Thermomix TM7 - A Smarter Way to Cook

I hate, hate, HATE cooking.

Which is unfortunate, because I'm in charge of making dinner weeknights.

To be honest, the actual cooking part doesn't bother me too much - other than fiddly, time-consuming things like grating and standing there stirring - no, the worst part of being in charge of the evening meal is having to decide what that evening meal will be.

As popular as they are, I can't make my famous fresh fish tacos every night, especially at this time of year when my barbecue is essentially underwater.

So I call on you now, great technology gods! Please provide me with a week's worth of dinner inspiration! And if possible, could you prepare it and cook it for me as well?

Turns out, all I needed was the TM7 (the latest Thermomix) and a subscription to Cookidoo.

Now don't be embarrassed if you've never heard of Thermomix and have no idea what it is - I didn't either, until I was invited to celebrate the launch of the TM7 in New Zealand. Not only did I get to eat some Thermomixed creations for dinner, with zero training I was also able to create my own gourmet strawberry dessert in about five minutes flat.

To break it down, the TM7 essentially looks like a big, black blender, sitting on base with a 10-inch touch screen on the front.

It also comes with a Varoma - which looks a bit like a plastic roasting dish - a simmering basket, a butterfly whisk and the coolest spatula I've ever used.

But first things first. Vorwerk, the German company that makes Thermomix, has been coming up with clever ways to cook for over 140 years. In 1971 it decided to try mixing, chopping and cooking in the same device and Thermomix was born.

Today's TM7 is the ultimate refinement of that concept. If you want perfect mushroom risotto every time, this is the device that takes the guesswork out of the equation. When you first enquire about the TM7, you'll be matched with a personal consultant to talk you through the details.

My consultant, Lauren, turned up with the TM7 and a recipe for that very risotto - but it wasn't in a book. You see, not only is Thermomix a shining example of German precision engineering, it's also teamed up with a guided cooking app called Cookidoo. I suppose Cookidoo is a kind of digital cookbook - one with over 100,000 recipes inside.

The great thing about a digital cookbook is you can access it anywhere, anytime on your phone, tablet or PC. Cookidoo lets you search for recipes by ingredients, styles or courses and when you find something you like the look of, you can add it to your own collection of recipes for easy reference. Then you can plan your week's meals, even creating a shopping list of all ingredients required.

All of this is mirrored on the screen of the TM7 of course - when you turn it on (once you've registered and logged in) you'll be met with today's recipe all cued up and ready to begin. From there you'll be guided through every step of the recipe - and I mean every step. Because not only does the TM7 mix, grate, chop, knead, stir, cook, boil and steam - it also acts as a set of scales, weighing every ingredient as you add it, be it solid or liquid.

Now although I'm a fan of risotto, I've never even considered making it myself. Too many variables. Too many steps that have to be done "just right." Lauren the consultant soon showed me there's really no way to get it wrong with the TM7. Precisely measured ingredients mixed and cooked for exactly the right durations means success is virtually guaranteed every time.

If you're anything like me, you really don't like potentially messy (and smelly) tasks like grating parmesan and chopping onions. The TM7 takes care of all this, once you've weighed in the exact amount - all of which is represented on screen with a "digital twin" showing you the current state of where you're at in the recipe.

This makes every step so foolproof - right down to basic instructions like putting the lid on the mixing bowl or resting the Veroma (steaming dish) on top of that. The interactive recipe won't let you carry on until you complete each step - unless you manually decide to skip something, of course.

Cooking times are equally precise - and the mixing bowl will light up red when the contents are hot, although you won't feel that from the outside; it's very well insulated.

I then proceeded to impress my family with Stuffed Jacket Potatoes (two ways) and a delicious prawn curry.

Although I expected every recipe to be a cook-in-the-TM7 only scenario, I was surprised to discover many Cookidoo creations utilise other cooking methods as well. Sometimes the TM7 is only used for the sauce or the dressing for something that can only really be cooked with the barbecue or on the stove.

Or in the case of my Classic Meatloaf (another first for me and another hit with the fam) everything was chopped and mixed in the TM7 but obviously the loaf needed to be cooked in a tin in the oven.

As I've become more confident with how the TM7 works, I've been able to customise recipes - perhaps adjusting the number of servings or swapping out certain ingredients. I've also learned to use the TM7 as an add-on sometimes, not always the main event. For example, last night I wanted to combine some steamed broccolini with my bowl of roast veggies and grilled haloumi. Much easier to steam using the TM7 than faff about boiling a pot of water and getting another steamer pot dirty too.

Of course, there's a pre-clean function once you're finished with the TM7 mixing bowl and almost everything is dishwasher-safe, so cleanup is pretty straightforward.

Let's focus on the Thermomix spatula for a moment, because like the TM7 itself, it's a miracle of ingenious design and is a joy to use. You're not that likely to stir what's in the mixing bowl with the spatula, there'll be specific speed setting for the precision steel blades to take care of that. Instead, the soft but durable edges of the spatula are ideal for scraping off the sides of the bowl and it also has a special hook on the back edge for lifting out the simmering basket. So clever.

Even more clever; you can stand the spatula on its back or on its end to avoid getting a sticky mess all over your bench top.

As idiot-proof as the TM7 appears, some idiots are capable of extreme uselessness and I have had the odd failure. My Chicken and Avocado Risoni salad was supposed to be my Thermomix masterpiece, utilising almost every aspect of the TM7's abilities to serve up a real crowdpleaser. I thought this recipe was particularly clever, creating a tasty broth in the mixing bowl to steam seasoned chicken pieces in the Varoma, then adding the risoni to the broth to cook at the same time. I was firing on all cylinders.

I mean, just check out the result...

Looks amazing, right? Unfortunately, I hadn't taken something very important into account - I'd added extra chicken... but hadn't extended the cooking time accordingly. Alas, this error wasn't discovered until Domestic Manager found an almost raw piece on the end of her fork. Whoops. I'm happy (and relieved) to report, no family members were harmed in the consumption of this meal.

Luckily, I redeemed myself a few days later with the pumpkin and rosemary bread you can watch me make in the video below. And I'm quietly confident about tonight's Beef Rendang.

Oh by the way, Cookidoo features plenty of desserts and cocktails as well. Who doesn't want the perfect frozen margarita every time?

So that's my Thermomix-led culinary journey to date, more or less. It really is ingenious how it takes care of every step of your meal-prep, from cutting, grating, mixing or kneading through to cooking, steaming and boiling. But perhaps the most helpful aspect is the thousands of recipes at my fingertips courtesy of Cookidoo. It's now rare I get to the end of the day without some inspiration on what to cook.

Admittedly, there are plenty of cooking apps out there and I could probably use the other appliances and cookware I already own to achieve similar results but the Thermomix method is so much more streamlined and integrated, from recipe selection to shopping list to cooking up the final product.

It's a luxury though; the TM7 will set you back NZ$2,849.00 and the Cookidoo subscription is only free for the first three months. On the other hand, as I've explained, you are getting a hell of a lot of German precision technology and a Lauren of your own. She just texted me some more meal suggestions last night. I love Lauren. Everybody should have one.

    

Click here for more information and pricing on the Thermomix TM7.