Nothing beats an all in one meal when you just don’t want to spend time in the kitchen. This is a great recipe to learn some new techniques! Mince your meat, grate cheese, cook pasta in ThermoServer and cook mince in the simmering basket. Also a terrific recipe to be able to ‘hide’ lots of vegetables!
Looking for more delicious and quick dinners? Then make sure you get a copy of my Meals in a Jiffy cookbook with 35 dinner recipes that can be on the table in approx. 30 minutes!
If you wish, the mince can be left out and replaced with vegetables to make it a "Vego Mac & Cheese" recipe. :)
This meal has been enjoyed by many on ThermoFun Cook Alongs.
A few comments in the Cook Along facebook recipe chatter were:
- Tara:
Yum!!! Also disguised lots of extra veggies and made it low FODMAP! - Lisa:
OMG this was good. Beef mac n cheese, top ups by family as I type. I used fresh tomato in sauce and pieces of stale bread on top for the crunchy top the kids loved it. - Hannah:
SOOOOO tasty, my GOODNESS!! I ate far too much! Good thing I added silverbeet hehe. Ran out of cumin so used a teaspoon of curry powder. Also used GF pasta. - Marion:
I cooked the same tonight but added the veges in as well blending them down into the sauce (hidden veges) and added a bit more tomato paste. The meal went a long way. It would serve at least 6 adults and was delicious. - Verity:
I decided to make a cheese sauce and put it on top ... As my 2 year old says "delicious!" - Anne-marie:
Beef Mac and Cheese. I added crushed dried chilli in with the herbs and topped with home made bread crumbs and home made butter for a crunchy topping. I used a combination of cheddar and mozzarella as well. YUM. - Tania:
The kids voted this the best main meal so far. They've asked their Dad NOT to take left overs to work tomorrow for lunch! I added some home made chilli sauce to my serve. Mmmm! - Natalie:
Winner dinner even got told to make sure I save the recipe! I added zucchini n mushroom delicious n so easy love this - Tracy:
I added extra veggies to the beef and pasta before baking...yum! Definitely making this again and will use the basket to cook the mince every time I make spaghetti bolognese & chilli too; much prefer the chunkier texture! - Krystal:
Nice and easy. I minced my own meat, which I prefer to do now. I also cooked pasta and quinoa together in the thermoserver, which worked well. Nice dish. Will definitely make this again. - Jodie:
I love this recipe, because you can freeze batches of the mince, then when you need a quick meal, put it all together into the oven and it's done!! - Lailah:
Best meal ever!!! Added heaps of baby spinach too. YUM - Bec
Vego mac & cheese is amazing!! I added some wholegrain mustard with the Dijon. Very happy with pasta, given it was my first attempt at cooking it in thermoserver. - Ashley
I decided to put 250g of minced rump and 250g mixed veges in... Definitely a hit! - Jade
OMG this was so yummy! Added carrot and zucchini, my 9 month old gobbled this up... love the idea of cooking pasta in the thermoserver!
Thermomix Beef Mac & Cheese - ThermoFun
Ingredients
- 300g spiral pasta or macaroni
- 200g cheese, cubed
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled
- 1 onion, peeled and halved
- 1 red capsicum, quartered
- 20g olive oil
- 1 teaspoon basil, dried
- 1 teaspoon oregano, dried
- 1 teaspoon cumin, ground
- 1 teaspoon rosemary, dried
- pepper, to taste
- 400g can tomatoes, diced
- 20g TM vegetable stock concentrate
- 30g ThermoFun tomato paste
- 500g mince OR 300g mixed vegetables
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180°C. Spray a casserole dish with cooking spray.
- To cook pasta in your ThermoServer Click Here.
- Place cheese into TM bowl and grate (see tip below) 6 sec / speed 6. Set aside.
- If you are mincing your own meat do it at this point. See tips on how to at end of this recipe.
- Place garlic, onion, capsicum and oil into TM bowl and chop 3 sec / speed 5.
- Scrape down and sauté 5 mins / Varoma / speed 1 / MC off.
- Add, basil, oregano, cumin, rosemary, pepper, tomatoes, stock and tomato paste.
- Place mince into simmering basket and insert into TM bowl.
- Cook mince 15 mins / Varoma / speed 1.
- Break up mince with aid of spatula and cook for a further 5 mins / Varoma / speed 1.
- Tip mince into TM bowl and mix 1 min / Varoma / speed 1 / Reverse.
- Place drained pasta into casserole dish and add the mince mixture and stir through the pasta.
- Cover beef macaroni with grated cheese and place casserole dish in oven for approx. 15 mins.
Notes
Vego Mac & Cheese:
For bit of extra flavour add to the TM bowl at step 8:
¼ teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Vegetables are to be cooked at step 10. However the time will be shorter as vegetables do not require the longer time that mince does.
Add vegetables of your choice to varoma (if you are doing a large amount of vegetables use the varoma or a smaller amount can be cooked in the simmering basket and steam approx 10 minutes.
When vegetables are cooked to your liking, mix together in casserole dish with macaroni and cheese and bake in oven approx 15 mins.
Tip: Grating Cheese:
The cheese grates better if either partially frozen or straight from the fridge.
Tip: Mincing Meat:
- I cut meat into chunks (3cm approx) and remove fat and sinew. It is important to remove all sinew where possible, as it does not mince at all well.
- Meat is easier to mince when it is partially frozen. However it still works if you are not organised enough to have it partially frozen.
- I mince approx 250g of meat at a time.
- To mince the meat I press the Turbo button for 1 second, scrape down and repeat until desired consistency.
Turkey or chicken can be used instead of beef, if desired.
For other “Mad Monday” recipes Click Here
Click Here for more great recipes in a number of e-cookbooks – containing recipes to suit everyone.
If you have enjoyed this recipe then please consider leaving a comment. It’s always refreshing to see comments from people that have tried a recipe and found it a success or tweaked it to suit.
Lisa S says
Awesome tasty recipe which is a good budget meal. Quick to make and devoured by family just as quickly.
thermofun says
Thanks Lisa great to hear! A popular one in my house too! :)
Faith says
This is utterly divine! Devoured by all!
thermofun says
Great to hear Faith - thank you! :)
Greata says
Loved it and I steamed corn and peas in the varoma, which was the first time I had used the varoma, will cook this again for sure
thermofun says
Awesome to hear that this has encouraged you to use your varoma Greata! To keep you inspired, have a look at all my varoma recipes collated in one place for you! Enjoy!
Cathy says
This is a family favourite. I add a serve of peas and corn to the varoma for the last 5 minutes of cooking, stir through the sauce before adding to the pasta. Yumm
thermofun says
Cathy always great when you can get more veggies in :D
Lisa S says
Firm family favourite which feeds many. Yummy recipe.
thermofun says
Thanks Lisa - it's always great to find a favourite that all family members enjoy! :)
Jenny says
My 17 yr old made this for dinner tonight. He left the capsicum out (didn't have any) n it still tasted delicious. He done a great job thanks for another awesome recipe.
thermofun says
Thanks Jenny, always fabulous to hear of teenage boys cooking dinner! :)
Nicolette says
Can I just say Leonie, the Beef Mac & Cheese recipe is incredible! Tried it last night with added carrot, zucchini, celery, spinach and broccoli, and it was completely devoured by all family members, win!!
thermofun says
Thanks so much Nicolette! Very pleased to hear all family members enjoyed it particularly with all that added veg! :)
Michelle says
Just made this, devoured by all, so tasty and so easy, thank you :)
thermofun says
Thank you Michelle :)
Raelene says
This has been a family favourite since the early Cookalongs.. we were cleaning out the fridge/pantry so along with the "spirals" to qualify for the September's "Italy" ThermoFunkies challenge.. our version had 2.5 lasagna sheets plus loads of extra veg.. the kids didn't even quibble about the baby spinach.. they KNOW they love this dish any way it's made.. TOTAL WIN!! Just LOVE how tweakable the thermofun recipes are.. Thank You :-)
thermofun says
Thanks Raelene - yes a very popular recipe with the kids and even more popular with the parents sneaking veges in when the kids don't know! :)