The 10 Most Essential Slow Cooker Recipes for Fall

By Meghan Splawn From The Kitchn

How To Make Slow Cooker Applesauce

OPEN ROUNDUP
That little chill in the air can only mean one thing: It’s time to dust off your favorite fall slow-cooking comfort foods. From steaming ladles of spiced apple cider on crisp September nights, to celebratory dinners of fiery chili after a Saturday spent apple picking, these slow-cooking essentials are perfect for perfuming your whole house and transforming it into a fall fantasy land.

1. How To Make Applesauce in the Slow Cooker
Whether you’re planning an apple-picking adventure or just taking advantage of the abundance of apples at the market, you’ll need this applesauce method. You can make this applesauce smooth or chunky depending on how much you blend it.

2. How To Make Caramelized Onions in a Slow Cooker
I’m throwing this essential recipe on the list because caramelized onions at the ready in your freezer will make you feel like a dinnertime hero. Spend one day making a big batch of slow-cooked onions and freeze them in small portions for stirring into pasta, soups, and frittatas.

3. Slow-Cooked Bolognese Sauce
Spaghetti with meat sauce is one of my family’s favorite weeknight meals. You can replicate the flavor of a slow-simmer Sunday afternoon sauce with the slow cooker any day of the week.

4. Slow Cooker Chicken Tikka Masala
The warming spices of classic chicken tikka masala are just the kind of comfort food we’ll all be craving come fall. This is one of my favorite dinners to make for guests, who always leave impressed and well-fed. Bonus: The cleanup is easy after, too.

5. Slow-Cooked Brisket and Onions
Another slow cooker stunner to serve for special occasions or guests, this brisket and onions in the slow cooker is incredibly fragrant and makes a ton of leftovers.

6. Slow Cooker Minestrone
This vegetable-heavy minestrone is my favorite slow cooker recipe to make purely for the leftovers. You can throw almost any vegetables that look good in with the broth and tomatoes, which makes it excellent for using up numerous crops of end-of-season vegetables or just the ones you forgot in the crisper drawer.

7. How To Make French Onion Soup in the Slow Cooker
Remember those onions at the top of the list? You can turn them into this knock-out French onion soup. I made this recently to take to a friend and the resulting soup was so satisfying it was hard to give it away!

8. Slow Cooker Veggie Pot Pie
This pot pie, with creamy broth full of soft vegetables and topped with crispy biscuits, is so good that you’ll be making it once a week from now until January. Bookmark this one.

9. Slow Cooker Vegan Lentil Chili
You knew there had to be at least one chili recipe on this list! This vegetable-based on can take beef, bison, or chicken if you want to make this meaty, but I doubt you’ll want to.

10. How To Make Mulled Cider in the Slow Cooker
Here are the occasions where you’ll need this cider this fall: tailgating, PTA fall festivals, after apple picking, pre- and post-trick-or-treating, and finally for Thanksgiving day.

For more on this story and to download the recipes go to: http://www.thekitchn.com/the-10-most-essential-slow-cooker-recipes-for-fall-248146?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+apartmenttherapy%2Fthekitchn+%28TK+Channel%3A+Main%29