Recipes By Sarah Digregorio
132 recipes found
Slow-Cooker Chicken Ramen With Bok Choy and Miso
The slow cooker puts a weeknight ramen fix within reach; don't skimp on the toppings here, which you can customize to your liking. They make each bowl feel special. Miso soup is traditionally made with dashi, an umami-rich stock made from kombu seaweed and dried bonito, a kind of tuna. But this recipe takes a different path to those deep flavors, substituting chicken broth and optional dried shiitake mushrooms, found in the produce department or international aisle of many grocery stores. Finally, a quick kombu steep adds umami. The ingredient is available at more specialty grocers and online, but feel free to leave it out. The soup will still be delicious.
Slow Cooker Shortcut Chicken Pozole
Part of the joy of pozole is topping it generously and exactly as you like, and this take on the original dish is no exception. Traditional red pozole often requires toasting and then puréeing dried chiles for a flavorful broth, but this version relies on canned chipotles in adobo sauce. Adjust the chiles to your taste: more if you like it, less if you don’t. This brothy, smoky-spicy chicken soup is sensational with crunchy add-ons like crushed chips, shaved cabbage and red onion. The pressure-cooker version of this recipe is available here.
Slow-Cooker Corn Chowder
The rich flavor of this lightly creamy chowder comes from slow-simmered corn cobs. After the kernels are removed, the cobs go into the slow cooker along with the potatoes and aromatics, where they infuse the broth as it slow-cooks. The corn kernels are added at the very end, so that they retain their fresh, poppy sweetness. Canned green chiles lend mild heat and tons of mellow, peppery flavor to go along with the sharper jalapeño. (If you come across fire-roasted canned green chiles, snap those up.) The miso adds a sweet-savory note that reinforces the corn flavor; but if you don’t have it on hand, add about two additional teaspoons of salt.
Slow Cooker Creamy Kale With Fontina and Bread Crumbs
This recipe, made in a slow cooker or on the stovetop, is a rich, satisfying way to eat hearty winter greens, a dish especially suited to a holiday table. Crunchy, lemony panko lends a crucial counterpoint to the creamy braised kale. Use any variety of kale you like, though collards or mustard greens would also work well. Fontina melts beautifully and is a flavorful but relatively mild cheese, making it ideal here. The cream cheese adds tang while stabilizing the fontina and keeping it creamy even as it sits on the table for a long meal.
Slow-Cooker Chicken Tinga Tacos
Tinga is a Pueblan dish of braised chicken or pork in a chipotle, tomato and onion sauce, traditionally served on crisp tostadas and finished with toppings like crema, avocado and shredded lettuce. Some versions braise the meat directly in the sauce, while others call for chicken or pork that’s already been cooked to be warmed in the sauce. (Some variations include chorizo, too.) The dish is widely popular because it’s affordable and versatile, and tastes complex even though it is easy to make. For this slow-cooker adaptation, the bulk of the cook time is hands-off braising. Fresh corn is not traditional in tinga, but it’s delicious, adding pops of sweetness and a flavor that echoes the corn tortillas or tostadas. Add one chipotle for a mild spice level or three for a more intense result.
Slow-Cooker Mulligatawny Soup
This soup is the result of British colonizers’ encounters with rasam, a souplike dish from Tamil Nadu, a region in southern India, that’s often made with lentils. “Milagu tannir,” or pepper water, evolved into mulligatawny when the British made it thick, chunky and meaty. In her book “From Curries to Kabobs,” the author Madhur Jaffrey wrote that mulligatawny was “an essential part of my childhood,” as she ate it at the homes of Anglo-Indian friends and in hotels on vacation. Mulligatawny now bears no resemblance to rasam and has many variations; it is a dish that was invented and modified for colonizers’ palates, and thus it has few rules. Ms. Jaffrey noted that “some curry powder has to be included for a true East-West flavor,” as curry powder is more British than Indian. This slow-cooker version is thickened with masoor dal and coconut cream, and enriched with chicken thighs and tart apple.
Slow Cooker Chickpea, Red Pepper and Tomato Stew
This easy vegan stew is inspired by romesco, the Spanish sauce made from roasted red peppers, tomatoes, almonds, garlic, olive oil and vinegar. Here, those flavors come together in a stew that pulls from the pantry, with fast prep and little waste. Instead of stock, this stew relies on the thick liquid from the canned chickpeas, sometimes called aquafaba. And the marinating oil in jarred sun-dried tomatoes is often delicious, augmented with herbs and vinegar. Give yours a little taste to make sure you like it, and then throw that in, too. (If you don’t like it, make up the difference with regular olive oil.) The smoked almonds on top are key, adding necessary crunch and richness, so be generous with them. (If you would like to make this stew on the stovetop, just sauté the onion then add the remaining stew ingredients and simmer until the flavors are blended, about 30 minutes. If using a pressure cooker, you can use this pressure-cooker version of the recipe.)
Slow-Cooker Hot-Honey Chicken Sandwiches
These simple sandwiches are reminiscent of a lazy summer cookout — but doable on a weeknight. Though slow cookers are often associated with winter, they’re great in hot weather because they don’t heat up the kitchen like ovens do. For this recipe, there is no need to add liquid to the pot before cooking, because the chicken will release moisture as it cooks. If you have a lot of liquid remaining when the chicken is done, that’s absolutely fine; just incorporate it into the shredded chicken. But if you have a little extra time, before you shred the chicken or add the honey, remove the chicken to a bowl with tongs, pour the juices into a small saucepan, and simmer until the juices are reduced by half to intensify flavor and thicken the sauce. After that, simply pick the recipe back up at Step 3.
Slow-Cooker Chicken Gumbo
Gumbo is a celebrated Cajun and Creole stew of many variations, often starring meat and seafood, all richly flavored with a toasty roux. The precise origins of the word gumbo are often debated, but it’s likely derived from West African, Central African and Choctaw languages. Okra and roux are fundamental to gumbo; filé powder, or ground sassafras leaves, is sometimes added to help thicken the stew. It is certainly not traditional to make gumbo in a slow cooker, but it works beautifully: Microwaving the roux and precooking the vegetables in a microwave-safe ceramic (check your manual, and never use metal) insert minimizes hands-on time and clean up without sacrificing that deep flavor. This recipe is highly customizable: Add sliced andouille sausage before cooking, or toss in raw shrimp 10 minutes before serving. Use bone-in, skin-on chicken if you prefer, and fresh okra instead of frozen.
Slow Cooker Creamy Chicken Soup With Lemon, Rice and Dill
This lightly creamy and incredibly comforting soup is all about the almost-austere interplay of chicken, broth, white rice and lemon. It's also a great way to use up leftover rice: Any variety will work. Tempering the yolks (slowly whisking hot broth into them) ensures that they will emulsify and thicken the soup, and not scramble. Use a half cup of lemon juice for an assertively tart soup, but, for a gentler effect, use the smaller amount. If you prefer, you can use an equivalent weight of chicken legs instead of thighs.
Slow Cooker Pot Roast
A hunk of beef slowly braised in red wine, herbs and garlic makes for a classic pot roast that’s also easily customizable: Add the root vegetables and herbs you like best. The tough chuck roast needs about eight (or more) hours in a slow cooker to become fork tender, but the vegetables are better with a shorter cook time, so add them about four hours after the start. (If this is impossible because you’ll be gone all day, you can add the vegetables in the morning; just make sure you cut them into large chunks and know that the vegetables will be quite soft.) Optional quick-pickled onions add welcome bright flavor and make this simple dish feel special.
Slow Cooker Honey-Soy Braised Pork With Lime and Ginger
Here to save your weeknight life: a slow-cooker main that’s truly “set-it-and-forget-it,” with results that taste like they required significantly more effort. This rich and flavorful pork takes about 5 minutes to throw together in the morning. Before dinner, just simmer the sauce — a sweet-salty mix of soy and honey — until it’s syrupy, shred the meat, add a flurry of fresh herbs and you’re done. The meat is a wonderfully simple anchor, and you can build a meal around it: Add lettuce cups and kimchi or serve it over rice, whole grains or even tortillas.
Slow-Cooker Lemony Chicken Soup
This lemony, herbal take on chicken soup highlights produce, but the basic technique is useful any time you want chicken soup with minimum effort. Slow-cooking chicken in stock creates a richly flavored, double-concentrated stock. Homemade stock is ideal, but you can also use your favorite store-bought stock or bouillon cubes. This recipe is flexible: If peas and asparagus aren’t available, substitute two cups of quick-cooking vegetables, like fresh or frozen corn, baby spinach or arugula, or thinly sliced zucchini. Instead of tortellini, you can add an equivalent amount of cooked pasta or grains.
Slow Cooker Mashed Potatoes With Sour Cream and Chives
When stovetop and oven space is at a premium, the slow cooker can be a good friend. This hands-off, one-pot recipe makes creamy, slightly tangy mashed potatoes, and, unlike most mashed potato recipes, this one doesn’t call for milk. The potatoes give off enough moisture as they braise, so just some extra butter and sour cream is enough to make them smooth. After mashing, the potatoes hold very well on warm for up to 3 hours: Just add the chives and give the potatoes a quick stir before serving.
Slow-Cooker Steel-Cut Oats
This is a practically effortless way to have a hot breakfast ready to go the moment you wake up. The trick to cooking perfect steel-cut oats in the slow cooker is to make use of the auto-warm setting, which switches on when the set cook time is over. (The majority of modern slow cookers have this function, though some older ones may not.) Cooking the oatmeal on low for two hours, then on warm for up to six more ensures very creamy, risotto-like oats that have a pleasant chew. (You can also cook the oats on low for 4 hours, then immediately serve, but if you venture any longer than that, the oats may overcook.) Think of this as a whole-grain meal that you can take in any sweet or savory direction you like: Top with a pat of butter and a squeeze of honey, or a sprinkle of salt and a bit of hot sauce, or any of the topping suggestions below.
Slow-Cooker Goan Pork Vindaloo
In 1510, when the Portuguese invaded Goa, a region on the west coast of India, they brought with them a dish called carne de vinha d’alho, a sailors’ preserve of pork stored in wine vinegar and garlic. Goan cooks reimagined the dish with local ingredients, like cinnamon, black pepper and coconut palm vinegar, and it came to be called vindaloo. Chiles are always included, but the dish is not traditionally superhot. In this version, the pork benefits from slow cooking in the vinegar and spices, making marination unnecessary. The blender does double duty: It purées the aromatics and grinds the whole spices at the same time.
Shrimp in Purgatory
This one-skillet shrimp dish is inspired by the bright flavors of eggs in purgatory, the classic Southern Italian dish in which eggs simmer in a spicy tomato sauce. The exact origins of the name are uncertain, but many say the sauce is meant to represent purgatory, and the eggs, souls. Here, shrimp stand in for the eggs, and the tomato sauce is rich and tangy, with roasted red peppers and capers. You can use frozen shrimp; just defrost them first. Serve the shrimp in shallow bowls, with crusty bread, or over orzo, couscous or polenta. Find a slow cooker version of this dish here.
Mulligatawny Soup
This soup is a British-Indian cuisine hybrid, the result of colonizers’ encounters with rasam — a spiced, soupy dish often enriched with lentils, sometimes served over rice — from Tamil Nadu, a region in southern India. “Milagu tannir,” which means pepper water, was how Tamil people described some versions of rasam; it morphed into mulligatawny when the British made it thick, chunky and meaty. In the cookbook “Classic Indian Cooking,” the author Julie Sahni wrote that she fell in love with mulligatawny when she first encountered it in Germany. “The present version bears no resemblance whatever to the traditional rasam,” she said, adding, “Because of its unorthodox origin, Indian cooks have had a field day exercising their creative genius with it.” This version is thickened with a roux, masoor dal and coconut milk, and bolstered with chicken thighs and tart apple. Curry powder is not a traditional Indian ingredient, but it reflects the dish’s British influence.
Lentil Soup With Smoked Sausage and Apples
Flavored with apple, sausage and mustard, this slightly creamy lentil soup strikes a nice balance between delicate and hearty. Small green lentils, or French lentils or lentils du Puy, are khaki-colored legumes that have a peppery flavor and keep their shape when cooked instead, which gives this soup an appealing texture. You can also use black lentils or easier-to-find brown lentils, but keep in mind that brown lentils will fall apart as they cook, creating a thicker stew. This soup takes only a few minutes to throw together, and most of the time is spent in hands-off simmering time, putting it within reach for a weeknight. It’s never necessary to soak lentils, as they cook relatively quickly. (You can find a slow cooker version of this recipe here.)
Lemony Greek Chicken, Spinach and Potato Stew
If your favorite Greek foods are the lively vegetable dishes, this meal-in-a-bowl stew is for you. A simple mix of lemon, garlic and lots of herbs enliven the potatoes and spinach and using ground meat ensures a lot of flavor in very little time. Ground turkey or pork would be just as good, if you prefer. Russets can be substituted for Yukon golds, but their texture will be more grainy and less creamy. Mature spinach or frozen spinach works best here because of its mellow flavor, as opposed to baby spinach, which is more tannic. Add the amount of dill that sounds best to you, or if you don’t like it, swap in a few tablespoons of fresh parsley or mint.
Smoky White Bean and Beef Sloppy Joes
This update on the kid-friendly classic uses half the meat as a traditional sloppy Joe recipe, but retains the qualities that everyone loves: a tart-sweet savoriness and a quick cooking time. You can substitute ground pork, turkey, lamb or plant-based ground meat for the beef; the key is to use a protein that’s not too lean. A little fat helps carry the flavor of the meat through the entire dish. (If you use plant-based meat or you only have lean meat on hand, add another tablespoon of olive oil or your preferred fat.) The addition of adobo sauce from a can of chipotles imparts smoke, with just a hint of heat. (If you’d like a spicier version, by all means, chop up one or two of the chipotles and add them.) The leftover chipotles keep for at least two weeks in the fridge or indefinitely in the freezer, and they are a welcome addition to many dishes, like chicken tacos or chili.
Turkey Potpie
No one knows when people started making pies, but they were common in medieval Middle Eastern and European cooking. “The Oxford Companion to Food” speculates that the English word may come from the word “magpie,” because magpies collect random items in the way a pie often houses varied ingredients. It’s appropriate, then, that this pie is here to accommodate your Thanksgiving leftovers: turkey, of course, but also leftover roasted squash or sautéed mushrooms in place of peas, chop up half a rutabaga instead of carrot and celery, or a stray leek or shallot instead of onion. Any fresh soft herbs can go in the biscuit topping. For an even simpler version, use canned biscuits arranged on top of the filling as the crust, or defrosted puff pastry with a vent cut in the middle. For a more assertive flavor, use the larger amount of mustard.
Braised Pork With Prunes and Orange
This tart-sweet braise is inspired by porc aux pruneaux, a classic French dish, which usually involves soaking prunes in tawny port before adding them to a sauce for pork. Here, the prunes are soaked in a mix of vinegar and brown sugar, a more economical way to amplify their mellow sweet-sour flavor. (But by all means use tawny port instead of the vinegar-sugar combo if you like!) This one-pot version is fragrant with orange and contains an assertive amount of sherry vinegar to balance the richness of the pork and dried fruit. Serve the pork and sauce over polenta or with seeded bread.
Slow-Cooker Cauliflower, Potato and White Bean Soup
This creamy vegetarian soup is built on humble winter staples, but the addition of sour cream and chives make it feel special. (Crumble a few sour-cream-and-onion chips on top to take the theme all of the way.) It takes just a few minutes to throw the ingredients into the slow cooker, and the rest of the recipe almost entirely hands-off, making it very doable on a weekday. Use an immersion blender, if you have one, to purée it to a silky smooth consistency, but a potato masher works well for a textured, chunky soup. To get vegetarian recipes like this one delivered to your inbox, sign up for The Veggie newsletter.