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Creamy Garlic Chicken With Sundried Tomatoes and Spinach Pan
Amazing Pumpkin Parmesan Dip
Another fantastic centrepiece for a party, a pumpkin filled with Pumpkin Parmesan Dip looks great and is versatile for crackers and veggies alike. You can adjust the amount of parmesan, or even substitute for a cheese you prefer – I can’t imagine there’ll be too much difference to the end result.
My kids are particularly antsy about raw garlic – they can pick it out of anything – so if you prefer, you can saute the garlic for three minutes at 100C. I only do that if I’m making it, especially for my children.
I decided to put the dip into a bowl and hover the bowl inside the mouth of the pumpkin. I don’t know if that’s necessary or if you can just put it in the pumpkin, but I decided it would be easier in this instance to keep cool, and that the pumpkin itself was reusable for a number of days and other recipes if not. Also, if you’re particularly skilled at carving (I’m not!) a fake candle inside, under the dip could look very pretty too.
Pumpkin Parmesan Dip Recipe:
Amazing Pumpkin Parmesan Dip
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Serves: 600g
To cook the pumpkin, add 400 – 500 g chopped raw pumpkin to the internal steamer. Fill water to the 1-litre mark. Thermomix 15 minutes/Varoma/speed 4. Once finished, leave to drain and cool for a while before making the dip
Ingredients
- 1 garlic clove
- 50g parmesan
- 100g cream cheese (I use full fat)
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp salt
- 400 – 500g cooked pumpkin
Instructions
Thermomix Instructions
- Add 1 clove garlic 5 seconds/ speed 5
- Add parmesan 10 seconds/speed 10
- Add cream cheese, paprika, salt and cooked pumpkin 30 seconds/ speed 4
- Scrape down sides 1 minute/ speed 10
- Set aside to firm up again, and serve
Regular Instructions
- Finely chop the garlic, or crush it and add to a food processor
- Grate parmesan and add to the garlic.
- Add cream cheese, paprika,salt and cooked pumpkin
- Mix following your food processors instructions till it’s all well blended and smooth.
- Set aside to firm up again, and serve.
Try these Halloween recipes too!
The cheese biscuits in the images are round versions of these cheese straws.
Cheesy Straws
These cheesy straws are a lovely snack for lunch boxes and last minute visitors. They can be prepared whenever you have time, and the pastry frozen – then just pop out a handful and bake when you need them. I was setting an Autumn scene for some photos I had to do, so we broke up the straws to make a ‘woodpile’. I was glad when the kids walked in and said ‘Oh, look at the brooms!’ Always useful when people can tell what you’re going for!
These cheesy straws can be made as straws, though simply baking them in rounds is okay too – I tend to freeze them as round biscuits, making them easier to use with dips. If you’re going to make brooms, I recommend that you use the stringy type of kids cheese, rather than regular blocks of cheese which crack rather than pull apart. And have more chives than you think you need as they break really easily too.
I also like to add paprika or rosemary to cheese strings – it just depends on what flavour you like, or whether you like something different from time to time! Also, you don’t have to add parmesan, it just heightens the cheese flavour. If you decide not to, just make another 50g cheddar cheese.
Cheesy Straws Recipe:
Cheesy Straws
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Serves: 60 sticks
Ingredients
- 375g plain flour
- 225g butter
- 150g cheddar cheese
- 50g parmesan cheese
- 1 tsp mustard (I use a grainy mustard, but powder will work too)
- 2 egg yolks
- pinch of salt
- pepper to taste
Instructions
Thermomix Instructions
- Add all the ingredients to the Thermomix bowl
- Mix speed 5/30 seconds
- Remove and shape into a log. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes
- Heat the oven to 180C
- Break off pieces and roll into sticks using your hands
- Bake for 10 – 12 minutes until golden brown. Allow to cool before moving but be gentle as they are fragile
Regularly Instructions
- Add all the ingredients to a food processor
- Mix until everything is combined and the dough forms a ball
- Remove and shape into a log. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes
- Heat the oven to 180C
- Break off pieces and roll into sticks using your hands
- Bake for 10 – 12 minutes until golden brown. Allow to cool before moving but be gentle as they are fragile
Pumpkin & Parmesan Soup
Pumpkins in the UK have been a bit of an education for me. Where I grew up, pumpkins came in one size: big. And they had thick, hard-to-cut-through skin and bright, dark orange flesh, and tasted… well, like pumpkin. Here I find pumpkins come with thin skins, and light flesh that doesn’t taste like a whole lot of anything, so I normally try to mix some butternut squash in for a bigger hit of flavour if I’m making a soup.
I think it may vary again in other places because I have read on US boards that they say the smaller pumpkins have more taste than the bigger ones, but this certainly isn’t my experience. In South Africa, we used to make pumpkin fritters, and they definitely were bright orange and tasted of pumpkin!
The smaller pumpkins are very easy to cut, though, and to scoop out, so they make a convenient soup bowl if you’re making this recipe for two – three people.
I love fresh sage, lightly fried in butter to crumble over this, but I can’t always find fresh sage. Never mind. If you like chillies you can add some spice to this soup too, and if you have a bit of spare time, sautee an onion first and add it at the start with the rest of the ingredients. If you have fresh or homemade chicken stock, that’s even better than a stock cube too.
Pumpkin and Parmesan Soup
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Serves: 3 servings
If you’re able to find fresh sage, lightly fry the leaves in butter till the edges go brown, and sprinkle over the soup for a crunchy, tasty topping. 2
Ingredients
- 700 – 800g Pumpkin or Butternut Squash, cut into cubes
- 20 – 50g Parmesan Cheese
- 1 Chicken or Veggie Stock Cube
- 250g Water
- 1 Teaspoon Sage
- 1 Teaspoon Garlic Granules (or 1 Fresh Clove of Garlic, crushed and sauteed)
- 1/2 Teaspoon Salt
- Pepper to Taste
Instructions
- Add everything except the pepper to the Thermomix Bowl
- Put the MC in place, and hold it down while you liquidise – 30 seconds/ speed 10
- Turn the heat up to Varoma/15 mins/speed 3. Keep the MC in.
- When it’s done, serve and top with pepper.
Calories: 419 Fat: 16 Carbohydrates: 55 Sugar: 19 Sodium: 3568 Protein: 26
Garlic & Herb Pull Apart Bread Recipe (Thermomix)
I’ve tried to make pull apart breads on, well, more than one occasion, but I’ve never found them to be perfect. They’ve just never been ‘right’ – till today. Today I made a most beautiful garlic & herb pull apart bread. It was light, fluffy, airy and delicious. My kids loved it. I loved it. Now I’m writing it all down step by step so hopefully next time I make it, it’ll be as good! I have a hankering to try this with bacon too. Just saying.
You can make this with or without the cheese, and you can vary the herbs to your preference. The main thing is to make sure you add some of the garlic butter to the bottom of the baking dish so that it seeps through to make these beautiful, fluffy and delicious breadrolls for a tear & share bread.
Garlic & Herb Pull Apart Bread Recipe
Recipe Type: Side Dish, Bread
Cuisine: BBQ, Bread
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Serves: 8 – 10
You can make this bread with any recipe you prefer, really, but this one is adapted from the Bestest Breadrolls recipe on the Thermomix community.
Ingredients
- For the bread
- 10g dry yeast
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 510 g bakers flour
- 30 g garlic flavoured olive oil
- 310 g warm water
- For the garlic butter
- 4 garlic cloves
- 15g flat leaf parsley
- 60g parmesan or other cheese
- 60g butter
Instructions
- Add all the ingredients to a clean Thermomix bowl.
- Mix at speed 5 for 10 seconds, then knead for 90 seconds using the dough setting.
- Oil a glass bowl and place the dough inside. Cover the dough and set aside to rise to double it’s size.
For the butter
- Add the garlic, parsley and cheese to the bowl and mix on speed 5 for 8 – 10 seconds.
- Add the butter and melt at 50C/Speed 1/2 mins.
- Pour a third of the melted butter mix into an oven safe dish..
- Take the dough and split it into 8 – 10 balls. Put them on top of the butter mix in the dish, making sure they touch lightly. Drizzle over the remaining butter mix.
- Turn the oven on to 180C and put the breadrolls into the oven (while it’s still cold).
- Bake bread for 20-30 minutes depending on your oven. It should be golden brown.
- Remove from oven dish so the base doesn’t get soggy.
Puff Pastry Cheese Sticks Recipe
It’s that time of year where I start thinking about snack box fillers for days out, picnics and camping weekends, and one snack type that we all like is a puff pastry cheese stick. Now, you can buy these pretty cheaply, but they’ve been in a box for weeks and have an almost human-lifespan shelf life, in some cases! They are so quick to make, and they are delicious. Kept in an airtight container they also last well – if you hide them away so no one can eat them, that is.
Now, I’d like to be all pious and tell you I made the pastry myself, and for budget reasons, I’d make large batches, but actually when I’m doing quick snacks, bought pastry is perfect. If you buy a roll of pastry, go for the most expensive one you can find. An all-butter pastry is delicious, whereas the cheaper ones with oil can have a bitter after taste.
You can vary and adapt the filling to your heart’s desire. Remember a lot of it will fall out when you’re twisting, so make sure to have a bowl or something you can ‘mess’ into so you can reuse it again.
Tip: It’s also useful to fill and slice the pastry on the tray you’ll put in the oven. It just cuts down on the spillage.
For this recipe I’ve used parmesan and smoked paprika. You can also use a combination of herbs, and a melting cheese. Great flavour combinations are:
- Cheddar and chives
- Parmesan, rosemary & thyme
- Cheddar & Onion Salt
- Parmesan and Smoked Paprika
Puff Pastry Cheese Sticks Recipe
Recipe Type: Snacks, Picnic, Lunch box
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Serves: 12
Ingredients
- 1 Roll Puff Pastry
- 40g Parmesan Cheese
- 2 tsp Smoked Paprika
Instructions
- Roll out puff pastry
- In the Thermomix (or using a cheese grater) finely chop the parmesan (speed 10, 30 seconds) and add the seasoning – in this case smoked paprika. Mix speed 5 for a couple of seconds to combine.
- Sprinkle the cheese mixture over one half of the puff pastry, then fold the unsprinkled side over the sprinkled side so that it covers itself completely (like folding a page in half, basically!)
- Use a sharp knife to cut slits through from one side to the other, about 10 -12 all in.
- Take an end in each hand and twist in opposite directions and place on a baking tray.
- Bake at 180C for 20 – 30 mins till it’s golden brown and delicious