Just bought a Magimix! Tell me about yours

[Coffeeandafag]

As the title says, looking for any tips, advice or recipes. I've never owned a decent, modern food processor before so want to make sure I'm making the most of it.

I mainly use mine for,

• grated carrot salad

• slicing masses of onions

• making crumble topping

• in winter I grate loads of veg, ( carrot, turnip, onion, butternut, garlic etc) give a quick fry in a little oil in a saucepan add a stock cube and a bay leaf and some water, boil for about five minutes, put the blade in, put in back in the magimix and blend... quick soup!

• Hummous- can of chickpeas- couple of cloves of garlic, juice of a lemon, some tahini, olive oil + spices ( paprika, cumin, coriander) or herbs ( parsley, coriander...) or even things like a bit of preserved lemon or roasted red pepper... endless possibilities

• grating courgette on the smallest grating disk, then I fry it off with whatever spices or herbs and add to meatballs, it not only bulks out the meat a bit but also makes sure the meatballs stay really really moist and is a good gluten free alternative to breadcrumbs.

• slice cucumber using the thin setting, put in a bowl with a bit of salt, mix with you hands, let sit, then put the blade back in the magimix bowl and add Greek yougurt and quite a lot of mint and a clove of garlic, put the salted cucumber in a drive and squeeze it out, combine the two and you've got minty tatziki.

• Cut aubergines in half lengthwise and brush with oil, put in a very hot oven with some unpeeled whole cloves of garlic. Wait until cooked through +/- 35 minutes at 200•c. Leave to cool, scoop out aubergine flesh and the roasted garlic, wiz up with some fresh coriander and smoked paprika and a little bit of lemon zest and you've got poor mans caviar or mouhtabal ( I've no idea how that is spelt!)

Oh, of course - Grated cheese-

And

• Grated apple to add to cakes

• Finely chopped veg ( onion, garlic, celery, carrots, mushrooms) before you fry them off as the base of a bolonaise sauce. Means you can also use fresh tomatoes when they're in season, you just whizz them up.

• If you have the larger model, is the chute big enough to fit whole small apples? If so

-Quick apple tart-

Brush a sheet of ready made puff pastry with melted butter with a bit of icing sugar in it and some vanilla essence or cardamon. Cover the pastry with a sheet of greaseproof paper and put a heavy weight on top of it ( I use round sheets and just put a smaller tart dish with a heavy plate inside the larger one with the pastry iyswim) so that the pastry cooks without rising. About 20 minutes at 180-200°C depending on your oven. While the pastry is cooking peel then slice whole apples very finely (with the finest disk you don't need to core the apples and it makes a lovely pattern in the middle.)
Toss the apple slices in a bowl with a little bit of brown sugar, some melted butter, some vanilla or cinnamon or cardamon ( a bit of whisky is also nice if you're feeling like it) then arrange the apples on the pastry and put back in the oven for 15-20 minutes at 150°C

Mine gets used mostly for curry paste and bread dough,

It gets a lot more use when I'm in Jamie Oliver mode - particularly his 15 minute and 30 minute meals books so I'd recommend those. The chicken satay is amazing

I also found my magimix very handy when I was making a huge batch of veg sauce from his family superfood book - saved a lot of chopping

Because of the washing up I'd normally chop onions etc by hand

Which size did you buy? I was looking at a Magimix in the shops over the summer and couldn't decide which one.

My old kenwood processor broke and I haven't replaced yet.

Am I allowed to say I hate mine? It leaks from under the lid, both dry and wet ingredients, and despite the box saying it is dishwasher proof it isn't really and the plastic cracks. If you use the smallest bowl you still end up having to wash all three as food goes over the edge and soils the larger bowls.

I much preferred the cheapie moulinex I had before it!

Recently I've used mine for shortcrust pastry, cookie dough, crumble mix, curry paste and for grating parmesan. I say "grating" but what I do is break the cheese into large chunks with my fingers and then blast it until it resembles breadcrumbs. It's definitely a workhorse.