7 ways to use your slow cooker in the Summer (2024)

When it’s a scorcher outside, no one wants to turn on the oven and heat up their house unnecessarily or stand over a hot stove. Make the slow cooker your new BF for the Summer months – it won’t make the kitchen unbearably hot when you use it, and you don’t have to be in the room when it’s working its magic.

1. Dish-up food for friends with our slow cooker pulled pork

2. The no-attention-needed Summer supper: crock-pot paella

With its seafood and fresh flavours, a traditional paella is perfect for a Summery dinner. Rather than turning the oven on, follow our Spanish Paella Recipe, adding the fried ingredients to the slow cooker, then cook on high for 1½-2hr and add the seafood and peas at the end. Bonus: the chicken will be even more tender for it.

3. Slow cooker cinnamon rolls

Baking bread is out of the question when the sun is shining, but it can mean missing out on treats like sticky cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Use your crock-pot to cook them in record time (you don’t need to rise or prove the dough after making or shaping as this happens as it cooks). Make the dough, rest for 10min in a covered bowl (no need to rise), then continue with recipe.

Line the pot of a slow cooker with baking parchment (make sure paper doesn’t come up over top of the pot), put rolls inside, cover with lid and turn on cooker. Cook on High for 1hr30min or until the top of the buns feels springy when pressed.

Instead of the sugar syrup, make a no-cook glaze: stir together 100g (3½oz) icing sugar with just enough water until smooth and runny. Drizzle over buns and serve warm.

MORE: SIMPLE SLOW COOKER WHITE BREAD

4. A barbecuer’s best friend

Because of food safety when barbecuing, there’s a tendency to overcook meat to the point of cremation. Remedy this with the slow cooker: poach chicken drumsticks and sausages in herb-infused stock until tender and cooked through, then flash on a hot barbecue to give a charred smokiness.

5. Keep food warm while staying cool

Instead of using a warming oven, turn your slow cooker into a chafing dish. Fill it a third of the way with hot water, keep on a low setting and place a heatproof dish or bowl that sits steadily on your slow cooker, then pop your food in until you’re ready to serve and cover loosely with foil.

6. Slow cooker cakes and bakes

Baking can seem like an impossibility in the Summer, but you don’t have to miss out on cakey treats and desserts. Turn on the slow cooker instead and make our easy Brownies or our creamy Chocolate orange cheesecake.

MORE: SLOW COOKER CRÈME BRULEÉ

7. Crock-pot ice cream

Ice cream is a classic Summer cooler, and homemade versions are cheaper and better than anything from the supermarket. But making custard-based recipes on the hob is a bit of an art, and all too often, turns to sweet scrambled eggs. The gentle warmth of a crock-pot is perfect for foolproof custard. Just pour it into the slow cooker pan, and heat on a low setting, stirring constantly until thickened, then continue with your ice cream recipe.

Cooking times and heat settings will vary between slow cookers. We used a 4.5l slow cooker that has a temperature of 90°C when set on low and 99°C when set on high.

MORE: ​12 THINGS YOU SHOULDN’T PUT IN YOUR SLOW COOKER

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