This simple slow-cooker tomato soup with shop-bought tortellini is pure comfort

Northern Irish home cook Nathan Anthony is known for his quick, nutritious meals aimed at busy professionals and families.

Here, he shares three slow-cooker recipes from his cookbook Bored of Lunch Healthy Slow Cooker: Even Easier.

Spicy tomato, tortellini and chilli soup

Tomato soup with pasta, this is real comfort food. You can roast the tomatoes before they go in the slow cooker, which will give you a greater depth of flavour. But if you don’t have time, you can just throw it all in together and leave it to do its thing. As with all these soup recipes, you can make this on the hob, but your slow cooker will save on energy and require less of your attention.

INGREDIENTS

• 12 tomatoes, quartered
• 2 tbsp tomato puree
• 2 x 400g tins of chopped tomatoes
• 1 red chilli, sliced
• 5 garlic cloves, crushed or sliced
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 celery stick, chopped
• 2 carrots, chopped
• handful of fresh basil, plus extra leaves to garnish
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 litre vegetable stock
• 250g shop-bought fresh tortellini of your choice
• salt and pepper, to taste

METHOD

1. If you have time, preheat the oven to 180C fan-forced (200C conventional). Add the tomatoes to a baking tray and roast for 25 minutes.
2. Add to the slow cooker with all the remaining ingredients, except the tortellini. Cook on high for 3 hours or low for 5 hours.
3. Blitz with a handheld blender, then stir in your tortellini and cook on high for 10-15 minutes. Serve in bowls, garnished with extra basil leaves.

Serves 6

Steak and Guinness pie

Being Irish, it won’t surprise that I love Guinness or that I love pies. Traditionally made pies can be a bit of a labour of love, but this is the easiest pie recipe you’ll ever make – just throw it in, let it cook away during the day, add a pastry lid and serve. It is honestly that easy. It’s gorgeously rich, and a beef gravy pie is something truly special, perfect on a cold day.

INGREDIENTS

• 800g beef steak or rump (or 1kg brisket), chopped
• 440ml can of Guinness
• 200ml beef stock
• 1 tbsp tomato puree
• 1 tsp dried rosemary
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 2 carrots, roughly chopped
• 1 red onion, chopped
• celery stick, chopped
• 1 heaped tbsp cornflour
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 sheet of ready-rolled puff pastry
• 1 egg, beaten, to glaze the pastry
• salt and pepper, to taste
• broccolini and carrot and parsnip mash, to serve (optional)

METHOD

1. Put all the ingredients, except the pastry and egg, in the
   slow cooker.
2. Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 7-8 hours. Discard the
   bay leaf.
3. Preheat the oven to 200C fan-forced (220C conventional). Top the beef filling with the puff pastry, tuck it round the pie, then brush with the beaten egg. Pop the ovenproof slow-cooker pot (without the lid) into the
   oven for 25 minutes until golden and crisp. If your slow-cooker
   pot isn’t oven-safe, decant the filling into an ovenproof pot,
   cover with the pastry, brush with the egg and bake as above.
4. Serve with broccolini and carrot and parsnip mash, if you like.

TIP

To get the pastry the right size, put your slow-cooker lid on top of your puff pastry sheet and cut round it before adding to the slow cooker.

Chilli con carne macaroni melt

I am honestly obsessed with this dish. If chilli con carne, pasta bake and macaroni cheese all went in one pot, then this would be the result. There’s no need to brown the mince, just chuck everything in and go. It’s perfect if you are out all day or want to get ahead during a busy time. You can make this a vegetarian dish by replacing the beef with Quorn mince, or using lentils and extra vegetables instead.

INGREDIENTS

• 400g lean beef mince
• 700g passata
• 1 tbsp tomato puree
• 3 garlic cloves, grated or chopped
• handful of fresh coriander, chopped, plus extra to garnish
• 1 red chilli, sliced
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 packet of chilli con carne spice mix (or you can make your own)
• 700ml chicken stock
• 400g tin of kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 red pepper, chopped
• 250g dried macaroni
• 120g cheddar cheese (get reduced-fat if you can), grated
• salt and pepper, to taste

METHOD

1. Put the beef mince, passata, tomato puree, garlic, half the coriander, the chilli, onion, chilli con carne spice mix and salt and pepper in the slow cooker. Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 7-8 hours.
2. Add the stock, kidney beans, red pepper and macaroni and cook on high for a further 45 minutes. If cooking on low, you’ll need to leave it for closer to 1 hour to cook the pasta.
3. Stir through half the cheddar into the dish, top with the remainder, then garnish with the remaining coriander. Absolutely stunning.

TIP

To make your own chilli con carne spice mix, use a teaspoon each of ground cumin, paprika, ground cinnamon and chilli powder.

Serves 5

This is an edited extract from Bored of Lunch Healthy Slow Cooker: Even Easier by Nathan Anthony, published by Ebury Press, RRP $45. Buy now