A crockpot is an asset to a busy lifestyle. You can load it up with healthy ingredients and let it do the cooking for you while you go about your day. Following specific strategies will help make your crockpot meals healthy and delicious.
Precooking
While it may seem like a needless extra step, browning meats and vegetables before adding them to the crockpot helps improve the flavor of your meals. The browning process helps bring out the natural sugar in vegetables and seal the juices into meats. Season and saute ground or cubed meat in a large pan coated with a small amount of heart-healthy olive or canola oil until browned on all sides. Place the meat in the crockpot and then saute any vegetables, such as carrots, celery and onions, in the same pan. When soft, add to the crockpot along with water, broth, spices and other additional ingredients. Complete the dish according to recipe directions.
Clean Up
Before adding ingredients to your crockpot, spray it with nonstick cooking spray. This helps prevent the food from sticking and makes cleanup easier. Nonstick spray adds little extra fat to your meal. Another option for easy clean up is to use specially made cooking liners that you place in your crockpot. Find these liners at most grocery stores. They do not alter the cooking method or taste of your recipes.
Go Vegetarian
Eating vegetarian meals, especially bean-based meals, can help you manage your weight, provide essential nutrients and save money. A crockpot makes cooking dried beans easy. Rinse and presoak dried beans, such as black, white, pinto or garbanzos, the day before and put into a crockpot with onion, water, garlic, carrots, celery and spices. Do not add salt during the cooking process as it prevents the beans from becoming tender. Cook on low heat for about eight hours, or until the beans are cooked through, but not mushy. Add canned diced tomatoes or additional vegetables for a soup or chili dinner.
Season Modestly
Hold off on adding any salt to your cooking liquid until after the four to eight hours of cooking. Many ingredients in crockpot cooking, such as chicken broth, canned tomatoes and canned beans contain salt. The long cooking process concentrates flavors. If you add too much salt early on, you may end up with an overly salty dish.
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