Dutch cumin coleslaw

(Recipe adapted from this version)

I had a craving for scallops last night (panfried with butter, parsley and garlic) but didn’t want to have any carbs, so I went on the hunt for a nice chunky salad to fill us up.

I thought I might be able to toast the cumin in the TMX, but after 15 mins at Varoma temperature nothing was happening so I popped my cumin seeds into a pan. Any suggestions, guys?

Also, the original recipe calls for Gruyere but it was pretty expensive at my local Coles, so I opted for Swiss instead which seemed fine.

Ingredients

1 tbsp cumin seeds

20g rice wine or white wine vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar)

60g extra virgin olive oil

2 tsp Dijon mustard

Generous pinch Murray River pink salt flakes (I had these at home, but if you don’t I’m sure regular sea salt or a bit of table salt will be fine)

Pinch freshly cracked black pepper

400g green cabbage in chunks

50-60g shaved Gruyere cheese (or Swiss!)

1 spring onion, sliced on the angle (I forgot to get this so mine didn’t have any)

Method

– Toast cumin seeds in a pan until fragrant, then set aside.
– Add vinegar, EVOO, mustard, salt and pepper into your TMX bowl and blend for 5 secs/speed 10.
– Add cabbage and cumin seeds to the bowl and blend for 4 secs/speed 4.
– Serve with gruyere and spring onion. Totally easy!

If you’re after something a little less exotic, the 6-second coleslaw is pretty awesome too.

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Tuna, vegetable and tomato pasta sauce

Everything that I have made in the Thermomix so far has been based on a recipe. But last night, stuck with a motley crew of ingredients in the fridge and pantry, I decided to attempt a Let’s See What Happens Dish. Granted, you will see that what I’ve done isn’t really earth shattering, but I was totally bragging about my accomplishment to the cocker spaniel. (He was the only one that would listen.)

The best thing about this recipe is that you can adapt it to suit whatever you want to use up in your kitchen. Zucchini, capsicum, leeks, silverbeet, the list goes on. I’m sure it would also taste great with shredded leftover chicken, or smoked fish. Just use my ingredient list as a guide.

Ingredients

1 onion, peeled and quartered
1 carrot, peeled and cut into 4-5 pieces depending on your carrot size.
Clove(s) of garlic, peeled (I’m sure one clove will suffice. I just don’t have any control when it comes to garlic as you no doubt would have seen by now)
Knob of butter or some olive oil
1 jar pasta sauce (I used Leggos Chargrilled Vegetables I think)
1 MC of white wine if you have it in the fridge, otherwise water or veggie stock will work
1 large can of tuna
Half a packet of short pasta (I used Barilla fusili)
Handful spinach

Method

• Pop your carrot (or harder veggies such as zucchini, leek or capsicum), into the Thermomix bowl along with your onion and garlic. Chop for 5 seconds/speed 7.

• Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add a knob of butter (I just cut a wedge off but if I were to guess I’d say a tablespoon’s worth) or lug of olive oil, and saute mixture for 3 mins/100 degrees/speed 1.

• Add your tomato sauce and wine, water or stock into the bowl. Cook for 15 mins/100 degrees/speed 1. You can choose to cook your pasta in the TMX when the sauce is done, but I’m very impatient and didn’t want to wait so I popped a pot of water on the stove at this point to cook my fusili.

• Add your tuna (or whatever protein you are using), and sturdier leafy greens such as silverbeet, and cook for a further 5 minutes/100 degrees/speed 1.

• If you are adding spinach like I did, throw it in now and give it a quick stir through.

Pour the sauce over your pasta, add chilli flakes or tabasco for a bit of heat if that’s your thing (if using fresh chilli, pop that in with the garlic, onion and hard veggies at the start), and some grated cheese if you feel like it. Done-zo! If you’re giving this a shot please let me know what ingredients you used so I can steal your idea use it as inspiration. I thought that the addition of garlic, carrot and onion to the sauce gave it a much (EWW PRETENTIOUS WORDS COMING) fuller flavour, so I’d definitely recommend having those ingredients wherever possible.

Spinach and Parmesan Soup

(Recipe tweaked from The Kitchen Playground’s post)

With maximum temperatures hovering around the 15 degree mark, I’ve been on the lookout for different Thermomix soup recipes to tide us through winter. The fact that I can chop, cook and blend everything in the one bowl is pretty cool, I gotta say.

While trawling through the internet I came across this spinach and parmesan soup which sounded pretty good. However, it wasn’t really what I had expected. I was thinking we’d end up with a vibrant green, thick soup akin to pea and ham, but this wasn’t the case. Instead, even though I blended the mixture for longer than the recommended time, I ended up with a chunky, yet watery mix. Which then reminded me of the stir-fried spinach in broth with egg dish that is available in Chinese restaurants which I love, but the addition of parmesan weirded me out!

Anyway.

Check out the link above for the original recipe, and then my modifications below. I think this could be quite nice without the cheese, but to each their own!

Ingredients

A handful of grated Parmesan

4 cloves garlic, peeled (I used 6)

1 potato, peeled and quartered

1l chicken or vegetable stock

250g spinach

2 eggs

Method

• Place garlic, potato and stock into the Thermomix bowl, and cook for 10 mins/100 degrees/speed 2.

• Add spinach to the liquid, and blend for 10 seconds/speed 6.

• Crack eggs into a small bowl.  Turn Thermomix on to speed 4 /30 seconds. Immediately pour in the two eggs and parmesan through the lid. Done.

 

Chickpea and garlic mash

(Recipe taken from the A Taste of Vegetarian TMX cookbook)

I must admit, when my TMX consultant gave me this vegetarian cookbook I was pretty sure it was going to be the least dog-eared of all of my cookbooks. But seeing as I was diving into a new cooking world anyway, why not give those veggie dishes a go, right? At the very worst I figured it would be good for us.

Ingredients

300g cream

30g butter

3 x 300g cans tinned chickpeas, drained

4 cloves garlic (5!)

Sea salt and black pepper to taste

Method

• Place cream, butter, chickpeas and garlic into the TMX bowl.

• Cook for 6 minutes/100 degrees/speed 1.
• Pulverise for 1 minute/speed 9 until the mixture is smooth.

• Season with salt & pepper. Taste and realise that it’s a bit on the gluey side, but nothing some hungarian goulash won’t mask!

Broccoli and Blue Cheese Soup

(Recipe taken from the A Taste of Vegetarian TMX cookbook)

I LOVE blue cheese. I know it’s an acquired taste, but if you gave me a bucket of buffalo wings and a tub of blue cheese sauce I’d die a happy woman.

I really enjoyed this soup, although the salt factor was pretty high because of the blue cheese/stock double whammy. Next time I make the veggie stock concentrate, I think I’m definitely going to reduce the salt content by half so that I can use the recommended concentrate amounts without worrying.

Ingredients

Small bunch broccoli, cut into florets

300g water

2 tbsp TM vegetable stock concentrate (if you don’t have this, then replace the 300g of water with 300g of stock).

Salt to taste (I didn’t add any)

300g milk

1 tbsp plain flour (substitute with cornflour for a gluten free alternative)

50g crumbled blue cheese (100g for a stronger taste)

50g cheese, grated in TM (I found this a bit vague so I just used the 100g of blue cheese)

Method

• Place broccoli into TM bowl and chop for 3 seconds on speed 7. This is what it looks like:

• Add water, stock and salt. Cook for 10 minutes/100 degrees/speed 1.
• Add milk and flour and blend for 15 seconds on speed 6.
• Add blue cheese and grated cheese, and cook for 3 minutes/100 degrees/speed 1.
• Blend for a further 5 seconds on speed 6. Done. A soup this green MUST be good for you.

Mashed Potato

First thing I thought of when I popped the lid open at the end?

KFC’s whipped potato.

But first thing’s first.

Ingredients

50g Parmesan cheese

250g milk

Salt to taste

1kg potatoes, peeled and cubed in 2cm pieces

30g butter

Method

• Place the Parmesan cheese into the TMX bowl and grate for 10-15 seconds on speed 8. Set aside.
• Place, milk, salt and chopped potatoes into the bowl.

• Cook for 20-25 minutes at 100 degrees celcius on speed 1. The potatoes should break apart quite easily when prodded.
• Insert the butterfly. Add the butter and Parmesan cheese. Mash for 20-30 seconds on speed 3-4.
• This is what it looked like at the end..

KFC-mashed-potato-esque don’t you think? I would have liked my mash potatoes thicker, this was much sloppier than I was used to. I think I’ll reduce the milk to 200g and see how we go next time.

6 Second Coleslaw

Recipe from the Everyday Cooking for Every Family TMX cookbook)

Ingredients

200g cabbage, roughly cut

100g carrots, roughly cut

1 green apple (quartered, no need to peel or deseed)

1/4-1/2 small onion (I didn’t bother with this and didn’t feel that the coleslaw was lacking balance, but I think a bit of red onion would actually have been quite a nice addition).

S&P to taste

2 tablespoons of mayonnaise (I used salad cream which I tend to prefer).

Method

• Place everything into the TM bowl…

• and chop for 2-3 seconds on speed 4. Scrape the sides and then chop for another 2-3 seconds. Check that it’s the desired consistency, chop further if necessary (mine was fine with the 6 second total).

done.

Trout/Snapper di Josie

(Recipe from the Everyday Cooking for Every Family TMX cookbook)

I googled “di Josie” to find out whether it actually meant a cooking style or whether this dish was just conjured up by someone called Josie. I’m leaning towards the latter but if you know, shoot me a note!

Ingredients

2 cloves of garlic (I used 4. This family ain’t the Cullens.)

40g oil

200g water

200g white wine (I used a cheap chardonnay)

S&P to taste

Approx 800g snapper or trout, either whole or filleted (I bought 800g of ocean trout fillets, but for two I’d recommend something closer to the 500/600g mark)

Mixed vegetables cut into bite size pieces (I had 3 small red capsicums, 1 medium green capsicum and 1 leek, you can use carrots/broccoli/cauliflower too)

2tbsp cornflour

1 tbsp TM vegetable stock concentrate (the recipe’s on its way, but in the meantime if you don’t have this, 200g of liquid vegetable stock can replace the water. I actually heaped tablespoons onto clingwrap and froze the portions into little ‘wontons’ for ease of use.)

Oh, and because I took a fancy picture of my veggies, for shiz and gigs, here you go.

Method

• Place garlic into TM bowl and chop for 5 seconds on speed 7.
• Add oil and saute for 2 minutes at 100 degrees celcius on speed 1.
• Add water, wine, stock, s&p into the bowl. (This will become your sauce).
• Place fish into the Varoma dish…

• …and vegetables in an even layer on the varoma tray. Place tray on top of the dish, which goes on top of the TMX.

• Make sure the Varoma dish cover is on, then cook for 25 minutes at Varoma temperature on speed 1.

• Remove the dish and tray, and portion the food onto your serving dishes.
• Add the cornflour to the bowl, and cook for a further 3 minutes at 90 degrees celcius on speed 4. Pour over the fish and veggies. Garnish if you feel like it, and enjoy because you’re being awesomely healthy (no, the alcohol has evaporated so it’s not like you’re drinking. I promise.)