Best slow cookers
5 best slow cookers to buy
Slow cookers are a great addition to any kitchen. Think of them as the equivalent of a TiVo box for cooking. You still have to throw the ingredients together, but you can time-shift the results. So while the idea's old-fashioned, the results are perfect for today's busy lives, and here you'll find the five best slow cookers that you can currently buy.
The most popular way to take advantage of a slow cooker is to throw a bunch of ingredients together in the morning and then return from work to a delicious, piping hot soup, stew or curry – but you can also make gourmet overnight porridge and more.
Larger-capacity slow cookers are great for batch-cooking healthy meals for the week, and – best of all – you can just throw in the ingredients, go to work, and come back to a seriously tasty dinner. And some dishes – for example, pulled pork – just need to be cooked as slowly as possible for the tastiest results.
The best slow cookers to buy
1. Morphy Richards 460005 Digital Slow Cooker: The best all-round slow cooker
When you make a one-pot dish, you usually start by searing the meat or sautéing base ingredients such as onions and garlic. Most slow cookers don't let you do this, but the Morphy Richards' non-stick bowl lifts out and is hob-safe (gas or electric but not induction) so you can sear or sauté on the hob with no need to dirty another pan.
Its other unusual feature is digital controls for the cooking time. There's no way to delay the start time but you can cook for anywhere between 4 and ten hours (in half-hour increments) on low or high heat. Plus there's a Keep Warm setting for when it's done – your food stays ready to eat for two hours.
The only downside is that the pot is made of lightweight metal, which means it's easy to carry to the table but doesn't retain its heat like a traditional crock pot.
Find Here To Read More About Morphy Richards Accents 460005 Digital Slow Cooker, 3.5 L - Red
2. Lakeland 3.5 Litre Brushed Chrome Electric Family Slow Cooker: The best budget option
This is a simple slow cooker with a traditional "crock pot" design: it has a heavy ceramic bowl rather than a lightweight metal one. So it's heavier to carry to the table, but in return it holds its heat well when it gets there. It's also oven-safe to 150°C, but sadly not non-stick.
Controls are very simple – you switch it onto high, low or auto. The latter heats on high until the dish is hot, then automatically switches to a low setting for slower, more economical, all-day cooking.
It's big enough for a family meal, but if you want to cook huge dishes, there's a near-identical 6-litre Lakeland slow cooker too.
Learn More About Lakeland 3.5 Litre Brushed Chrome Electric Family Slow Cooker Click Here
3. Tefal RK302E15 8-in-1 Multi Cooker: The most versatile slow cooker
Eight is perhaps an exaggeration, but this is certainly the most versatile slow cooker you can buy. Technically its modes are: quick rice, white rice, brown rice, grains, porridge, slow cooking, steaming and dessert.
It will serve you well both as a slow cooker and a rice cooker. And it comes with a plastic tray for steaming. We also rate the porridge setting highly – throw in all the ingredients, put the lid on and it cooks superb porridge without bubbling over and making a mess.
Much like the Morphy Richards, its pot is made of lightweight metal, so it's easy to carry but doesn't hold heat well when serving.
The Tefal represents great value for money thanks to its multiple functions – in particular slow cooking and rice cooking.
Click Here To Read More About Tefal RK302E15 8-in-1 Multi Cooker, Stainless Steel
4. Crock-Pot Slow Cooker 6 Litre: The best slow cooker for big families
This is an attractive-looking slow cooker with a large 6-litre capacity – enough for a big family or batch-cooking. Like the Morphy Richards, its pot is designed to be hob-safe. This means you can sear and sauté in the pot on your hob (gas or electric but not induction) at the beginning of your recipe, which saves you from washing an extra frying pan.
It also boasts digital controls which let you select the cooking time, in increments of 30 minutes. The remaining time is shown on the digital display. A knob beside this selects between high and low slow cooking temperatures. The cooker automatically switches to a Keep Warm setting when the time's up.
The only minor niggles are that the power cable is a bit shorter than most, and that the non-stick aluminium pot is easy to carry to the table but doesn't hold heat well.
Read More About Crock-Pot Slow Cooker, 6 Litre Find Here
5. Sage by Heston Blumenthal Risotto Plus: The best slow cooker for foodies
The Sage Risotto Plus – previously known as the Sage Multi Cooker – is a bit like the Tefal 8-in-1 in that it offers a number of cooking modes. But as with all Sage products, it's been designed with foodies in mind – most notably, it has an innovative Risotto setting.
To make a risotto you simply combine all the ingredients and press a button. The stock is then bubbled in a special way to agitate the rice as it cooks – effectively it's using bubbles to stir the risotto so you don't have to.
There are slow cooking and rice cooking/steaming programmes. And very usefully the Sage also has a Sear setting, which means that before slow cooking or making a risotto, you can sear the meat or sauté the base ingredients.
Build quality is superb, but it's expensive, and despite the price tag there's no timer for the slow cooker. You set the cooking mode and then it just cooks until you turn it off again, whereas if you use it as a rice cooker, the cooking stops as soon as it's done.
Click Here For To Know More About Sage by Heston Blumenthal the Multi Cooker, 3.7 Litre
