Slow Cooker Meals: Easy Corned Beef

Are you one of those people who think corned beef is only for St. Patrick’s Day? Be prepared to change your thinking, corned beef is a perfect meal to serve when you want to treat your family to a homemade meal but don’t have time to slave over a hot stove. You can place all the ingredients into your slow cooker and go off to work knowing that you will come home to a delicious hot meal. Slow cooker corned beef is easy, delicious and economical.

What you need:

A five-quart or larger slow cooker depending on the number of people you need to feed.

Five pounds of corned beef will feed five or more people.

1 large cabbage
1 large onion
5 large potatoes
5 large carrots
3 large parsnips
5 small blue turnips
2 tablespoons of pickling spice

Start with the corned beef, remove from packaging and if the pieces are large, at least cut them in half. Place in the bottom of the slow cooker. Wash the potatoes and cut into three pieces each and add to pot. The type of potato is not that important, red bliss or Maine potatoes are good. Cut off the tops of the carrots, scrap if needed and cut into three pieces each and add, remove the tips as well if it doesn’t look good. The same for the parsnips. Cut off the tops and bottoms of the turnips and then cut in half. 

Add water to the slow cooker, enough to cover all the ingredients and then add the pickling spice. Remove the core of the cabbage, slice into four pieces and place on top, press down to wet the cabbage and then add the cover. Place on high and cook for seven or eight hours.

When you arrive at home, remove the ingredients from the slow cooker onto a large platter. Slice the corned beef for serving. If you like a soup, you can add some kale and macaroni to the broth and use it as a starter dish. In the more Portuguese way, adding a little Linguica (this is a Portuguese sausage) or another sausage to the broth with canned kidney beans makes it even heartier.

This is an easy, inexpensive and delicious way to feed yourself and your family with a minimum of effort on your part. You can add some bread or biscuits, a salad if you like and a dessert and you have everything you need, all in that one pot. This recipe will feed five or more hearty appetites. What could be easier than slow cooker corned beef?