Filling Tummies with Chow-Mein

I loved my Mum's chow mein when I was growing up and I still love it today! Such an easy, cheap and nutritious meal. This winter I set about converting Mum's recipe for the thermomix and found that it wasn't quite as straight forward as I was expecting. It took me four attempts to convert Mum's chow mein recipe and get it to the stage where it was "just like Mum's". I found a suitable replacement for the packet of chicken noodle soup (we don't do packets :-)) and I eventually found a way to cook the cabbage so that it didn't mush up in the bowl. This is a complete meal and I serve this with just a buttered roll or bread on the side. This recipe utilises the bowl and varoma and makes enough to feed a large family.

Chow Mein

Note: I used red capsicum instead of celery in this batch.

Ingredients:

1 60g cake vermicelli noodles
1 stick celery, roughly chopped
1 large carrot, roughly chopped
1 onion, quartered
1 cup green beans
40g organic olive oil
500g mince
80g rice
1 tbsp tamari or soy sauce
1-2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp vinegar
1 rounded tbsp homemade chicken stock paste (2 tbsp of commercial powder)
650g boiling water
2-3 cups shredded cabbage

Method:

Add noodles to bowl and chop on speed 7 for 10 seconds. Set aside.

Add celery, carrot, onion and beans to bowl and chop for 3 seconds on speed 5.

Add oil and saute for 3 minutes, 100 degrees, reverse speed 1.

Add mince and saute for 5 minutes, 100 degrees, reverse speed 1.

Add remaining ingredients to bowl. Add cabbage to varoma dish and fit on thermomix lid. Cook for 15 minutes, varoma, reverse speed 2-3 (keep it moving so that it doesn't catch on the bottom at the high temp).

To serve I spooned the cabbage into bowls, added the meat mixture and mixed them together a little with a fork. You could tip them both into a large bowl and mix it through that way though.

Enjoy!