Kosher Slow Cooker Cooking Tips

Cooking Kosher In Your Slow Cooker

With our fast-paced lifestyles, it is hard to find the time to cook great meals for our families. It can be even harder for those families who follow specific diets, such as a kosher diet. Kosher foods must be prepared a certain way - no mixing of meat and dairy, no pork or shellfish, etc. The rules for the kitchen and food preparation are strict with no deviations.

Slow Cooker cooking is a great solution for meal planning in many households, but is it good for preparing kosher foods? I am happy to say that it is.

If you eat kosher, then you know how to prepare your foods, where to purchase them, and what you can and cannot eat. Even though you may not be able to cook some items together, who's to say you can't have more than one slow cooker to cook different foods.  Let's take a look at familiar dishes and see how we can work in our slow cooker.

Consider Cholent Stew in your Slow Cooker

There are many kosher foods that may benefit from being cooked in the slow cooker. The most popular being the cholent stew cooked for Shabbat and to be eaten on a Saturday. Because there is a ban on cooking or lighting a fire during Shabbat, starting this stew in the slow cooker on Friday and serving it Saturday is appropriate.

There are a few different types of cholent stews that can be cooked kosher in the slow cooker. Here are three dishes for you to consider making in your slow cooker.

Schalet is a hearty stew that is made up of beans, barley and kosher meat. Schalet is a pretty generic food, depending on where you live. There are many cultures that cook this dish in diverse ways with different ingredients.

Tebeet is a dish that is made with a whole chicken that is stuffed with seasoned rice. This is not exactly a stew, but it is traditionally slow cooked, therefore making it perfect for the slow cooker.

Hamin is made with chicken instead of the traditional meats that make up cholent stews. You can add potatoes, carrots, prunes, rice and many other yummy ingredients to make this hot hearty meal. Again, ingredients differ depending on what area of the country you are in.

Because of the slow cooker, families can now have hot cooked meals during the times when no cooking or fire lighting is allowed.  Before the invention of the slow cooker, meals that require strict kosher rules were tough to prepare for, especially during special observances and holy days.

Kosher slow cooker cooking need not be complicated. There are many cookbooks now that are specific to kosher slow cooker cooking. If you have the time, you can take any recipe that is slow cooked, make a few changes so that is meets the kosher requirements, and you have a hot, tasty meal.

Families living in kosher homes can have the convenience that so many enjoy when it comes to preparing meals with limited time to do so.  All it takes is a slow cooker (or two!), the proper kosher foods, and a creative cooking imagination.