The spread of cultural cuisines is a dream, extending the use of my slow cooker more than I realised was possible.
This magnificent and generous cookbook provides over a hundred recipes for both meat lovers and vegetarians, while also catering to coeliacs, vegans and those watching their carbs. There’s a great combination of meals including “set and forget” recipes that cook over several hours, and many others which require some attention before or during the cooking process.
After introducing the slow cooker across several introductory pages, Dobson breaks his recipes into six primary groupings: Sunday Suppers, Weekday Dinners, Set and Forget, Soups, Curry Night, and Saturday Night Specials.
Jeremy Simon’s tempting full-page colour photographs accompany most recipes which are also clearly tagged if vegan, gluten-free or vegetarian (or if they can be made so).
The layout of the recipes comprise the standard ingredients list on the left of the page and easy to follow instructions on the right. There are a lot of good recipes here with my personal highlights including a Moroccan Harira (page 25), a Middle Eastern lentil dish know as Mujadara (page 46), a Vietnamese Beef Stew (page 52), and an Asian staple, Lemongrass Chicken (page 63), along with many other dishes from a variety of cultures. The spread of cultural cuisines is a dream, extending the use of my slow cooker far more than I realised was possible.
I adore the range of health meals and the offering of recipes that take from just a couple of hours of cooking to an overnight slow cook. There’s so much here to like and so little to feel guilty about. The only thing missing is a section on desserts, but that’s no loss when focussing on healthy foods, some of which include the sweetness of vegetables like pumpkin anyway.
Tex Mex Black Bean and Lentil Nachos (page 16)
I sampled this dish because it is vegetarian and potentially gluten-free if the right corn chips are purchased. I was unable to find a can of black beans in my local supermarket so replaced it with a Mexican three-bean mix which worked out just fine. The combination of herbs and spices that are added to the beans and lentils gives this dish a wonderful flavour and, taking less than 3 hours in the slow cooker, it was a relatively quick meal to prepare. The sprinkle of feta cheese and coriander before serving not only added visual appeal, but a final burst of flavour. Fantastic! My son, who doesn’t like Mexican food as a general rule of thumb, devoured a large serve and loved it too.
Reviewed by Rod Lewis
Twitter: @StrtegicRetweet
Book Distributed by: Murdoch Press
Released: June 2019
RRP: $35