Chicken veloute meal

Chicken veloute meal

If you have ever been to a thermomix demo, or had one, then chances are you have probably tried the chicken veloute meal. What is great with this meal, is that it uses the thermomix's ability to its full potential, with layered cooking, and easily provides you with a 2 course meal!

While the base of the soup is cooking in the bowl (with the vegetables being steamed in the steaming basket), the chicken is cooking in the varoma tray, and then later on the vegetables are added.

Now I have to admit - I really didn't like the chicken veloute meal when I had it originally. I have trouble eating chicken breast and steamed vegetables. And I really don't like steamed zucchini at all! So I did make a few adjustments to this meal.

Steamed chicken using baking paper

I left the soup part of it as the recipe instructs. When I added the chicken breast to the varoma tray, I put it onto a piece of scrunched up, wet baking paper, making sure to leave space at the sides for the steam to circulate through. I do this for a couple of reasons - so when I put the vegetable in, they don't end up with chicken drippings cooked onto them (yuck!!! yes I know its cooked but it just looks awfully unappetising to me!). I also use the baking paper to make cleaning the varoma a lot easier afterwards. It can be a bit time consuming poking bits of cooked chicken out of those tiny holes!

I also used fresh thyme leaves instead of tarragon. This was simply because I had a bunch of them I hadn't used up from last week, so rather than spend $3 on a bunch of tarragon, I just replaced it with the thyme. You could use whatever herbs you like or have on hand.

Steamed mixed vegetables

For the vegetables, I didn't cut them up into the tagliatelle sized strips. I prefer to cut the vegetables up chunkily, and just add them sooner so they cook through to how I like them. I cooked the chicken for 20 minutes since some of the tenderloins were quite thick, and added the carrots and cauliflower to the varoma dish at the 17 minute mark. At the 20 minute mark I added the broccoli to the varoma dish and continued with the recipe.

Delicious potato and leek soup!

I really love the potato and leek soup that this recipe makes. It is just so beautiful and silky! I then prepared the sauce for the main dish, and I must have left too much of the soup in the bowl, because I had quite a bit left over. I added the leftovers to our soup and stirred it through. The addidtion of the creme fraiche and mustard made the soup even better! Next time I make potato and leek soup on its own I am going to add those ingredients anyway. Yum!

Happy thermomixing!

P.S. I almost had a thermo-fail with this recipe! I weighed my potatoes in the bowl before I started, then got distracted. I got all the other ingredients out and prepared them. Then I put the garlic and onion in and turned it to the speed required for three seconds. It sounded really loud! Then the bowl was so much heavier than I expected when I lifted it out to scrape the onion and garlic down the sides...well that might have something to do with the potatoes I had obliterated along with them!!!! OOOOOPPPSSSS!!!!