Lentil and vegetable soup

Nothing is more comforting than a hot bowl of soup! I'm not one who is much for vegetarian dishes , I'm a huge fan of meat. But this soup really hits the spot and is extremely satisfying. 

It's not true vego as I used my Home made chicken stock , but you could use veggie stock or thermomix veggie stock concentrate mixed with water if you wanted it to be vegetarian. 

To start soak 200g brown lentils in water for about half a hour. 

Mince in thermomix bowl 3 garlic cloves speed 8 for 10 seconds. 

Peel and quarter 1 brown onion & 1 red onion 

Quarter 4 large Roma tomatoes 

Add onions and tomato to the bowl and chop on speed 4 for 5 seconds. 

Measure in 40 g extra virgin olive oil 

Cook for 3 minutes on varoma temperature, reverse speed 1 

chop into bite size pieces , then add to bowl 

2 peeled medium carrots 

1 zucchini 

200 g peeled sweet potato 

150 g celery 

Measure and add in 100 g frozen peas 

Cook for 5 minutes , varoma temperature , reverse speed 1 

Drain and rinse the lentils and add to the vegetables in the bowl along with :

30 g fresh parsley 

1 tablespoon dried basil 

1 tablespoon turmeric 

Pinch of dried chilli flakes 

1 bay leaf 

700g liquid chicken stock ( or any stock of your choice)

Cook for 45 minutes , 90 degrees , reverse speed 2 

Serve with fresh grated Parmesan :) 

Chicken & Vegetable Pie with "Cauliflower cream"

on tonight's menu was a simple old time favourite Creamy Chicken and Veggie pie, but with a few tweaks I turned this into a thermomix meal and created a "healthier" cream instead of the usual dairy option. I've got a bit of a thing for cauliflower lately , since discovering I can make mock rice from it. So hence the experiments and the creation of cream. It's was so easy to prepare and tasted great! I've used the cauliflower cream in a carbonara pasta dish before and it worked perfectly. 

 So to start I made some rough puff pastry using the recipe from the EDC cook book and substituting plain flour and used Spelt flour instead. My first attempt and it was delicious but the pastry broke up a bit when I was cutting it up to serve, but either way I guess your going to cut it up anyways to eat it but still nice to have a good looking pie for presentation ;) if anyone has made puff pastry using spelt flour and has any tips please share! 

 While the puff pastry was in the fridge I then started on the filling. 

So firstly roughly chop into small pieces 2 cups of cauliflower heads making sure to remove the stalks. 

Rinse under tap then add to the thermomix bowl and grind up on speed 5 for 30 seconds, or until it is all minced, remove from bowl to the steamer basket. 

Don't bother rinsing the left over crumbs from the cauliflower leave them in the bowl and add 

200 g liquid chicken stock 

170 g water 

Put the steamer basket in place and cook on varoma temperature speed 3 for 25 minutes.

Place the varoma basket ontop and add to the top basket 

200 g diced chicken breast 

to the bottom Varoma tray cut into very small cubes add the following vegetables 

1 carrot peeled 

15g of zucchini 

15g leek 

20g broccoli 

1 stalk of celery

Small handful of frozen peas 

With 10 minutes remaining check the chicken and move it around in the dish , make sure still enough liquid in the bowl. 

Once time is up remove Varoma basket and keep chicken and veggies warm.

Remove the steamer basket with the spartula then carefully scrape out the steamed cauliflower into the thermomix bowl and remaining liquid stock. 

To the bowl add and blend on speed 9 for 50 seconds 

3 garlic cloves peeled 

Small handful of parsley or teaspoon of dried parsley 

1 teaspoon dried thyme 

Salt and pepper to taste

To the cauliflower cream add the chicken and vegetables , and cook on varoma temperature for 2 minutes reverse speed 2. Leaving the mc lid off to let steam evaporate. 

Roll out the puff pastry and fit the bottom layer in a greased pie dish, pour the filling in and i then added a thin layer of parmesan cheese ,

then put the top layer of puff pastry. I poked a few times with a fork and sprinkled with water and olive oil.

Pop into the pre heated oven on 220 degrees for 30 minutes.

There you have it a creamy pie that usually is full of calories and fat , and I bet if you never told anyone no one would even know it was not actual cream!