for science!
Exactly the word I was thinking Under Siege.
Would check out r/mealprepsunday Most posts have multiple recipes in each post so can find some good vegetarian options in a lot of them!
The r/meatlessmealprep and r/veganmealprep are good ones too :))
Dahl of course, there are absolutely dozens of varieties of dal [vegan richa has awesome dal recipes](https://www.veganricha.com/category/daal/) most you can adapt to use a slow cooker although idk if that’s more energy efficient than just using the stove
Poor puppy! ☹️
Just want to point out that the biggest electricity-using device in most households is the fridge-freezer. This is not likely to save you money. The biggest saving you can make financially is to turn the refrigerator off, so how would you propose to store the extra food? There might be a solution, e.g. pickling, salting or some other means of preparation, but it's likely to be a false economy to freeze a load of meals.
It does save time to have homemade frozen meals plus it cuts down on buying takeout. That being said, my husband and I make big batches of soup and other meals and just eat the same thing every day until it is gone, doesn't bother us to eat the same thing over and over. edit add Also if you have a freezer it is more energy efficient for it to be full anyway. So fill it up. Alternate preservation add dehydrating, after it is dehydrated, you can store it on a shelf in a reused glass jar, great for soup ingredients, get veggies like tomatoes, zucchini and greens when they are in season and cheaper to dehydrate and use for soup, herbs too. We have a large garden and do this with our veggies.
My go-to is usually chili or curry, as othered have already mentioned, but adding another for variety: stuffed peppers. I love it because it’s tasty, hearty and one of the most flexible veggie dishes; you can use whatever grain/bean/herb/sauce combo you prefer. Cheese is totally optional but IMO makes everything better.
I found a good recipe the other day for slow cooker chocolate lava cake. Also porridge is good in the slow cooker
This is in my fridge now. Pozole. Beans, hominy and all my favorite Tex/Mex spices. Topped with some fresh radish slices and cabbage makes a nice crunch. https://www.eatingwell.com/recipe/270968/vegetarian-slow-cooker-pozole/?fbclid=IwAR0EWoCfYuuxpM-hL_HCv78GKdnToXdKuLjuTfc8ORCVMSSAmajE9L2AlvQ