Healthy Slow Cooker Recipes

These vegetarian wonders are fast to prep and come out tender and tasty.

This slow-cooker version of split-pea soup is as easy as it gets and is packed with healthy fiber and protein. Serve it with crusty bread and you've got a soul-warming meal ready to go.

Here a baked potato dish provides enough sustenance to make a meal in itself. Start this in the morning.

There's butternut squash, leeks, and spinach as well as white beans in this hearty, rich, and flavorful vegetarian soup. It's a recipe that proves the slow cooker is as well suited to vegetable recipes as to big pieces of meat.

Nothing hits the spot on a chilly winter night like a hearty bowl of stew. Boost the feel-good factor with this lighter version.

Instead of roasting your vegetables, try giving them the slow-cooker treatment. Here, carrots, parsnips, and beets are poached in a spiced oil until silky and flavorful. Serve with pesto over grains or alongside roasted meats. This recipe appears in our cookbook "Martha Stewart's Slow Cooker" (Clarkson Potter).

Whether you use a slow cooker or the oven, you'll be rewarded with tender meat and deep flavor. If you have New Mexico or Anaheim chiles, swap 5 or 6 for the poblanos.

Lots of spice adds a layer of warmth to this turkey chili that you can make in a slow-cooker. This recipe calls for boneless, skinless turkey thighs, serrano chiles, chipotle chile in adobo, whole peeled tomatoes, and chili powder.

Cindy Pawlcyn serves this cabbage alongside her Mongolian Pork Chops at her Mustards Grill restaurant in Yountville, California.