Quick and Easy Recipes for the Magimix 4200XL Food Processor

I've lusted over Magimix food processors for years. It's one of those things that I stroke whenever I go into the kitchen department of John Lewis. They are such sexy beasts, along with both Kitchen Aid and Kenwood stand mixers; both of which I already have, but I still can't resist a stroke of a shiny new one.

When Magimix very kindly sent me one of their 4200 XL machines I whipped it out of the box, made a space for it on the worktop, stroked it, stared at it for a while, and then wondered what the heck was I going to use it for.

I wasn't left wondering for long as the machine comes with a hardback book with full directions for use, along with over 80 recipes, including sauces, soups, desserts and cocktails, to name a few.

The machine itself comes with 3 different sized bowls that stack inside each other for both use and storage. The largest size would be great for blending large batches of soup and making dough, and the smallest size is perfect for chopping nuts or making sauces. There are a number of attachments including sharp blades, a dough blade, whisk and discs for grating and slicing, which can all be kept neatly in the storage box provided.

Despite the Magimix machine being a beast of a machine I was pleased that it fitted on my worktop underneath the wall cupboards, meaning that I could keep it tucked out of the way, but still have it on hand to use regularly.

A Magimix food processor is the Ferrari of food processors for home cooks, and it's the one we see on lots of cooking shows where chefs blend, chop and whip with ease. I felt that the ultimate test for a food processor is whether it can make mayonnaise, without having to continually scrape the bowl down or tilt the machine on its side to make sure it didn't miss a bit. I've not had much luck with home made mayonnaise in the past, which I think has boiled down to the machines I've used not having enough oomph, so I was really looking forward to seeing if the Magimix had what it takes.

The beauty of this machine comes in the 3 different sized bowls. With something like mayonnaise you don't always want to make a large batch, so the mini bowl is perfect for a '1 egg mayo'. Along with the single egg yolk I added 1 tsp of dijon mustard and 1 tsp of freshly squeezed lemon juice. I set the motor running and drizzled 200ml of rapeseed oil through the feed tube, and within a few moments I had absolutely perfect mayo.

Some of the other simple recipes I've tried out over the past couple of weeks include pesto, scones, coleslaw, dips and this Berry Mousse Cake, which is a recipe similar to one that my Mum used to make when we were kids. It's both cheap and easy, and makes a lovely midweek dessert.

All it takes to make this is to make a biscuit base using 200g Digestive biscuits crushed in the Magimix mini bowl fitted with the mini blade attachment, and then mixed with 50g melted butter. Then whip up the mousse topping in the main bowl fitted with the whisk attachment using a pack of strawberry jelly, dissolved in approx 100ml of boiling water, and a can of evaporated milk. You can also add crushed berries for extra flavour but it's not absolutely necessary. When it's thick and creamy and has increased in volume, pour over the biscuit base and leave to set for a few hours or overnight in the fridge. It couldn't be simpler.

I've also made my own peanut butter in the mini bowl, without the need for any ingredients other than peanuts. It takes a few minutes and you need to keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't get to the runny stage, but it's so simple. If you can get hold of bulk bags of nuts then it's a much cheaper way of making your own natural nut butter, without the need for any added salt, sugar or oils that you find in many nut butters, especially peanut butter.


Other Magimix recipes that you may enjoy :

A Brazilian Feast by Jo's Kitchen

Easy Meat & Onion Pie by Jo's Kitchen

Brazilian Black Eyed Bean Salad by Eat Cook Explore

10 Ways to get the most out of your Magimix

Homemade Mayonnaise

Chocolate Hazelnut Tart

Easy Vegan Carrot Cake by The Veg Space

Date & Chocolate Cookies by Apply to Face


The Magimix 4200XL in black is currently in John Lewis & Amazon for £251

I received the Magimix food processor in exchange for this honest review

Jamie Oliver 5 Ingredients : Carrot & Grain Salad

It's been very quiet on the blog front over here recently, and I've enjoyed a lovely extended break from it. Other things in my life have taken the place of blogging recently, with one of them being getting back into exercise. I used to love it when I was exercising regularly and it made me feel great, but for the past couple of years a frozen shoulder followed swiftly by an injury to my back meant that exercising was no longer fun. The shoulder is pretty much back to normal now, and the back is as good as it's going to get for a while, and whilst sitting down or standing still for extended periods gives me pain, running and cycling don't seem to have the same effect.

My running shoes have been dusted off, I've nicked my eldest's new bike, I've rejoined my bootcamp buddies, and I'm now on a mission to get fit and lose some excess beef before my holiday season starts in just a few short weeks!

The time has also come to ease myself back into blogging. 

A couple of weeks ago I saw one or two recommendations for the new Jamie Oliver 5 Ingredients book, and as I was feeling a little uninspired in the kitchen department following Christmas I thought I would put some of my Christmas Amazon vouchers to good use and buy a copy.

After a quick flick through the book I noted down a few recipes that I really wanted to try, and made a mental note of a few that I wouldn't; namely all of the fish and seafood dishes. What I really like about this book is that every recipe has a photograph of the finished dish. For me this is one of the most important parts of a cook book, because I like to actually see what the dish is going to look like rather than have to imagine it.

Another appeal of this book is that fact that each recipe only needs 5 ingredients (surprising, hey?), and takes under 30 minutes to make. You do need the odd store cupboard ingredient in addition to the 5 main ingredients, but many of us would have these in the cupboard already - Olive oil, red wine vinegar (I use white wine vinegar & you really could improvise with malt vinegar if you were desperate & had no alternative), salt & black pepper.  

The first dish that I tried was Carrot & Grain Salad, and although I've not eaten pomegranate since I was a child (and never really liked it) I thought it would be nice to give it another chance to be in my life.

I couldn't get my hands on any colourful carrots, and instead used regular carrots, so my finished dish isn't quite as pretty as it could be. Someone on Twitter also pointed out that I hadn't washed or peeled my carrots (insert eye roll emoji!) so I would like to take this opportunity to say that the carrots were indeed washed, but not peeled, because, well...y'know..I'm lazy when it comes to peeling. I hate peeling. I will do anything to avoid peeling carrots or potatoes, and usually do.

I absolutely loved this salad, and will definitely be making it again, although I won't go to the extra effort of buying a pomegranate as, although Jamie & Nigella make bashing the seeds out of a pomegranate with a wooden spoon look easy, I somehow managed to make my kitchen look like a crime scene. I also can't get over that bitter taste when you crunch into the seeds. The sour flavour of pomegranate seeds are nice though, but I think it could be replicated with the juice of a freshly squeezed lemon.

I'll be sharing my results for some more of the recipes from the book over the next few weeks/months, but I won't be sharing the recipe. If you want to try them for yourself you can find the book on Amazon (affiliate link below). Some of the recipes are also available online.

For the record, I used Merchant Gourmet Glorious Grains in this dish, which I found in Asda.