Wonderbag

Please Note: The images shown above serve only as a general guide; because the Wonderbags are made by hand, the pattern of the fabrics may vary.

Medium Wonderbag - holds up to a 10L pot

Made with colourful shwe-shwe fabric with foam filling. Includes a toggle for easier closing.

• Convenient: Saves meal preparation time and is so easy to use
• Versatile: Can be used to cook a wide variety of your favourite meals
• Portable: Great for camping and braais
• Cost-effective: Using the Wonderbag can reduce your family's annual energy usage by up to 30%!
• Clean: Reduces the need for stove and oven use, cutting down on your household’s CO2 emissions
• Safe: Less use of stoves means fewer accidents in the kitchen
• Sustainable: Cuts down on waste, saves water and food! The constant temperature of the Wonderbag prevents burning and reduces evaporation.
• Healthy: The insulated slow-cooking process stops valuable nutrients from evaporating.
• Proudly South African.

Wonderbag founder Sarah Collins first started developing this unique slow-cooker in 2007, as a way to cope with the frequent power cuts in South Africa at the time. Sarah soon realised that this electricity-free insulated cooking bag could provide millions of people in impoverished communities with a safer, more affordable and sustainable alternative to cooking with kerosene, paraffin or wood.

Since then, the Wonderbag has been used to empower women living in rural communities around the world, giving them back time to care for their families, reducing the risk of smoke inhalation and burns, and saving them precious resources and annual income.

Try the revolutionary Wonderbag for yourself and experience a cleaner, greener way of nourishing your family!

These hearty family recipes below are so easy to make, and show how much time you can save by using the Wonderbag:

Recipe for Brown Rice with Vegetables using the Wonderbag:
Ingredients:

• 1 cup brown rice
• olive-Oil-p-2873.html">Olive Oil
• 2 cups water (or vegetable stock)
• 1 yellow Onion
• 1 cup of diced carrots and celery
• 1 bay leaf
• Salt-Grinder-p-1013.html">Salt to taste

Method:

• Heat the Olive Oil over medium heat
• Add the Onion and cook until soft (about 5 min)
• Stir in the vegetables and cook for about 3 minutes
• Add the rice, water and bay leaf and bring to a boil
• Boil on the stove for 5 minutes
• Place your lidded pot in the Wonderbag for a minimum of 1.5 hours to finish cooking  

Recipe for Lentils Umbria using the Wonderbag:
Ingredients:

• 4 yellow Onion, roughly chopped
• 3 carrots, finely diced
• 3 celery stalks, finely diced
• 1 teaspoon of chopped Garlic
• ¼ cup of olive-Oil-p-2873.html">Olive Oil
• 500g (approx. 3 cups) of dry lentils
• 3 cups chardonnay
• 1kg of fresh, ripe cherry tomatoes, finely puréed
• 2 cups of fresh basil, finely chopped, loosely packed

Method:

• Soak the lentils overnight, drain and discard water
• Heat the Olive Oil over medium heat in a large pot
• Add the Onion & cook until soft (about 5 min)
• Add the celery & carrot, cook until soft (about 5 min)
• Add the lentils & wine, cook until the wine has evaporated, stirring frequently (about 8 min)
• Add puréed tomatoes and bring to a boil
• Reduce heat to medium and let it bubble for about 5 min
• Place your lidded pot in the Wonderbag for 5-7 hours to finish cooking
• Season with Salt and pepper to taste, stir in the chopped basil and serve 

Directions

• Before use, remove from plastic packaging and leave to stand for a few hours; this will allow the foam to puff up. 
• Prepare your food, bringing it to the boil and making sure it is heated right through.  Use a pot with short handles and a tight-fitting lid.
• Place your pot with the lid on into the Wonderbag and immediately cover it with the top cushion. 
• Pull the drawstring tight, firmly sealing the pot inside the Wonderbag.
• Leave the Wonderbag to cook your food! 
• Note: Don’t open the Wonderbag until you are ready to serve your meal. Opening the bag while your food is cooking will cause loss of heat, and make the bag less effective.

Top Tips:

• Use the right size pot for the amount of food you want to cook.  Heat will be more effectively retained when the pot is full and sealed with a tight-fitting lid.  
• There is no evaporation when cooking inside the Wonderbag, so you will not need as much liquid as you would with an ordinary cooking method. 
• You can put a tea towel under the pot in your Wonderbag to protect it from any spills. 
• You can hand wash your Wonderbag and hang to dry.

Warnings

• Safety tip: Do not put a pot of half-eaten or lukewarm food in the Wonderbag as this will cause bacteria to breed. 
• Do not use clay or ceramic pots with your Wonderbag. 
• Not suitable for cast iron or copper bottom pots as they get too hot and can damage the insulation material.
• Casseroles transferred directly from the oven to the Wonderbag should not be hotter than 180°C (350°F)