This is a hearty, satisfying vegetarian meal... lighten it up a bit with a nice, big, green salad on the side. It's nicest with fresh herbs and vine ripened tomatoes, and I like to add semi-dried tomatoes and tomato paste to make it richer.

1. Chop in Thermomix bowl for 5 seconds on speed 6:
- 1 onion, quartered
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 carrot, quartered
- 1 celery stalk, quartered

2. Add oil and cook for 3 minutes, 100 degrees, speed 1:
- 30g extra virgin olive oil

3. Add tomatoes and chop for 5 seconds, speed 5:
- 400g fresh tomatoes, quartered (or can use tinned - if already crushed, don't chop again)

4. Add remaining ingredients and cook for 15 mins, 100 degrees, reverse speed 1:
- 250g red lentils
- 100g semi-dried tomato strips (opt.)
- 550g water
- 2 Tbspns vege stock concentrate
- 2 Tbspns tomato paste (opt.)
- 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 tsp Rapadura
- 1/2 to 1 tsp dried oregano, or fresh to taste
- 1/2 to 1 tsp dried basil, or fresh to taste
- herb or sea salt
- freshly ground pepper

5. Serve over wholegrain spaghetti, or brown rice, with a green salad.


Chelsea: We love this one.  I think the sundried tomato strips are a must. Yummo! 

CC: I made this for supper the evening and I have to say it's one of the best vegetarian meals I have ever made.I served it over pasta.A big thank you Jo for a really wonderful recipe. 

Millipede: I've made this a couple of times now and its fabulous. It has a really hearty flavour, reminiscent of a beef bolognaise but without the heaviness. Not that I dont love the EDC ragu recipe   But DH is veggo and its a hassle to cook up two seperate bolognaise recipes for dinner. The kids gobble this lentil one down no worries so I have ditched the beefone all together.

Merlin: Have to confess that for my twins ( one of whom is low iron deficient) I did add a small amount of beef mince but my 17 yo stepdaughter who is vegetarian absolutely loved it and believe me, she is extraordinarily fussy with whatever food she eats. Obviously I had to make two batches, one with and without meat. Also leftovers freeze really well and as my stepdaughter doesn't live with us  full time I just throw it in the microwave for a quick dinner when needed.

Tam: Just made this with a 400gm can of brown lentils and borlotti beans as I discovered that I'd run out of dried lentils - followed the recipe and added a plonk of red wine - absolutely beautiful - thank you!!!!

1.  Grind on speed 9 for 30 seconds:
- 140g Rapadura (if you want to use raw sugar, only grind for 10 seconds)

2. Add and grind on speed 9 for 10 seconds, or until finely ground:
- peel of 1 navel orange (wash & dry orange first, then peel in the zest with a potato peeler, no white)

3. Add and grind on speed 9 for 15 seconds:
- 50g dark 70% cocoa chocolate (eg. Lindt)

4. Remove mixture to a bowl. (The mixture will become quite sticky and gooey - you need to scrape it into a bowl with the spatula and put the other ingredients in, then add it back on top, otherwise it freezes to the bottom of the bowl once the ice hits it.)

5. Add other ingredients into bowl, then top with chocolate mixture.  Grind on speed 9 for 1 to 2 minutes, until creamy, using the spatula to help push the ice into the blades:
- flesh of orange (cut off and discard the pith)
- 40g raw cacao powder (or cocoa powder)
- 1 large or two small egg whites
- ice cubes - fill to the 2 litre mark

Eat it quickly before it melts!  Or freeze for later.

Members' comments
Ruth - It was great, thanks for the recipe.

Meagan - Omg Jo this is delicious  Grin I used 20g of cocoa the woolworths pure one that has been discussed here it was yummoooooo. I posted on the RC too. I think it could be a delicious cocktail/ choc slushy if you added an orange liqueur to it.

Tasty - Just made it - love how it's so quick to make and nice and refreshing for a summer night like tonight. Only problem was I only had 2 trays of ice cubes so couldn't fill it to 2L mark so a bit runnier but I'm not complaining.

We love to make this for breakfast on special occasions - although it's so quick and easy you don't really need to wait for a special occasion!  And you don't have to have it at breakfast time, either...  The base is more like a pancake than a pizza crust, and needs to be cooked in a very hot oven so it puffs up.  Top your pizza with whatever fruit you like, and drizzle with either pure maple syrup for breakfast, or melted chocolate for a delicious dessert!  Makes two pizzas.

1.  Preheat oven to 230 degrees C (450 F) and melt butter or ghee in two 9-inch pie plates, then remove from oven:
- 2 Tblspns butter/ghee (1 for each pie plate)
(If you can't have butter or ghee, just grease pie plates with preferred oil.)

2.  Beat together in Thermomix on speed 5 for 20 seconds:
- 6 eggs
- 250g rice-almond milk (or other milk)
- 100g plain spelt flour or gluten free flour
- 2 Tblspns Rapadura or 1 Tblspn honey
- 1 tsp vanilla extract

3.  Pour into greased pie plates and bake for 8 minutes.  Reduce heat to 190 degrees C (475 F) and bake about 8 minutes longer - until golden brown with puffy sides.

4.  Immediately top with sliced fruit, sprinkle with coconut (opt.) and drizzle with syrup (or chocolate), then slice and serve.
- 1 punnet strawberries, washed and sliced
- sliced bananas
- whatever other fruit you like (kiwi fruit, passionfruit, rockmelon, etc) - optional
- shredded coconut - optional
- pure maple syrup (or melted chocolate)

(Optional: If you like, you can top with a dollop of cashew cream - if you can handle dairy, you can use whipped cream or yoghurt.)

Creamy Chicken & Brown Rice Soup
serves 6


Ingredients:

- 150g brown rice
- 50g raw almonds
- 1 onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 stalk celery
- 1 large carrot
- 30g butter or olive oil
- 300g chicken, cubed
- 1 litre water
- 2 T chicken stock paste (made in TMX)
- 100g frozen peas
- handful fresh parsley, chopped (can chop in TMX before beginning, then put aside)

1.  Grind 50g of the rice for 1 minute on speed 9.  Add almonds and grind 20 secs on speed 9, or until fine.  Set aside.

2.  Place onion (halved), garlic cloves, celery (quartered) and carrot (quartered) in bowl and chop for 3 seconds, speed 5.

3.  Add butter or oil and cook for 3 minutes, 100^o, speed 1.

4.  Add chicken and cook 3 minutes, 100^o, speed 1.

5.  Add water, stock paste, rest of rice, and ground rice and almonds, and cook for 30 minutes, 100^o, reverse, speed 1.

6.  Add chopped parsley and peas, cook another 5 - 10 minutes, 100^o, reverse, speed 1.  (If serving straight away, may need 10 mins - if sitting in server for a few mins, just needs 5.)  Adjust seasonings if needed, and serve.

Note:  If you like it saltier, just add more stock paste.  Can use vege stock paste, but the chicken is nicer.

members' comments A very popular recipe

Zan - Made this without the chicken and with liquid chicken stock and it was really yummy. Highly recommend and without the chicken a very budget conscious meal.  I also didn't put the peas in as I don't like peas in soup.  I make stock from every chicken we have. So put the bones etc in the basket with garlic, peppercorns, celery (heads if I have them), onion, sometimes other stuff and 1 litre of water and cook for 35 mins.

ELH05 -  I made this soup with white rice. Other things I did differently was I didn't have celery so just used about the same amount of green capsicum and used the TMX vege stock concentrate. Still ended up with a beautiful, thick, creamy hearty soup!  Really enjoyed it so it's got me thinking what it could taste like with the brown rice.

QJ - You could grind up all the rice - I do when I'm in a hurry for it to cook - reduces the cooking time by about half. I also often bulk it out with veges steaming on top in the Varoma - see my recipe on my blog for details and pics, as I've updated it.

anneaussie & floweryspring  -  both used cashews instead of almonds.

Chocolate Pecan Self-Saucing Pudding
Serves 4 - 6


I love chocolate self-saucing pudding, but I haven't made it for ages because of the amount of sugar in it... so I was very happy to find a healthy version in Cyndi O's cookbook!  I've changed it slightly to make it dairy-free, and it's also wheat free and naturally sweetened.  You could easily make it gluten free by using gluten free flour.

1.  Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.  Grease a 2 litre baking dish.

2.  In Thermomix, mix together on speed 4 for 10 seconds:
- 150g wholemeal spelt flour (can grind spelt grain first)
- 50g Rapadura
- 2 tablespoons organic cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 egg
- 100g rice-almond milk
- 2 tablespoons macadamia oil (or grapeseed/light olive oil)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 50g whole pecans

3.  Scrape mixture into baking dish, and add sauce ingredients to Thermomix, mixing on speed 4 for 10 seconds:
- 25g organic cocoa powder
- 80g Rapadura
- 350g boiling water

4.  Carefully pour sauce mixture over cake batter, pouring over the back of a spoon so it doesn't make a hole in the batter.  Bake for about 30 minutes, until done.

Members' comments

CP - QC could the following ingredients be substituted with the same weight and still end up with a great flavour:

wholemeal spelt flour - with normal plain flour?
rapadura - with brown sugar?
rice almond milk - with normal milk?

QJ's answer - Yes, that would work fine

earth mumma - saw this on your website last night.  We had it for desserts and it was delicious. It was just so easy to make.  I used half wholemeal/half plain spelt, but next time I think I will try for more wholemeal.  I didn't have any rapadura sugar (over $7.00 per 300gm here in Bendigo) so used organic raw sugar instead.  I have also managed to get some raw organic cocoa butter and was wondering if it would work using this instead of the macadamia nut oil.  This is a definite dinner party winner. 

Tebasile - I made it with 200 g soaked barley and walnuts tonight. It was delicious Jo. Thank you for this interesting guilt free recipe. Lots of leftover for me tomorrow.
The pudding was a last minute but very good decision. I milled all ingredients on speed 10 instead 4, since the hulled barley was soaked unmilled overnight with some lemon water. Soaking the flour would be a good idea, if you plan ahead.

Ruth - I made this tonight with EVOO (although not a strong flavoured one) and it was great. It's a good last minute winter dessert for me as I always have those ingredients in the cupboard, except maybe pecans but can always substitute those. Thanks for posting it.

Chelsea - We LOVE this pudding!!!  Thanks so much Jo.  I think this is our new favourite Quirky recipe. Adding in the soaking step worked really well.  I mixed the freshly milled spelt flour with all of the milk from the recipe (I used cows milk) and a tsp of cider vinegar.  I then left it covered at cool room temperature for 8 hours.  After that time I added it in to the recipe and continued on.  I did add an extra 40g of milk at the end though, as I felt the pudding batter was a bit thick with the soaked flour.  Yummy!

VHJ - The taste of the end product was very nice. Next time I make it I will either reduce the amount of barley (& mill it a little more) or add a little more milk. All in all I'm happy with my first effort at milling and soaking whole grain so it's onward and upward from here. Thanks Quirkycooking.

CC - Made this for dessert tonight. Yum! Very Chocolatey and Delicious.

Here's a different version of sorbet that's perfect for breakfast or an energizing morning tea snack!  My Group Leader, Nancy, came up with the idea (inspired by the muesli and protein shakes in Cyndi O'Meara's cookbook), and I've changed it a little to make it dairy free and a bit more 'chewy'.  Nancy's version has a good dollop of natural yoghurt in it, which is nice if you can have yoghurt - or if you want to you can use coconut cream instead.  I add sultanas at the end for a bit of sweet chewiness - if you can't be bothered you can add them all at once with everything else. Feel free to play with the ingredients and amounts, but don't fill the bowl above the 2 litre mark, as it makes it difficult to mix!

1.  Toss all the ingredients into your Thermomix bowl (weighing them if you want to be particular!), and grind on speed 9 for a minute or two, using the spatula to assist with the mixing, until nice and creamy:

- a handful of raw almonds/macadamias (40g)
- a handful of rolled oats (30g)
- sprinkle in some seeds - pepitas, sunflower, linseeds (25g)
- a blob of tahini (30g)
- a handful of sultanas or dates (30g)
- 250g frozen mixed berries
- 250g frozen bananas, chopped in 1 inch pieces
- 250g ice
- 20g pure maple syrup (or to taste)
- 1 egg white (or 2 if you want it creamier)
- optional: a dollop of yoghurt or coconut cream


2.  Add extra sultanas and mix on speed 6 until mixed in:
- 30g sultanas

P.S. Freeze any leftovers in a sealed container or ice cube trays.  When you're ready to use it, thaw for ten minutes and remix in Thermomix to whip it up again.

Blender-Batter Muffins


This is the base recipe I use for my muffins, adding in berries, or nuts, or choc chips, or spices, or crumble topping, or whatever I feel like.  It's a very versatile and healthy recipe - you start with the whole grains (spelt, brown rice, barley, kamut, or a mixture of these...), grind the grains with the liquids, leave to soak overnight (or at least a few hours), then add the remaining ingredients.  (Check out the variations below for ideas.)  I like to start it at night so we can have muffins for breakfast (...and morning tea - it makes a lot!!).

The original recipe is from Sue Gregg's 'Breakfasts' cookbook, and I've changed it to make it dairy free.  I used to use my homemade rice-almond milk with a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar to substitute for the buttermilk in her recipe, but I decided to cut out a step and make the milk at the same time as I made the muffins... so instead of buttermilk, I add a handful of raw almonds, a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar, and water.  It all gets ground up and soaked with the grains, and works just fine! 

1.  Place in Thermomix and blend on speed 9 for 3 minutes, scraping down half way through:
- 40g raw almonds (or cashews)
- 160g water
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 290g whole spelt grain (or kamut, or a little less of barley grain, or a little more of brown rice)
- 20g macadamia oil (or light olive oil)
- 210g raw honey (I know this sounds like a lot, but it's only a third of a cup - honey is heavy!)

(You may have to play around with the amounts of grain if not using spelt - if it seems way too thick and there is no 'vortex' while you're blending, add a little more water.)

2.  Leave batter to soak overnight, or for about 7 hours.

3.  When ready to cook, preheat oven to 175 degrees C (350 F), and grease muffin trays (or you can use ramekins for extra large muffins).

4.  Add eggs to batter and mix for 2 minutes at speed 9:
- 2 eggs

5.  Mix in briefly, for 3 seconds on speed 5:
- 2 tsps baking powder
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon (optional)

6.  Fill greased muffin trays (or ramekins) almost full with batter.  Sprinkle the top of muffins with Rapadura and cinnamon (optional), and place in oven for about 20 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean.  Cool for 5 minutes before removing from tins.

Variations:

- Berry muffins: add berries by sprinkling them on top of batter in tins and pressing in slightly - they will sink in a little while cooking.  You can also sprinkle with Rapadura & cinnamon if you wish.

- Chocolate chip muffins: replace cinnamon with 1 tsp vanilla extract; stir in 1 cup of Rapadura sweetened choc chips with baking powder.  (Berries AND choc chips is nice too!)

- Nut muffins: add chopped nuts with the baking powder, etc, but only mix in briefly.

- Apple muffins: increase the cinnamon to 1 1/2 tsp, add 1/4 tsp nutmeg; add 1 peeled and diced apple to batter with baking powder; sprinkle with cinnamon & Rapadura before baking.

- Banana muffins: add another 20g oil, 1 1/2 very ripe bananas, 1/2 tsp nutmeg and blend, then soak overnight.  Only needs 1 egg.  Optional: add a handful of chopped walnuts/pecans and/or dark choc chips with baking powder.

- Orange date muffins: replace cinnamon with 1 tsp vanilla extract; fold in 1 peeled, diced orange and a handful diced dates with baking powder.

- Orange nut muffins: peel orange skin into Thermomix, add a little Rapadura and cinnamon, grind speed 9 until finely grated.  Use 170g orange juice instead of almonds, water & vinegar in batter.  Add 1 tsp vanilla extract to batter.  Add a handful of chopped walnuts or pecans and a handful of sultanas with the baking powder.  Can also add a handful of grated carrot.  Before baking, sprinkle with the orange zest, Rapadura & cinnamon.