A few years ago my mum bought me a slow cooker. I almost didn’t bring it from Darwin to Brisbane but am very glad that I did as we use it a lot.
The Aussie isn’t keen on slow cooked meat and between us we are finding we are enjoying vegetarian meals from time to time so I have been coming up with some vegetarian alternatives for the slow cooker.
I’ve tried this recipe a couple of times and it is pretty good if I do say so myself! It can also be adapted by adding minced beef instead of the pumpkin if you didn’t want the vegetarian version.
Ingredients
1 400g tin chopped tomatoes
1 400g tin kidney beans
500g diced pumpkin (I buy the pre chopped pumpkin from Coles)
1 onion
1 capsicum
200g sliced mushrooms
2 teaspoons tomato paste
Vegetable stock to cover the ingredients
3 teaspoons crushed chilli paste (the jar version)
2 teaspoons garlic paste (jar)
Chilli flakes to taste
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 – 2 teaspoons Coriander
Salt and pepper
Method
I chop the onion and capsicum and add that as well as the other ingredients into the slow cooker on the lower setting before I go to work. When I get home from work I turn the setting up to the higher setting and add a few tablespoons of cornflour to the sauce and take the lid off which thickens it up quite nicely.
I then dish it up in a bowl with some grated cheese and light soft cheese or sour cream. You can add rice but we find we don’t need it and it keeps the calories down a bit.