Light meals

The Bestest Bread Rolls ever!!

~ nzthermomixmum
The best bread rolls
The best bread rolls

http://www.recipecommunity.com.au/breads-rolls-recipes/bestest-bread-rolls-ever/23613

Heavans above! It IS the Bestest bread roll ever… With a title like that, it was a big promise  from the recipe by Emilee Wong on the recipe community. The rolls took a bit longer at 180C about 25-30 minutes from cold ,the second prove happens at the same time as cooking. The first prove took about 45 minutes. They’re soft and fluffy and perfect for kids afternoon tea and lunchboxes. And the smell of freshly baked bread rolls is so comforting on a cold windy day.  Bought the bread improver from the spice shop in Dominion Rd. Have tried some recipes without the bread improver and they haven’t been this good so I think it’s an important ingredient. Fantastic recipe and only took a couple minutes to make dough with the thermomix and makes a tray of rolls.

Bread roll with hummus and chorizo
Bread roll with hummus and chorizo

Avocado Ranch dressing and Cashew cheese

~ nzthermomixmum
Dressings and dips
Dressings and dips

Sunday lunch and dinner have been combinations of salads, grissini ( made from pizza dough flavoured with rosemary and garlic) and roasted vegetables.  Just kept the kitchen bench lined up with a good selections of food that could be dipped. Accompanying these are an avocado ranch dressing and a cashew cheese dip. The avocado ranch dressing ( from Pete Evans Healthy Every Day) is a huge hit. Kids eat a lot of salad with the avocado dressing. It’s enjoyed as much as his green goddess dressing.  Blended in thermonix at speed 5 until smooth. Cashew cheese blended at speed 7 until smooth. Recipe links below.  http://files.desiac.net/new/view.145.pdf

http://www.recipecommunity.com.au/sauces-dips-spreads-recipes/paleo-cashew-cream-cheese/229274

Pumpkin Soup

~ nzthermomixmum
Pumpkin soup
Pumpkin soup

http://www.recipecommunity.com.au/soups-recipes/carolas-pumpkin-soup/84477

The only time consuming part about making pumpkin soup is peeling the pumpkin but today for the first time cutting pumpkin was a breeze. Got a new handy tool just for dicing pumpkin. The seesaw blade was great, ploughed through that pumpkin like it was butter. Used this recipe from the community because it had the highest rating with 66 positive comments and it used 800g of cut pumpkin instead of only 500g in the thermomix guided recipe. Also had some potato and carrot added and a pinch of curry powder and garlic. Almost like our family favourite recipe except we also add an apple  which brings a lovely sweet depth to the soup. Dad and Miss 8 preferred the new recipe whilst Mum and Miss 14 preferred the apple added.  With either recipe the soup is done in 25 minutes, and blitzed into the smoothest, silkiest soup. Enough for lunch and to freeze for after school  snacks during the week.

Marmite and Cheese scrolls ( sticky bun recipe)

~ nzthermomixmum
Marmite and cheese scrolls
Marmite and cheese scrolls

Used Annabel Langbein’s sticky bun recipe and substituted marmite and cheese for cinnamon and sugar. Snap frozen for lunch boxes. Love making bread doughs with the thermomix.

http://www.annabel-langbein.com/recipes/sticky-buns/405/

Sticky Buns Adapted for thermomix:- ( dough fills two large cake tins)

  1. Add 125g butter and 490g milk to TM bowl. Heat 2.5 minutes, 50C, speed 2.  Until butter melted.
  2. Add one a sachet of dried yeast and 100g sugar. Heat 2 mins, 37C , speed 1.5. Leave 10 minutes, till yeast appears frothy.
  3. Add 846g (6cups) flour, tsp salt. mix 6 sec on speed 5 first then, Knead 3.5 minutes dough mode.
  4. Place dough in a large pot, I place pot in warm water for around 1 hour till dough has doubled in size. Halve dough, place one in fridge/freezer for use another day. Follow instructions in recipe link above for rolling out, filling and second prove.

Thai fish cakes

~ nzthermomixmum
Thai fish cakes and stir fried vegetables
Thai fish cakes and stir fried vegetables

Used guided recipe for Thai fish cakes, added salt and some fish sauce to the fish paste and only used a tablespoon of red thai curry paste (100g per recipe seemed excessive) before pan frying. Served with Chinese style stir fried vegetables guided recipe. (Broccoli, green beans, mushrooms and yellow capsicums)

Chicken and Sweetcorn soup

~ nzthermomixmum

Chicken and sweetcorn soup http://www.recipecommunity.com.au/soups-recipes/chicken-and-sweet-corn-soup/28018

Used the above recipe from the community  as a base to convert our own family recipe which is very similar but doesn’t have onions. We can have this with stir fried vegetables and dinner is done. Or as a lunch or afternoon tea on it’s own. The kids love this soup after school.

Chicken and sweetcorn soup

  • 1000g chicken stock
  • 400g sliced chicken (used chicken thighs)
  • 1 Tb soy sauce
  • 1cm ginger
  •  420g cream corn
  • 300g corn kernels
  • 1 Tb cornflour mixed into 60ml water
  • 2 eggs lightly whisked
  • 1 tsp sesame oil
  • salt and pepper to taste
  1. Add ginger to TM bowl,  blitz 3 sec, speed 7
  2. Add stock ( 2Tb TM chicken stock paste in 1000g water), chicken, soy sauce, both corns. Cook 20 minutes, 100 C, reverse speed 1. Make sure chicken is cooked through at this stage.
  3. Start cooking 2 mins, 105 C, reverse speed 1. Add cornflour water mixture, eggs and sesame oil.
  4. Add salt and pepper to taste,  garnish with spring onions

A heartwarming soup made so simply with the thermomix.

Shredded Cooked Chicken

~ nzthermomixmum
Shredded cooked chicken
Shredded cooked chicken

http://www.recipecommunity.com.au/main-dishes-meat-recipes/shredded-chicken-sandwiches/93504

Will  be using this  method every week to steam chicken and shred.   (See link above)

It’s so simple .. just place chicken breasts in varoma dish for  25 mins, varoma temp, speed 2. ( with a litre of water in TM bowl).  Pop back into TM bowl and shred 4 sec, reverse speed 4.

Enough shredded chicken for sandwiches and salads during the week and can freeze in smaller bags to take out when needed.  The recipe shredded for  7 seconds, comments below the recipe suggested 4 seconds long enough which I will follow next time to have a chunkier spread.  Now it’s so easy to mix the shredded chicken with a little mayo/sour cream and herbs for chicken sandwiches. Just had as a dip after school on crackers with some chopped nuts, cucumber, and celery all chopped in the thermomix.  Perfect if you don’t want to get your hands dirty!

Chicken spread
Chicken spread

Chinese Style Stir Fried Vegetables

~ nzthermomixmum
Stir fried vegetables
Stir fried vegetables

No one can quite believe these vegetables are not stir fried. It’s a must try thermomix super simple guided recipe if you like vegetables and possibly our most used guided recipe.  We use between 500g to 1kg of fresh vegetables depending on what’s in the fridge and what’s cooking for dinner.  It doesn’t get boring because you can change the mix of vegetables every night ( recipe states 500g but we often increase  to 1kg of vegetables), as long as there are some the kids will eat everyone is happy.  If increasing to 1kg increase cook time a couple more minutes, 9 minutes. And it’s perfect for using up the end of week vegetables left in the fridge.  Leave out the chillies if preferred and follow from the garlic and ginger step. Perfect crunchy tasty vegetables ready in 7 minutes, no stirring, no standing at the stove. Woohoo!  Add some grilled/steamed chicken, beef or fish and dinner is done.

Favourite Bagels

~ nzthermomixmum
Bagels
Bagels

Love love love these bagels. They’re homemade and the texture and taste is amazing. Hot out of the oven with a homemade spread, omigoodness nothing quite compares. Have to save the recipe onto this blog for my girls.  It’s from a recipe app called Robogourmet and these will be frozen tonight ready for breakfasts or lunches during the week. They do take an hour and half to prove but worth the effort if you’re home for a couple hours. The initial dough prep takes less than 5 minutes.

Bagels

  • 290g warm water
  • 480g flour (recipe stated bakers flour but I used any flour and it works)
  • 2 tsp yeast (I use one sachet dried instant yeast)
  • 25g sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  1. Place all ingredients in the Thermomix. Mix for 15 secs/speed 6. Then knead on dough mode for 2 mins. Place dough in warmed Thermoserver and leave to rise for about one hour or leave in TM bowl.
  2. Divide the dough into about 10 – 12 pieces ( approx 70g each ) and roll into balls. Use your thumbs to create  a hole in the centre. Allow to rest on a lined baking tray for about 30 minutes. Cover with tea towel.
  3. Heat oven to 240C. Boil a jug of water and tip water into a thermoserver or pot. Helps to have two containers of boiling water so you can do three bagels in each container at once.  Drop three/ bagels into the boiling water for about 30 seconds per side. Use a slotted spoon to transfer to a rack to drain. Nb water must be close to boiling, if your water cools add more boiling water to increase temperature.
  4. Return to the baking tray and bake in the oven for 15 minutes or until lightly golden.

Notes:  Can brush with butter and coat with seeds before baking (eg Sesame/poppy/pumpkin) Bagels brown better if they’re not too soggy so just allow a few minutes to drain after the dipping process. Also can speed up the process by having two bowls of boiled water for dipping and Miss 14 to help drop the bagels into the water.

Cauliflower pizza

~ nzthermomixmum
Cauliflower Pizza
Cauliflower Pizza

The pizza bases are made from cauliflower and parmesan and an egg, ticks the gluten free box but not dairy free. And the recipe is from the Something for Everyone cookbook. Not a huge hit tonight because the base was not as crispy as a flour pizza but some online research reveals the secret to these bases is squeezing the moisture from the cooked cauliflower before it is mixed with the cheese. Will try again with the recipe from the recipe community in which the cauliflower has moisture removed( link below)  It’s great to see the favourable comments underneath the recipe proving it can work. And Sarah Wilson’s I Quit Sugar recipe (link also below ) has also received positive comments and she also notes the cauliflower is cooked and should be drained. It is the same recipe as in the Something for Everyone cookbook except she uses 20g more cheese in her base.

http://www.recipecommunity.com.au/main-dishes-vegetarian-recipes/best-ever-cheesy-cauliflower-pizza-base/221642. 

https://iquitsugar.com/recipe/not-so-nicoise-cauliflower-pizza/