This might be an odd question...

[djonma]

Can you do Stir Fry in the slow cooker

Comments

[magpiefirefly]

You can use the same ingredients that you would find in a stir fry, but you can not make stir fry in a crock pot. Stir fry is flash cooked in a very hot pan.

If you use a stir fry mix, or cook rice with veggies, you can always add in soy or teriaki sauce to the liquid to give it more of an Asian flavor, but it won't have the same taste or slight crunch.

There are some good recipes in this community for Asian-styled dishes. I'm not sure how tofu holds up in the crock, but there are lots of good chicken recipes, if you have a good substitute.

[dmacabre]

This. I don't really see a way to do actual stir-fry in a crockpot. What you'd end up with is a vaguely Asian-ishing tasting stew with mushy vegetables.

Tofu should hold up fine with long cooking, though. The original poster might want to look for recipes dealing with clay-pot cooking or braising, which is better suited to crockpots.

[djonma]

Yeah I know it won't flash fry... was wondering if it'd come out somewhat similar though hehe.

[poeji]

I make black bean "chicken" that's great with meat substitutes! Even with meatless meatballs. XD

[djonma]

That does look yummu, thank you! Don't worry about exact amounts, I never cook with them anyway!
It's all "Hmm a bit of this... that'll taste good!"

[nani_ka]

i'm not what you'd call an experienced crock-pot cooker, but i'd imagine you could just toss the cut-up veggies & meat alt. into the crock, add your sauce ingredients then put it on low & have it come out okay.

I have noticed that when i'm cooking something without a lot of water to carry/absorb the heat, it'll cook a lot faster... like, 8 hour recipes taking 3 - 4 hours? (Of course, that could just be my crock.)

I'd say play with the idea & see what happens. If it all turns into mush you could always add a bunch of stock & declare it soup...

[nani_ka]

OH and since you're basically looking for a way to cook without much standing waiting, you can cook pasta on the stove without turning on the heat. Just bring the water to a boil, add the pasta, close it up tight, turn it off & walk away. It takes longer, and i've had cases where i did have to bring it back to a boil to get it to finish cooking but it makes it so you don't have to stand there for 20 - 30 minutes waiting for noodles...

[rainbow_goddess]

I don't understand why you would have to stand there waiting for pasta to cook. I boil the water, toss in the pasta, stir once to make sure it all gets into the water, and then leave it for ten or 15 minutes. I certainly don't stand and watch it.

[bekscilla]

You probably put in an appropriate amount of water though, unlike my partner who always uses a too-small saucepan and too much water :P

[mollywog]

I'm thinking that if you cooked the tofu or whatever in the sauce for a few hours to let it soak in all the flavor and then added the veggies and cooked it for 2-3 more hours (all on low) that you might end up with some sort of crunchy veggies. Assuming you're using fresh ones. If you're not, you could add frozen veggies for maybe 20-30 minutes and accomplish the same thing. It won't be the same, but it could be good.

[funkyturtle]

Stir fry is kinda the opposite of crock pot cooking. It's super hot and fast. Crock pot is a low temperature and slow cooking method.

That being said, you could probably make a nice marinated tofu in sauce thing, and then dump it over some blanched veggies (put thin sliced veggies in pot, pour boiling water over them, wait a few minutes and drain) and it would probably be very tasty.

There's a bunch of curry recipes on here - just look at the tags and swap out the meat for tofu. You might want to also try stuffed peppers or various squashes in the crock pot. Veggie pasta sauce also works very well in a crock because the long cooking time lets the veggie flavours mingle to form tasty awesomeness.