When you think about slow cooking, you probably think of pot roast. Well, we’re about to blow your minds. These recipes, inspired by the cuisines of Italy, India, Thailand, Mexico, China, and others, combine the flavors you love with the ease of slow cooking. No passport required. Bonus:  Like us on Facebook; enter to win a slow cooker.

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Bolognese Sauce with Pancetta, Porcini & Rosemary

This rich, complex sauce features earthy mushrooms, smoky pancetta, and sweet woodsy rosemary. Serve it over pasta, ideally pappardelle; its wide ribbons have ample surface for the sauce to cling to.

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Thai Tofu, Swiss Chard & Sweet Potato Curry

Serve this creamy, rich aromatic stew over brown rice; to jazz things up, enrich the grains with butter and lime zest. It isn’t fussy at all; if you don’t have fresh ginger, lemongrass or garlic, it’s still delicious without them.

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Lentils with Garam Masala, Coconut & Pomegranate Seeds

Like a soup or stew, Indian dal features a delicious broth, as does this flavorful, creamy vegetarian take. Studded with jewel-like pomegranate seeds, this dish should be paired with raita (cucumber yogurt sauce) and naan bread for the most authentic dinner.

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Arroz Con Pollo with Chorizo

This gorgeous dish has it all: tender chicken, salty olives, floral saffron, sweet bell peppers, and smoky chorizo.

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Slow-Cooker Osso Buco

There are two tricks to this recipe: browning the veal shanks before they go into the slow cooker and reducing the sauce before serving. The result is an osso buco you’d be hard-pressed to distinguish from the labor-intensive classic (trust us).

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Slow Cooker Steak & Guinness Pie

This simple version of the classic Irish dish has the distinctive bitter flavor of Guinness stout. Although it’s slow-cooked, the hearty beef stew requires minimal prep time. When it’s ready, the puff pastry “tops” are baked separately and served alongside.

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Persian Chicken with Pomegranate & Walnuts

The slow cooker makes this classic Middle Eastern dish a breeze, mostly because the spices mellow slowly into a sweet, aromatic sauce. The walnuts should be finely chopped into bits smaller than grains of rice, or even ground if you want a smoother sauce.

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Ropa Vieja

The name of this traditional Caribbean dish means old clothes, partly because of the way the beef shreds into tatters. You’ll get the right texture by cooking the beef until it’s so tender that it quite literally falls apart.

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Red-Cooked Pork Shoulder & Chestnuts

Red-cooking is a traditional Chinese braising technique, so named because high-quality soy sauce is said to develop a red tint after long-cooking. Here, that technique helps pork shoulder morph into a consummate bowl of comfort food.

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Curried Lamb with Apricots & Almonds

This sweet and aromatic curry is based on the traditional sali boti of Parsi cuisine in western India. For the best flavor, use dried Turkish apricots, which provide a sweet, smooth finish to balance the many spices.

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Slow-Cooker Five-Spice Pork with Snap Peas

Chinese five-spice powder, garlic, ginger, and Asian chili sauce supercharge this sweet and spicy pork stew with flavor.

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