I’ve never owned a slow cooker, it’s just one of those appliances I’ve never felt the need to buy. When I was given the opportunity to review this Bella Triple Slow Cooker I thought, why not, let’s see what the fuss is about
Now, I’ll admit that initially I thought the purpose of slow cookers were to put your dinner on before going to work and it would be ready when you got home. I had two problems with this,
- who has the time to prepare a meal first thing in the morning
- I don’t like the idea of leaving something cooking at home when there is no-one there (I’m terrified of fire!)
I prepared a meal for the slow cooker and it involved a little browning of the meat which took 5 mins and the preparation of vegetables (which can be done anytime really.) Then I threw it in the pot with the herbs and spices etc and the whole thing took less than 10 mins. With pre-prep you could have it ready a lot sooner, in fact you could have it ready in the pot the night before and just turn it on in the morning.
I still don’t have an answer for the second one, although they do seem pretty safe. I kept an eye on mine all day and it never got really hot, or the liquid spill over.
Since using a slow cooker I’ve discovered that it’s much more than having a meal ready when you get home from work. It’s a great way of just throwing stuff together and ending up with a great meal with little effort. The meat cooks so slow that it’s always really tender and you can get away with using tougher cuts of meat which are generally cheaper.
Apparently you can cook cakes and desserts too, I might have to try that one day, it would be nice to have desert cooked for eating straight after dinner.
This three pot slow cooker is a little different to your usual slow cooker as it has three pots and most have only one. Each pot can hold 1.3 litres which is pretty good. A lot of the smaller slow cookers only hold 1 to 1.5 litres, although you can buy really big family size ones. It was suggested that one pot holds enough for 2-3 people and I found that about right, although we did get four small servings out of one pot. If you need to cook for more you can cook in two pots!
An advantage of having three pots to cook in is that you can do three different meals. You’d need to be cooking for a large family though. I did try two different curries in two pots and this worked fine. I have a big household of 4 adults and 3 children and we don’t all like the same food so this is going to be handy.
We also often eat at different times which when this slow cooker really comes in handy. It will keep your food warm until ready to serve, so you can you just help yourself whenever you need to. I found that when I did the two curries, I also made some rice and when it was cooked I put it in the third pot on warm. Perfect curry night!
It would also be great for entertaining, you can keep three meals warm and guests can just help themselves.
Bella Triple Slow Cooker and Warming Station
So lets get down to the nitty gritty of the product. The Three Pot Slow Cooker is pretty big so make sure you have room for it.
It is 56.4cm long, 26.5cm wide and 20cm high and it weighs 8kg.
As I said each pot holds 1.3 litres which is enough for 2-3 good servings.
Each pot has it’s own controls, Off, Low, High, Warm.
The pots are good quality stoneware and are easy to wash. (They are stated to be dishwasher safe but I don’t have a dishwasher so I can’t really comment on that.)
They each have a spoon rest too which helps with keeping the area clean and tidy.
The lids of each pot are glass and there is a holder for each lid when you are ready for serving.
It’s ideal for entertaining with buffet style serving and a keep warm option.
The product comes with an instruction manual with five recipes to get you started.
You can purchase the Bella Triple Slow Cooker on Amazon for £54.99 (it’s currently on sale)
Recipe – Slow Cooker Sweet and Sour Chicken
Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts, chopped into chunks
1 medium onion, sliced
1 tbs sugar
1 tbs tomato ketchup
100 ml orange juice
1 tbs cornflour
2 tbs cider vinegar
1 tbs soy sauce
1 tbs fresh grated ginger
1 220g can pineapple chunks
1 green pepper, sliced
rice to serve.
Method:
Fry the chicken until it is browned (about 5 mins)
put all the ingredients into the slow cooker pot
turn to Low and leave for 6-7 hours
stir occasionally after 2 hours
Serve with rice.
So, so easy and incredibly delicious, this is the nicest sweet and sour I’ve ever cooked. It was even nicer than the one I had from the take-away restaurant last week!.
Disclosure: I was sent the Triple Slow Cooker for the purpose of this review, all thoughts and opinions are entirely my own.
Can I put the pot in the oven to brown crispy onions on my green bean Castrol