Don’t just use your slow cooker for stews. Brew up hot chocolate, mulled wine and more with these tips and recipes.
When the colder weather hits, there’s nothing nicer than a comforting stew or warming curry made in the slow cooker.
It's the kitchen appliance made for winter, ensuring you can have healthy, cheap and delicious dishes, perfect for when the mercury drops. A slow cookers can also be an energy saving hero.
Slow cookers aren’t just for savoury dishes, though. As well as being perfect for creating desserts, they’re also brilliant for making warming winter beverages.
What’s more, their capacity means they’re great for catering for a gathering - creating all the wow factor, with minimal effort.
If you’ve not tried slow cooker mulled wine, where have you been?
The low heat means the wine doesn’t boil, so the alcohol stays put, and the spices help intensify the flavours. It’s also a great way to make mulled wine if you’re having a party, as you can make big batches then use the ‘keep warm’ or ‘low’ setting on your slow cooker to keep it at the perfect temperature.
To make slow cooker mulled wine you’ll need the following:
To make mulled wine in the slow cooker simply put all the ingredients, except for the oranges, into a slow cooker. Set it to low for around two hours.
Once it's ready, use a ladle to pour into heatproof glasses or mugs. Add the orange slices for decoration. And if you really want to get the party started, add in a slug of Prosecco before serving!
Don’t just stick to the traditional red wine – both rosé wine and white wine make great alternatives.
You might just have to switch up the spices – for example, vanilla, cinnamon and elderflower all work well with mulled white wine, while juniper berries and clementines complement rose wine.
A slow cooker is just perfect for making the ultimate winter drink – hot chocolate. To make the most decadent one, it’s best to ditch the cocoa powder and go with baking chocolate. Yes, you read that right.
We followed this ultimate hot chocolate recipe and we can tell you that it really hits the spot. It’s so simple to do as well.
You literally put all the ingredients into the slow cooker for a couple of hours, stirring occasionally.
At the end of the cooking time, we threw in a whole feast of marshmallows so everyone would get some in their mug, and then topped with whipped cream. Delicious.
The perfect autumn drink
If you’re looking to give the booze a miss, a hot apple cider is a lovely warming drink – minus the hangover. Don’t be fooled by the cider in the name – it originates from America, where cider is a name used for a non-alcoholic apple drink, similar to our apple juice.
The addition of cloves, all spice and oranges make this a lovely alternative festive drink to mulled wine – and one that can be enjoyed by everyone.
Of course, if you want to make an alcoholic version of hot apple cider, there is a way!
Use dry cider, alongside apple juice, as the base and then stir in some calvados, apple or regular brandy just before serving.
Soothe your sniffles with this brew
This slow cooker drink is the perfect way to combat a cold. You will need the following ingredients:
Add everything into the slow cooker, squeezing the lemon juice into the mixture before you add them, and leave on low heat all day. Basically, it’s slow cooker Lemsip, made up of lots of natural ingredients that are known to help with the symptoms of colds and flu.
Honey, for example, has antimicrobial properties that have been shown to improve coughs and soothe sore throats, and some studies, have shown it can also shorten the duration of colds.
As well as adding a lovely warming flavour to the drink, fresh ginger is also a great natural way to fight respiratory infections.
And even though most people think of oranges for that injection of vitamin C, lemons contain this immune boosting vitamin, too.
There’s also been studies that have shown that sipping a hot lemon drink can help ease nasal congestion and sore throats.
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