Supper Club: 3 tasty slow cooker recipes to warm your belly

Slow cooker coq au vin
Serves 4
3 hours on high / 6–7 hours on low

“If you’ve followed me for a while, you’ll know I’m partial to a slip-up with words like this (please don’t Google ‘Poppy O’Toole whim’). So as much as this classic French dish can be a bit of a … mouthful … it’s equally a properly hearty and tasty meal to enjoy for your dinner.

This is one for a fancy date night or a dinner party to sound posh in front of your friends or family. Or as it’s just throwing it all into the slow cooker, you could even whap it out midweek on a … whim.” – Poppy O’Toole

Ingredients

• 6 skinless, boneless chicken thighs
• 250g shallots, thinly sliced
• 4 garlic cloves, grated or crushed
• 300g chestnut mushrooms, halved
• small handful of thyme, leaves picked
• 200g diced pancetta or chopped smoked streaky bacon
• 200ml dry white wine
• good knob of butter, cubed
• 1 chicken stock cube, crumbled
• 100ml double cream
• 30g flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
• 1 tablespoon cornflour, slackened with water (optional)
• salt and black pepper

Method

1. Season the chicken generously with salt, then add the chicken, shallots, garlic, mushrooms, thyme, pancetta or bacon, wine, butter, stock cube, 1 teaspoon of salt and tonnes of black pepper to the bowl of your slow cooker.
2. Put the lid on and cook on high for 3 hours or on low for 6–7 hours, until the chicken is completely tender.
3. Stir in the cream, parsley and cornflour slurry (if using), gently breaking up any larger pieces of chicken as you go.
4. Taste to check the seasoning and adjust as needed. Spoon the coq au vin onto plates to serve.

My suggestions:

• Serve this up with my ultimate buttery mashed potatoes or you can go the extra mile and chef up a dauphinoise potato for the side: put 300ml of double cream, 2 garlic cloves, thyme and rosemary sprigs in a pan with salt and pepper. Heat it gently and let it infuse, then thinly slice 4–5 large Maris Piper potatoes as fine as you can (use a mandoline, if you have one) and layer them up in your dish. Season between each layer, pouring over a bit of your warm, infused cream each time, then pour the remaining cream over the top. Bake for 50 minutes at 170°C/150°C fan, until golden and cooked through. (For my slow cooker dauphinoise, see page 186.)

Slow cooker chorizo, goat’s cheese and butter bean soup
Serves 4
4 hours on high

“This is a luscious soup with a meaty kick that is more than capable of becoming a main meal. Plus, if you’ve got a can of butter beans languishing on the shelf, this recipe will put them to good use and then you’ll wonder why you didn’t make more butter-bean- based meals.” – Poppy O’Toole

Ingredients

• 2 leeks (about 500g in total), thinly sliced
• 3 carrots, finely diced   
• 2 celery sticks, finely diced
• 2 garlic cloves, grated or crushed
• 190g cooking chorizo, diced
• 1 x 400g can of chopped tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon tomato purée
• 1 teaspoon caster sugar
• 2 x 400g cans of butter beans, drained
• 800ml chicken or vegetable stock
• 3 rosemary sprigs
• small handful of thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 200g kale, sliced
• salt and black pepper

To serve

• 120g hard goat’s cheese, grated
• extra-virgin olive oil 100g hazelnuts, toasted
• and roughly chopped (optional)

Method

1. Add the leeks, carrots, celery, garlic, chorizo, chopped tomatoes, tomato purée, sugar, butter beans, stock, rosemary, thyme and bay leaf to the bowl of your slow cooker. If you’re feeling fancy, tie the herbs in a bundle with some kitchen string, but if not, just wang them straight in there and fish out the stems once the soup is cooked.
2. Season with 1 teaspoon of salt and a generous amount of black pepper.
3. Stir everything together, put the lid on and cook on high for 4 hours, until the vegetables are tender.
4. When the timer has 10–15 minutes left, stir in the kale, then put the lid back on and patiently wait for the timer to go off
5. Taste to check the seasoning and adjust as needed, then divide the soup between four bowls.
6. Sprinkle over the goat’s cheese, followed by a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil, a scattering of hazelnuts (if using) and lots more black pepper.

My suggestions:

• I love a couple of hefty sourdough croûtons with this soup. Rip up that stale end of sourdough that always just ends up in the bin, drizzle with oil (flavoured oils work really well for this – chilli, garlic, basil, whatever your nan last brought you back from her holidays), season with salt and pepper and roast in a hot oven at about 200°C/180°C fan for 15–20 minutes or in the air fryer at 200°C for 5–10 minutes, until golden and crunchy, tossing occasionally.

Slow cooker veggie chilli
Serves 4
4 hours on high

“Whether it’s smothered over nachos, served with fluffy rice or filling a taco shell, this veggie chilli is a delicious way to change up the everyday weekly dinners and try something new. Top tip with chilli: always make too much, so you can have it three different ways throughout the week.” – Poppy O’Toole

Ingredients

• 1 red onion, sliced
• 300g closed-cup mushrooms, roughly chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, grated or crushed
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
• 2 tablespoons chipotle paste
• 1 teaspoon chilli flakes
• 2 tablespoons tomato purée
• 1 tablespoon red miso paste
• 1 teaspoon dark brown soft sugar
• 1 vegetable stock cube, crumbled
• 1 x 400g can of plum tomatoes
• 2 x 400g cans of butter beans, drained
• 150ml strong black coffee
• 20g 70% dark chocolate (optional)
• large handful of coriander, leaves roughly chopped
• salt and black pepper

Method

1. Add all the ingredients except the chocolate and coriander to the bowl of your slow cooker, then stir everything together and season with 1 teaspoon of salt and plenty of pepper.
2. Put the lid on and cook on high for 4 hours, until rich and tender.
3. Stir in the chocolate (if using), then taste to check the seasoning and adjust as needed.
4. Serve scattered with coriander and your accompaniments of choice.

My suggestions: 

• Serve this up with steamed rice, warmed tortillas, quick pickled veg, grated cheddar, soured cream, toasted walnuts (trust me on this one) and a zingy cabbage slaw.
• Dark chocolate is a great addition to a chilli, whether it be veggie, turkey or beef. It adds that extra bit of richness but doesn’t make it taste ‘chocolate-y’. Miso is also something you want to keep at hand, as it packs a punch of umami whenever you need it.
• Don’t feel limited to using butter beans in this chilli – if you have a can of kidney beans in the back of the cupboard from 2016 that you’ve never known what to do with, then this is the perfect time to whip them out. Maybe check the use-by date, though.

All recipe extracts taken from The Actually Delicious Slow Cooker Cookbook by Poppy O’Toole  (Bloomsbury, £25 Hardback). Photography © Haarala Hamilton.