A slow cooker is a fantastic tool for anyone interested in creating time-saving healthy dishes. My Mom first bought one in the late 70’s when she went back to work part-time after being home with three kids for many years. She made a great beef pot roast with this tool and I’m sure she appreciated coming home to a fully cooked, warm, nutritious meal after a busy workday. As an adult, I did not own a slow cooker until about 12 years ago when I inherited one. Since this appliance takes up valuable kitchen real estate, I thought I’d better figure out more recipes than Mom’s pot roast if it was going to be worth it to keep the slow cooker in my house.
I did figure out a number of recipes to make in the slow cooker and it has become an important tool in our house to help with weekday meal planning. Many of the published slow cooker recipes call for searing the meat ahead of time and I never did that because I didn’t want to have another pan to clean…it seemed to defeat the purpose of the ease of using a slow cooker. So, when my slow cooker broke a little more than a year ago, I investigated slow cookers with a sear option…I found this one with a stovetop-safe cooking pot that is very easy to clean…..I totally recommend this unit and would never again buy one without this option. When I made Mom’s pot roast recipe with the new cooker, the increase in the depth and intensity of the flavour was amazing!
So, this fall in my quest to create a new recipe for my slow cooker, I came up with this pork chop recipe that was cooked with apples, potatoes, carrots, onions, and kale. Whenever I use the slow cooker, I always want to make sure that the dish is a balanced meal in itself so that there is nothing else you need to do for that meal. (Of course, adding a salad is always a good plan!) We loved the flavours in this dish! It was slightly sweet because of the apples, which was a nice departure from my usual savoury cooking. There were four servings in this dish, with leftover veggies and broth. After the four servings were enjoyed, I didn’t want to throw away the remaining broth and veggies, so I pureed them with my hand blender and now had a lovely soup to enjoy for a few lunches! You have to love it when your efforts limit waste and also provide easy extra meals! The picture on the left is the pork chop dinner and the picture on the right is the leftover veggies, apples and broth blended into soup. (If you are not into soup, use 6 pork chops and that would use up all the veggies).
Here’s what it looked like in progress:
Try this recipe out and let me know how you liked it! Also, I’d love to hear about your favourite slow cooker recipes. Happy cooking friends!
Every Day Home Gourmet 