Can onion based recipes such as bolognese be cooked in slow cooker?
Slow cookers seem like an easy way to cook a meal if you are prepared to wait the 8 hours or so for the meal to cook.
Can you simply put all the ingredients, including onion, for something like bolognese in a slow cooker and expect it cook properly? Will the onion soften like it does when fried with oil?
Best Answer
With regard to your comment, "what can you cook in a slow cooker", I cook almost everything in the slow cooker!
With regard to onions, I suggest that you precook the onions so that they obtain the texture that you want and then add them to the slow cooker. For example, when I cook stew, I caramelise the onions before placing them in the slow cooker, for the cooking temperature is too low for Maillard reactions.
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Answer 2
The problem's not in the slow cooking -- the problem's in the putting all of the ingredients together. The acid of the tomatoes will prevent the onions from softening, so you'll not get the same texture that you'd get from cooking the onions first, then adding the tomatoes.
You might be able to solve that problem by not chopping the onions -- use a grater to effectively turn it into onion juice, and you won't have to worry about the chunkiness problems.
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