10 summer slow cooker recipes
Sandwich filling, side dish, and main dish recipes for the slow cooker that will keep you and your home cool this summer.
Photo: ac_bnphotos/iStockphoto - BBQ Pork for Sandwiches – It doesn’t get easier than three ingredients and a slow cooker. Check out the organic aisle for a BBQ sauce with ingredients you can trust or if you want to put a little extra work into it.
- Slow Cooker Southern Pulled Pork with Cole Slaw – This is one of my own recipes that I posted on my South Jersey Locavore blog. Instead of BBQ sauce, the shredded pork is topped with cole slaw. This is a favorite summer recipe around my house.
- Sloppy Chicken Joes – Chicken is substituted for beef in this sloppy recipe with a homemade sauce in which you can control the ingredients. I’d opt for fresh peppers and onions in the summer from the garden or farmers market instead of the frozen ones in the recipe.
- Ratatouille in the Crock Pot – Eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, peppers fresh from the garden (or the farmers market or grocery store) are combined with other traditional ratatouille ingredients and simmered slowly all day.
- Fresh Tomato Sauce – Four cups of chopped tomatoes right from your garden go into this easy slow cooker recipes.
- Boston Baked Beans – Baked beans are a great side dish for burgers and dogs. This recipe slow cooks for 10 hours, so start it the night before if you’re having an early afternoon BBQ.
- Slow-Cooked Collard Greens – This recipe calls for frozen greens, but you can use fresh along with fresh green onion and bell pepper for this Southern side dish.
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Cantonese Dinner – A sweet and sour pork recipe that kids love and that can be doubled so you can freeze half. Check out the suggestions that the reviewers added to change the recipe up a bit.
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Melt-in-Your-Mouth Barbequed Ribs – Sure ribs done on the grill are one of summer’s treats, but on a weeknight, there isn’t always time to do it that way. These ribs will be done the minute you walk in from work.
- Slow Cooker Lemon Garlic Chicken – A whole chicken is browned before putting it in the slow cooker then cooked on high for four hours.
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Comments
I literally never think of using a slow cooker in the summer....these are a really good idea.
Slow cook recipes are great, if they don't include meat, dairy or eggs. These products aren't sustainable. If everyone in the world ate these foods, then critical habitat for non-domesticated animals everywhere would be threatened. Better to go vegan! There is a tidal wave of consciousness sweeping across the land. Here are two uplifting videos to help everyone understand why the number of vegans has doubled in less than 3 years and why so many are making this life affirming choice: .... More
cooking with a pressure cooker is smarter and more eco-friendly
I applaud the idea of using a slow cooker, however the meat-heavy nature of these recipes seems a bit odd for an article on the Mother Nature Network. After all, meat production and consumption is one of the biggest factors in the degradation of our earth (global warming, cutting down of rain forests, water pollution, world hunger, and more)
You're right, HappyMelanie; meat production does take a toll on the environment. MNN also shares lots and lots of vegetarian recipes and tips for eating more local and organic foods. The article should mention that if you are going to eat meat, choosing local is one way (among many) to keep your carbon footprint down. Thanks for commenting.
—MNN Staff
FOOD MILES DON'T FEED CLIMATE CHANGE - MEAT DOES
That locally-produced, free-range, organic hamburger might not be as green as you think. An analysis of the environmental toll of food production concludes that transportation is a mere drop in the carbon bucket. Foods such as beef and dairy make a far deeper impression on a consumer's carbon footprint. "If you have a certain type of diet that’s indicative of the American average, you're not going to do that much.... More
