Customer Reviews

The Indian Slow Cooker: 50 Healthy, Easy, Authentic Recipes

5 star:		(90)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

I have been waiting forever for someone to write a wonderful collection of Indian recipes for the slow cooker and my prayers have been answered! Anupy Singla has put together some lovely easy Indian recipes - where all you do is throw a bunch of easy-to-find ingredients in the slow cooker, set it and forget it for several hours! The recipes mainly focus on vegetarian ingredients but there are some lovely meat curries (with notes on how to make many of them vegetarian with soy crumbles or seitan).

The fact that she has figured out how to make kheema (a ground beef and peas comfort-food dish) in the slow cooker (genius!) is worth the price of this book! I can't wait to make every recipe and will probably be making a batch of the "Wet Curry" every week to freeze and use for quick weeknight meals.

Overall, I am thrilled with this book - it will let our family eat delicious and healthy Indian meals more often than we were able to before. Yippee!

I'm an avid slow cooker, and I have cooked my own Indian food for a long time, even making paneer from milk. I've made many restaurant basics on the stove, both from my own recipes and from recipes in books. I've even improvised Indian food in my slow cooker, especially moong dal with spinach (adapted from Suvir Saran's Indian Home Cooking), Goan fish (which I loved at a restaurant and reverse engineered; coconut milk + homemade curry paste + frozen salmon fillets, and after the fish was cooked I reduced the sauce on the stove), and a coconut dal recipe (adapted from Mark Bittman's Best Recipes in the World) that entranced even my most carnivorous friends.

I've used this book to cook about 8 recipes and here's what I've found. Implicitly I am comparing it with my favorite slow cooker books, the "Not your mother's slow cooker" and "Not your mother's slow cooker for two", which I like because they have a balanced set of recipes and have clearly tried making them different ways: they specify when things need to be browned before adding to slow cooker, and say whether high or low is better for a given recipe.

The 8 recipes I made are mustard greens and spinach, chana dal, green lentil and rice, dry dal, cauliflower, pigeon peas with garlic and lemon, and my boyfriend made the chicken vindaloo and chicken masala, and then made lamb vindaloo based on the chicken recipe.

Strengths:
1. Prioritizes spices: she says if you're going to buy 7 spices, which are the 8 you should buy. That wasn't a typo: she lists 7 of the crucial spices, and then adds an 8th, and then pictures of her crucial 7 spices include spice #8 while omitting another.

2. Some of the food is really good. I like the flavors of 5 of the 8 recipes we've made (disappointing ones discussed below). Other food others have liked, even thought I haven't, like the cauliflower.

3. I like how conversational the book is, and that she mentions how the recipes fit into her life.

4. I love that she has vegetable recipes --- most slow cooker cookbooks don't cook veggies outside of root vegetables.

5. I also like that my boyfriend got really excited to see the book --- he wanted to borrow it the day it came and was really excited to make the vindaloo.

6. As with any Indian cookbook, most recipes are suitable for people with the most common food restrictions: few or no recipes use peanuts, tree nuts, eggs, shellfish, wheat, soy, corn, and most are vegetarian. Many are dairy-free and vegan. They use little sugar and starch, so are fairly low glycemic index.

Weaknesses:
1. Avoids some obvious short-cuts: Someone who is using their slow cooker will want other short cuts that don't compromise flavor, such as pre-ground spices, frozen spinach, and canned tomatoes. Is someone who is using a slow cooker also going to grind their own coriander or dip a single tomato in boiling water to peel off the skin before cutting it? I only grind my own spices when I'm making a huge batch of curry paste that will last me a year.

2. Logistics are off. She tells you to buy 8 spices, but so far I haven't found a single recipe that uses 2 of the spices with no other special ingredients. 1 lb of mustard greens filled my entire 6 qt crockpot leaving little room for the 1 lb of spinach and spices, onion, garlic, ginger that I was supposed to add afterwards. Thankfully I was using frozen spinach, but 1 lb of fresh spinach would not have fit.

3. She buys into the fat-free fallacy that it's better to make enormous quantities of fat-free food than moderate quantities of normal-fat food, so most of the dal/bean recipes are fat-free. On a flavor basis, that's a huge negative: flavor is less full, texture is more gummy, and the hot spices are harsher than if made traditionally in oil. (The only times I've ever seen people get chemical burns in their mouth from hot peppers were when they were in fat-free dishes, so I think there's a real change in the quality of peppers when cooked in oil versus not.) On a health basis, it's also a huge negative. Fat-free food has a higher glycemic index than traditional food, so many people overeat when they eat fat-free food, and certainly they do not save calories.

4. The recipes make enormous quantities. The keema recipe calls for 4 pounds of ground meat (vs. ones I found online use 1 lb at a time). Dal recipes use 3-4 cups of lentils. Why contribute to American epidemic of huge portions? She gives directions for halving the recipes, but it's distracting to do that for each of the dozen ingredients in a recipe.

5. It's mostly legumes, with only 7 meat recipes, ~12 vegetable recipes, and no fish. Of the 7 meat recipes, she says a few aren't traditional, and three include dairy in a central role (e.g., butter chicken) so a given person might not even be able to use all 7 recipes without tinkering if they have food restrictions. (A little known fact: people with food allergies often rely extensively on Asian cookbooks because they avoid most common allergens. Normal people buy Asian cookbooks because they want to try cooking something new. People with food allergies buy Asian cookbooks because they can't eat half the recipes in western cookbooks.)

6. She gives a single time for how long a dish takes to cook, but she doesn't explain how your choice of crockpot size affects that time. She gives 2 choices of crockpots (4 and 5 qt) for making the cauliflower, but gives only one cooking time (3 hours). I used a 4 qt crockpot and it was still crunchy after 3 hours; presumably the 3 hours was for a 5 qt crockpot. As I learned from "Not your mother's slow cooker", cooking time varies with how full a crockpot is, with fuller crockpots taking longer to cook. Similar experience with the dry dal.

7. The first two recipes that I made were disappointing. Besides taking different amounts of time to cook than expected, the Aloo gobi (cauliflower with potatoes) was gritty with spices. You actually feel the vast quantity of spices as you eat it because there are tablespoons and tablespoons full of different spices. It's not a smooth feeling that you have from aloo gobi that you make on the stove. My guess is that the spices don't get a chance to dissolve into the oil. I served the aloo gobi to guests, and some of them loved it, and others weren't so excited, so it's personal taste. My boyfriend made lamb vindaloo, and there was the same thick grittiness from undissolved spices. My suggestion for the future will be to make spice pastes ahead of putting them in the slow cooker. The dry dal I made with urad dal, and it tasted raw after even twice as long as it was supposed to cook, and I didn't like the taste. And so I added water and cooked it overnight, and it still did not taste good. So I ended up with cups and cups of this dal that is barely palatable --- I ate a couple of servings, but threw 3/4 of it out, which I virtually never do. Maybe I just don't like urad dal, though, or maybe mine was old.

Btw, one reviewer mentioned how expensive it was to buy the ingredients. If you can find an Indian grocery, they shouldn't be. I went to my local Indian grocery (Patel Brothers, which is a national chain), and bought the full set of suggested spices for my boyfriend, some extra spices for myself, 4 lbs black chickpeas, and some other groceries, and my total was 25 dollars. And this is 7 and 14 oz bags of spices, not the small bottles from supermarkets.

I'm glad that I have this book, but since I already have to tinker with the recipes such as by adding fat and halving the recipes, I think that I would have been better off with a good Indian cookbook and using the slow cooker whenever there's a long simmer time, as I've done in the past.

Ever since my husband introduced me to Indian food, I have been hooked ever since, and we have it at least once every week. I also loved the slow cooker. So imagine my delight when I found a blog (as well as a friend on Facebook) that combined the two! I had tried two recipes from the blog (one of them: Murgh Makhani {Butter Chicken} is in the book) and loved it! I loved it even more when the book came out. Since then, I had tried the Spiced Cauliflower with Potatoes, and Black Split Lentils, and am pretty much sold...so is my husband! The photographs are fantastic, but what's even better is the introduction at the front where the author Anupy, explains in detail about the ingredients and a bit of background on the recipes, how it was passed down from mother to daughter. That is the kind of cooking I always look for: the history of the food that I am eating, and it's significance within the families that prepare them. The explanation of the ingredients came in handy as well as I was stumped when I was at this little Indian grocery store near my house. I highly recommend this book for not only the recipes, but also, the history. Thank you Anupy!

I LOVE Indian food. Before I found this cookbook, I always felt like it was something I could only allow myself to indulge in occasionally (because the food at Indian restaurants is SO rich). This collection of recipes is not only healthy, but the author does a great job making cooking Indian food unintimidating through her vivid explanations and step-by-step instruction. This book has given me the confidence to cook tasty, healthy Indian food at home and is a must have for anyone who loves Indian food.

I have spent half my life in India. I eat Indian food at home at least a few times a week and enjoy cooking it with my wife. I will give Ms Singla credit for trying to make Indian cooking easier. However, I do not really know how much she has succeeded in it. One thing is for sure. The taste, texture and the appearance of the resulting food are less than impressive.

I tried four recipes from the book. Chicken Curry, Yellow Lentils, Cauliflowers and Potatoes, and Punjabi Eggplant. For good measure, I used three different brands of the more popular slow cookers -Rival, Hamilton Beach and Crofton.

Let me share the results of my effort.

Chicken Curry:
The gravy was watery and did not have the right consistency. The spices were unbalanced. The "heat" was enough to make my face sweat. I had to add lemon juice to make it somewhat appetizing.

Cauliflowers and Potatoes:
After three hours of slow cooking, both the potatoes and cauliflower were undercooked. I tried to supplement the cooking on the stove. They still did not come out right. We tried to eat the dish with "roti" (Indian style flat bread) but found the spices unbalanced and very hot even for an Indian palate. We eventually used it as stuffing for "paranthas" (shallow fried flat bread).

Punjabi Eggplant:
This was the worst of the four dishes we tried. After 3 hours of slow cooking, again the vegetables were under cooked and the eggplant had become leathery. As before, I tried to complete the cooking with conventional stove top cooking. Still the result was very unappetizing. This we ended up throwing out.

Yellow Lentils:
This turned out to be the best of the four. We were able to improve the taste by adding cumin seed "tadaka" (tempering created by cooking cumin seeds in a tablespoon of oil). However, this too had too much chili powder for our taste.

Another major shortcoming of the book is the fact some of the key ingredients in Indian cooking such as "dhaniya" (ground coriander seeds), and "amchur" (ground dried green mango) are missing from the recipes.

They say this about mixed drinks. Don't shake if you need to stir. Don't stir if you need to shake.
Indian food is a delicate balance of subtle spices and different cooking methods - roasting, frying, shallow frying, sautéing, slow cooking, boiling, steaming, etc. You need to follow these to bring out the true Indian flavor.

Unless you are of South Asian origin, you probably do not cook Indian meals every day. So when you do make it, my suggestion is to make it as authentic as possible by using the right ingredients and the prescribed cooking method. This does not have to be time consuming if you take the right short cuts.

One book that has excellent short cuts is "From Mom with love..." by Pushpa Bhargava. For instance, using the "Pre-cooked Masala" you can cook excellent meat and vegetarian dishes in 20-45 minutes. This Masala can be cooked in advance in larger quantity and frozen.

Another book that I recommend for south Indian cooking is "Dakshin" by Chandra Padmanabhan. The chutneys are delicious!

I'm a vegetarian who loves cooking Indian food, but like most everyone out there, I (a) don't have a lot of spare time; and (b) am trying to eat healthier and maybe lose a few pounds. So a mostly vegetarian slow cooker book that cuts down or eliminates oil/ghee seemed like a godsend.

I should have known it was too good to be true. Of the five recipes I tried, only one (the rajma) was edible. The rest suffered from undercooking (crunchy chickpeas) or overcooking (soggy cauliflower), as well as poor flavor and grittiness from the dry spices. Plus, the portions are enormous, so I ended up tossing a considerable amount of food in the compost heap. I imagine that through a lot of trial and error, I might be able to make some of these recipes work, but I frankly don't have enough time and money to do tons of experimentation. Plus, it kind of defeats the purpose of buying a specialized cookbook.

My advice to people who would like to cook Indian but want to cut back on fat is to use traditional recipes but simply cut back on the amount of oil. What I have learned from this slow-cooking experiment is that tarka (frying spices) is an absolutely essential part of Indian cuisine. Frying separates the essential oils (where all the flavor is) from the spice, and also dissovles powdered spices so you don't get a gritty texture to your meal. Plus, making a tarka takes less than five minutes (10 if you want to add some onions in there) so it's fine for busy people. Indeed, the cookbook author even mentions that many Indian cooks use the slow cooker for making dal/legumes, then add fried spices just before serving. I made some dal last night using this method, and it worked beautifully!

I'm giving the book two stars because using the slow cooker to make dal is a brilliant idea, the recipes could probably be made better with tweaking, and the author is an excellent writer who obviously put a lot of time, effort, and love into her work. The author seems like a lovely person who is passionate about food, so I feel a bit bad about giving a negative review, but I also have to be honest about my experiences.

I bought a slow-cooker recently at a thrift store to take my Vegetarian Chili to Chili cook-offs. I heard about this book in the Chicago Reader and was intrigued enough to get the book, so I can use my crock-pot for other things. I have to say I am pleasantly surprised. I am a fairly decent Vegetarian cook and cook Indian food well. Although the taste of the dishes I have cooked so far is not 100% authentic, I would say that the 5-6 dishes I have made so far have been about 75-90% range. My biggest problem is the cooking times are more of a suggestion rather than accurate. I think the time and level of heat is completely dependant on YOUR slow cooker. Some of her recipes that call for 4 hours of cooking time on LOW left the dish completely uncooked! :-( But when I left it on for the same amount of time on HIGH it was really well done. The Chole dish was the first one I tried. I stopped after 12 hrs as the dish looked done. I took it for my monthly food-swap meetup and it was a HIT. I liked it a lot, but it was nice to be reinforced by the opinion of others. Although I have cooked several more authentic Indian dishes for this group; they seem to like this ad-hoc version better! My Aloo-Gobi dish was the best I have made so far. It is better than even the more authentic versions I prepare. This may be because the Cauliflower stays like full florets without falling apart like it usually does for me. :-) The Rajmah was also almost as good as made authentically. Overall, I am really happy with this book. I will be using it quite a lot for all my lentil/legume Indian cooking. My only problem is the cooking times are compeltely useless and should be used only as a guideline. if you know how the dish should look/taste like; change the instructions till you get what you like and make a NOTE of it in the book.

This is, by far, one of the best cookbooks I own! Fabulous explanations and descriptions! I love a cookbook that I can read, that has great pictures, and easy to follow recipes - this book has it all! My family loved the curry chicken. Can't wait to try more recipes! Thank you for introducing my family to another world of flavor!

I cook frequently in a slow cooker, and Indian is my favorite cuisine. So I was very excited when I heard a book called Indian Slow Cooker was scheduled for print. Unfortunately, I found the book an overwhelming disappointment. Here's why:
1. Very few dishes with meat, as has been noted by other reviewers.
2. Badly edited. For example, the recipe on page 114 for Chicken Vindaloo suggests in the summary at the top of the page to cook on high for seven hours. But the detailed recipe on the same page calls for cooking for six hours on low heat. Which is it?
3. Many of the recipes call for way too much of certain ingredients. The recipe for Chicken Vindaloo above calls for 8 large onions. Think of the last time you made a recipe yielding food for four that called for eight onions. You probably haven't seen one.
4. If you follow the recipe on page 120 for Lamb Biryani, which calls for 1 1/2 cups of water and 2 1/2 cups of rice, you will be eating some seriously pebble-like rice.
I would suggest you avoid this cookbook. By the way, many internet recipes for Indian food can be adapted for the slow cooker via trial and error. That's my advice rather than buying this cookbook.

This is by far the MOST exciting book I have purchased in years. I have only bought raw food books for a long time, and I LOVE them all.
I quit buying regular vegan books because I avoid pastas, gluten, sugar, etc...I like BASIC food with no packaging. And I LOVE Indian food. Problem is at all the buffets there is this layer of oil, and I am guessing it may be GMO canola oil. This saddens me because I love dining at our local Indian place that has vegan night a couple of times a month. We get to dine with Ganesh, Krishna, and Kali. They overlook our Chana Dal. But now I can spend about ten minutes prepping, throw the stuff in a slow cooker and wait for the delicious Punjabi smells to waft through the air. Nothing better than waking up to already made coffee and a recipe of Dad's Rajmah (an Indian twist on chili).
I have only had this book for about 2 weeks and probably have had the slow cooker going every single night since it arrived via my UPS man. The recipes are incredibly inexpensive and super healthy. Excluding a small meat section in the back, the rest of the book if pretty much vegan. The book has to be pretty good in order for me to even consider buying a book with ANY meat section in the back. So far I have made a lot of black lentils and Rajmah (with kidney beans). A lot of common beans like kidney, chickpea and blackeyed peas are used. The "Indian" varieties are SUPER easy to find if you have any type of International place nearby. If you don't, then just buy them off of the internet. Even the ORGANIC beans at Whole Foods don't cost more than 1.99 a pound. The spices are BASIC. Red Chili powder, cumin, tumeric. Spices you may not have if you are only stocked with salt and pepper: Cardamom, Garam Masal, Chana Masala, Black Salt, Mango Powder. Once again, hit the Asian food store or order online. This stuff tastes AUTHENTIC!! It doesn't seem like a "dumbed" down American version. Several of the dishes like the eggplant and the Aloo Gobi carry a fair amount of punch which is great for those of us that apparently were Punjabi in our last lifetime. For those of you who need to work up to the valor of 8 Thai Chilis, then just reduce the amount of spice. Easy. You can also choose between serrano, Thai and Cayenne peppers.
Seriously, ten minutes of dumping stuff in the pot and pushing a button. How easy can it get.
The BEST part is she uses DRY BEANS, UNSOAKED. Yep. No soaking required. Meaning you won't have fermenting beans that you forgot about 3 days ago stinking up your kitchen. Dried beans are "green", don't carry the BPA from canned beans, and are CHEAP! The vegan recipes are 100% cholesterol free and full of fiber. Anyone who loves Indian food NEEDS this book. Anyone who is on a budget, trying to feed a family after losing a job, trying to beat heart disease, trying to defeat diabetes, trying to lose weight, trying to beat cancer, buy this book. The recipes are SUPER HEALTHY, CHEAP and EASY. It is an American dream to make such simple recipes that taste AMAZING and cost so little. This could save your families health! I will be posting my experiences and photos of these dishes soon! Some of the dishes are talked about here: www.getskinnygovegan.blogspot.com

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