Salads

Vietnamese Chicken Salad

~ nzthermomixmum

Vietnamese Chicken Salad

http://www.recipecommunity.com.au/main-dishes-meat-recipes/vietnamese-chicken-noodle-salad/215670

This recipe for Vietnamese chicken salad from the recipe community is absolutely divine! The fresh lime, teamed with  the crunch of the nuts, the cooling mint and cucumber against the  salty spicy chilli sauce. Love love love this recipe. Again another great use of  shredded chicken. Loaded up the Varoma dish and tray with 1 kg of chicken breast to be used for sandwiches/ lunches during the week. And miss 14 and miss 8 gave it a big thumbs up. Ticks all boxes and can be made ahead.

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KFC coleslaw

~ nzthermomixmum
KFC coleslaw
KFC coleslaw

http://www.recipecommunity.com.au/side-dishes-recipes/kfc-style-coleslaw/152414

This recipe from the community doesn’t pass the waistline test, it’s not ” lite ” with the sugar but you can reduce the sugar and it’s pretty close to the KFC taste.  Miss 8 liked it, Miss 14 was “take it or leave it”. Will go with the KFC chicken recipe from Road to loving my Thermomix’s blog. That recipe we’ve countless times …baked / fried.. legs / wings / thighs / whole chicken cut into pieces, our favourite non takeout takeaway meal!

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

Asian slaw (Pete Evans) and Tomato soup

~ nzthermomixmum

Asian Slaw and Tomato soup

If you have time and a mandolin, the vegetables for this slaw can be finely  shredded, but when you have very little time, slaw chopped with the thermomix can be ready in seconds. Put in the roughly cut vegetables and herbs and blend 5 seconds, speed 4, then add 2-3 seconds at speed 4 until your preferred texture is reached. Sometimes I will add the splashes of the dressing ingredients to the vegetables in the thermomix before I chop, other times make the dressing and toss into the coleslaw.  Added some grilled chicken and nuts for protein to the slaw.

Asian slaw 

  • 1/2 Savoy cabbage
  • 1/4 small purple cabbage
  • 4 mini cucumbers, or 1 medium seedless cucumber
  • 2 carrots
  • 1 cup mint leaves (a handful works fine)
  • 1 cup cilantro leaves (a handful works fine)
  • 1/2 Tbs. toasted sesame seeds
  • 1/2 Tbs. black sesame seeds

Asian Slaw Dressing 

  • 1/3 cup coconut or extra-virgin olive oil
  • 2-1/2 Tbs. soy sauce
  • 1-1/2 Tbs. honey
  • 1 Tbs. sesame oil
  • 1 Tbs. mirin
  • 3 Tbs. fresh lemon juice, more to taste
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Tomato soup using thermomix guided recipe is the side dish. Dinner done with very little effort. And great to see kids eating all the vegetables. And leftovers the next day taste even better with more time for the flavours to absorb.

Moroccan chicken, pumpkin, cous cous salad with a kumara and lentil soup

~ nzthermomixmum
Warm chicken pumpkin and cous cous salad
Warm chicken pumpkin and cous cous salad
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Lentil and kumara soup

http://www.recipecommunity.com.au/main-dishes-others-recipes/moroccan-chicken-and-couscous-salad-sweet-potato-soup/215098

This recipe was demonstrated at the last thermomix course. The Varoma is used to steam the pumpkin and chicken and cous cous while the bowl cooks the lentil and sweet potato soup at the same time. Some things I did wrong.. I used green lentils from a can instead of dried red lentils so the soup was a bit watery but still tasty. Should have decreased the water added. And the cous cous was still very hard after steaming so had to finish off cooking on the stove. I note this comment was made by a few other members under the recipe. The sundried tomato dip converted to dressing was quite thick but with a little water and extra olive oil was easier to mix through the salad.  Will try the Italian option next time. Overall still a good meal, very healthy, and  kids ate it.  Great if you’re feeding a large family but you could chose to prepare just salad and dressing if you didn’t want soup.

Green smoothie, Mushroom soup, gluten free pizza, Beetroot salad, tuna dip

~ nzthermomixmum
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Beetroot salad
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Green smoothie
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Pete Evans gluten free pizza base
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Mushroom soup
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Tuna dip

What’s in the thermomix today, another gluten free pizza base, a Pete Evans recipe, easier then Jo Whittons recipe ( quirky cooking) because fewer ingredients.  The base for the recipe  is almond meal and arrowroot flour. Definately be using again as a plain flat bread. All other dishes are easy guided recipes, simple tasty and fast. Green smoothie made from lemon, ginger, spinach, apple, orange and parsley.  All enough for afternoon tea, dinner, and  lunchboxes because everyone’s coming and going at different times.

Caesar salad

~ nzthermomixmum
Caesar salad
Caesar salad

Used Pete Evans Kale Caesar salad recipe as a base for this Caesar salad. It’s a paleo recipe so there’s no croutons.  The eggs were precooked in the Varoma tray with the chicken velouté meal. Love how the thermomix saves time  and pots like this . His recipe uses kale but I substituted spinach because the kids prefer spinach leaves to uncooked kale.  Used the thermomix to blend the dressing made from anchovies, Dijon mustard, lemon juice, egg yolk and emulsified with olive oil. Super yummy dressing, added a little water to make it easier to pour over the salad and makes enough for another salad tomorrow. What is very satisfying is seeing how many greens and vegetables everyone eats with this dressing. And the salad ingredients are whatever was in the fridge and pantry- spinach, tomatoes, peppers, bacon, toasted pine nuts, cranberries.

Thai beef salad

~ nzthermomixmum
Thai beef salad
Thai beef salad

Day 89 : Made this wonderful Thai beef salad for dinner tonight.  The great thing about the thermomix recipe community is being able to check user rating and comments for each recipe. You can search for any recipe and then sort the recipes by highest ratings.  This recipe came out on top with over 21 favourable comments so it was on the list to try.  Members also leave their own tips and adjustments which can also be valuable.  I used the marinade ingredients and made up the salad with my own vegetables; lettuce, bell peppers, tomatoes, and mangoes. Only used the thermomix to whizz up the marinade. The marinated  steaks were grilled in our sunbeam health grill but could have been done on BBQ or pan or oven. My children like steak more well done, no redness.  Sliced finely and topped with pan warmed marinade, fresh chopped mint and coriander and cashew nuts.  Yummy beef salad…. Demolished by us and the sauce was licked off the kids fingers. Just reduced fish sauce by at least half to reduce salt content.

http://www.recipecommunity.com.au/main-dishes-meat-recipes/thai-beef-salad/140466

Asian slaw

~ nzthermomixmum
Asian slaw
Asian slaw

What to do with leftover chicken… I’ve always been partial to the ‘Asian slaw’ they sell at Nosh. So this is a thermomix version done in seconds.  Minced a tiny bit of ginger a few seconds speed 6. Then added …

1/4 cabbage, 1 carrot diced, some leftover cooked chicken, a few peanuts and a handful of pinenuts, squeeze of lemon,  white wine vinegar, little bit of sugar,  sesame oil, and a few sprigs of coriander.

Two one second pulses on turbo and it’s done. You could add any herbs or vegetables to change the flavour but for a quick meal it’s awesome.  Delicious, now I’ll be making it for dinner too!

Ps easy on ginger, I’ve tried a couple of recipes from the community where they ask for cm cube of ginger and it turns out overpowering the whole salad. Second time around for dinner I turboed one too many times and turned another salad into dip. Was still lovely smeared on pizza bread though but will have to really watch speed on these salads. Have turned quite a few salads into purée a second or two too long or pulsing on too high a speed.

Quinoa salad with mango salsa

~ nzthermomixmum
Quinoa salad with mango salsa
Quinoa salad with mango salsa

Recipe from Cooking for me and you. At the end of the day, kids wanted Spaghetti Bolognaise the old fashioned way on the stovetop and we wanted a salad. While quinoa steamed in the thermomix, there was time to cut up the salad ingredients and make the dressing. Rocket (substituted for capsicums) cherry tomatoes, chickpeas, chopped mango, cooked quinoa. Dressing is lemon juice, mint, coriander, chilli, olive oil, and cumin. In the pre thermomix days our salads were always pretty boring now they’re bursting with new flavours and ingredients. And I’m enjoying seeing the kids try new foods. They’ve never eaten quinoa before and both ate this salad with their pasta.