We were intrigued by the VitaClay Slow Cooker because of its healthy claim — the healthier cooker is one of their claims. As the name suggests, its made of clay, which is one of their differentiators.
It turns out that natural, unglazed, highly prized Zisha clay enhances flavors and preserves important nutrients, enzymes, and vitamins in savory soups, hearty stews, grains and legumes. The other nice thing about their cooker is that it is always free from added non-stick chemical glazes, lead and aluminum.
The feature that we love most about this diverse and flexible product is that it is a rice cooker, slow cooker, digital steamer and low-temperature artisan yogurt maker all in one – yes, really! I don’t eat a lot of carbs, but I do love my yoghurt and who doesn’t love a great stew, especially on a cold day.
You can make large batches of probiotic, calcium-rich Greek-style yogurt in this clay cooker – how cool is that?
By stewing foods rather than sautéing or frying, you can cook dishes that are low in fat and cholesterol, leaving the extra fattening oils off the recipe. The cooker brings food to boil two to four times faster than most of conventional slow cookers and then, reduces it to a simmer.
This cooking process is meant to retain the texture of food and shorten the cooking time by half while maintaining the food’s original flavor, which you often lose when you cook things too quickly.
The all-natural clay-cooking bowl promotes uniform cooking. Double lid design creates micro-pressure to maximize steaming quality for tender and flavorful food and cuts slow cooking time and energy usage in half. Your whole meals or side dishes can be made in as little as 30 minutes from scratch.
We also love the fact that this organic multicooker is fully programmable from ten minutes to up to 5 hours with 10 minute increments, which is a great feature for busy people with crazy schedules (that’d be me)!
Additionally, you can set the multi-program functions for savory stews and soups, pot roast, rice, brown rice, sweet rice, porridge and more. You can also use it to make veggies and steam fish and you can use the yoghurt making feature of the cooker as a brown rice germinator. We love this cooker’s diversity and it’s also beautifully designed.
The cooker includes a recipe booklet with 30+ original international recipes by VitaClay Chef Suzanne, a founder of the Company who we met at the New Living Expo last month. For traditionalists, you may be wondering why clay is better (and healthier?)
The first one is an obvious one: you can cook without adding salt, sugar or oils. Hear hear! Secondly, clay is porous and as noted earlier in our post, heat and moisture can better circulate through the pot during cooking, unlike metal or enamel-lined pots.
They use clay a lot in Asia and let’s just say that I’m in foodie heaven in every Asian country I’ve visited. Clay acts as a natural insulator that holds and absorbs heat to cook foods slowly and evenly bringing out earthy flavors and textures. Oh so yum!!
Naturally thermal, clay cooks four times faster and stays warm longer and who couldn’t find that useful?
It turns out that clay is also alkaline and if you’ve read up on the benefits of alkaline foods, you’ll know this is a good thing. Clay interacts with acidity in the food, neutralizing the pH balance which means that highly acidic foods like tomato sauce (so delish) become naturally sweet when cooked in clay. People often find foods cooked in clay have more authentic flavors and textures.
7 function settings include White rice (Quinoa), Brown rice (Wholegrain, or Wild rice), Sweet rice (Sushi, Sticky), Reheat, Stew (Roast or Steam or Beans, or less liquid cooking), Soup (Broth or more liquid based cooking) and Yogurt (Germinate).
Whether you want to use this cooker in a more traditional slow cooker way, such as making homemade broth soups or stews, or more healing herbal infusions, it’s a great all in one product for regular use, regardless of season. More information on their site and to purchase, it’s reasonably priced and available over on Amazon.
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Note: we were sent product to test out but not told what to write or say, nor were we paid for this review. Opinions are entirely my own.
Renee Blodgett is the founder of We Blog the World. The site combines the magic of an online culture and travel magazine with a global blog network and has contributors from every continent in the world. Having lived in 10 countries and explored nearly 80, she is an avid traveler, and a lover, observer and participant in cultural diversity.
She is also the CEO and founder of Magic Sauce Media, a new media services consultancy focused on viral marketing, social media, branding, events and PR. For over 20 years, she has helped companies from 12 countries get traction in the market. Known for her global and organic approach to product and corporate launches, Renee practices what she pitches and as an active user of social media, she helps clients navigate digital waters from around the world. Renee has been blogging for over 16 years and regularly writes on her personal blog Down the Avenue, Huffington Post, BlogHer, We Blog the World and other sites. She was ranked #12 Social Media Influencer by Forbes Magazine and is listed as a new media influencer and game changer on various sites and books on the new media revolution. In 2013, she was listed as the 6th most influential woman in social media by Forbes Magazine on a Top 20 List.
Her passion for art, storytelling and photography led to the launch of Magic Sauce Photography, which is a visual extension of her writing, the result of which has led to producing six photo books: Galapagos Islands, London, South Africa, Rome, Urbanization and Ecuador.
Renee is also the co-founder of Traveling Geeks, an initiative that brings entrepreneurs, thought leaders, bloggers, creators, curators and influencers to other countries to share and learn from peers, governments, corporations, and the general public in order to educate, share, evaluate, and promote innovative technologies.
