Camping Slow Cooker Review – Non Electric Eco Friendly

When we were asked by Wonderbag to take a look at their fuss free, non electric planet saving slow cooker we were a little skeptical as to how it would be possible to slow cook food on a camping trip, something that gives you the ability to keep your food warm for up to 12 hours without the need for power or a constant source of heat.  How wrong we were! Read on to get the lowdown on how the Wonderbag could change your pot noodle late night last minute lunch into a gourmet slow cooked treat after a full day out exploring.

Wonderbag Features:

  • Slow cooks food and keeps it hot for up to 12 hours
  • Heat retention design meaning no need for battery, fuel or electric
  • Light and easy to stow away
  • Will never over cook or burn food
  • Doubles up as a cooler bag to keep food and drinks cold
  • Money Saving and Planet loving
  • Very Easy to use

What is the Wonderbag and how does it work?

The Wonderbag uses a pretty simple technology of heat retention, you heat up your food to boiling and then place it in the Wonderbag with the lid on, tightly close it up and the recycled foam insulation in the Wonderbag will retain the heat within slowly cooking it's contents and keeping your food warm for up to 12 hours.

Wonderbag is the invention of South African entrepreneur Sarah Collins who is on a mission to change the lives of millions of women and families in countries that need it most creating a huge Human and Carbon impact across the globe. The Wonderbag saves Monday, Energy, Water and time for so many women in countries like Uganda, Rwanda, South Africa and many more.  The use of the Wonderbags in these countries will help reduce the Carbon footprint, with no need to have a burning fire for hours on end and reduce the hours spent doing unpaid labour to maintain these fires.  If you want to learn more about Wonderbags Mission please check out their website HERE

How did we get on with the Wonderbag?

When the Wonderbag arrived it was surprising small, then we realised it was vac-packed! You simply take it out the bag and give it a shake and after about 30 minute it has increased up to it's size for use.

Then comes the real test does it work! We decided to have a go at a simple beef and veg stew, chopped everything up and threw it into a pot and covered with some stock (I use knorr stock pots) I think popped the lid on and as instructed brought it to a boil for 20 minutes.  At this point it was super hot so I was sure to not take the lid of and popped it straight into the Wonderbag, I put a tea towl at the bottom to protect it as they suggest you put something in the bottom.

7 Hours Later! and avoiding any temptation to open the pot and take a peek we opened our pot to find a cooked hot meal waiting for us after a long day our hiking. Absolute bliss! I use my slow cooker allot at home and this does differ as it didn't turn the veg to mush they were cooked but still have there shape if that makes sense? The meat was very tender and fell apart, very impressed.  I don't think you could cook a 1kg joint of meat in there as it is designed to have the contents submerged in liquid to better retain the heat but there are plenty of recipes I will be trying in my Wonderbag.  I wouldn't say the food was piping hot when it came out hot enough to eat however I just popped it on the stove for 5 minutes to bring it up to heat which is easy enough.

Pros and Cons

Pros

  • You can leave something in there all day and it cooks your food and keeps it warm for upto 12 hours
  • No need for power or fuel
  • It is light and easy to move around
  • It is planet loving
  • It doubles up as a cooler and a nice pillow if needed!

Cons

  • The Large 11 Litre one is pretty big, you wouldn't put it in a backpack for example however you could get a vac bag to put it in, I will put a link below.
  • You can't do big joints of meat in it (that would be extreme camping gourmet!)

Where can I get one?

Accessories to consider

Conclusion

This is a really handy cooking tool to have with you if you have the space, it is super light and easy to use and with no need to be supervised or heated for hours at a time I think it should be on everyones wish list who loves some good grub of the slow cooked kind.  If you can do the prep work in the morning and have a full day out to come back to a ready cooked wholesome tasty meal, this coupled with the fact they are changing lives and the planet what is not to love!

Thank you to Wonderbag for supplying the product for us to test and for your promise to supply 1000 wonderbags and 400 facemasks to familys that need it of the back of our review.