1. Pour water into a Thermomix bowl.

2. Weigh rice into the steaming basket, rinse well, and place the basket inside the bowl.

3. Place chicken pieces onto Varoma tray and sprinkle with paprika, herb salt and garlic powder, and dot with butter or ghee if using.

4. Place Varoma into position with lid on.

5. Turn the speed dial to speed 5 for a few seconds to wash the water through the rice. (That’s my little trick to make sure the top of the rice cooks well and you don’t end up with crunchy bits.)

6. Begin cooking for 20 mins/Varoma/speed 2 while you cut up the veggies, adding them to the dish as you go. (It takes about 10 minutes for the steam to really start filling the Varoma, so it’s easy enough to get the veggies cut up in that time.)

7. At the end of the cooking time, check that the chicken is cooked; add a couple more minutes if not.

8. Remove chicken, vegetables and rice to Thermoservers or serving dishes. (Or if you’re having an “I don’t feel like doing heaps of dishes” night, just leave them in the Varoma and basket and set aside.)

9. Add all the sauce ingredients to the little bit of liquid left in the bowl. (There should only be about 3cm of water left as the rice has absorbed most of it.)

10. Blend 1 min/speed 9. Scrape down the lid and sides of the bowl with a spatula and blend again if needed, until smooth. Season to taste.

11. Serve the rice on plates, top with veggies and chicken, and drizzle with sauce.

GAPS/ Paleo version

Instead of rice, you could make either cauliflower rice or cauliflower mash. For the cauliflower rice, cut 600g cauliflower into florets, and chop in Thermomix bowl 5 sec/reverse/speed 5. Remove to internal steamer basket and set aside. Reduce water to 500g, begin cooking, and add steamer basket to bowl 10 mins into cooking time. (You may need to tip off a little water before making the sauce – you only need about 3cm water left in the bowl.)

For the cauliflower mash version, see my recipe for cauliflower mash (on the blog), place all mash ingredients in the bowl, cook 20 mins or until chicken is cooked through, then remove Varoma and blend. Remove the mash to a serving dish, leaving about 3cm of mash in the bowl. Add sauce ingredients, double the water, and blend.

Omit corn from the recipe for a GAPS version – add in some diced pumpkin, squash or peas.

Nut Free Version

Leave out the cashews and add 250g coconut cream instead, with the 2-3 tsp vege stock paste and 1 tsp paprika powder. Warm it up a bit, 1 min/90C/speed 4. Season to taste.

Non Thermomix version

Pour 100ml boiling water over the raw cashews and allow them to soak (covered) while the meal cooks. Cook the rice in a rice cooker or on the stovetop. Cook the chicken and vegetables in two layers in a steamer, or in a large frypan with a lid, over med-low heat, until done. Blend the soaked cashews with soaking water and the remaining sauce ingredients in a powerful blender until smooth and creamy. Season to taste. (Massel stock powder can be used instead of stock paste.)