Vegetables

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.

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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.

Asian slaw (Pete Evans) and Tomato soup

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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.

Oakhill Potatoes

~ nzthermomixmum
Oakhill potatoes
Oakhill potatoes

Oakhill Potatoes ( potato casserole)  is the family’s  most requested comfort food and we all love it. A golden oldie, it’s an Alison Holst recipe which was taught in cooking class at intermediate school and been made ever since. Only usually made for BBQ’s or parties because it was so time consuming but not now with the thermomix.   Converted for the thermomix it’s now very simple,  steam potatoes and eggs using thermomix, cut and sauté onions and bacon using thermomix, make white sauce with guided bechemal recipe in the thermomix. Assemble the three elements and bake. No need to stand by stove boiling eggs and potatoes or frying the onion and bacon. White sauce ( bechemal sauce ) is a made  in 11 minutes by the thernomix, cheese grated with thermomix, slices of bread blitzed with thermomix to make crumb.

Oakhill Potatoes recipe 

serves 4-6 people

  • 6 large potatoes
  • 4 eggs
  • 4 rashers bacon roughly cut into pieces
  • 1 medium onion halved
  • 2 cups white sauce ( bechemal sauce )
  • 1/2 cup grated tasty cheddar cheese
  • 3/4 cup fresh breadcrumbs
  1. Cube potatoes into 1-2cm pieces, place in steamer basket, place eggs in Varoma tray. Add 1.2 ltrs boiling water to TM bowl.   Insert steamer basket and Varoma tray on top, cook 15 mins, Varoma temp, sp 3.  Set aside potatoes and eggs.
  2. Add bacon and onion to TM bowl , chop 3 sec, speed 5. Add 20g oil and  cook 3 minutes, Varoma temp, reverse sp stir . Mix bacon and onion into white sauce. Set aside.
  3. Make white sauce using the guided recipe for bechemal sauce. Use one step method 11 mins, 70C, speed 4.  Set aside
  4. Arrange potatoes, sliced egg, white sauce mixture in baking dish, top with grated cheese and breadcrumbs.
  5. Bake 180c  30- 40 minutes.

Can refrigerate for up to 24 hours or bake immediately. To my daughters, you might want to double the recipe and make two because one is usually wolfed down so quickly!!

Creamy Tomato soup with Grissini breadsticks

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Tomato soup and grissini sticks
Tomato soup and grissini sticks

Thermomix guided creamy tomato soup is perfect for kids afternoon tea. Requires 700g of fresh tomatoes, garlic, onion, tomato paste, vegetable stock and fresh herbs. Used milk instead of cream and sweetened  a little more at the end because the tomatoes weren’t very ripe. Cooked in 12 minutes. Served with grissini dipping sticks. The kids love these sticks ! Made grissini from the pizza dough recipe flavoured with chopped garlic and rosemary,  brushed with olive oil and sea salt before baking for 10 minutes at 200c. The other half of the dough was rolled less thinly and snap frozen for lunch boxes.

Sweetcorn Fritters.

~ nzthermomixmum
Sweetcorn fritters
Sweetcorn fritters

Our favourite sweetcorn fritter recipe. Easy Sunday lunch, with rocket salad. Kids love Pete Evans green goddess dressing and eating lots more salad and taken a liking to the peppery taste of rocket which we have growing in abundance in the garden. Pre Thermomix days, nothing edible would grow in the garden usually from lack of watering and feeding. But it’s amazing how our focus on healthy eating has somehow transformed a bare herb garden into something that adds regularly to our meals. More than ever before determined to keep replanting herbs and loving the fact we can go pick some greens straight from the garden for our salads.

Sweetcorn fritters 

  • 2 eggs
  • 1/4 c milk
  • 3/4 c self raising flour
  • 1 can creamed corn
  • 1 can whole kernel corn, drained
  • salt and pepper
  1. Separate egg yolks, place eggs whites into TM bowl with butterfly and beat speed 3.5 till fluffy and set aside
  2. Add yolks, milk, flour, corn, salt and pepper blend  in reverse speed 3 until combined
  3. Fold in egg whites to mixture and fry tablespoons of batter over medium heat, turn over when mixture starts to bubble.

What takes this ordinary fritter into something with a bit more kick is this artisan  pickle which we bought from fabulous  Farros. At $20 a jar definately a treat, but it’s  homemade and an award winning prawn balcháo. The Kashmin chilli and curry leaves  provide a bit of heat and warmth to our lunch.

Prawn Balchao
Prawn Balcháo

Steamed stuffed peppers

~ nzthermomixmum
Stuffed peppers
Stuffed peppers

Super quick meal.  The thermomix has made food preparation so fast that now if the meal can’t be prepared in 10 minutes, it’s usually not on the weekday menu. Finding it more difficult to recall the meals made pre thermomix. This meal is what happens when one ingredient is missing. Tonight’s dinner was supposed to be wonton soup or dumplings. The filling had been premade in the thermomix earlier but on discovery my packet of wonton wrappers was well past expiry date, had to think creatively. Stuffed peppers is one of my mums favourite meals. So I used the chicken and prawn filling to stuff halved and deseeded bell peppers. The peppers filled both layers of the.varoma tray and dish perfectly and steamed for 20 minutes at Varoma temperature. Dinner was cooked while I cleaned up. Served with rice and a small salad for the kids. Neither of them are keen on cooked capsicums yet but greedily scooped out the filling from the peppers. Delicious, the first time I made these the peppers were slightly over cooked, this time with slightly less steaming peppers still had a lovely crunch factor. Note I used 1.5 ltr hot water in the TM bowl before turning to Varoma temperature.

Mashed potatoes

~ nzthermomixmum
Perfect mash potato
Perfect mash potato

The thermomix guided mash potatoes are excellent. It’s so convenient , you add the cut potatoes, milk,  butter and salt all together at the beginning and the thermomix does all the work. ( the trick is to cut the potatoes into the 1cm/2cm dice, so it cooks soft and mashes easily with the butterfly in) There’s no need to drain the potatoes, no need to stand by the stove to make sure it doesn’t boil over and it’s a quick whip at the end to finish.   If they’re not soft enough, just reset the cooking for another five minutes. When they’re falling apart, turn the speed dial and whip. Then enjoy fluffy, silky smooth mash potato. A couple times I have cut potatoes too big and not checked they were soft enough and ended up with lumpy partially raw mash but just whizzed with the butterfly out to fix.

Note: need to make sure the butterfly is set securely  in place for this recipe. Turn the butterfly anticlockwise to hook slightly under the blades before you add the potatoes, have had the butterfly stray off the base by the movement of the potatoes but found that as long as the potatoes are well cooked before the whipping it all settles fine.

Tomato soup and flat bread

~ nzthermomixmum

 

Creamy tomato soup
Creamy tomato soup

Sometimes you just don’t feel like going to the supermarket and Sunday afternoon was one of those days. Looked in the fridge and saw two boxes of tomatoes and thought maybe just soup and bread for dinner. Made pizza dough in the thermomix first. While the dough was proving, used the  guided recipe for creamy tomato soup. Substituted milk for cream and only used 50g instead of 100g. Pizza dough rolled out sprinkled with olive oil, sea salt and oregano and baked for 10 minutes.  The soup and bread meal was loved by the whole family.  Perfect simple vegetarian meal. Then whipped up automatic custard for dessert while we watched a movie. And there was enough leftover for husbands lunchbox.  Happy days !

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.