I’ve been looking for ways to thicken sauces without flour or starch. This recipe uses onions and cauliflower to make a thick sauce to hold the filling for my pie – and I get a bonus serve of vegetables too! Chicken, peas and carrots are some of my favourite pie fillings and I’ve used a sweet potato mash as the topping.
Serves 4-6
Ingredient
2 onions, peeled and quartered
2 cloves garlic, peeled
10g light olive oil
500g cauliflower florets
60g + 100g reduced fat milk
1 tbsp Thermomix vegetable stock concentrate
Salt and pepper, to season
2 cups frozen peas
2 carrots, peeled and diced into 1-1.5cm pieces
1 kg sweet potato, peeled and cut into 3cm pieces
600g chicken breast, cut into 3cm pieces
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 200C on the broiler setting
2. Put onion and garlic into the Thermomix bowl and chop for 6 seconds/Speed 5
3. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, put oil into the Thermomix bowl and sauté with the measuring cup (MC) off for 3 minutes/Varoma/Speed 1
4. Put cauliflower into the Thermomix bowl, close the lid and chop with the MC on for 5 seconds/Reverse/Speed 5
5. Add 60g of the milk, stock, salt and pepper into the bowl
6. Put potatoes into the Thermomix bowl and spread out evenly
7. Cut a piece of wax or baking paper to fit the Varoma tray, scrunch it up and lay it on the Varoma tray
8. Put chicken on the Varoma tray, season with salt and pepper, assemble the Varoma and place it on top of the Thermomix
9. Cook for 10 minutes/Varoma/Speed 2
10. Put peas and carrots into the Thermomix basket, take off the Varoma and sit the basket into the Thermomix bowl
11. Reassemble the Varoma on top of the Thermomix and cook for a further 10 minutes/Varoma/Speed 2
12. Remove the Varoma and basket, then blend the cauliflower into a sauce with the MC on; going slowly from Speed 1 to Speed 9 for 1 minute
13. Add peas, carrots and chicken into the bowl and stir to combine with the sauce; pour into a rectangular roasting dish
14. Quickly rinse the Thermomix bowl, put the potatoes into the bowl, add 100g of milk and cook with the MC off for 9 minutes/100C/Speed 1
15. Add salt and pepper, add butterfly and mash for 20 seconds/Speed 3
16. Layer mashed potatoes on top of the chicken filling, use a fork to rough up the top of the potatoes and bake in the oven on the middle shelf for 20-30 minutes or until the top is browned
