Paprika Chicken with Creamy Paprika Sauce (an easy all-in-one Thermomix dinner)

Last night I got home late after a busy day and didn't have dinner organised, so it was 'Thermomix to the rescue' once again! I had a quick think, and this is what I came up with. Nothing fancy, just an easy and tasty dinner with basic ingredients, that took all of 25 minutes to make. Sometimes that's just what we need when we can't be bothered, right? (It is really yummy though, and the chicken breasts are amazingly tender and juicy when steamed!)

This fed our family of six and there were plenty of leftovers, which is always a bonus since everyone generally wants dinner for breakfast at our house. :)

This recipe is gluten free, and egg free, and if you omit the butter is also dairy free. The sauce is blended with cashews to make it creamy, but if you can't have nuts, see the nut free variation below. I've added some tips for those of you without a Thermomix, so you don't miss out.

Paprika Chicken with Creamy Paprika Sauce

(Serves 6-8)

Ingredients:

Rice
900g water
380g basmati rice

Veges (these are just suggestions, use what you have)
3 carrots, peeled and sliced thinly
200g green beans, topped and tailed
1-2 zucchini, thinly sliced
150g frozen corn

Chicken
600-700g chicken breast fillets, sliced in 2cm thick pieces
smoked paprika powder (approx 1 tsp)
herb salt (eg. Herbamare)
garlic powder (approx 1/2 tsp)
1 Tbsp butter or ghee (optional)

Sauce
60g raw cashews
60g water
2 tsp chicken or vegetable stock paste (my chicken stock paste recipe here)
1 tsp smoked paprika powder

Method:

Pour water into mixing bowl.

Weigh rice into steaming basket and rinse well, then place basket inside mixing bowl.

Place chicken pieces onto Varoma tray and sprinkle with paprika, herb salt and garlic powder, and dot with butter or ghee if using.

Place Varoma into position with lid on.

Turn speed dial to speed 5 for a few seconds to wash the water through the rice. (That's my little trick to make sure the top of the rice cooks well and you don't end up with crunchy bits.)

Begin cooking for 20 mins/Varoma/speed 2 while you cut up the veges, adding them to the dish as you go. (It takes about 10 minutes for the steam to really start filling the Varoma, so it's easy enough to get the veges cut up in that time.)

At the end of the cooking time, check that the chicken is cooked; add a couple more minutes if not.

Remove chicken, vegetables and rice to Thermoservers or serving dishes. (Or if you're having an 
"I don't feel like doing heaps of dishes" night, just leave them in the Varoma and basket and set aside.)

Add all the sauce ingredients to the little bit of liquid left in the bowl. (There should only be about 3cm of water left as the rice has absorbed most of it.)

Blend 1 min/speed 9. Scrape down lid and sides of bowl with spatula and blend again if needed, until smooth. Season to taste.

Serve the rice onto plates, top with veges and chicken, and drizzle with sauce.

Easy peasy! :)

Variations:

Nut free version: I haven't tried this yet, but I think it would be simple to leave out the cashews and add a can of Ayam coconut cream instead, with the 2-3 tsp vege stock paste and 1 tsp paprika powder. Warm it up a bit, 1 min/90C/speed 4. Season to taste.

Non Thermomix version:  Pour 100ml boiling water over the raw cashews and allow to soak (covered) while the meal cooks. Cook the rice in a rice cooker or on the stovetop. Cook the chicken and vegetables in two layers in a steamer, or in a large frypan with a lid, over med-low heat, until done. Blend the soaked cashews with soaking water and remaining sauce ingredients in a powerful blender until smooth and creamy. Season to taste. (Massel stock powder can be used instead of stock paste.)

Weekly Highlights

This week has been super busy, and although some of you may think I'm Super Woman and keep up with everything effortlessly, I'm not, and I don't. In fact, today I feel a bit like my little nephew after a hard day of being Super Man...

(Isn't he just too cute?)

Yep. That's me right there.

This week has been: school holidays and lots of kids coming and going; an exciting project I'm working on (which I'll tell you about soon); lots of cooking (mostly for the exciting project); wrapping up loose ends with my job (I'm scaling down there - can't do everything!); sight seeing tours with a visitor from overseas; a birthday party with a bunch of noisy boys (plus a few girls who don't like to miss out on nerf wars and messy fun, ie. my 16 yr old and her friends); plus everything else. Result: exhausted 'super woman' with saggy muscles. Lol.

So here's a quick update, with the highlights from our discussions on the Quirky Cooking Facebook page...

I bumbled my way through the boys' birthday BBQ on Thursday. I'm not great at organising amazing kids' parties. I'd rather just supply some food and let them entertain themselves by running around outside, so a BBQ at the lake seemed like the easiest option. Sadly, the weather turned bad so we arrived at the lake, took one look at the wet and windy BBQ 'shelter', then turned around and drove back to town. Thankfully my lovely friend Giselle was happy for a party of 14 boys (plus a few girls) to descend upon her home and run around crazy in her yard, so a fun time was had by all despite the rain.

Of course, being a country kids' birthday party, it included things like an 'epic' nerf war (I borrowed that word from Mr I, who seems to say it a lot), bushwalking to a waterfall, throwing rocks into a volcanic crater, and eating sausages and fried onions in bread with plenty of tomato sauce. No lollies at this party, or party games or party bags - but I'm pretty sure they all had a good time. :)

I managed to get a birthday cake made before dashing out the door in the morning - another Zebra cake (Mr I's request), but with a few changes to make it healthier and yummier. The kids loved it. It's a bit messier than my last one as I was in a hurry, but I really don't think the kids noticed.

It's funny how we mums sometimes think that if we don't do everything 'just right' the world will fall apart. I'm always reminding myself that there are more important things to worry about in life than whether a cake is beautifully decorated, or a party is perfectly organised. Sure, if you can do it and enjoy it, that's great! But getting stressed out over things like that just spoils the fun. So we had a slap dash, informal party, and a fun day was had by all. 

Here's what's been happening on my Quirky Cooking Facebook page this past week... 

FOOD

Pear recipes: This 'Whole Poached Pear Cake' was being tested and tweaked this week in my kitchen. I'm working on a dairy free, grain free version, and although it's not quite there yet, it still tasted delicious! What are you favourite pear recipes? Try some of these out.

Flourless Chocolate Espresso Cake: the lovely girls from Confetti Mag shared my cake recipe on their blog - check out the recipe here, and make sure you subscribe to their beautiful online magazine!

I'm also working on a recipe for a gluten free, dairy free shortcrust pastry... lots of pies being cooked here lately! (No one's complaining.) No recipe yet, all part of the 'project'.

Weird breakfasts: I explain why I eat weird things for breakfast, like chicken soup and fried rice, here.

How to make soft eggs, poached in the shell: too easy, very quick, and delicious! Photo and recipe here.

Don't have time for a 'proper' breakfast? My quick protein smoothie recipe.

A very interesting version of my Creamy Chicken & Brown Rice Soup: You know that soup that everyone's making? Well, you may not want to make it like this. Then again, maybe you will, just for fun!! :D

15 foods that can be regrown from scraps: great tips from Mrs Happy Homemaker

Favourite thermomix chicken recipes: Got chicken? Try these!

Trout recipes: some tips and recipes for cooking trout here.

Homemade two minute noodle seasoning mix: healthier versions you can make yourself!

Healthier biscuits to replace Tiny Teddies: some great ideas here for little homemade bikkies for kids, without the nasties.

10 reasons to make your own bone broth: check out this article by Alexx Stuart - I call bone broth 'liquid gold'. 

How to dry ripe olives: tips for drying and perserving olives here.

How to make dairy free dulce de leche with honey to sweeten: a reader's tip!

Homemade fruit chutney: readers' favourite recipes here.

Chilli jam recipes: find some recipes and links here.

Fig jam recipes: made with dried figs - ideas here.

Pickles: I also made pickled cucumber slices this week, so if you're wanting to try them yourself, the recipe is here - first half of recipe is in the comment on the photo, second half of recipe in the last comment on the photo. (These are not sweet pickles, they're the salty, vinegarry type.)

HEALTH

Homemade face masks: no need to spend big bucks on fancy schmancy facial treatments! Try these homemade face mask recipes!

10 reasons you should be using coconut oil: here's why I love coconut oil...

Why sugar makes us sleepy and protein wakes us up: ...and this is why I eat protein at breakfast time!

A reader's experience: how a mum got her daughter have more energy by giving her a protein breakfast before school! Her story here.

Sucrase Isomaltase Deficiency: a disorder that affects a persons ability to breakdown sucrose (fruit/table sugar) and maltose (grain sugar). Donna asked for some recipe ideas, in particular snacks & lunch box treats, for her 5 year old with SID - here's the answers and ideas that were shared.

AND OTHER STUFF

French Rules for Feeding Children: the French are known for having children who will eat all sorts of things - fussy eaters are just about unheard of! Here's some tips for developing great little eaters.

Nut milk bags: what do you use to strain your nut milk? Reader's tips and favourite brands.

How do you store recipes you find online? Here's readers' favourite ways to keep track of recipes they want to make.


Have a great week everyone!

Miss C and Shadow have the right idea...

Spicy BBQ Chicken All-in-One Dinner

 



One of the things I love most about my Thermomix is that it makes super-delicious and super-easy 'all-in-one' meals! (You may have noticed that. There's quite a few on my blog.)

Who doesn't love a meal that's quick to put together, doesn't use up every pot in the cupboard, saves electricity by cooking everything at once, and tastes delicious to boot? Not to mention the fact that steamed veges are much better for you than veges boiled to death in a pot of water. So I tend to make a lot of these 'all-in-one' meals, just varying the layers to use whatever I have. When the cooking time is finished, if there's liquid in the bowl, I often use it to make a sauce to pour over the top so nothing is wasted.

Here's one I made up the other night - chicken thighs cooking in a spicy BBQ sauce, with veges and either rice, potatoes or quinoa cooking in the basket in the bowl, and a sauce made with the juices that are left in the bowl at the end. Very simple, a great mid-week meal. It's a little bit spicy, so adjust the chilli powder to taste!

Spicy BBQ Chicken All-in-One Dinner

1. Mince garlic in Thermomix bowl on speed 7 for 3 seconds:

- 2 cloves garlic

 

2. Add remaining sauce ingredients and mix on speed 5 for 10 seconds:

- 80g tomato sauce

- 60g apple cider vinegar

- 30g butter, ghee or oil

- 2 tsp seeded or Dijon mustard

- 2 Tbspns Tamari

- 2 Tbspns lemon juice

- 20g Rapadura or 15g honey

- 1 tsp herb salt

- 1-2 tsp chilli powder

- 2 tsp smoked paprika

 

3. Pour over chicken thighs in a bowl and marinate for half an hour. (If you don't have time you can just go ahead and cook them.)

- 1 kg chicken thighs, fat removed

 

4. Pour water into bowl, insert rice basket, and weigh in rice/quinoa/potatoes.

- 900g water

- 400g basmati rice

    OR

  350g quinoa (rinsed)

    OR   

  fill basket with thickly sliced potatoes (skin on)

5. Put lid on bowl, with Varoma on top. Add veges to lower Varoma tray, and place the upper Varoma tray on top. Line with wet baking paper, and arrange chicken on paper, drizzling with some of the sauce. Set remaining sauce aside for later.
- sliced veges: carrots, broccoli, green beans, red capsicum... or even just frozen peas and corn if you're in a hurry
- chicken in BBQ sauce

 

6. Start cooking for 20 minutes at Varoma temp, speed 4 for rice or quinoa, or 25 minutes for potatoes. When cooking time is finished, remove Varoma (set it on it's lid to catch drips) and remove rice/quinoa/potatoes and cooked veges to a Thermoserver or covered serving dish to keep warm. The chicken will need a little more time to cook.

7. If you cooked rice/quinoa, there won't be much 'juice' left in the bowl. Add some more liquid by carefully draining the juices off the chicken into the bowl. Also, add the reserved BBQ sauce to the bowl (from marinating the chicken). Replace lid and Varoma (bottom tray will be empty), and cook for another 10 minutes at Varoma temperature, speed 2. Chicken should be done - cut a thigh in half to check.

    If you cooked potatoes in the basket, there'll be lots of water left in the bowl. Tip all but about 2 inches of water out. Add juices from chicken and reserved sauce, replace chicken in Varoma tray, and cook as above.

 

The juices left in the bowl - BBQ marinade is added and it is thickened to make sauce.

8. Remove cooked chicken to another Thermoserver or covered serving dish. Make the sauce by adding cornstarch/arrowroot mixture to bowl and cooking at 100C for 4 minutes, speed 4.
- 2 Tbspns cornstarch or arrowroot, mixed with 2 Tbspns water in a cup

 

 

9. Serve chicken, veges and rice/quinoa/potatoes together, drizzled with the sauce.

 

As you can see, it's very handy to have more than one *Thermoserver!

They'll keep your food hot for up to three hours, so you can make dinner ahead of time and keep it in the servers until everyone's ready to eat. No more cold dinners.

 

* A Thermoserver is a double insulated stainless steel serving dish valued at $60, available only through Thermomix home demonstrations in Australia. 

 

* Special Deal for January 2013 *

You can receive TWO Thermoservers for free by purchasing a Thermomix in January,

and holding your home demonstration before the end of February!

Visit the Thermomix website for more details.

Quinoa Salad, Thermomix Style!

Summer. The weather's so hot, the last thing you feel like doing is slaving over a hot stove, cooking. Green smoothie for dinner? Hmmm, don't know about the guys in your house, but mine wouldn't be too happy. What to do? Quinoa Salad! It doesn't take a lot of effort (especially with the Thermomix), you can pretty much chuck in whatever's in the fridge (bonus: it's different every time!), and everyone likes it. (Well, except for the pine nuts in this one - my eleven year old picked those out... Oh well. Can't win 'em all.)

This salad ticks all the boxes - quick, easy, healthy, yummy and there's lots of variations possible. Sometimes I add meat - chicken, tuna, or salmon - sometimes I leave the meat out. Eggs are optional too, but are an easy filler. You can try different dressings - for my quickest of quick versions, I just drizzle over some balsamic vinegar and my specially good extra virgin olive oil that I save for salads, plus a little herb salt. Other times I use my homemade mayonnaise, which is made with seeded mustard, honey, garlic and herbs. Beck from Thermosisters made a version with a dressing consisting of flaxseed oil, garlic, seeded mustard and honey. Yum!

Just a note on quinoa (pronounced 'KEEN-wa'): I've had some people comment that they don't like quinoa as it has a bitter taste. If the quinoa you are using is bitter, it needs to be well soaked and/or rinsed to remove the natural saponins coating the seeds. Quinoa grown in Australia is usually sold un-rinsed, whereas quinoa from Peru or Bolivia is usually pre-rinsed and ready to use. If you have Australian quinoa, follow these guidelines before cooking:
     - Rinse quinoa in a fine strainer for 1 to 2 minutes under running water, the evening before using it, then soak in a bowl of water overnight.
     - In the morning (or before cooking), rinse again under running water for another minute.
If you follow these steps, you shouldn't have a problem with bitterness.

So here's my 'chicken & pumpkin' version of quinoa salad - see what other variations you can come up with.

1. Weigh dry quinoa into a bowl and cover with water, then set aside to soak for 7-12 hours. Drain and rinse in a fine seive under running water. Or, if you're in a hurry, pour boiling water over quinoa and let sit for 10 mins or more, then rinse.
- 350g quinoa, weighed when dry
- 500g water

2. Weigh water into Thermomix bowl, place quinoa in steamer basket and insert into bowl. Place eggs on top of quinoa in steamer basket.
- 800g water
- 4 eggs, preferably organic free range, well rinsed

3. Place the lid on the bowl, with Varoma on top, and place chicken and pumpkin in Varoma dish, leaving some spaces for the steam to get through. Cook for 20 minutes, Varoma temperature, speed 4. (Check chicken and pumpkin in last five minutes of cooking time and break apart with the spatula so it cooks through evenly.)
- 3 chicken thighs, cubed
- 250g pumpkin, sliced thinly (about 5 mm)

4. When the quinoa, chicken & veges are cooked, remove eggs from quinoa (scraping off quinoa from shells) and peel and quarter eggs.

5. Prepare salad ingredients in a very large salad bowl. I like to use:
- a bag of mixed salad greens or baby spinach
- sun-dried tomato strips
- kalamata olives
- thinly sliced shallots or red onion
- boiled eggs, quartered
- cubed sheep or goat milk feta (optional)

6. Add quinoa, chicken and pumpkin to salad ingredients. You can wait until they're cool if you like, or use straight away for a warm salad.

7. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar and a good quality cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil, or whatever dressing you prefer.

8. Sprinkle with toasted seeds and serve. I like a mixture of sesame seeds, sunflower seeds and pine nuts, toasted in a dry skillet until they're starting to pop, then drizzled with tamari and toasted a little longer. They give a lovely 'crunch' to salads.

Another variation we love is smoked salmon, avocado, olive, sun-dried tomato or cherry tomatoes and baby spinach. What variations do you like to make?

Share your versions in the comments below!

Chicken Pasta with Zoodles {oh, and a bonus Chicken Zoodle Soup Recipe!}

Chicken pasta sauce with 'zoodles' (zucchini noodles)

I've had a few requests for this simple-but-delicious recipe, (mostly from my friend Sue-Ellen, who won't stop hassling me!) so here it finally is. ;-) I've been a bit absent on my blog for the last couple of weeks due to overwhelmingness of all sorts, but I'm determined to get this posted... I had thought of keeping it up my sleeve for my cookbook, but that's going awfully s-l-o-w-l-y (inducing some of the aforesaid overwhelmingness) so I thought I might as well post it.

This is one of those recipes that is great to make when you want a chicken to 'stretch' a long way. If you buy organic and/or free range chicken like I (usually) do, it's nice to have recipes that only need 300g of chicken but still feed six people. If I'm starting with a whole chicken, I cut off the thighs and brown meat from the legs and use that. I use the breasts for another recipe, and then I use the meaty carcass to make soup from.

However, this time I did things a bit differently. It all started with a crazy day and no menu plan, which I wouldn't usually recommend, but somehow it worked out...

At 5.30pm I realised everyone was going to be bugging me very soon for dinner, so I dashed out to the freezer to see what I had. I dug around and found a kilo of chicken thigh fillets, which were of course frozen into a solid block. I have no microwave (yep, I'm one of those weird people who refuse to have one), so I chucked the frozen block of chicken into my big stock pot on the stove, covered it with about 4 litres of water and turned the heat on full blast. I roughly chopped an onion, a leafy celery stalk plus some extra celery leaves, a couple of carrots, a handful of parsley and a few cloves of garlic, and chucked them all in (Jamie Oliver style - well, I like to think so anyway), splashed in a couple of tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, added a bay leaf, some Italian herbs and a couple of teaspoons of Celtic sea salt, and popped the lid on. Then I started the pasta sauce in the Thermomix for the chicken pasta. As soon as the thighs in the soup pot were cooked a bit on the outside and I could pry a few off the 'block', I added them (slightly frozen still) to the Varoma to steam above the pasta sauce. (Oh, and I turned the heat down on the stove so the chicken soup was simmering more gently, and left it for a couple of hours.)

So here's the pasta recipe - I'll get back to the chicken soup in a minute...

Chicken Pasta with Zoodles
(Serves 5-6)

1. Chop in Thermomix bowl on speed 5 for 3 seconds:
- 1 brown onion, halved
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1/2 half a red capsicum, deseeded

2. Add oil or butter and saute for 3 minutes at 100C, reverse speed 1:
- 30g olive oil or butter

3. Add tomatoes and chop at speed 6 for 6-10 seconds, depending how chunky you like your sauce:
- 800g fresh, ripe tomatoes, halved (preferably organic vine ripened for extra flavour!)

4. Add mushrooms and chop on speed 3 for 5 seconds (or less if you like them chunkier):
- 150g mushrooms

5. Add remaining ingredients (except chicken) and cook at Varoma temperature for 30 minutes, reverse speed 1. Place Varoma tray on top, with chicken thighs (halved) inside (more if you like) to steam while the sauce cooks:
- 100g tomato paste
- 100g water
- 2 Tbspns chicken or vege stock paste
- 1 tsp Italian herbs (dried) or some fresh oregano & basil, chopped
- 1 tsp Rapadura
- 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
- 300g chicken thigh fillets

6. While the pasta sauce is cooking, make the zoodles (zucchini noodles). If you have a Benriner (pictured above) or other type of vege spiralizer, you can use that - I highly recommend them, they're awesome! You just pop the raw veges in and turn the handle, and you can use different sized blades for different types of 'noodles'. Here's Miss C making the zoodles for me...

If you don't have a Benriner, don't despair - you can just use a potato peeler to peel thin strips of zucchini for the 'pasta'. (See this recipe for 'Raw Pasta Sauce' for a picture of zucchini noodles made with a potato peeler.)

7. When the pasta sauce is finished cooking, pull chicken apart roughly with two forks and add to the sauce. Serve over the raw zoodles.

Okay, back to the soup...

After dinner was done and cleaned up, the soup had been simmering for about 2 hours, the chicken was spoon-tender, and the liquid was reduced by at least half. I turned off the heat and added a couple of handfuls of raw zoodles (which were leftover from dinner), and left it to cool. Because the liquids had reduced so much, it had become a condensed soup, which is perfect for me as I never have much room in my fridge. A condensed soup takes up less room, and you just add some water (to taste) when you are ready to heat it up again.

We ate the soup the next day for lunch, warmed gently on the stovetop with a bit more water added. (Sorry, don't remember how much, but just taste and see how strong you like it.) Let me just mention here that the Celtic sea salt makes a big difference in flavour - regular table salt just won't be the same. If you don't have Celtic sea salt (the chunky, grey, wet kind of salt that's hand harvested), you may want to add a little stock paste for more flavour.

Chicken Zoodle Soup

And I caved in and made spelt bread to go with it, which totally negated my 'grain free' idea, but anyway - this chicken soup and hot-out-of-the-oven spelt bread is the best comfort food there is, in my opinion. Even better than chocolate. And that's saying something for a chocoholic like me!!

I hope that adequately explains how to make the soup and pasta - I'll make it again soon and check if I wrote that down correctly - it was all a bit slap-dash at the time, as usual. Please tweak to taste!

Jo :-)

Fajita Chicken & Salad Pizza on Quinoa & Chia Seed Flatbread

* This recipe includes support for Paprika * 

This morning when I got up I decided that the last thing I wanted for breakfast was porridge or granola or eggs - I was starving! I wanted PIZZA!!

I looked in the fridge and spied a lonely chicken breast and some baby spinach, and decided on a quick chicken and salad pizza... I know, that doesn't sound much like breakfast food, but I tend to have all sorts of odd things for breakfast. I prefer a savoury breakfast to a sweet one. (Although I will make an exception for chocolate.)

The base of this pizza is made from quinoa and chia seeds, so it's a lot higher in protein than a traditional base. Protein is great in the morning as it fills you up for longer and gives you energy, whereas carbs will make you feel stodgy and sleepy. So skip the cereal and toast and go for pizza! ;-) That is, healthy pizza - not a stodgy, carby pizza. This one is gluten free, dairy free, egg free... even grain free if you don't count quinoa as a grain! (Which I don't, since it's really a seed.)

You can make the base soft or crunchy, depending how you like it. I use this pizza base recipe for flatbread too - I make mini ones for the kids lunches quite often. Spread them thin and cook them until just cooked, and they'll wrap around a filling. Or cook them longer so they're crisp like crackers and serve them with dips.

Snack size quinoa & chia seed flatbread with avocado & fire-roasted capsicum

Try some different toppings, like smoked salmon, sheep's fetta (if you can have it), olives, avocado, or fire-roasted capsicum. Or for a more 'breakfast-y' breakfast, top with scrambled eggs, sun-dried tomatoes and spinach, or a poached egg! Yum.


Quinoa & Chia Seed Flatbread (gluten free, dairy free)

Makes 2 large pizza size flatbreads, or a few mini ones

1. Toast the quinoa in a dry frying pan by stirring over medium heat for a few minutes. Or toast in Thermomix at 100C for 10 mins, speed 1, with MC off. [Optional - to get rid of saponins on outside of quinoa as it may otherwise taste bitter.]
- 150g white quinoa

2. Grind quinoa, chia and salt in Thermomix bowl for 1 minute, speed 9:
- toasted quinoa
- 2 Tbspns chia seeds
- 1/2 tsp sea salt

3. Add water and mix on speed 5 for 10 seconds:
- 180g water

Note: For a soaked version of the flatbread, skip the toasting of the quinoa. Instead, cover quinoa in water and leave overnight, strain in the morning and add quinoa to the Thermomix bowl with the chia, salt and water. Blend on speed 9 for 2 minutes, adding a little more water if needed, and scraping down now and then with the spatula.

4. Drizzle pizza trays with some extra virgin olive oil (use baking paper if needed), and divide dough between trays. (The dough will be more like a sticky batter.) Drizzle the dough with some more oil.

Using your fingertips, pat the dough out evenly into a thin circle, about 3mm thick. I find it's easier to use my fingers than a spatula, as the dough is very sticky. The oil will stop it sticking to your hands.

There should be oil all around the edge of the dough, and a thin sheen over the top. This will make it crispy. If you want it soft, there's no need to use much oil.

5. Bake at 200C for 20-30 minutes, depending how crispy you like it.

(You'll notice mine's quite brown after 30 minutes - don't cook it this long if you want it soft like the picture of the snack size flatbread.)


Fajita Chicken & Salad Topping (gluten free, dairy free)

While the pizza bases are cooking, make the toppings.

1. Chop garlic on speed 7 for 3 seconds

- 2 garlic cloves

2. Add the remaining ingredients except the chicken and mix on speed 5 for 5 seconds

- 20g extra virgin olive oil
- 10g tamari or gf soy sauce
- 1 Tbspn honey
- juice of 1/2 a lime
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1/4 tsp smoked paprika
- 1/8 tsp onion powder
- dash of mesquite smoke seasoning (optional)

3. Add chicken and cook for 5 minutes, Varoma temperature, reverse speed soft, with MC off

- 1 chicken breast, thinly sliced

   (There will be a bit of 'juice' left after cooking the chicken - you can just lift the chicken out with a fork or slotted spoon. I actually drizzled the juice over the top of the pizza because it was too yummy to waste!)
 

4. When flatbread is cooked, remove from oven and top with
- baby spinach
- chopped tomato
- thinly sliced Spanish onion
- fajita chicken
- dairy free sour cream (optional - I didn't have any and was in a hurry to eat!)

Warning: this can be messy to eat, but it's worth it. :)

Soup Weather. And Old Favourites like Chicken & Fresh Turmeric Soup

It seems to be 'soup weather' in most parts of Australia at the moment. I know I've been craving it, especially after driving through misty rain and fog to get to Thermomix demos...

...dodging potholes the size of small lakes, skidding down muddy driveways, and finally arriving home cold, damp and hungry at the end of the day. (Don't get me wrong, I love my job - I just don't love this weather!!)

Yep. Definitely soup weather.

Whipping up a quick, comforting pot of soup is so easy with the Thermomix - it usually only takes twenty to thirty minutes, and I can go have a hot shower while it cooks!

I have lots of favourite Thermie soups...

creamy chicken & brown rice soup;

meatball, vege & bean soup;

creamy smoked salmon soup;

coconut lemon chicken soup; <---- this soup has fresh turmeric in it too!

Mexican black bean & chorizo soup;

pea & lettuce soup;

corn & potato chowder with chorizo... 

... not to mention the old favourites from the Thermomix cookbooks - pumpkin soup or cauliflower soup (EDC), red lentil & sweet potato soup (GF cookbook) and chickpea & spinach soup (Full Steam Ahead cookbook).

If you usually just go crack open a tin of 'cream of' soup when you're in a hurry, save money and make your own healthier, yummier version with the tips here: 

Can the Canned Soup!! Too easy.

This Chicken & Fresh Turmeric Soup is one I've made for years, usually in a big pot on the stove where it spits and bubbles and makes a big mess and has to be stirred and watched so the rice or quinoa doesn't stick to the bottom. The other day I decided to make it in the Thermomix to show that chicken legs still come out whole cooked in the bowl. It worked beautifully and was so easy, and much tidier. So here's my converted recipe - hope you like it.

Turmeric is an amazing food with many health benefits. It's related to ginger, grown the same way, and where I live many people grow it in their backyards. It has anti-inflammatory properties, is a natural antiseptic, antibacterial agent, liver detoxifier, pain-killer, is great for fat metabolizing, and is used to treat depression and just about everything else from Alzeimer's to cancer! Of course, raw turmeric is best, so whizz some up in your next boost juice. Or you can do what I often do when there are colds and flus around - double the amounts of garlic and turmeric at the start of the recipe, remove half of it from the bowl once you've minced it, cook the soup as per the recipe, then add the reserved raw garlic and turmeric in at the end. It will have a lovely flavour and a bit more of a 'bite', and the 'goodness' won't be all cooked out.

[Note: if you can't find fresh turmeric, you can use powdered turmeric - just use 1-2 teaspoons of the power and saute with the onion and garlic. But fresh is the BEST!]

Chicken & Fresh Turmeric Soup

1. Mince garlic and fresh turmeric on speed 7 for 3 seconds:

- 2-4 cloves of garlic

- 1 'finger' of fresh turmeric, halved

2. Add onion and chop at speed 5 for 3 seconds:

- 1 brown onion, halved

3. Add butter/ghee/oil and saute for 3 minutes at 100C, speed 1:

- 40g butter/ghee or olive oil

4. Add and chop on speed 5 for 5 seconds:

- 1 vine-ripened tomato, halved

- a large handful of celery leaves

- a few sprigs of fresh thyme

    Scrape bowl down.

5. Insert butterfly. Add remaining ingredients, arranging chicken legs around butterfly, and making sure water doesn't go above the 2 litre mark on the bowl.

- 800g chicken legs (about 6 or 7 chicken legs)

- 80g quinoa or brown rice

- 3 Tablespoons chicken stock paste

- 600g water (or until it reaches the 2 litre mark)

6. Cook at 100C for 30 minutes (quinoa) or 40 minutes (brown rice) on reverse blade, speed soft.

Do you have a favourite soup recipe of your own that you'd like to convert for the Thermomix?Check out the tips in the front of the soup section of the Everyday Cookbook. If you need help, feel free to ask on my Facebook Page, or over at the Recipe Community Forum.

Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic

I have very fond memories of my Grandma's delicious cooking. Getting to go to Grandma's house was always special, as Grandma lives in Texas (USA, not Queensland!) and we grew up in Australia, so we only got to visit Grandma now and then. Whenever I close my eyes and imagine Grandma, I see her with her apron on, wooden spoon in hand, standing over the stove in her homey, country kitchen in the cutest house you ever saw, happily cooking up something wonderful for bunches of hungry children and uncles and aunts. Grandpa would be sitting in the rocking chair in the kitchen telling us tall stories or making 'cowboy coffee' in a pan on the stove, everyone laughing and talking at once, kids running in and out, the smell of dinner cooking making us all hungry...

Mum says that when she was growing up, it didn't matter how early in the morning she got up, her mother was already in the kitchen cooking. I can hardly think of Grandma except in her kitchen! I was so heartbroken when she had to sell her house and move into a small unit after Grandpa died. I even had nightmares about it. I can hardly bear to think of someone else cooking in the kitchen that was Grandma's for over 50 years! Loved that house.

My Grandma is an amazing cook. So is my mum, obviously because she learnt from the master! It never seemed to matter how little was in the cupboard or fridge, they could make a three course meal out of it and everyone would be raving about how delicious it was. I have lots of Grandma's recipes written down on little recipe cards, all smudged and floury from years of use, ever since I got married and got my own little kitchen. We'd only been married about two weeks when we invited an older couple over for dinner (if only Grandma and Grandpa lived nearby we would've invited them!) - and of course I just had to cook my Grandma's cherry pie for dessert. It wasn't quite as good as hers (when I cut it, the filling kind of oooozed out of the crust and the whole thing deflated!), but it was reassuring to have Grandma's recipes there to see me through my first try at entertaining, at the tender age of 21.

My Grandma will be reading this blog post (Hi Grandma!) and she'll probably say what she always says whenever I talk to her on the phone: 'How do you DO all that you do! Every time I read your blog I have to go lay down, it makes me so tired!' Which is hilariously funny, because she was much busier than me, with rascally twin boys and two other kids, doing everything by hand the old fashioned way, sewing their own clothes, making everything 'from scratch' including bread and baby formula, and as I always remind her, she didn't have a Thermomix! I try to explain how this 'machine' saves me so much time, but she can't quite fathom it, never having seen one. I dream of one day hopping on a plane with my Thermomix tucked under my arm and turning up at Grandma's, and cooking with her for days on end. She can sit in the rocking chair and teach me her recipes and tell me the stories behind them, and I can show her how my amazing 'machine' can make preparing them so much easier. That's my dream.

But when it comes to this recipe for 'Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic', I'm afraid I just can't do it any other way than Grandma's way. This is how she taught me to make it, and I love it just the way it is, so I'm not changing it. But I don't make the bread by hand like she did, to serve with the deliciously mild, baked garlic cloves. And I don't make the mashed potatoes and veges by hand either, these days. All of that is done in the Thermomix while the chicken's bubbling away in the oven. So when dinner's done, I don't feel so tired I need to lie down. :)

Thanks, Grandma, this is for you.

(P.S. You've probably seen this recipe around the place - I have no idea where it originally came from. All I know is my Grandma used to make it for us, and in my mind it equals 'comfort food' at it's very best!)

*    *     *     *     *    

Update: I just had to share this gorgeous 'end' to the above story...

Grandma is in a nursing home 'assisted living' unit now, on her own, and doesn't cook much these days. My Aunt takes her a home-cooked dinner every day. (My Aunt is an amazing cook too!) But when Grandma read this blog post (as I knew she would), the memories of comforting family meals came flooding back, and she got up and cooked it once again, in her tiny little kitchenette, reliving the memories. She sounded so happy on the phone as she told me how much she enjoyed it. I only wish I could've been there to enjoy it with her. I'm sure she's still an awesome cook at the age of 91. :)

 Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic

1. Scatter garlic cloves over the bottom of a casserole dish. You can use a flat dish if you want more crispy skin, or a deep dish if you want softer, juicier chicken.

- 40 cloves of garlic, unpeeled!

   (Yes, that's a couple of bulbs of garlic - don't worry, baked garlic is really quite mild, just so long as you leave the cloves whole and unpeeled. I actually used a little less this time, since the organic garlic that I buy is gigantic!)

2. Place chicken pieces over the garlic, skin side up.
- 1 large, organic chicken, cut into pieces

3. Sprinkle the chicken with wine, juice or stock, oil, seasonings and herbs.
- 1/2 cup white wine or Verjuice or apple juice or chicken stock
(I usually use a mixture of apple juice and chicken stock, but I happened to have some de-alcoholised wine so I used that this time, and it was lovely)
- 3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- fresh thyme (or 1 teaspoon dried thyme)
- fresh sage, chopped finely (or 1/2 teaspoon dried sage)
- fresh parsley, chopped finely
- 4 small bay leaves
- 1 teaspoon herb salt & some freshly ground pepper (may need more salt if using apple juice)

4. Cover the dish tightly with foil (and a lid if it has one) so no steam can escape. Bake at 180 degrees C for 1 1/2 hours. Remove lid and foil, and return to the oven to brown for another 15 minutes. Discard bay leaves.

5. Serve with mashed potato* with the chicken juices drizzled over, lots of steamed veges or a big green salad, and some lovely fresh bread. Squeeze the garlic from the skins onto the bread, sprinkle with salt, and use it to mop up the lovely juices from the chicken.

* Here's how to make mashed potato and steamed veges in the Thermomix:

- Weigh 1000g of cubed potatoes into the Thermomix bowl. Sprinkle with salt, and add some butter or ghee if you like.

- Reset the scales and weigh in 200g of water and 200g of milk. (I use my rice-almond milk.)

- Place the Varoma on top and fill with thinly sliced veges, hard ones on the bottom, soft ones on the top. Make sure there's a hole poked through for the steam.

- Cook at Varoma temperature for 20 minutes, speed 1. Check that the veges are done - if not, add a couple more minutes.

- Remove Varoma dish, and bowl lid; push butterfly down into potato until it fits onto the blades. Replace lid and mix for 10-15 seconds on speed 4, until mashed.