My New Vitamix

Yes, I've finally gone and bought one! After years of wanting, and watching the price climb every year, I took the jump and ordered my very own Vitamix just after Christmas. It arrived New Years Eve, what a way to start the new year!

Yesterday I used it 4 times, yes 4 times! It is AMAZING, I love it! I washed it New Years Eve and had it ready and waiting for me on New Years Day morning. I couldn't wait to get up!

The first thing I made was a green smoothie, packed full of vitamins and nutrients. First I added about half a cup of cold water, followed by a handful of Curly Kale, 10 green grapes, ¼ Pineapple, 1 Apple and juice of 1 Lime. The beauty of it all is that the pineapple wasn't cored and the apple wasn't peeled or cored just quartered, pips and all!

It was delicious, just what I needed after walking Marco in the wind and rain for 1½ hours!

I can't believe how excited I am at owning one of these, it's going to get used everyday and probably more than once. I sat down with my smoothie flicking through the recipe book that comes with it. But, alas I was far too impatient as soon as I'd gulped down my smoothie I was back in the kitchen riffling through my fridge to see what needed using up!

I decided to make butternut squash soup, two ways. The first was using the vitamix with raw ingredients and the second with cooked vegetables. The vitamix is that powerful that you can add raw ingredients and make soup, it doesn't cook the vegetables as such but the blades rotate that fast that the machine will heat up the liquid to steaming hot.

Can you guess which photo is the raw vegetable and which is the cooked?

             

The one on the left is the soup using raw vegetables and the one on the right is the soup using the cooked vegetables. The raw soup is a more vibrant colour as the cooked one used roasted butternut squash. The soups used exactly the same ingredients bar one, I forgot to put the onion in the raw soup!

Ingredients - Serves 4   

165ml Coconut milk  

½ Butternut Squash, cubed

1 Onion, quartered (cooked version only)

½ Chilli

1 Garlic Clove

1 Knob of ginger

1 Cup of vegetable stock

1 Tsp Cumin

Handful Cashews

Salt & Pepper

Method-raw 

Pour the coconut milk into the Vitamix, add all the other ingredients bar the salt & pepper in the order shown and blend as per manufacturers instructions. Blend for 3-4 minutes or until steam is coming out of the ventilation holes in the lid. Add salt and pepper to taste, pour into bowls and enjoy. 

Method-cooked

Add the butternut squash and onion to a roasting dish and spray with a little oil. Add the cumin and stir to coat the squash and onion with the spice. Roast for 20 minutes or until the vegetables are soft.

Pour the coconut milk in to the Vitamix and add the roasted butternut squash and onion. Next add the remaining ingredients bar the salt & pepper and blend. Add salt and pepper to taste, pour into bowls and enjoy.

If you don't own a vitamix then I would add the chilli, garlic and ginger to the roasting vegetables, before you puree with the coconut milk, cashews and vegetable stock.

The soups did taste different, whether this was due to the onion in one I'm not sure. The soup using raw vegetables was lighter in taste, and actually tasted 'fresher'. Both were delicious and I ended up merging the two, which provided a substantial dinner for the two of us with a little bread and vegan spread. There is plenty of left over too.

I also made some houmous in the vitamix but used sesame seeds instead of tahini as I had run out. I didn't 'peel' the chick peas either and I didn't notice the difference as I would in a standard mixer.

Overall I love my new Vitamix - can you tell? 

Butternut Squash & Black Bean Fajitas

My vegetable supplies were getting low after the shopping I did almost a week ago. But I reckon they will last at least another 4 days with store cupboard ingredients. I still hadn't used the butternut squash, so I peeled, deseeded and cut it up and popped it in the oven to roast, which intensifies its sweet flavour. All I had to do was decide on what I was going to do with it once it had roasted. I'd tried Angela's roasted butternut squash and black bean burritos before, which were tasty so I thought I'd try the same combination in a fajita and it worked.

I served the fajita with Mexican rice and homemade guacamole. I was stuffed!

Butternut Squash and Lentil Curry

Tonight I was feeling totally different to last night and there was no way a simple salad was going to fit the bill tonight. I was craving something spicy, which wouldn't take long to cook, curry was the ideal meal. 

Unfortunately I hadn't any fresh chillis or ginger so I had to use dried, but it didn't effect the flavour at all. I've been put off in the past from not using fresh chillis and ginger in my homemade curries, I'm not sure why though. But tonight has changed my thinking and no longer will I shy away from using dried ginger in a curry rather than in just cakes!

Ingredients
1 small butternut squash or ½ a large one, diced
½ Cauliflower, cut into florets
2 Medium onions
1 Potato, cubed
5-6 Button mushrooms, diced
¼ Bag spinach, shredded
1 garlic clove, chopped
2 dried chillis, crushed
½ Tsp dried ginger
1 Tsp (heaped) curry powder
1 Tbsp (heaped) tomato puree
80g red lentils
1 Bay leaf
450ml Water
Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper


Method
Thinly slice the onions and saute in a little olive oil over a low heat for about 10-15 minutes. Add the garlic and saute for another two minutes. Add the dried ginger, crushed dried chillis, curry powder and tomato puree and stir through the onions. Add the butternut squash, potato, mushrooms and cauliflower and coat with the onion paste. Add the lentils, bay leaf and water and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes or until the vegetables are al dente then add the shredded spinach and cook for two more minutes until wilted. Add salt and pepper to taste and serve over rice.