Store Cupboard Staples For Your Crockpot

The best thing about slow cooking is the way that you can throw a delicious meal together with just a few ingredients from the store cupboard.

Your slow cooker will pay for itself very quickly. The hours you save when you are cooking your meal makes it priceless. But, if you plan to make slow cooking part of your usual meal times, then it pays to have a few basics to keep in your cupboards to make meal planning easy.

Beans - Beans are a very economical source of protein that cook very well in slow cookers . Each bean has its own flavor which can be enhanced by the spices or herbs you use to cook them. Beans can make a meal base when you cook them with meat or be the main ingredient if you are a vegetarian looking to create a quick and simple dish. Whether haricot, lentil, borlotti, or black-eyed, beans can create some fantastic slow cooker meals.

Fibrous Vegetables - For starters, these means good old spuds and the average kitchen has at least a few potatoes lurking around in the vegetable rack.They are a very versatile food. Mash them, fry them, stew them, or chuck them in the crockpot.

Potatoes add density to soups, stews and meat-free meals. Potatoes and other fibrous veggies like carrots, turnips and swedes, take a while to cook, so they can be added to the slow cooker with meat and can cook all day.

Fresh Herbs - Using herbs can dramatically change the flavour of almost any meal you make. Herbs can be bought dried, but they release a much better flavour if they are added fresh.

You can even grow your own fresh herbs on your kitchen window ledge. You just need a nice sunny spot, some compost, and remember to water them regularly. Home grown herbs can even be dried to extend their life, making them easy to keep around without worrying too much about wasting them.

Don't forget to add your herbs near the end of the crockpot cooking cycle so their flavor fills the cooked meal and isn't lost during the cooking time.