The best recipes for slow cooking

Slow cooking is the perfect way to cut prepping time and make simple ingredients really sing. From overnight porridge to stews you can come home to, with a bit of organisation slow-cooker dishes can become an easy part of any midweek menu.

Batch cooking and using cheaper cuts of meat can help you juggle busier days and save some money on your weekly shop, too. And it’s not just meat that lends itself to slow cooking – beans, pulses, vegetables and even fruit yield fantastic results when cooked low and slow, and can have a very different flavour profile than when cooked quickly.

From beautifully tender meat dishes, to comforting soups and stews, we’ve got some brilliant slow-cooking recipesthat you can make your own.

Cooking with brisket is an absolute winner: it’s budget-friendly, full of flavour and suits being cooked slowly until beautifully tender. This Greek-inspired dish has a fragrant mix of aromatic spices – nutmeg, cinnamon and bay – and is studded with black olives. Also, slow cooking the shallots whole makes them beautifully sweet – give this one a go!

We’ve got a ham-hock-hack for you! It can feel like a lot of effort (and energy) to prep and cook ham hock; but once you’ve done some initial prep and cooked it slowly on the hob, you’ve got loads of tasty ham that you can freeze for future soups (like this one!), use in sandwiches or add to pies, pasta and salads. You get way more for your money than buying pre-cooked ham, and it’ll taste so much better.

Want clever solutions that save you time and money? This fantastically versatile vegetarian casserole recipe is the definition of smart cooking. Batch cooked slowly, it makes great use of the oven – giving you multiple meals from one cook. Plus it comes in at under £1 per portion!

Aubergines and yellow split peas get the slow treatment in this gorgeously fragrant daal. A long cook allows the pulses to become super creamy and infused with the aromatic flavours of onion, ginger, garlic, chilli and spices. Serve with homemade chapatis for bonus comfort.

Veggie chilli fan? Shake things up with Jamie’s warming sweet potato version that makes great use of tinned black beans, chipotle chilli paste, cumin and coriander – giving you three of your 5-a-day. Comes in at less than £1 per portion, too!

We couldn’t love this recipe more – meltingly tender pork, crunchy crackling and sweet and herby veg – and the oven does all the work. Slow cooked over 5 hours, this recipe will give you at least 12 portions of deliciousness that you can embellish however you like. We love Jamie’s Pork & beans and Pulled pork pizza spin offs – yum.

Lamb shoulder is one of the best cuts of meat to cook slowly, because it becomes so succulent and juicy as it breaks down. In Jamie’s meat-reduced curry, creamy chickpeas complement the lamb and spices beautifully as it ticks away on the hob.

You may not think that you can slow cook on a barbecue… but you can! A great little side dish to have (literally) on the back burner while you get on with your barbecue mains, these individually wrapped artichokes will cook slowly until sweet and tender. Leave out the prosciutto to make it vegan-friendly.

Cooking slowly means cooking gently, and this rice pudding is a perfect example. It absorbs all the lovely flavours of vanilla, cinnamon and honey, becoming beautifully soft and properly comforting. Is there anything more nostalgic than a rice pud?

By gently poaching these pears for a couple of hours on a low simmer, you end up with super-tender, delicate fruit that tastes and smells of cardamom, saffron, cinnamon and vanilla. And it won’t require much attention. Serve it with the poaching liquor reduced to a syrup, and a little cream or ice cream.