The Best Slow Cookers for People Who Don’t Have Time To Cook

I love the retro styling of this Greenpan slow cooker, which has a rectangular body and comes finished in a selection of sober colors, including Blue Haze and Cloud Cream. Its 6-quart (6-liter) capacity is finished in Thermolon Volt—a diamond-infused nonstick ceramic coating that is made to stand the test of time and won’t scratch or break down like traditional finishes. It’s also free of nasty PFAs and PFOAs for peace of mind.

The controls are refreshingly simple in their design, with easy one-touch presets for browning and sautéing food prior to opting for the slow cook setting. This can be done directly in the heavy-duty pot to save on washing up a separate pan. I found the Greenpan’s 6-quart pot is deep and a great size for larger cuts of meat, whole chickens, or batch cooking stews. Its silicone side handles don’t get too hot and make the pot easier to remove from its base. I particularly love the traditional old-school vibe this slow cooker offers, with a tempered glass lid that makes it easy to check up on the food inside so you can watch things bubbling away nicely without disturbing the heat.

This 8-quart multi-cooker takes a lot of ingredients and can cook portions for up to 10 people, but its styling is smooth and circular so it sits neatly on the worktop. Unlike the Ninja, which folds up, the lid comes off completely here too, so you can move it out of the way when you’re attending to your dish. As well as slow cooking, you can pressure cook a range of meat, fish, and vegetables here. There are far more one-touch cooking modes than you’re likely to need if you’re simply looking to slow cook, but I like how the different modes are presented. There are controls for simple soups, poultry, rice, grains, and meat stew, and the plus and minus buttons make it easy to tailor the cooker to how long you want to cook.  

While the Crock-Pot does have a decent-size lip to hold onto, the cooking pot doesn’t have any handles, which meant I needed to use oven gloves to take the pot out when it was hot. As it’s nonstick, washing up with warm water and dish soap after use was straightforward. Alternatively, I could pop it in the dishwasher for a more thorough clean to get any remaining grease off effectively. A steam rack, serving spoon, and recipe book are useful added extras.

First and foremost, the Foodi MAX is a stunner of a design and has a lever that allows you to switch quickly and simply between pressure cooking, steam cooking, and slower cooking. It’s part of Ninja’s special-edition copper and black range, which also includes a few air fryers, a kettle, a toaster, and a knife set, which are all head-turning pieces for the countertop. The functionality doesn’t disappoint either and I really like just how many cooking settings it can pack in here—15, to be precise, that range across pressure cooking to steaming and slow cooking.

The Ninja Deluxe set comes with a pair of silicone tongs and apron included in the price and it’s easy to set up. At 36 cm high, it’s quite bulky on the worktop—particularly when the lid is hinged up. When pressure cooking, you also need to ensure there’s enough space around the cooker for the steam to release. Spaghetti bolognese sauce was easy to prep here as I was able to brown off the mince in the pan first, throw in all the ingredients, and simply choose to slow cook on high for four hours. A simple stir of the recipe midway through cooking ensured the finished results were tasty. As the pot is 7.5 liters and circular, this means longer cuts of meat will need to be trimmed, but there is space to slow cook or air fry a whole chicken. There’s also a digital cooking probe so you can monitor food temperature and achieve perfect results when cooking meat and fish.