In August 2020 she was made redundant, but that month a video she made on crispy cube potatoes went viral on TikTok and launched her online presence, followed by her series ’25 days of potato recipes to get you through a second lockdown’ in November that year.

Now O’Toole has three cookbooks under her belt, including her latest – Poppy Cooks: The Actually Delicious Slow Cooker Cookbook.

“If the pandemic never happened, I don’t think I never, ever left my job, so I’m super lucky to be in this position,” she notes.

Just as air fryers have been having a social media moment, O’Toole says she noticed the slow cooker trend take off on TikTok – and unlike in the past, it’s year-round. “It’s a piece of equipment I think everyone has in the back of the cupboard, and I’ve done the same thing as everybody else, once a year when it starts to get cold I get it out and use it.”

But now, “It’s had a renaissance. It’s really come back in, and that kind of reignited my love for it.

“You kind of think of it as your nan or your mum getting the slow cooker out. But this is young families and young people doing it.”

Slow cookers – which cook food on a low temperature and for a long period of time, even overnight – have a lot of practical advantages when it comes to time and money saving.

“As soon as I know that I’ve got people coming over, it’s going on because it means that I have less prep to do, less washing up, and I can feed loads of people,” says O’Toole. “It’s so good for families, you can batch cook and freeze it and defrost it when you need to.

Plus, they’re more energy efficient than a full oven – “I think they’re a bit underrated.”

“At the end of the day, everyone just loves delicious home-cooked food.”

Credits: PA;

Peanut satay curry

Ingredients:

(Serves 4)

1 vegetable stock cube, plus extra if needed

200ml boiling water

2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 2cm dice

3 garlic cloves, crushed

1 lime, zested and juiced

1 x 400g can of chickpeas, drained

400ml full-fat coconut milk

150g peanut butter

2tbsp runny honey

2tbsp dark soy sauce

2tsp mild curry powder

½tsp ground turmeric

150g kale, stems removed and sliced

Salt and black pepper

To serve:

Thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled and julienned

4 spring onions, sliced

Handful of coriander, leaves chopped

2 red chillies, deseeded and thinly sliced

Method:

1. First, dissolve the stock cube in the boiling water. Then add it to the bowl of your slow cooker with everything else except the kale. Season with one teaspoon of salt and plenty of pepper and stir to combine. Put the lid on and cook on high for two to three hours or on low for six hours, until the sweet potato is completely tender. When the timer has 15 minutes left, stir in the kale.

2. Once the curry is cooked, taste to check the seasoning and adjust as needed. If you prefer curry a little more loose, stir in more stock to your preferred consistency.

3. Divide the curry between four bowls and scatter over the ginger, spring onions, coriander and chillies.

Credits: PA;

Beef bourguignon

Ingredients:

(Serves 4)

800g beef shin, diced

200g pancetta

250g shallots, finely diced

2 celery sticks, finely diced

300g chestnut mushrooms, halved

2 carrots, thickly sliced

Small handful of thyme, leaves picked

2 rosemary sprigs, leaves picked

2 bay leaves

250ml red wine (I like Malbec)

250ml beef stock

30g butter, cubed (optional)

Splash of olive oil

1tbsp cornflour, slackened with water

Salt and black pepper

Flat-leaf parsley leaves, to serve (optional)

Method:

1. Season the beef generously with salt and let it come up to room temperature. Then, tip it into the bowl of your slow cooker.

2. Add all the remaining ingredients, with the exception of the cornflour, along with one teaspoon of salt and lots of black pepper. Put the lid on and cook on high for five hours, until the beef is completely tender and shreds easily with a fork. Stir through the cornflour slurry, and scatter with a few flat-leaf parsley leaves to serve, if you like.

Credits: PA;

Chicken pesto pasta

Ingredients:

(Serves 4)

2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts

100ml dry white wine (or use chicken stock)

100g Parmesan, grated, and the Parmesan rind if you have it, plus extra to finish

70g pine nuts, toasted

1 x 200g ball of mozzarella, torn into pieces

3 garlic cloves, minced

2tbsp full-fat cream cheese

100g basil, plus extra leaves to serve

Squeeze of lemon juice

500ml hot chicken stock

300g rigatoni pasta

Handful of cherry tomatoes, halved

3tbsp olive oil

Salt and black pepper

Method:

1. Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Add them to the bowl of your slow cooker with the wine (or stock), Parmesan (including the rind, if using), pine nuts, mozzarella, garlic and cream cheese. Season well again, put the lid on and cook on high for two to three hours or on low for six to seven hours. Once the chicken is cooked, remove it from the slow cooker.

2. Add the basil, lemon juice and hot chicken stock to the slow cooker and blitz using a hand-held stick blender.

3. Add your pasta, stir, then place the lid back on and cook on high for 40 minutes to one hour, until the pasta is tender. In that time, using a pair of kitchen tongs or a couple of forks, pull apart the chicken breasts to shred them.

4. When the pasta is cooked, add the chicken back into the slow cooker, toss in your cherry tomatoes, drizzle in your olive oil, and add another little sprinkle of grated parmesan. Serve straight away.

Credits: PA;

Poppy Cooks: The Actually Delicious Slow Cooker Cookbook by Poppy O’Toole is published by Bloomsbury Publishing