Thermomix® batch cooking: 5 dinners, the shopping list and the week's prep

This is a week of Thermomix® batch cooking: 5 dinners planned in PlanPlate for a TM6, with the menu, the shopping list by aisle, the veg prep and the settings the app suggests. PlanPlate estimates the prep at about 55 minutes over four days: most of it on Monday, then a few minutes on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Each evening you cook that day's dish.

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This week's menu

The times are the ones shown on each recipe in the app, prep included. The bolognese, curry and soup share onions and carrots, and garlic goes into three recipes, so you chop those once for the whole week.

The shopping list by aisle

PlanPlate adds up the ingredients of the 5 recipes for the servings you planned: the garlic from three recipes becomes one line of 7 cloves. When two recipes use the same ingredient in different units, the list keeps two lines, like the tomatoes (850 g for the bolognese, 4 for the soup and the gratin). For this menu that makes 38 items.

Produce: carrots (8), celery (2 stalks), cremini mushrooms (4), garlic (7 cloves), herbs (1 handful), leeks (2), lime (1), onions (4), parsley (2 tbsp), potatoes (15), thyme (3 sprigs), tomatoes (850 g), tomatoes (4), turnip (1), zucchini (1)

Protein: ground beef (500 g), chicken (1), lardons or bacon (200 g)

Dairy: butter (60 g), crème fraîche (190 ml), grated Gruyère (160 g)

Grains & pasta: coquillettes or elbow macaroni (400 g), rice (50 g), spaghetti (500 g)

Legumes: red lentils (200 g)

Canned & jarred: coconut milk (200 ml), peeled tomatoes (400 g)

Condiments & sauces: broth (500 ml), oil (7 tbsp), vegetable bouillon cube (1)

Spices & seasonings: black pepper (0.5 tsp), curry powder or paste (1 tbsp), pepper (2 pinches), salt (2 pinches), salt (2 tsp)

Baking: sugar (1 tsp)

Nuts & seeds: cashew nuts (50 g)

Other: red wine (2 tbsp)

The week's prep

In the planner, "Prep for the week" reads the 5 recipes together and groups the veg: you chop all 4 onions at once, even though they go into Monday's, Tuesday's and Wednesday's dinners. For each task the app shows how to store it, how many days it keeps, which amount is for which evening and roughly how long it takes. For this menu it comes to about 55 minutes.

When a prepped item won't last until the last day it's needed, the app says so under the task. For the garlic it shows: "Keeps only 3 days - prep the portion for Thursday, October 29 separately".

Batch cooking order: what to prep on which day

In the app, something prepped on day X is good until day X + (shelf life − 1): onions chopped on Monday that keep 3 days last until Wednesday. That is why it suggests "prep on Monday, October 26 instead" for the onions. Following those dates, the prep falls on four days:

1. Monday, before dinner: chop the 4 onions and the garlic for Monday and Tuesday (3 cloves), chop the carrots, celery and leek, dice the turnip and zucchini, cut the 850 g of tomatoes for the bolognese, rinse the lentils and rice.
2. Tuesday: cube the potato for the curry, dice the 2 tomatoes for Wednesday, chop the 4 garlic cloves for Thursday.
3. Wednesday: cube the 2 potatoes for the soup.
4. Thursday: cube the 12 potatoes for the chicken, dice the 2 tomatoes and slice the 4 mushrooms for Friday's gratin.

In the English plan, cut potatoes keep only 1 day, so you cube them on the day they are cooked. Put each prepped item in a closed box in the fridge and write on it the evening it is for.

Those times are for raw prepped veg. For cooked dishes, the Food Standards Agency says to put leftovers in the fridge within one to two hours and eat them within 48 hours, or freeze them.

Want this plan for your own TikTok recipes? Add your recipes to your week in PlanPlate: the app builds the shopping list and the week's prep, and converts each recipe for your Thermomix®. The weekly prep plan and Thermomix® conversion are part of the Premium subscription. Get PlanPlate for iPhone

The recipes and the Thermomix® settings

The ingredients are the ones in each recipe in the app, for the servings in the plan. PlanPlate generated the Thermomix® settings for a TM6. They are suggestions: check them before you start. If your veg is already chopped, put it straight into the bowl and skip the chopping step.

Monday: Spaghetti Bolognese

Ingredients (4 servings): 500 g spaghetti, 1 onion, 2 cloves garlic, 1 stalk celery, 1 carrot, 850 g tomatoes, 2 tbsp red wine, 500 g ground beef, 500 ml broth, 2 tbsp parsley, 1 tsp sugar, 2 tbsp oil.

In the Thermomix®: for 4 servings the 2.2-litre bowl is too small. The app splits the sauce into two batches and gives the amounts for one half: chop 75 g onion, 5 g garlic, 50 g carrot and 25 g celery (3 sec, speed 5), sauté with 14 g olive oil (3 min, Varoma, speed 1), add 250 g ground beef (5 min, Varoma, speed 1, reverse), then 425 g tomatoes, 250 g broth, the wine, sugar and parsley (60 min, 100 °C, speed 1, reverse). So the sauce cooks twice, two hours of simmering in all. The spaghetti cook separately in a pan of salted water.

Tuesday: Red Lentil Curry with Vegetables

Ingredients (4 servings): 2 onions, 1 clove garlic, 1 leek, 400 g peeled tomatoes, 200 ml coconut milk, 1 carrot, 1 potato, 50 g rice, 200 g red lentils, 3 tbsp oil, 1 tbsp curry powder or paste, 50 g cashew nuts, 300 ml water, 1 tsp salt, 1 lime, 1 handful fresh herbs.

In the Thermomix®, in one batch:

1. 300 g onions, 5 g garlic, 100 g carrot and 100 g leek: 3 sec, speed 5.
2. Scrape down, add 42 g oil: 3 min, Varoma, speed 1.
3. Add 1 tbsp curry powder: 2 min, Varoma, speed 1.
4. Add 150 g diced potato, 400 g peeled tomatoes, 200 g coconut milk, 300 g water, 50 g rice, 200 g red lentils and 5 g salt: 30 min, 100 °C, speed 1, reverse.
5. Meanwhile, dry-roast the cashews in a pan, then serve with lime and herbs.

Wednesday: 7-Vegetable Soup

Ingredients (6 servings): 1 leek, 6 carrots, 1 turnip, 1 stalk celery, 2 potatoes, 2 tomatoes, 1 zucchini, 1 onion, 1 vegetable bouillon cube, 100 ml crème fraîche, 30 g butter, 1 l water.

In the Thermomix®: 6 servings are too much for the bowl too, so the app suggests two batches. For each half: chop 100 g leek (5 sec, speed 5), sweat it in 15 g butter (3 min, Varoma, speed 1) and set it aside; chop the onion and the other veg (5 sec, speed 5); add 500 g water and half the bouillon cube (30 min, 100 °C, speed 1); blend (45 sec, speed 8); stir in 50 g crème fraîche and the leek (30 sec, speed 2, reverse). As in the original recipe, the leek stays in pieces. You run all of these steps twice.

Thursday: Roast Chicken with Fondant Potatoes

Ingredients (4 servings): 1 whole chicken, 12 medium potatoes, 4 garlic cloves, 3 sprigs fresh thyme, 2 tbsp oil, 30 g butter, 100 ml water, 1 tsp salt, ½ tsp black pepper.

In the oven, from the recipe: preheat to 180 °C fan, season the chicken in an ovenproof casserole and brush it with the butter and oil, pour the water into the bottom, arrange the potatoes, crushed garlic and thyme around it, then roast for 1 hour 30 minutes, stirring the potatoes now and then. The potatoes cut that day and the garlic from Tuesday go in here.

Friday: Creamy Pasta Gratin

Ingredients (4 servings): 400 g coquillettes or small elbow macaroni, 200 g lardons or diced bacon, 4 cremini mushrooms, 6 tbsp crème fraîche, 160 g grated Gruyère, 2 tomatoes, 2 pinches salt, 2 pinches pepper.

In the oven, from the recipe: cook the pasta al dente, brown the lardons in a pan, mix pasta, lardons, mushrooms and tomatoes in a gratin dish with the crème fraîche, cover with Gruyère and bake at 210 °C for about 10 minutes. The tomatoes and mushrooms from Thursday go in here.

Read next

• Thermomix® apps: which one to choose in 2026?
• PlanPlate for Thermomix® owners
• PlanPlate for meal preppers
• Save a TikTok recipe

The header image and the dish photos in this article are illustrations generated with artificial intelligence. The PlanPlate screenshots are real.

Thermomix® and Cookidoo® are registered trademarks of Vorwerk. PlanPlate is not affiliated with Vorwerk.