All enthusiastic home cooks have a kitchen stuffed with gadgets and gizmos. We have a little knife just used to make roses out of radishes, there is the spiky thing for baking spuds, and an electric carving knife that granddad uses on Christmas Day, or he would if it wasn’t lost behind that automatic sauce-making machine. But a slow cooker is always used. Soups for your Slow Cooker will be its companion.
I can live without all of those other gadgets but ask me to give up my slow cooker and this mild-mannered old lady will likely let herself down with a sprinkle of bad language. It truly is a boon to anyone who cooks and you don’t even have to be good at it to prepare delicious meals.
Diana Peacock presents a book filled with ideas for soups made in the slow cooker and they are foolproof. It’s hard to overcook a soup and the slow cooker will allow you to create warming and delicious soups with very little effort. If you can chop and stir and put a plug in a socket then you are set.
It’s winter and money is tight but we still want to eat well. A hearty soup and some fresh bread will give you a memorable meal, and soup-making becomes addictive. All these recipes will give you a start but once you are confident with the techniques you will be writing your own recipes.
I write about authentic Indian food but I still appreciate those old-fashioned Anglo dishes that use curry powder. No, it’s not something you find in Indian homes but a bright yellow Madras curry powder is the indispensible ingredient in such dishes as Coronation Chicken and Curried Chicken Soup. The author suggests serving this with naan bread but one could consider stirring in some leftover cooked rice to make a very substantial soup.
Lentils are still cheap so Tomato and Lentil Soup will feed a family for very little cash. Use fresh tomatoes during the summer but I would choose good quality tinned toms during the winter when the fresh tomatoes are like pale bullets. Just flavour with dried herbs if you don’t have a supply of fresh.
It’s the festive season and we have the remains of that turkey. You can either keep it in the fridge till it goes fuzzy or you can transform the cooked meat into a meal to feed another crowd with just the addition of some seasonal vegetables.
Soups for your Slow Cooker – How to make delicious soups for all occasions in your slow cooker is a practical book and full of delicious ideas. Nothing cheffy here, it’s just recipes for good economic food. You don’t need skill, just that slow cooker.
Soups for your Slow Cooker – How to make delicious soups for all occasions in your slow cooker
Author: Diana Peacock
Publisher: How To Books
Price: £7.99
ISBN 978-1-905862-20-7
Cookbook review by Chrissie Walker © 2018