Our New Vitamix!

Remember that post where I wrote about my amma's smoothies and how I accidentally broke it? Well, my guilt is gone and all is forgotten. Why? Because we bought a VITAMIX! Yay!

A Vitamix

So see, a Vitamix is the God of all kitchen appliances and for foodies like my family (excluding my sister. She's too fussy to be a foody) it has brought with it our calling: to make smoothies, soups, purees and butters and diced vegetables all day long. I am proud to say, that from the start of these school holidays, I have gone from a kitchen disaster, who could very well easily burn and destroy frozen foods in the microwave, to someone who can make gourmet soups and smoothies and juices in minutes. Well, not to boast or anything :P hehe. It's all thanks to this wonderful contraption.

I truly and honestly feel extremely sorry for the neighbours, who may have already purchased noise cancelling headphones this week, because for the last few days The Vitamix has been having a full time job. Breakfast: smoothie, Lunch: Almond but and beetroot jam sandwich, Dinner: soup, snack: Strawberry banana sugarless, no added sweeteners, sorbet. Yup. My life in a minute.

What went into my smoothie the first day we got the machine. You don't actually have to chop the veggies and fruits like this at all, I was just a tinsie bit sceptical about it the first time I used it. But instead of blending for 30 seconds it blended this for 10. so yea..

So the benefit of this blender is that the motor is soooo powerful. You can add a whole apple, banana, celery stick, a peeled lemon, some sort of leaf, a kiwi fruit, add a cup of water and within 30 seconds voila!

So I though I could upload two of my favourite recipes because they are just sooo yummay.

Sweet Potato and pumpkin pie

So I tried this recipe two times, one with our old blender, and one with the Vitamix. With the Vitamix you don't really have to boil the sweet potatoes or the pumpkin, but I like it better that way.

Ingredients:

• 1 medium sweet potato
• 1 cup of chopped pumpkin (any would do)
• 1 teaspoon Cardamon
• 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
• 1 cup Soy milk (or normal, or any other. What ever goes)
• 1 medium banana

Methods

• Boil the sweet potatoes and the pumpkin over the stove until half cooked or just soft enough but slightly firm on the inside

 Half cooking some vegetable are better for you because it doesn't destroy some of the really good natural elements found in that veggie, for example vitamins or enzymes that are needed to break down the nutrient from your food. I'm not an expert but I prefer to half cook my veggies.

• Run the veggies under cold water and store in the freezer for half an hour. 
• Add the veggies into the blender with the cinnamon, cardamon, soy milk and banana
• Blend until smooth and adjust taste to your liking and pour into mason jar (you know I love them) or a glass or mug if your boring

You can also add dates and more banana or honey if you wanted. Oh and you can also add chia seeds!

Creamy Gazpacho with Chickpeas

Well I'm not sure if you can really call gazpacho because I don't use stale bread. You could of course sub in the bread instead of the chickpeas

Ingredients:

• two tomatoes, blanched to rid of the skin. I like to keep the skin. 
• 2 red bell pepper
• 1 cucumber
• 1 onion
• 3 cloves garlic
• 2 stalk spring onion
• 1 cup boiled chickpeas
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tbs Red-wine vinegar
• Sweet chili sauce (add to your liking) around a table spoon. 
• Chili flakes (add to your liking. Come on, I'm Sri Lanka) probably 1/2 a tbs

Method

• Add everything into you blender and whizzz

Depending on what blender you have, dice and shop appropriately

• You can chill or eat hawt

Chilled Cucumber soup

Ingredients

• 4 cucumbers, diced
• 1 stalk of celery chopped
• 1 cup frozen veggies (defrosted)
• 1 cup vegetable stock
• 2 1/2 cups of water
• Mustard seeds
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• Ground pepper

Method

• At stock, water and frozen veggies into pot and simmer on medium heat
• In a pan add olive oil, onion, garlic and celery, mustard seeds and cumin (This part is scary, and noisy)
• Saute for 5 minutes. Add a litlte water to stop the ingredient from clumping or sticking to the bottom of the pan
• Add the ingredients from the pan, along with the cucumber into the stock and increase heat
• Bring to boil and reduce heat. Simmer until cucumbers are soft
• Let it cool slightly before adding into blender
• Add lemon and pepper and blend until smooth
• Chill for 3-4 hours and serve.