54 Healthy Crock Pot Recipes That'll Have You Digging Out Your Slow Cooker

A robust blend of tomatoes, yogurt, and fragrant spices make the backbone of this fiery, creamy chicken dish. Enjoy over white or brown rice for a hearty, wholesome dinner.

Recipe: Slow-Cooker Chicken Tikka Masala

Tomatoes, corn, onion, and spice give these humble chicken tacos a lot of bold flavor. Add fajita veggies as an additional topping of colors and textures!

Recipe: Slow-Cooker Chicken Tacos

This soul-warming soup is rich in chicken, matzo balls, and a veggie-studded broth. It's soothing through and through.

Recipe: Slow-Cooker Matzo Ball Soup

What?! Bread in the slow cooker? You bet! And wholesome, herb-studded bread to boot! Enjoy this homey loaf dipped in your fave healthy chicken or veggie stew.

Recipe: Slow-Cooker Rosemary Bread

Stock up on healthy meals with this freezer prep protein-packed chili. Prepare in advance and enjoy a nutritious, hearty chili that’s full of protein and flavor — all with minimal effort. Sub out plain non-fat Greek yogurt for the sour cream to add a dose of probiotics to your chili, but with the same tang.

Recipe: Freezer-Prep Protein Packed Chili

Healthy meets delicious with these slow-cooker chicken fajita bowls — packed with protein, veggies, and vibrant flavors. It's a simple and nutritious meal that fits right into any busy schedule.

Recipe: Slow-Cooker Chicken Fajita Bowls

Enjoy a comforting, nutrient-rich meal with these slow-cooker collard greens. Full of flavor and effortlessly prepared in your slow cooker, it's a satisfying dish that’s both delicious and healthy — just swap in a smoked turkey leg for the ham hock for an even leaner option that boasts the same smoky taste.

Recipe: Slow-Cooker Collard Greens

Wholesome and delicious — this protein-packed recipe comes with veggies and is loaded with nutrients. It pairs perfectly with brown rice for an extra boost of fiber.

Recipe: Slow-Cooker Chicken Teriyaki

This protein-packed turkey chili is the ultimate comfort food for those chilly (pun intended) nights. The cornbread dumplings bake right on top of the chili in the Crock Pot for easy cleanup.

Recipe: Slow-Cooker Turkey Chili with Cornbread Dumplings

Loaded with veggies, aromatics, and quinoa and tied together in a creamy coconut tomato sauce, this vegan curry will make your kitchen smell amazing as it simmers away in the slow cooker.

Recipe: Slow-Cooker Coconut Curry 

A slow braise in the slow cooker makes this sweet and savory chicken exceptionally tender. Serve over your choice of rice for the perfect weeknight meal.

Recipe: Slow-Cooker Honey Teriyaki Chicken

You can absolutely cook a whole chicken in a Crock Pot. Simply place it atop a bed of potatoes and onions; as the chicken cooks, its juices will flavor the vegetables below. Plus, a short time under the broiler helps crisp up the chicken skin.

Recipe: Slow-Cooker Herb Butter Chicken 

Serve this flavor-packed shredded chicken on your favorite buns, as shown, or in tacos, burritos, rice bowls — or however you desire! 

Recipe: Slow-Cooker Chicken Sliders

This soup is velvety smooth and oh-so-comforting. Simply toss in the ingredients and let the Crock Pot work its magic, then blend with a hand blender until creamy. 

Recipe: Slow-Cooker Butternut Squash Soup

All the Buffalo chicken flavors you love combine in this hearty, protein-packed chili. The recipe serves two, but feel free to double or triple the ingredients to make more portions.

Recipe: Slow-Cooker Buffalo Chicken Chili

This Slow-Cooker Pot Roast only takes six ingredients to make thanks to a packet of onion soup mix. It gives the roast a ton of flavor without a ton of work, and no one will even know you didn't make it from scratch.

Recipe: Slow-Cooker Pot Roast

Packed with veggies, hearty beans, and fragrant herbs, this filling soup comes together seamlessly. Just toss everything in the slow cooker and let it go until the vegetables are cooked to tender perfection.

Recipe: Slow-Cooker Tuscan White Bean Soup

This tasty fajitas recipe might yield a bit of excess liquid. You can prevent a sloppy mess by draining the tomatoes, serving the chicken with a slotted spoon, and maybe enjoying the last bit of chicken over a bed of rice. 

Recipe: Slow-Cooker Chicken Fajitas

Whether you enjoy it as a snack or as a full-on meal, you can't go wrong with this Buffalo chicken dip that pairs chicken with protein-packed Greek yogurt and two kinds of low-fat cheese. If you have some pita bread on hand, cut them into triangles, and bake them in the oven for five minutes at 425°F for quick dipping pita chips.

Recipe: Healthy Slow-Cooker Buffalo Chicken Dip

If you worship at the church of sweet and savory, then I don't need to tell you why combining sugar, soy sauce, and beef broth is a foolproof recipe for irresistible taste. Sirloin and broccoli make this a meal, but let's be real — essentially any protein or vegetable would pair well with this sauce. 

Recipe: Slow-Cooker Beef And Broccoli

I'm a huge fan of dairy, but I have to admit that this vegan butternut squash mac is absolute creamy perfection. You don't have to look far down the ingredients list to see what the literal secret sauce is: a teaspoon of mustard (along with some nutritional yeast and cashews). 

Recipe: Slow-Cooker Vegan Butternut Squash Mac

Tired of overnight oats or toast for breakfast? Try this breakfast casserole, which combines eggs with all the best vegetables, including sweet potatoes and mushrooms. It's a hit with vegetarians and omnivores alike!

Recipe: Veggie Breakfast Casserole

Crock Pots were basically made for recipes like this one. Cooking the chicken thighs over an extended period of time draws out the flavor, helps tenderize the meat, and infuses everything with a rich blend of garlic and balsamic. 

Recipe: Slow-Cooker Balsamic Chicken

You can call it a healthy slow cooker recipe — I call it my favorite soothing recipe after a long day of strategically nodding my head in agreement in Zoom calls.

Recipe: Slow-Cooker Roasted Tomato Basil Soup

Trying to cook a creamy soup on the stovetop can be a tedious process for anyone who doesn't have the time to monitor a pot. This butternut squash soup recipe lets the Crock Pot do the work for you (after 30 minutes of roasting), and results in a velvety soup you'll want to savor. 

Recipe: Slow-Cooker Butternut Squash Soup

Some of the best vegan recipes in the world aren't simply "meat-free" versions of their omnivorous counterparts, but completely reimagined iterations. That's the case with this vegan bolognese, which uses the textural power of shredded carrots, eggplant chunks, and cauliflower florets to give both depth of flavor and satisfying chewiness. 

Recipe: Vegan Bolognese 

Crock Pots are great at cooking white meat, but excellent at cooking red meat until it's buttery soft and juicy. Try it with this steak fajitas recipe, which you can enjoy on corn or flour tortillas or just a scoop of rice. 

Recipe: Slow-Cooker Steak Fajitas

The homemade tortilla bowl is perfect for this soup, but if you don't have the oil — or the pain tolerance for deep-frying a large tortilla into a bowl — then you can also just crush up a bunch of tortilla chips into your bowl of soup, or bake a tortilla in between two bowls in the oven. 

Recipe: Chicken Tortilla Bowl Soup

To get that finger-licking, sticky texture, try adding just a pinch of cornstarch to thicken up the sauce. Garnish with a sprinkling of sesame seeds and sliced green onions, and you have yourself a restaurant-worthy meal! 

Recipe: Slow-Cooker Honey Garlic Chicken

Mild, nutty, and creamy, white beans are a versatile ingredient that do a great job of integrating seamlessly with other flavors. Here, the result is a rich chili with a slightly sweet, mildly spicy burn. 

Recipe: Spicy White Bean Chili

Look, Crock Pots aren't exclusive to lunch or dinner recipes — they're great for breakfast, too. Take this oatmeal recipe: If you follow it right, you'll get the world's creamiest bowl of old-fashioned homemade oats. Top with a handful of apple slices, and you're pretty much guaranteed the perfect day.

Recipe: Apple Cinnamon Steel-Cut Oatmeal

On days you need a boost of vitamins (or simply want to clean out the wilting vegetables in your fridge, ahem), try out this recipe, which combines a ton of sliced vegetables — including squash, celery, tomatoes, zucchini, and onion — into a light soup you can polish off with a piece of crusty bread.

Recipe: Hearty Veggie Soup

Craving Chinese-American food? Try out this recipe, which slow-cooks a blissfully sticky honey soy chicken in less than three hours — basically how long it would've taken you to choose your order and wait for your delivery to arrive, anyway.

Recipe: Freezer Prep Honey Soy Chicken

If you're like me and are always craving some variation of fajitas, you'll love this freezer-friendly recipe that you can make in bulk. When you're getting closer to dinner time, just pour the contents into your Crock Pot and cook it on high for three hours or on low for six. 

Recipe: Chicken Fajitas

For optimal creaminess, drain or dry off as much of the water on the spinach as possible. 

Recipe: Healthy Slow-Cooker Spinach Artichoke Dip

You don't need too many ingredients to make this green curry that's so good you should basically charge money for it — just coconut milk, curry paste, chicken, and two of your favorite veggies.

Recipe: Slow-Cooker Thai Green Curry

This simple slow cooker recipe is so basic, yet so flavorful, that you'll start feeling like your Crock Pot is a magic cauldron. Just throw in some chicken thighs, herbs, lemon, and garlic, and voilà — you have the centerpiece to a dinner your family will inhale before you even have a chance to sit down. 

Recipe: Slow-Cooker Lemon Garlic Chicken

Stuffed peppers are only as good as the ingredients they're actually stuffed with. You could be eating this cheesy rice, corn, and bean combo out of your friend's discarded ramen cup, and it would still be irresistible. The peppers do elevate the whole eating experience, though. 😉

Recipe: Slow-Cooker Stuffed Peppers

You only need to wait four hours until you can fall in love with your new favorite dinner recipe. It's tender, it's juicy, it's five ingredients, and it's definitely making me salivate right now. 

Recipe: Slow-Cooker Shredded Chicken Tacos

While the Western world is still catching on to the culinary wonders of jackfruit, it's actually been a popular ingredient in South Asian cuisine for a long time. For those of you not in the know, jackfruit is an actual fruit that, when cooked, has a texture resembling that of pulled pork. It's also mild enough that it'll absorb the flavors of the other ingredients it's cooked with — producing a wildly rich and tasty dish, just like these carnitas.

Recipe: Slow-Cooker Jackfruit Carnitas

One head of cauliflower + cream + potatoes = a velvety soup that you could only make happen with the help of your Crock Pot. Top with bacon bits, cheddar, green onion, or even some fried onion for an added crunch. 

Recipe: Creamy Cauliflower Soup

They're crunchy, they're green, and they're versatile. Whatever the reason, there's something about green beans that makes them my favorite vegetable. Try them out á la this Greek green beans recipe, and maybe you'll join the fan club. 

Recipe: Greek Green Beans

Where has this vegan lasagna recipe been all my life?! The secret is in the pumpkin tofu ricotta, made with tofu, sun dried tomatoes, nutritional yeast, and a whole lotta pumpkin. Don't be mad if you finish it before putting the lasagna together. 

Recipe: Pumpkin Lasagna

Beans, beans, the musical fruit. 

Recipe: Seven-Ingredient Black Bean Soup

Just cut the spaghetti squash in half and stick it in the Crock Pot. 

Recipe: Spaghetti Squash And Meatballs

Add chocolate chips for a truly "healthyish" breakfast. 

Recipe: Banana Bread Steel-Cut Oatmeal

This easy, nutritious swap for mashed potatoes only requires five ingredients and 10 minutes of prep to make.

Recipe: Garlic Herb Mashed Cauliflower 

Perfect as a vegetarian main dish or as a side. 

Recipe: Cheesy Mushroom Quinoa

That sauce, though!

Recipe: Honey Garlic Chicken

You can also substitute the chicken thighs for leaner chicken breasts (or tofu). 

Recipe: Basil Chicken In Coconut Curry

Make this savory bake without even having to turn the oven on. 

Recipe: Sweet Potato And Black Bean Bake

Stress-free breakfast? Yes, please. 

Recipe: Family-Size Veggie Omelet

A recipe that's basically as easy as opening a can. 

Recipe: Chicken Noodle Soup

People will think you spent all day at the stove. 💁 

Recipe: Risotto With Butternut Squash And Sausage